Some people on pinside let their NIB stern so for six months before playing them, to give the clear time to cure
The clear is cured when you cannot smell it
That's overkill. I've installed playfields after 2 months and they were rock hard. When my KISS LE arrives, I'll be playing it within the first 5 minutes 
If TWD LE Nino is has got dimpled today, the machine was built 6 months ago. So the issue is nothing to do with curing time.
I wonder if it may relate to drying speed time. 'Crystalline' materials cooled quickly from their liquid state become dull but flexible (annealed), and when cooled quickly become shiny but hard & brittle. I thought 'orange peel' was caused by slow cooling - which would also relate to dull but flexible. (I'm unsure of the orange peel cause).
...could it be that the reason the we are getting inconsistent report is that Stern's clear coater isn't controlling the cooling process. The dimpled ones were simply made in summer so naturally cooled slowly, and the shiny 'flakey' ones were made in winter so were naturally 'snap frozen' in Chicago.
Question to Platinum: Am i correct to say that your process is to take the playfields out of the oven quickly? And the reason you clear coat doesn't crack, is that they get strength from being thick.
The game was played from the day the kit arrived from Stern to Address the bicycle girl fix. It's 100 games were from December to Early February. It had only a handful of games since Greg's passing on the 18th Feb. 99% of the games on this game were December - Early Feb. I took the game out earlier this week for a quick clean and I was looking at updating the code. I checked the playfield as there were numerous issues that I needed to look at and the dimpling issue really became apparent.
I don't think it is curing time. It is very clear to all that have seen the issue, that it is a very poor quality clearcoat, and way too thin for a professional finish. In fact, it looks like the top right hand corner had it's "mist coat" and that was it !
I firmly believe it is a "factory defect". I can drop a ball on other playfields and struggle to see a dimple until the second or third drop. This playfield under the same test leaves a crater.
