|
|
|
This is the machine that continues to elude me, this machine and Playboy would be the prize catches in my collection if only I could ever find either of them at a half reasonable price, and even though I pour way too much money into my restores anyway there is no way I am going to allow myself to get totally ripped off and pay something like $5000 for one of these old KISS pinball's. I have been to look at a KISS once that was a heap of JUNK and the guy wanted over $3000.00 Australian for it and just to top it off it had NO artwork on the cabinet at all. As for Playboy - well I have been to look at 2 over the last 3 years and they were pathetic, one guy wanted over $2500 for one and even though he knew I was traveling an hour to look at it and had told me it was "pretty good", when I got there the back-box was in the backyard on the grass, where it had sat for the last 3 years!! Need I say more. So I figured if I couldn't have the machine I would build a replica of the playfield and put it into a nice deep box type frame and hang it on my wall, I am glad that I did this as it gets about as much attention from visitors as do my actual restored pinball's, everyone remembers this KISS table whether they were into pinball or not. All the parts on this replica playfield are brand spanking new, I purchased the replica Bumper Caps and Playfield plastics set and drop targets from Steve Young's Pinball Resource and they are FANTASTIC replica's, well worth the dollars. I purchased the playfield overlay and apron stickers from Arcade Grafix BEFORE the company was seemingly taken over by a couple of used car salesman morons" sometime in 2004, the overlay is brilliant for it's artwork for a project like this but too glossy and bright to ever consider using one on a real machine restore, besides I wouldn't give Arcade Grafix any business now anyway which is a shame because their products prior to 2004 ( and I was buying plenty ) were absolutely outstanding. I hope the guys that ran that company originally start a new company soon. Most of the other parts like rubbers, posts etc were purchased from Ray Johnson at Action Pinball who I believe through my experiences is one of the friendliest and most helpful guy's in the industry.
The Apron is made out of 6mm MDF (customwood) , my father in law made the metal return lanes,( I know that I am missing the gate) and the metal brackets that hold the spinners in place, the replica spinners are made out of 3mm MDF and were the hardest and most fiddly pain in the arse part of this project. The frame is approx 12cm's in depth and made out of 16mm MDF and painted in a Satin Black, it is also finished off around the face edges with black T-Moulding and has black caps over any otherwise visible screw heads. The whole thing weighs about 20 kilo's so I made sure it was mounted into a wall stud with an almighty coach screw. It really did come up good and one day, if I can find the parts I would also do this for a Playboy playfield. The next thing that I plan to do is to buy some replica translites for Star Trek and Harlem Globetrotters and mount them into a box frame in the shape of a backbox to hang either side of this KISS playfield. I will make it so that it looks like I have gone to one side of the backbox and cut the backbox down the middle so it will look like it is sticking out of the wall about half the depth of a real backbox. But that's a project for another day.
Don't forget to check out my Harlem Globetrotters Wall Hanging as well. It has a lot more images on how I made this type of wall hanging playfield as well as a shot of the finished result.
|
