Buck Rogers Restoration

[Mr Pinbologist]

Stencils - Ask Retropin (Gavin) if he has plans for this title, or if he can make you a set. He is the licensed Gottlieb stencil guy. His stencils are by far the best on the market. I've know that he has created stencils for some games to CORRECT mistakes made by other stencil manufacturers. From a professional standpoint, I can't afford to use inaccurate and badly drawn stencils. Can't wait for the full Paragon set !

With this cabinet, if the stencils are not going to be made, you can make your own using tracing paper, acetate sheets and about 50 hours of creating them. I've done it a couple of times years ago with good results.

I made my own stencils when i restored my Buck Rogers. I used white cardboard for the stencil material, traced the designs on the cab onto tracing paper (one tracing for each colour) then transferred that onto the cardboard.. i think i placed the tracing over the cardboard and just cut straight thru the tracings into the cardboard from memory, rather than tracing onto the cardboard with carbon paper. Takes a lot of time, and Buck is one of the more intricate stencils to trace/cut that i have done.

I still have the stencils i made for mine (i have kept every set i have ever made) and they can be reused several times. Unfortunately they are not the kind of thing i can roll up and pack into a tube to send to someone to use, as they need to be stored flat, and rolling them up would render them unusable.

As Nino suggest, contacting Gavin might be your best bet unless you want to have a go at making them yourself.

[Slash]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. For now I think I will attempt some minor touch ups first and see how they look. If they look too obvious and crap then I might look to stencil it. Maybe I will have a go at doing some myself, it may not be worth someone like Gav making one since Buck Rogers is hardly a sought after game so he would probably never sell another.

One final question, if I do stencil myself can I get away with leaving the side rails on and just masking them off, while I sand, fill and spray the rest, or am I being a lazy SOB? My understanding was the System 1's had twisted/threaded nails in them which can be a mongrel to get out without damaging the rails.

[oldskool1969]

Take off the rails if doing full stencil, but not for a touch up.
Twisty nails are easy to remove I find by starting at the back with a broad chisel and lever near the nail till you can get some multi grips/ pliers onto head and simply twist out working your way to the front slowly. Greg from RTBB sells these as you don't want to reuse again.
When refixing make sure it is a nice tight hole or simply put a match stick and pva glue to make existing hole good again.
Give it a go dude, might as well regain the rails too if you rip them off.

[Slash]

Well I tidied up the bottom panel including replacing all the fuse holders.  I also sprayed the transformers black again and also spray painted the metal braces that hold them, they were beyond any hope of tumbling or hand polishing.  Only thing left now is to put a new EMI filter on as per Nino's advice.
Before

After


I have also made a decision on how to deal with the cabinet.  Yes I am going to fix it up but I am not going to use a stencil, instead I am going to use the massive role of frisket that I already had.....  Yes a different approach.


The one dodgy side of the cabinet is the toughest since I can't fill and sand it too much since I still need to see the image to cut the frisket.    And yes doing it this way means cutting each side out from the frisket 3 times (one for each colour), but it's ok I have enrolled the wife in to help so it's not so bad  Yes I was slack and didn't take the rails off either.  lol


Wish me luck as I have NFI how this will turn out.  Although my early progress on the front of the cabinet is promising.  The black turned out well and I got the speckling replicated nicely too with a toothbrush and comb.  Will post pics once the yellow and orange are added.

[DSB]

Looking nice. 

[Strangeways]

You have really gone in "boots and all" !

For touch ups to the cabinet, you can paint the inside of the cabinet easily - black. The metal brackets etc are not factory. I'd be tempted to remove them and repair the cabinet properly while it is disassembled.

[Slash]

Yeah I removed those metal brackets last weekend, patched them up and sprayed it black.  Not perfect but looks better than before IMO.  Threw some speckling on the black too.



I used the frisket to spray all the black areas on the cabinet today.  Then put down some white speckling over the top.  Now just gotta repeat the process again for the yellow then again for the orange. (It's just a reflection in the bottom right of the pic BTW).

[howzat]

Hi Slash

There is some great improvements   Im enjoying your post    I bet you carnt wait to play it again       Howzat

[Mr Pinbologist]

Looking good so far   what kind of paint are you using with the frisket?

[pinoffski]

Great work to this cab..

Are you using stencils ...

[Crashramp]

Awesome stuff! What a difference you've made to that cab, you have got to be happy with that, it should really look the goods once you've finished.    You've made me really want a Buck Rogers now.

[Slash]

  I bet you carnt wait to play it again       Howzat

I have never actually played this game, it was not working when I got it so I have no idea what it's like - probably a dog haha. But it's all about the journey, I'm learning heaps and if I screw up it's not exactly an expensive game so no harm really.

Looking good so far  what kind of paint are you using with the frisket?

I'm embarrassed to say a bunnings  rattle can for the black, but it's worked ok.

Great work to this cab..

Are you using stencils ...

No I just lay out one big piece of frisket onto the cab then use an exacto knife to cut out the areas I want to paint. I will probably wait 1-2 weeks before doing the next colour as I don't want the next lot of frisket lifting any paint off.

[pinoffski]

Thanks for the update
As i thought of just masking up my Xenon as overall paint was not that bad

With all the restorations out there i always think i should purchase a full stencil decal
and now that i have seen that can be done i will think twice about paying the big dollars for one.

Great update Slash

[Slash]

I would say it comes down to how bad your cabinet is as to whether doing it the way I am is an option. If the cabinet is quite bad and really needs to be rubbed back to almost bare to get a reasonable surface, then my way may not be an option since you will lose the image to frisket around. But if it's just say faded or scratched etc in patches and the overall cabinet is reasonable I think you could get a good result with this method.

The very front of one side of my cab was probably the only really bad bit. I'm not entirely happy with the finish on that area since I had to balance between sanding it back to a nice smooth surface and losing the image. The rest to date looks promising. That said you can never seem to get it 100%, the more you look at it the more you think "oh I should do that bit, or sand that again, or patch that bit", you become your own worst critic. I was talking about a couple of bits to my wife and she was asking me why I would even bother as she couldn't see what I as referring to and kept telling me that it looked fine.

[big dog]

wow the bottom board came up a treat. great to see it coming to life.  go sys1