Pinball Restorations: Cabinet Head

Space Invaders

Space Invaders

Space Invaders

"As part of satisfying their copyright infringement, Bally provided 20th Century Fox with three Space Invader pinball machines to use in marketing Aliens, the sequel to Aliens."

Head Left and Right Before

Head left old Head right old

As you can see, the cabinet head was faded and had several scratches and dings.

Base Coat Application

Head right old Head right old

This is the base coat for the head. Note that the base coat for the head and cabinet body were different. They are usually the same. The head used black as the base color while the cabinet body used gray.

Cabinet Head Progression

Head right old Head right old

Above is the gray mask stencil before painting. It is ready for the gray paint and then the mask will be removed while the paint is wet, but not too wet. The key is to remove the mask at the right time. Too soon with the paint too wet and it will get little "strings" of paint. Too long and it will be too dry and will remove some of the paint.


Previous Page  Next Page

Cabinet Head Progression Continued

Head right old Head right old

This is after the gray has been applied and the gray mask removed. Ready for the red paint now.

Final Head Pictures

Head right old Head right old Head right old Head right old

Above is the final result after the gray and red have been painted. The head turned out great using the Pinball Pimp stencils. Not the white squares at the bottom. These will be removed. They are positional markers for aligning the masks correctly. I took the picture before removing them.