matching colors across different brands

[severdhed]

I am building a four player panel, matching up the button colors to the 4 ninja turtles.  (blue, orange, purple and red).  i am a little torn about which direction to go.  i planned on using happ buttons, since i know i like the feel of them and they are cost effective.  i have two U360 joysticks that i plan on using for players 1 and 2.(currently black bat tops).  the bat tops only come in 4 colors(black, white, blue and red)..so my initial plan is just to get two JLW joysticks and use 4 black bat tops with the colored happ buttons.

but i can't help but want to add a little color to my joysticks.  i noticed that i can get ball tops for the JLWs in all the colors that i need, however, the sanwa colors arent the same shade as the happ colors.  i don't really want to go with all sanwa buttons, since they are over twice the price of the happs.(and on a 4 player panel, that adds up to a big chunk of change)

would it be stupid to get colored balltops that are a different shade than the buttons?  the orange and the red seem to match relatively closely, but the blue and purple sanwa parts are much lighter in color than the blue and purple happ buttons.

the other option i guess would be to get happ joysticks and just not use my u360s..but they were very expensive and i really like them.  what should i do? 

[rytel]

If you want the U360's for games that need an analog stick, I'd say keep them and use the Swana pushbuttons. That way you wont have anything that doesn't match to bother you later. The Swana's will be harder to mount in a wood control panel, though.

If you just want balltops, and don't need analog sticks, Tornado Terry's makes modified Happ Competitions sticks with balltops color matched to other Happ controls. If you have a Happ trackball on there, you might want to go with these so they also match.

[severdhed]

i should have also mentioned that this will be a 3/4" wooden panel, which makes the sanwa buttons not only twice the price, but much harder to install

as for balltops or bat tops, i really dont care either way.  I have always used battops in the past and i like them. i just considered switching to ball tops because of the color options.

i dont really even play any analog games, the only real reasons i want my u360s are:
Qbert
it seems like a waste to have them and not put them to good use.  even if i do use them in my 4player panel, i still plan on having a dedicated 4way stick because i just like the feel of having it physically restricted

[Turnarcades]

Ball-tops usually offer the biggest versatility of colours, but unfortunately their colour matches to anything but Sanwa's are not great. After finding this out with a similar build recently, I have opted to go with mild variations for every stick from the buttons, so at least it looks intentinoal. For a show machine I'm building, the players (from left to right) will each have green, blue, red, yellow Happ buttons, each will have Sanwa sticks but I've chosen some non-Sanwa translucent bubble-filled ball tops. These are green, blue, red and yellow respectively, but all in luminous shades to look intentionally different from the buttons.

[severdhed]

do you have any pics of that panel? i'd love to see it. even if you dont have it completed yet, could you at least take a pic or two with the bubble tops next to the happ buttons so i can get an accurate idea of how they look together?  i've seen pics of the individual components, but due to variating light conditions, it is hard to say how they would look together.  Thanks..
 
i saw the seimitsu bubble tops at lizardlick and considered them, they are a little more expensive, but they may look pretty cool.

[DillonFoulds]

Even Happ to Happ won't color match exactly...

[Turnarcades]

do you have any pics of that panel? i'd love to see it. even if you dont have it completed yet, could you at least take a pic or two with the bubble tops next to the happ buttons so i can get an accurate idea of how they look together?  i've seen pics of the individual components, but due to variating light conditions, it is hard to say how they would look together.  Thanks..
 
i saw the seimitsu bubble tops at lizardlick and considered them, they are a little more expensive, but they may look pretty cool.

Seems I missed this reply - sorry Severd but all the gear is packed away at the moment whilst we move premises, but I will have pics eventually.

[severdhed]

thats ok, i think to save money, im goign to go with black bat tops for now (with the adaptors on teh TM sticks so i could switch to ball tops later if i want to change it up.)  if you ever do get a chance to take pics, i'd love to see them though

[Goatz18]

Alright. I didn't build my CP yet but I have parts sitting waiting for me to cut wood and put them together. I know I know.

I as well am striving for a turtles colored four player panel. Only I have ball tops. I, as you are, am also looking for four bat tops that match the turtles because I have the bat top adaptors for ball top shafts. However, I have yet to find any.

I have red, blue, orange, and purple Happ pushbuttons. The red ball top that came with my U360 matches perfect. I ordered an Orange Sanwa ball top from lizardlick.com and it matches the buttons spot on. Other than that you are right the blue and violet are too light. What about the dark blue ball top? I of course ordered the blue, only $2.95, and it was too light, maybe the dark blue would be more like it.

If anyone happens to run into any good matching bat tops and blue and purple ball tops, let me know.

[:oj]

The only Happ and Sanwa colors, which are almost (not exactly!) the same, are:
White, Black, Green, Orange - Yellow will probably work too, but is already more different than the first 4 mentioned colors.

[severdhed]

i thought about getting white bat tops and trying to find some vinyl dye that would match the happ buttons, but i just don't think it is worth the effort.  it's too bad the sanwa buttons are double the cost of the happ buttons, i could probably adjust to the feel of them, but with a 4 player panel, you are looking at around 30 buttons or so, which adds up to a pretty big price difference over the happ buttons.

[Goatz18]

Perhaps the Krylon Fusion spray paint for plastics could work if the colors match. Just a thought.