Diamond Jack

[emmadog]

Alright well after lots of research as trial and error, I found a method that works great for the webbing. I should say I found the info that someone else posted on a gun forum on the gun stock painting/refinishing thread.
Anyway, I didn't want to use the Krylon webbing in a can unless I had to and most of the other methods used a HVLP setup which I don't have. I tried using a wire brush with lacquers, acrylics and enamels to no avail.
The ingredients needed are enamel paint, regular old modelers glue, and paint thinner and an airbrush.
I used about 25% paint and 75% glue to make an ounce or so. To that I added about 2 tsp of thinner and mixed well. I was spraying at about 30 psi I got very fine webbing which looks great. There's also some droplets which the original Gottliebs had with the webbing. My mix produced more droplets but I'm sure that can be tweaked with the mix. Maybe more glue and/or less pressure. On one side of the cab the webbing is more pronounced because I pulled back on the needle to let more mix flow. It still looks fine but most of the cab is going to be covered in the red and yellow graphics so no worries. The pics are of the materials used, both sides of the cab, and a piece of drywall I practiced on.

[jodini]

WOW! That looks great! Now you are not actually putting that solution in your airbrush gun are you? Just spraying it from a brush?
Joe

[SteveFury]

That's a REAL good job you did there Emmadog. My hat's off to you!

[emmadog]

WOW! That looks great! Now you are not actually putting that solution in your airbrush gun are you? Just spraying it from a brush?
Joe

Yep, its going thru my airbrush, I tried every way I could think of using a brush to flick the paint but nothing worked good enough. It literally took less than a half ounce of the mix and about 5 minutes to do the entire pin. As soon as I was done I disassembled the airbrush and cleaned it with thinner. Cleaned up like any other paint.

[jodini]

I'm just surprised that it would go thru your airbrush. When I mix paint, I look for the consistency of milk. I can't imagine that 75% of glue to be very thin. Are you using a Badger?

[emmadog]

No, using a Paasche with medium tip. I ended up adding a little more thinner but not much. The thing to realize is that not much at all is coming out so its not like you're trying to force lots of paint thru. That's why less than a half ounce was more than enough to do the whole pin. It really is a very fine thread that's coming out.

[SteveFury]

I am thinking in the future to strip and re-do my Williams Space Mission cab. Emmadog if you ever do the webbing job again then it would be GREAT if you could post a how-to video. I'm new to airbrushing, been experimenting with my Badger 350 lately and a video would be so cool.

[emmadog]

I can give you a few tips now and one is use paint stripper on your cab. Quick and easy and a minimum of sanding after. I used epoxy putty for any dents or missing wood in the cab in areas that may get hit or experience wear like edges. For example, the area around the coin door had been damaged so i used epoxy there. I used plain old bondo as many suggested for all other areas and lastly glazing putty which is thin, for small cracks. All that worked great. Then primed it with enamel primer which exposes all the areas you thought were smooth. More filling and sanding then primer again and a final sand. Realize too these cabs were far from perfect from the factory so a glass smooth cab is not necessary.
I'm not sure when I'll do the webbing again. I'll be doing my Capt Card at some point though. Anyway, the webbing is easy and there's really no technique other than moving the brush around to keep the coverage even. Start out with the ratio I suggested of materials and you'll likely need to add more thinner. Add slowly because if its too thin it'll spatter which was used on some cabs though. The further you stand away the larger the length of the webbing strands will be and vise versa. Too far away and you'll have cobwebs everywhere as they'll dry in the air before hitting the cab. I could have filled my basement with cobwebs- it was interesting to see an airbrush do that. It's mostly experimenting with mix viscosity and air pressure. Get some cardboard or whatever and practice. I was nervous at first because of all the hours I had put into the cab but there was nothing to it. The webbing flies out and in about 10 or so seconds one side is done. Remember your dont need any skill with an airbrush to do this. You're not painting a picture just spraying crap out in a completely random pattern.

[emmadog]

Cab progress.
Put the main yellow graphics on the cab and head. I spray 4 diamonds at a time and once those dry I'll go back at spray the other 4. That's done because the stencil overlaps the adjacent diamond.
The head still needs the large diamond on either side and the 3 smaller ones along the bottom front.

[Mrtoad]

Looks fantastic!

[MrGneiss]

[jodini]

Looks awesome emmadog!

I keep gettig Diamond Jack and King of Diamonds confused! King of Diamonds was the one I played the other day...the retro one. The Kind of Diamonds - Retro Pinball

[pachiwall]

WOW! That looks fantastic! It is gonna really look great when you are done. Looks like the back of the cabinet is not painted. Is that because it was standing on end when sprayed? Or, was the backs not originally painted? Or, I could just be seeing it wrong!

[emmadog]

WOW! That looks fantastic! It is gonna really look great when you are done. Looks like the back of the cabinet is not painted. Is that because it was standing on end when sprayed? Or, was the backs not originally painted? Or, I could just be seeing it wrong!

Yeah the back will get a couple coats of paint when I'm done.
Pics of the latest. I should have the diamonds on either side of the coin door and all 8 diamonds on the other side of the cab done by tomorrow. Then it'll be a little time spent fixing a couple areas where paint bled (not overspray) under the stencil and the like. I could leave it as since its hard to notice but it's not much trouble.

[emmadog]

Done with all the graphics painting and I put the new coin door, strike plate, and coin strip in for the pic. Couple painting tweaks are all that's left and then reassembly will begin.

[Mrtoad]

Looks great! You have done a lot in a short period of time.

[emmadog]

Thanks, the diamonds on the side actually took awhile since I did them one at a time as opposed to making one large stencil. I did this because each side diamond has to be identical to all the rest. If I would have used one large sheet of mylar, that would have required cutting 16 diamonds and they woulda each been a tad different. A time saver was using Createx auto air paint. It's very high quality acrylic paint and can be sprayed right out of the bottle. No thinning needed and the colors are very pigment rich so they cover fast. The time saver part was that this paint dries extremely fast. I airbrushed 4 diamonds (every other one) per side, waited 20 minutes and then completed the others.

[Mrtoad]

I think that was a good method. Even though the design are simple shapes, cutting them out to be exactly the same if you went with one large stencil might not be simple. I would hate to get to the 7th diamond and make a mistake cutting.

I had used a paint mask that I cut on my vinyl cutter when I did the Signal but you don't get overspray so if you want the overspray look it would not be the right choice. I think you can cut heavier stuff such a thin carboard to make a stencil on a cutter but you need special blades and they are not cheap, plus the cost of a cutter it get's pricey. So unless you do a lot of stuff it would not pay. I think my cutter when I got it was about $1300, I use it for wall decals. There are smaller cheaper cutters but would depend on how wide and long you need to cut to see if they would work.

[emmadog]

You're right, these were simple shapes and took no time to cut out. My Capt Card will be more challenging but there's a stencil kit available so I may go that route. I thought about poster board for stencils as many use for cab repaints but I have a large roll of adhesive mylar that I use to laminate arrangeball cels with. Since I had it, I used it. I did double up the thickness since a single layer can be hard to lay down flat. Single layer mylar can go down nice part way but when its all laid down is when you discover part of it was slightly askew and is now causing a wrinkle. This is particularly true if a large portion of the mylar piece has been cut out-just makes it too flimsy. Doubling the thickness eliminates this. For the side diamonds I used a double thick piece of no adhesive mylar since I have a bunch of that too. Too adhere it I used medium strength 3M spray glue but just a light coat. It worked great and after applying the stencil I took the edge of a plastic squeegee and pressed down on the stencil about a mm or so from some of the edges of the cutout. This let just enough of the stencil in those selected areas to stay above the cab to get the overspray look.
What cutter do you have?

[Mrtoad]

That is a smart way to do the overspray. I was not sure how you did it until the end of the post.

I have a Graphtec CE5000-60. I bought it about 4 or 5 years ago. I use it now more for hobby than anythything now. 99% of everything I have done on it has been wall decals.