Mitch's next project.. Zaccaria Universe

[Mr Pinbologist]

Ok… these pics show the leg decals placed onto the glass. I thought id try these ones first before doing the top part of his body.  I figured I only had ONE chance to get these on straight and bubble free.. scary stuff. The first one went on great, bit the second one got an air bubble under it.. AAAGH!! I managed to get it back off without doing any major damage, then I printed a second one and tried again.. worked much better this time luckily.  I’ve overlapped the decals onto the surrounding artwork rather that trying to cut them in. as a result there a noticeable air gap but it can only be seen from certain angles. The camera flash makes it look bad in the last pic (near his undies) but in reality it not that noticeable really. Im pretty happy with the results, and anyway it’s a big improvement over a glass that would’ve more that likely been thrown out how it was so im not complaining..

[Mr Pinbologist]

Next I did the top part of Mr Universe’s body. 1st pic shows my test print of his top half, checking the sizing. Soon as I had it right I cleaned all of the old cracked paint off the glass. Forgot to mention before but when doing this I use a sharp scalpel, heated with a flame (cigarette lighter) to cut the paint close to the key lines, so as not to risk damaging the surrounding art work of the area im repainting.  Then I scrape the old crappy flaking paint out, up to the lines previously cut, then clean the glass with windex and cotton buds or soft cloth, sprayed onto the cloth NOT the glass!
2nd pic is with the decal on, ready for paint. Of course this one had to go on slightly crooked didn’t it??!! It shows up on his left arm a bit (black key line on the bottom ).. F**K it.. its ON there now and it aint comin off. Not to bad in my opinion, well as I said before the glass would only have been launched anyway.

[illawarra_steelers]

J*sus - here is a post for best restoration of a backglass on Aussie Pinball.

Mitch, you sure have balls and this has sure payed off for you.

Just lost for words how excellent this game has come up  

And to think you were thinking of parting this game out! Hard to believe now, isn't it  

[Mr Pinbologist]

And heres Mr Universe being all painted up!!

[Strangeways]

I've never seen such dedication to repair a backglass. Never. Regardless of the title or era, this tops it for me. If you can save this backglass, Mitch, you can save anything !

Strange how just the reds REALLY suffered.

His underpants came through unscathed. On behalf of Mr Universe, I'd like to thank you for that 

Awesome work.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Repainting the purple in his cape.

Well that’s the hard part done.. the rest of the glass should be smooth sailin from now on (I hope)

Stay tuned!!

[Mr Pinbologist]

I've never seen such dedication to repair a backglass. Never. Regardless of the title or era, this tops it for me. If you can save this backglass, Mitch, you can save anything !

Strange how just the reds REALLY suffered.

His underpants came through unscathed. On behalf of Mr Universe, I'd like to thank you for that  

Awesome work.

Thanks Nino

There is quite a bit of paint lifting on this glass... not just the red, the purple and a fair bit of the dark blue are lifting as well... another reason why the glass/game came close to being scrapped. ALL  of the red and purple will be completely redone as well. i still have a fair bit of work to do on the glass, and the results will be posted when done.

and yes his undies DID come through unscathed.. not even any skidmarks... though he may've been sh*tin himself when he saw me coming at him with a scalpel


thanks again

[Mr Pinbologist]

How did you remove the red from the art mitch?  Was there a trick you used or just a trucklad of patience????

Daniel, most of it was , as you say a truckload of patience. But in Arcsoft PhotoStudio that i use (came with my Canon scanner) there is, in the tool bar a thingy called the 'magic wand tool' that can be used to click on a section of colour to highlight it then i hit the delete on the keyboard to remove the selected colour etc. sometimes i was able to select large areas and remove the red this way, but some times it also removed things that weren't supposed to be removed! so there was also a fair bit of manually selecting small sections to delete the colour.

It took me THREE goes to do the chest/arms decal ( the last one i did) because of that magic wand tool removing too muct art, it removed stuff without me realising and i had to start all over again and each decal artwork took me about 6 hours each to do.. so that last one took the longest to do.. worked on practically ALL day yesterday!

[Mr Pinbologist]

couldnt help myself.. just had to sit the glass back into the game and see it backlit..

so heres a couple of pics, 1st one with camera flash on, 2nd one without.

looks even better in the flesh!!

[ddstoys]

Only way i can really say what im thinking   F@@k ME  thats is awsome........   Well done mitch you truly can do anything.  And now a quote from waynes world

  WERE NOT WORTHY WERE NOT WORTHY 

[Pinfan]

 

FARRRK ME ALRIGHT ! 

You need big cahunas to hit the bg with a scalpel !

I believe Mitch is the first ever person who i have come across on the web who has posted a BG restore in this fashion.... Go back to the Drac bg and now this !

Love you work..... Awesome stuff !

[SPURR]

Hey Mitch Im sure you triple thicked the glass first. My question to you is , When scratching off damaged art work I have never done this before when a triple thick paint has been applied. How easy is it to remove with a clear coat thats been added ?
Mitch here is a tip. When I have repaired the white on the backglass around the score reels. I get good results from totally removing all white with a scraper. I cut out small squares of hobby tape stick them to the glass where the reel sits and then spray a thin coat of matt white , then with a scalpel I remove the tape before the paint dries. The end result is, well it looks new.

[goodolddays]

Mitch .. Absolutely A1 Awesome work      .
As others have said, if you can do this, you can do anything .
Top Notch 

Cheers
Dave

[Mr Pinbologist]

Hey Mitch Im sure you triple thicked the glass first. My question to you is , When scratching off damaged art work I have never done this before when a triple thick paint has been applied. How easy is it to remove with a clear coat thats been added ?
Mitch here is a tip. When I have repaired the white on the backglass around the score reels. I get good results from totally removing all white with a scraper. I cut out small squares of hobby tape stick them to the glass where the reel sits and then spray a thin coat of matt white , then with a scalpel I remove the tape before the paint dries. The end result is, well it looks new.

Hi Mark, yes i did triple thick the glass before i did anything. It scapes off fairly easily where it has been applied, i always score the paint first with a scalpel blade heated in a flame, close to the black keylines, then scrape the paint off up to he scalpel cut, giving me nice clean edges.
thanks for the tip re redoing the white score reel areas, was already toying with that idea.. sounds like a good plan

[Barren]

All I can say is I admire your perseverance and commitment. That machine will be a credit to your ingenuity.