The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: ddstoys on July 11, 2010, 12:12:46 AM
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Well a few years ago i sold my firepower pinball as the playfield was stuffed. So the other day while i was at Marks C i spotted an almost complete playfield and a deal was done with the idea of using some old parts that i have hung onto because they were to good to send to land fill and try build a complete game.
This is a long term project and may never be completed but its worth a try.
Here is what im starting with.
Hopefully a few of you will be happy i decided to save it instead of screw it to my roof but there are a few new titles that will get the roof treatment soon
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Well ive already had an offer From Dean with a set of slingshot plastics (Thanks Dean ^^^ )
And i decided id pull out the system 6 CPU i score from a bumper ebay auction for 99c had no use for it at the time but im sure glad i bid now ()
Here is the board with all thr chip sockets, interconnect pins and battery holder removed.
Will also replace all the pins as this game will be a keeper this time and i want it to be reliable
Tomorrow it will get the 50\50 water and vinigar wash even thought there was no visible acid damage id rather be safe than sorry
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Have fun with that board Daniel !
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Thanks Nino
Board has been washed and ill hopefullly get all the chip sockets replaced and see if i have enough chips to test it with the test rom as i have no Game roms as all remoable chips had been taken off
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Well ive installed new chip sockets onto the CPU and with the test Roms running the CPU tested as working ive sent a PM to Ken (skybeaux) For the game roms required once they arrive i should have a working FIREPOWER CPU $#$
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have I seen that playfield somewhere
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Yep you sure have your the Mark i mentioned getting it off in the first post i really should add the C so everyone knows who i meant.
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Tested the CPU in my brothers Time Warp using his roms and glad to say every thing works this idea might actually work $#$ Ive got a cold at the moment so im trying to stay out of the cold shed the wife and son went to a party last night so peace and quiet all night its amazing what you can get done without all the little distarctions
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Goodonya Daniel, a machine well worth saving! I know you've got access to a few local ones, but sing out if I can help with scans, pics or anything.
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Yep you sure have your the Mark i mentioned getting it off in the first post i really should add the C so everyone knows who i meant.
opps didnt read that LOL sorry mate
been a long day on the road and at the farm
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Yep you sure have your the Mark i mentioned getting it off in the first post i really should add the C so everyone knows who i meant.
opps didnt read that LOL sorry mate
been a long day on the road and at the farm
No worries mate hope your enjoying your time in the fresh country Air your lungs must be killing you by now. %.%
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Being sick and unable to be in the shed has really been great im getting so much of this boardwork done. Ive stripped down a power supply board and will be replacing everything that i have on hand the HV section was working when removed so ive left the HV transistors as they are original without the ugy twisted legs will replace when neccessary all resisitor are within spec and the rest i have new.
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Well the power supply is back together sadly some !!@ ordered the wrong caps but they will do until i order in some axial ones @.@
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Well pulled out a driver board which has new interconnect plugs new Pia socket and new lamp resistors. Have it all wired upto my test unit so tomorrow ill plug it into a working game and see whats working and whats not
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Yep you sure have your the Mark i mentioned getting it off in the first post i really should add the C so everyone knows who i meant.
opps didnt read that LOL sorry mate
been a long day on the road and at the farm
all I can say is the electric fence was fun ..... nice blue light .....
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Yep you sure have your the Mark i mentioned getting it off in the first post i really should add the C so everyone knows who i meant.
opps didnt read that LOL sorry mate
been a long day on the road and at the farm
I loved the elctric fnce when i was young you could lean a friends bike up agains a post and run a wire to the frame it they didnt grab it by the rubber grip THUMP... Or we had this string with very fine wire through it looked just like hay twine so id get people to carry one end out into the paddock and pull it tight nce it was off the ground id throw my end over the fence and again THUMP Man i was a C**t of a kid !*!
all I can say is the electric fence was fun ..... nice blue light .....
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Well this machine is coming together nicely. I called into the brother in laws on the way home from work and found myself a headbox when i hang them i usually strip them out completely but this one the aliminium was in great condition so i left it intact $#$ So when i got home i raided the garden shed for parts. People ask me why do i keep all this crap??? This machine is being built out of all that crap.
Found most of the board brackets door hinges screws nuts and internal parts except for the CPU lower bracket (Anyone got one to sell me???) And i also found what looks to be a completed headbox loom and transformer.
I removed all the hot tip stickers etc and gave it a quick scrub with Mr sheen and fine steel wool came out really well
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Well the flu still has me so mostly inside again.
Tested the power supply board WORKING
Tested the driver board All solonoids 100% but lam row issues so no big deal
Transformer cleaned up and fitted also wire loom cleaned up and fitted roughly.
Also wire brushed the screws and re painted the heads black and polished the Board brackets
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Got to give it to you Daniel you sure love a challange.
In fact I have a Addams slingshot plastic here, reckon you can build me an Addams Family Pinball please :lol
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Looks like a bit of a challenge for you Daniel, but im sure you'll do just fine ^^^
Cant wait to see the final outcome.. i'll be following this thread with great interest *%* *%*
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Great project Daniel .
Already enjoying watching your progress.
Sounds like you have most of what's needed already .
Keep up the great work ^^^
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Thanks guys yes i do have most parts i need i really cant believe how everything ive kept over the years are all being put to use. Specially all the things that i have bought over the years for no reason or parts that i would normally throw out but kept for some unknown reason (maybe ust never remembered to throw out). Still bloody crook so ill be spending the evening working on it again in the warmth of the house. I have so much work to do but im really struggling to do anything just glad i have these boards here to repair or id be going crazy (Probably to late for crazy but crazier)
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Well the power supply is back together sadly some !!@ ordered the wrong caps but they will do until i order in some axial ones @.@
Where do you order your axial caps from?
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Well the power supply is back together sadly some !!@ ordered the wrong caps but they will do until i order in some axial ones @.@
Where do you order your axial caps from?
Hi Boots i get my axial caps from GPE (great plains eectronics) in the US but usually wait till i need a few bits or just order extra stuff i may never use %.%
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YEAH the driver board is now working 100% Once i find myself the CPU bracket i can mount all the boaards and finish the wiring loom $#$
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Well im feeling a little better so it was time to venture out to the shed the wife would shoot me if i rigged this all up inside *%* Managed to get the Rectifiers all wired up and the boards mounted wire look is almost done just needs a few more loom holders and the large Capacitor i added a 15000uf one just to test
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ITSS ALLLIIIIVVVVEEEEEE
Plugged in the playfield to see if all my work had payed of and bam i got nothing. Then i realised im an idiot it had gone into Audit mode so no Attract LOL (Hard to tell with no displays) Quick on of and....
Its missing a coule of coils so i had to connect the power wires together to get all coils present working but im very happy
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Fantastic Daniel ^^^
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Gee you're roaring along with this project.
I'll be interested to see how the conversion of the targets to drops goes. Anybody else done this? Any feedback? I bought an old WMS play field with a few sets of drops to do this conversion to my machine. First I need to finish a few other jobs on the go.
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Great stuff ^^^
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We'll I didn't plan this very well I had the back box right in the middle of the shed with no room to move or work on any machines so I had to dig the body out of the Garden shed.
It's a real Frankenstein I can give you the HOT TIP it's not real FLASH but will be a great FIREPOWER one day
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I love your dedication mate - that's one hell of an effort to get THIS far !
But I know what you mean by "keeping everything" - I found two full wiring harnesses for a "Flash" and "Disco fever" buried in a box in storage.
Keep up the good work mate !
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Great effort so far Daniel. I have been following this with eager anticipation for the next update.
I have a Firepower just like this I got from BikeCity, but no boards backglass transformer, shooter and missing bits on the coin door.
Once I finish off the Flash I might tackle it.
I have tried everywher for a Backglass but very hard to get, so I am going to see if I can get a scan done of one . If that works out I will see if I can get a spare one for you.
Also love the drop target idea, I am planning on doing the same but I have been told that because Firepower is a fast game thye drop targets will take an absolute beating.
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I put my hand up for a scan of the Firepower Backglass also.... Would this be of any use for a scan? !@#
http://www.firepowerpinball.com/downloads/Backflash.pdf
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Send an email off to classicplayfields - they are doing the plastics and the playfield. THere was a suggestion that they were going to do the backglass.
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Daniel, i may have to bumper caps laying around somewhere.. !@#
not broken but i think they are a little off colour....
let me know if you want them..
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Bloody awesome Daniel ^^^ ^^^
No mucking about.. thats wot i like to see *%* *%*
Sorry if i missed it earlier in the thread but will it get the full treatment, ie cab respray in the correct design etc??
Keep up the good work!!
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Hi Mitch
It will eventually get a respray hopefully when I strip down the p
. I have the art ready to make the stencils just no place to spray.
I might have to make a weekend of it and take a ute load of playfields and cabs out to my old mans as I just don't have the room to spray here.
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Good news i found the CPU bracket (I think) And a master display lets hope i can sort out its issues ive added all new Chips and am about to test all the transistors and resistors etc so fingers crossed
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Well for those who didnt see my other post i was having issues with the game not starting in the switch test the start button worked but when in game mode it didnt. Would allow credits but just would not start had the boards out a dozen times testing and changing chips etc to find out the reason it wouldnt start is because firepower needs the 3 balls in the trough the start @.@ So with that sorted firepower is operational once more i did find the lower CPU bracket and have a partially working master display just waiting till i can afford a few new glasses from the states #*#
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Well for those who didnt see my other post i was having issues with the game not starting in the switch test the start button worked but when in game mode it didnt. Would allow credits but just would not start had the boards out a dozen times testing and changing chips etc to find out the reason it wouldnt start is because firepower needs the 3 balls in the trough the start @.@ So with that sorted firepower is operational once more i did find the lower CPU bracket and have a partially working master display just waiting till i can afford a few new glasses from the states #*#
Great work Daniel #*# - let me know if you need a hand with anything artwork/playfield related.
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Well I finally finished wiring the cabinet up alligator leads and 240v are a recipe for disaster lol.
So it's running all coils and switches that are not missing are working so firepower will lay dormant until I collect all the parts to finish it off.
Well I'd better go cook tea then get back to work.
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Big thanks to marco for the two missing bumper capsmuch appreciated.
And also thanks to nick fr the photos of the headbox insert I've made u a new one it's all mounted with all the controlled lamps mounted I'm going to leave the GI off until I get a back glass.
I'll post a pick once I get my piece of crap pc running again only net i have at the moment is myphone how sad lol
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Here are a few progress photos ^^^
The first photo is of the playfield with the donated Bumper caps and Slingshot plastics
Second is te backbox insert then one to compare with an original
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Well i was stuck inside today with the plumbers most of the arvo so i decided id start rebuilding my drop targets for firepower one down one to go the last photo is of a bracket i need im also after two of the plungers and metal plates that lift the target so dig through your parts boxes gentlmen
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Well ive roughly installed one bank of drop targets and wired them up using alligator clips which is why the last target gets stuck before anyone asks im unable to get them to pop up again until i can get hold of the coil plunger and the plate that lifts them (Hint Hint so who has had a look?? Im happy to pay i dont expect freebies lol)
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A massive thanks again to Skybeux (Ken) after a search me managed to find the parts i need so the least i could do was install them so his hard work was worth the effort here is a video of the drop targets in action
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Glad the parts were the right one's
Excellent job! , it looks great with drop targets in there in place of standups. ^^^
The machine's really starting to come together now , but your biggest hurdle will be finding a decent backglass...best of luck with the search!
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Drop targets are perfect on this game, nice work Daniel ^^^
I should've called around today instead :lol
Cant wait for a game when its finished,
Timbo
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Thanks again Ken all your help has been great
As for a game when it's finished tim your probably better having a game once it's goin I never seem to get any of mine finished lol
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Looks good and the rules for the lit arrows and drops make a lot more sense between carry over balls when the drops are used.
Have you installed the standup switch behind the drops?
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Looks good and the rules for the lit arrows and drops make a lot more sense between carry over balls when the drops are used.
Have you installed the standup switch behind the drops?
No I'm going to make the cutout for the 10point switch once instrip it down for the clearcoat
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Well i think ive managed to track down the last of the required parts today at Pinballspareparts and have ordered some display glasses from the states and have a few other bits still to arrive. Once they do ill put it altogether make sure its working 100% then strip it down ready for the clearcoat and touch ups. Cant wait to have a game with the drops installed has anyone played one with drop targets before???
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Cant wait to have a game with the drops installed has anyone played one with drop targets before???
I think I mentioned this when we spoke about mine - I read somewhere that the game's a bit SDTM with them - so keen to try yours before modding mine!!
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I recall the pin of my youth was a Firepower with drops in the 80's at Hornsby in Sydney's north. Didn't pay particular attention to the drops because there wasn't the thought that they were anything unusual. I reckon the game has to be better with drops because the rules make more sense and are part of the "mission" rather than just bashing away and drops in general are fun.
I've been following this thread with interest as I have the drop assemblies to convert mine courtesy of a cheap ebay playfield from Pinballshed.
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so i assume they have programed the d/t lift coil when they made this pin?
if not how have you got the coil to energise and lift the d/t's after you knock down a bank of 3 targets?
BTW it's Looking good so far. ^^^
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Hi Andrew it is part of the original programming so all I neeeded to do was run a new wire from each coil back to the playfield plug it's only attached to the coil with aligator clips at the moment I have some connectorsnon order so I can wire it in to look original
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Well i found a few pictures of the build today so i thought id share them. Using spares i have rebuilt the pop bumper assemblies and drain mech each part was stripped cleaned then hit with the buff to a nice shine the coils also get a good clean new didode and coil sleeve then re assembled i then bag them up ready for when i finally get to rebuild it
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Looking SWEET Daniel ^^^
Looking forward to the next installment...
Timbo
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The pins I needed arrived today from big daddy along with a couple of new display glasses so I wired flippers into the look and also the drop target coils. I finally got to have half a game without aligator jumpers everywhere lol.
Just needing the spinner and lower right ball guide for a full game but it's getting very close $#$
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I spent the afternoon trying to get it playable everything now works except one flipper sticks occasionally but i dont want to install the brand new WPC style flippers until its been clear coated.
Thought everyone would get a laugh out of my handy work its ugly but it will work until the proper one arrives
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I also fitted LEDs to the inserts i did leave a few with standard globes as the leds just didnt cut it
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Fantastic to see you're now able to play it Daniel #*#.
Bet you were happy to get a few games in, finally.
The led's look great . I must get around to buying and installing some Leds in mine.
Cheers
Dave
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Looking great daniel ^^^ but i dont remember firepower having a magnasave ^^^
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Looking great daniel ^^^ but i dont remember firepower having a magnasave ^^^
No magna save on firepower but not a bad idea might have to add one. The apron will be painted when I paint the cabinet
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Fantastic to see you're now able to play it Daniel #*#.
Bet you were happy to get a few games in, finally.
The led's look great . I must get around to buying and installing some Leds in mine.
Cheers
Dave
Was great to have game finally I really enjoyed the drops don't rush into LEDs just yet it's having issues since I installed them
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Great work mate, coming along nicely *%*
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Well guys ive finally taken a bit of Me time tonight. Since all the parties etc are finished for a while i decided to strip firepower ready for the Cab respray and playfied touch ups and clearcoat.
Cabinet is pretty solid apart from the base at the very front being a bit loose and a spot on the backs a bit soft but nothing that cant be fixed.
Tim has offered me use of his shed to do the spraying of the cabinet and playfield as my shed really isnt suitable for spraying imagine the overspray on everything YUK
Well here is the stripped cab will pull out the sande next chance i get and rip that Flash old paintwork off
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And again Tim came to the Rescue and lent me his playfield rottiserie (Thanks mate)
Wast planning on stripping it tonight but as usual i got carried away all the inserts will need to be removed sanded and leveled as they are all cupped. The playfield looks to be in pretty good condition a few wear spots but none bigger than a 20c coin and mainly in the black areas @@*
I have not cleaned the playfield yet i did wipe the main area down for the meet a few weeks back but that all the cleaning its had im very happy so far
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We're gonna have to set that to a bit harder Daniel, and a bit steeper when you get it back together!!:)
Where did you get the stencils for the respray?
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Yeah once it's rebuilt will definately be steeper than it was. I have not got the stencils yet will order them when I order my insert decals from a guy in the US I think his name was Jeff something
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Looking forward to seeing how this turns out Daniel . Good luck .
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You do know that on the Firepower site there is artwork for the cab stencils? I have no idea how you get them printed into something useable, but someone on the forum must know. There's a few of us with machines that could help with measurements to locate etc if that's any use.
If it's the Jeff from Classic Arcades good luck on trying to communicate with him. Doesn't seem interested in answering emails - his loss as I was wanting to buy a single decal I needed, fair price and all. Would have bought the full set for the machine - drops, spinner etc if he'd combine shipping but since he didn't answer my email question and since I wasn't prepared to pay an extra ~US10 per item shipping he only sold the one I needed rather than the full set. &^&
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Hi Daniel, Looks good and will be magic when done.
Also saw on the playfield on the planet near the RH sling there is some wear. I have the same spot on mine that will need some attention as well. A bit of a tricky spot with the shading etc. Not sure I should try painting or do an scan and then mylar over? !@#
Can I ask what your plans would be there?
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Hi Daniel, Looks good and will be magic when done.
Also saw on the playfield on the planet near the RH sling there is some wear. I have the same spot on mine that will need some attention as well. A bit of a tricky spot with the shading etc. Not sure I should try painting or do an scan and then mylar over? !@#
Can I ask what your plans would be there?
Same boat here, be good if someone with a nice one had scanned the area and posted somewhere as that's common on all games. My plan was to scan the surrounding area if/when i ever got around to a rebuild of this game, and recreate a little overlay for the area.
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My plan was to scan the surrounding area if/when i ever got around to a rebuild of this game, and recreate a little overlay for the area.
That could work on this game as that area of the playfield is similar all over that section so it would be quite easy to 'select' a similar spot and scan it, re colour it etc and do a little overlay. The hardest thing would be making the 'edges' of the overlay as invisble as possible as there are very few 'straight edges' to 'work to' in that spot.
What I would NOT do is try and just 'fill' that worn oval shape itself and blend in to those already blurry edges, MAYBE there is a way where you could find 'edges' in that pattern very close to the worn spot and cut the wear into a larger , squarer shape ( yes make it a little worse that it is ) and then create a square -ish decal !@#
Alternatively you could fill and smooth that section and instead of a decal , match some paint and re-paint it in your best efforts to match that pattern, it is SO repetitive and there is so much 'fleck/speck' in that pattern that if you did a decent job it shouldnt stand out too much *!@
If anyone has a decent section of this PF and they scan it and send it to me I am happy to tidy it up so that anyone that needs it can have the little art file as a decal.
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Mine is decent but what can I scan it with (Noob to this stuff) . I have a HP Deskjet F2410 printer/scanner .. would this be good enough to do the job ? Do I take the lid off and just put the scanner upside down over that area of the PF ?
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<snip>
If anyone has a decent section of this PF and they scan it and send it to me I am happy to tidy it up so that anyone that needs it can have the little art file as a decal.
I'm the same as Goodolddays Dave - mine is in ok condition but I can't get the scanner flat onto it. Is a digital photo any use?
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Daniel,
I have a few playfields at home and one is a firepower. It is in very bad shape but if anything can be of use please let me know.
Photos attached.
Jeff
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Well i spent some more time on the playfield tonight gave it a good clean wit Magic Eraser the reds looked stuffed and i thought they would need to be re applied but with a little elbow grease and lots of patience they came up ok very hard to show in photos.
When its wet \ polished none of the white ball swirl is visible i really wanted to novus it just to see how it looks but will wait till the clearcoat
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Ive also removed all the inserts and sanded them flat still need to give them one last hit with a finer grade of sand paper but i figure once your finger tips start to bleed is a good time to stop LOL
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Looking good Daniel @@*
We will have to take a few snaps with both firepower fields finished out at the workshop.
Nice to see these playfields getting a new lease on life #*#
Timbo
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This afternoon i finished flattening and re installing all the inserts which didnt take me as long as i thought it would hopefully once the clearcoat is done i will have a perfectly flat playfield @@*
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What glue do you use for the inserts?
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What glue do you use for the inserts?
Super glue but make sure your happy before you glue it you only get one shot
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Fantastic work on the playfield inserts. It looks great.
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Daniel - are you clearing it yourself ?
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Not sure yet Nino we are doing it at tims workshop so it's upto tim
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I really liked "Frankenpower"... !!!
Nice work - as always Daniel! ^^^
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Inserts look great Daniel . I wish mine were flat like that !!!
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Ive started to prep the cabinet for the respray. Its been stripped down to bare bones side rails removed etc. Ive drilled and dowelled the holes from the nails.
The head has been stripped and given a coat of primer but the weather turned to shit Bloody rain
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Forgot to mention that Timbo has laid the first coat of clear on the playfield but i have not seen the results yet...
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Forgot to mention that Timbo has laid the first coat of clear on the playfield but i have not seen the results yet...
If the work he's done on the ES is anything to go by you will be pleased!
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Forgot to mention that Timbo has laid the first coat of clear on the playfield but i have not seen the results yet...
If the work he's done on the ES is anything to go by you will be pleased!
There is no Doupt in my mind.... It's gunna be awsome sure looking forward to seeing it
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OFF work again todayso over being sick but gives me time to post what little work ive done lately.
Got the flash cabinet stripped and primed and also gave the head its first coat of black. my aim was to fix and graffiti but try and leave the wood grain visible will find out how i went once i apply top coat to the cabinet i guess.
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Looking good Daniel. Are you using spray cans or a compressor for your painting ?
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Ive used compressor for the undercoat. but spray cans for the color.
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Great work.
Quite a project.
How did it turn out?
Was anything ever worked out for the section of wear by the right slingshot?
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The machine has not progressed from this stage I really must get my playfield back and finish this one off.
Thanks for the reminder lol
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Hi Daniel, .... Just want to encourage you to keep at it. .... The Kings & Queens I built from just a playfield took me over 2 years to complete. As you may recall, you helped me more than a few times with different parts I was after. I remember that there were many times when I thought I was never going to get the job done but ..... 2 years only takes 2 years to pass and eventually I did finish the job. I know that you've done great work in the past, and I'm sure that this one will get done too. Patience is hard for us all, as we are all probably a bit impatient at heart. I haven't been doing any pinballs for about a year. ... I have my house to paint! I hope you are in good health. Kind regards, Mark
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Hi Daniel, .... Just want to encourage you to keep at it. .... The Kings & Queens I built from just a playfield took me over 2 years to complete. As you may recall, you helped me more than a few times with different parts I was after. I remember that there were many times when I thought I was never going to get the job done but ..... 2 years only takes 2 years to pass and eventually I did finish the job. I know that you've done great work in the past, and I'm sure that this one will get done too. Patience is hard for us all, as we are all probably a bit impatient at heart. I haven't been doing any pinballs for about a year. ... I have my house to paint! I hope you are in good health. Kind regards, Mark
Great post Mark - Even little bit of encouragement helps. My Pro Football took be almost 4 years to finish. But it was well worth the effort - same a Kings and Queens *%*
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Haha well this thread has laid dormant for long enough who thinks its time to hassle Eltimbo about my Playfield?
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Haha well this thread has laid dormant for long enough who thinks its time to hassle Eltimbo about my Playfield?
Absolutely .. we need to see this finished and more importantly you need to be able to play it !
Can't wait to see what Tim has done to your PF.
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Haha well this thread has laid dormant for long enough who thinks its time to hassle Eltimbo about my Playfield?
Yep Hassle him Daniel about time this came back to life!