MINIs, Cocktails, and Jukeboxes! Late pics from our show! Pic HEAVY!!!

[johncl]

Great work on those stencils, it surely beats applying big stickers. Do you use cardboard paper for the stencils or something else? And are you using spray paint? My wife and I considered making some stencils to decorate the walls here and there, possibly some borders just under the roof. I guess the challenge is to do it so it doesnt drip or go under the stencil?

I have bought some glossy stickers for inkjet printing and will just make A4 sized versions of the original art for my Donkey Kong bartop.

[Jigenjuke]

Great work on those stencils, it surely beats applying big stickers. Do you use cardboard paper for the stencils or something else? And are you using spray paint? My wife and I considered making some stencils to decorate the walls here and there, possibly some borders just under the roof. I guess the challenge is to do it so it doesnt drip or go under the stencil?

I have bought some glossy stickers for inkjet printing and will just make A4 sized versions of the original art for my Donkey Kong bartop.

Hey there Johncl,

Thanks for the props.  First we printed up the Ms. Pac Stencils on a color laser printer on A3 size paper and laminated them.  We then cut the stencils using an exacto knie to make our "template" that we use to trace the stencil to the cabinet.  We then taped up the side of the cabinet with masking tape, traced our stencil to the side of the cabinet and cut and removed the areas to be painted leaving the rest of the masking tape on the cabinet.  Spray with spray paint, wait for it to dry, remove the tape and repeat the process for the other colors.  It works pretty good.  Labor intensive but ya can't knock the results.

Thanks again. 

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[Jigenjuke]

Hmmm, well started the black and final stencil for the left side of Ms. Pacman.  We originally deciede to cut out the black lines on 4 or five of the Black stencils (the black stencil is quite complicated) and then trace this to the cabinet before using a hobby knife to cut away the necessary area.  This is not a lot of fun!  I have been thinking of other ways to transfer the stencil to the side of the cabinet.  I really don't want to free hand it.  I am pretty sure that I could do it but I think I would just end up pulling the remaining hair I have on my head out. 

One train of thought would be to print the stencil flip it over and with a art pencil blacken the areas needed place the stencil over the cabinet which has been covered with masking tape and rubbing the transfer to the cabinet before cutting.  Wow! This could be a huge can of worms. 

Anybody else out there have any ideas?  Maybe iron on transfer paper....  IDK!

Help!

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Another thought...

I was thinking about using an iron-on transfer and iron it onto the making taped cabinet.  Would the iron melt the Yellow and Pink spray paint already on the cabinet??

What do you think?

Jigenjuke

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[Le Chuck]

Laser cut stencils?  Farm out the work, it will cost you some dough but could save you some time. 

Love your work by the way.

Also look into toner transfers like what is used for board etching as well as tattooing.  Just a thought.

[dfmaverick]

Frisket film used for airbrush masking?

[Jigenjuke]

Laser cut stencils?  Farm out the work, it will cost you some dough but could save you some time. 

Love your work by the way.

Also look into toner transfers like what is used for board etching as well as tattooing.  Just a thought.

Le Chuck, thanks for the kind words.  This coming from the man who gave us the Star Wars Micro means a lot.  Great work on that one mate!  Yeah, originally I had planned on using laser cut stencils.  We had a guy (a friend) that was going to print us up some self adhesive laser cut stencils.  He left the company he was working for so we are out in the cold.  He was going to do it for about 50 US dollars.  This is really cheap considering that after shopping around to farm out the work it was going to be very expensive.  One set (nine stencils) for these mini cabinets would have cost us about 950 US dollars.  Not happening. 

Frisket film used for airbrush masking?

dfmaverick, I looked into the frisket film idea.  Might be doable if I can find a source for the film here in Japan.  Lately the shipping from the US is astronimical!  Not really cost effective.  I will have to think this through a little more. 

I am going to be trying a test run on scrap wood to see if using the iron-on transfers will melt the spray paint through the masking tape.  What I have done so far is looking pretty good.  I don't want to ruin the work I have done so far.  Back to the drawing board.

Thanks for the ideas guys, keep 'em comin'.

Jigenjuke

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[Le Chuck]

$950?  Yech.  Have you tried a place like shapeways?  Reasonable 3D printing on a small scale.  They could to a thin plastic sheet with the needed cutouts, just don't tell them it's a stencil or they'll realize they should be charging you through the nose.

[Bender]

having vinyl stickers cut and using them as stencils are cheep and easy

[Jigenjuke]

having vinyl stickers cut and using them as stencils are cheep and easy

Thanks for the input Bender, good to see ya.

Again printing Vinyl here in Japan is very expensive.  We don't have places like Kinko's or the like.  We would have to do it at a sign shop.  Again very expensive but thanks for the idea

[johncl]

Sounds very much like Norway, very few places who have the equipment to do these things so its very expensive to print anything bigger than A4/letter size. And those that can afford it have advertising budgets. This is partially why I chose to do everything myself on my good old Canon inkjet printer and buying off the shelves stickers, paper and acetate. And personally I think the results will be quite good, although not as durable as real vinyl prints. The arcade wont be put out in public either for thousands of kids to abuse so I dont regard this as a problem really.

I think your stencils are great Jigenjuke, and all that hard work will give your cabinets a special value. - Just like the Diablo 3 game, you can get good gear by playing the game, or you can buy it all for real money in an hours gameplay (after level 60)... I dont know but I feel the effort put into actually playing the game for loot means more than dishing out a lot of money for 5 minutes of fame.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

Just a little update for ya.

I was frustrated with my progress on the Ms. Pacman cabinet, so I decided to put it on the back burner for a little while and focus on one of the Pacman cabinets. 

Here is a little list of what we accomplished today.

1) Cut the hole for the mini coin door.

2) Mounted the 4 external USB ports for the coin door. 

3) Mounted and wired up the LED strip for the marquee.

4) Mounted the speakers behind the LED Marquee light strip.

5) Cut the hole for the molex external power cord and wired it up.

6) Drilled a hole for the power button and wired it to the PC.

7) Drilled holes for external AV outputs RCA and wired them up.

Mounted temporary CPO, Bezel and Marquee art (still waiting for the printed vinyl art.

Things I still need to do. 

1)  Touch up the paint in a few places. 

2)  Paint the Coin Drops for the Mini Coin door with chrome paint. 

3)  Install the T-moulding (Unfortunately orange in this size is unavailable so red will have to do)

That's it so far.  Enjoy the pics.  Forgive the quality of the pics all I had handy was my iphone.  The lighting is a little dark and therefore the pics not so good.

Jigenjuke

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[johncl]

Really nice this Mini PacMan. I guess I would like to make PacMan bartop, or perhaps I should do a full size next? My boss at work said that it would be cool to have an arcade around so I might even get some of the hardware sponsored. - It surely solves the problem of finding space for the machine. Haha.

[Jigenjuke]

Really nice this Mini PacMan. I guess I would like to make PacMan bartop, or perhaps I should do a full size next? My boss at work said that it would be cool to have an arcade around so I might even get some of the hardware sponsored. - It surely solves the problem of finding space for the machine. Haha.

Thanks Johncl,

I say go nuts and go FULL SIZE!

Jigenjuke

[404]

sugoi!! 

[Jigenjuke]

sugoi!! 

Heh heh thanks 404.  Somebody has either studied Japanese or is a big fan of anime.  Maybe both

[Jigenjuke]

Back again guys,

I think after I finish up the Pac-man Mini, I am going to stencil the Yellow and Pink on the right side of the Ms. Pac-man and the front.  After this I have decided to freehand the black stenciling.  This is going to be a long hard process, but I think that it will lend the best results.  I will post more pics as I progress.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

I will hopefully have some time to finish up one of the Pac-man cabinets today.  I will post pics of the progress I make today.  We had a pretty big Typhoon the day before yesterday so  no work was possible.  I will also be working on the Ms. Pac throughout the week and will hopefully have her finished by the middle of next week.  Any thoughts on where I should have the mini CPOs printed on Arcade Vinyl.  Cost is a consideration.  I also ned the Mini cocktail CPOs and the cocktail glass underlay printed.  Give my some ideas.

Jigenjuke

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[PL1]

Any thoughts on where I should have the mini CPOs printed on Arcade Vinyl.  Cost is a consideration.  I also ned the Mini cocktail CPOs and the cocktail glass underlay printed.  Give my some ideas.

Since cost is a consideration, I'd say take a look at Souldraw.  Some people have mentioned minor problems with adhesion on some edges/corners. (May have been a cleaning/prep issue)  If you can wrap it around or secure it under t-molding, you should be fine.

Jammin0 used them for his Ninja Monkeys build. His Souldraw art recap is here.


Scott

[404]

sugoi!! 

Heh heh thanks 404.  Somebody has either studied Japanese or is a big fan of anime.  Maybe both

hehe I'm not an anime fan. I just know a handful of japanese words. Anyway your cabs look great!

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

Back again but, Hmmmm didn't have a chance to get on these yesterday.  Real life kinda got in the way.  Hopefully I will have some time this afternoon.  I know that I will have most of Friday, all of Saturday and all of Monday to work on these projects.  Hopefully I can get pretty far.  I will keep you apprised.  Stay tuned.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

Well the progress I promised on Wednesday finally came today.  I have decided to focus on one cabinet at a time and get it as much to completion as possible (meaning the only thing I have left to do is install the artwork.  Pac-man mini is now 99% finished.  We are trying to decide where to get the artwork (CPO, Bezel) printed and I am waiting on red LEDs to wire up the lights for the coin door.  I also ordered mini momentary contact switches for the coin door.  These buttons will be player 1 and 2 coin drops.  I need to touch up the yellow and black paint here and there before I clear coat the machine and call this one done. 

I was thinking that it would be really uncomfortable to play but the thing is DAMN fun to play!!

Here are the pics enjoy guys. 

[johncl]

Fantastic mini PacMan! It looks splendid and I am sure you'll have a hard time dragging the kids from this to play some yourself.

I cant imagine how you even got a screwdriver into that thing to tighten up things. Even though mine is just a 50% replica I feel its getting very cramped inside and I havent even started installing the computer and all that yet.

Absolutely brilliant work! 

[Woodshop Flunky]

I love a small cab!  Outstanding job! 

[Jigenjuke]

Hmmm well guys, I am back with a small update. 

I  f%&ed up the left side of Ms. Pac-man.  I had already decided that iron on transfers were not going to be the way to go to transfer the black stencil to the masking tape covering the left side of the cabinet.  I went ahead and did it anyway.  What a screwup!  The iron not only melted the yellow and pink spray paint, but it melted the masking tape to the side of the cabinet.  It was a total mess.  So I spent an entire day scraping, sanding and repainting the cabinet.  Yesterday I took time to repaint the yellow stencils.  I did both sides and front.  I am quite happy with the progress. 

So I posting pics here.  Enjoy guys and remember IRON ON TRANSFER PAPER IS ONLY FOR T=SHIRTS!!! 

Jigenjuke

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[blastAgain]

Hi Jigenjuke!

Welcomeback and nice to see you are very active!
Mini Pacman looks awesome!

I put side art as sticker on my miniROBOTRON cab.

I ordered B0 sticker with data (illustrator file I send). The size is about 1000x1500(mm), so normal size cab won't fit but mini things fit perfectly!
The sticker is around 3000yen and for the raminate service add 1000yen.

ordered here http://www.naka5.net/
I think it is the cheapest found on internet.
I put many things in the B0. I attached the image.

Keep up GREAT WORK!

[Jigenjuke]

Just a quick update,

Ms. Pac Yello and Pink stenciling are done.

More to come.

Jigenjuke 

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[Jigenjuke]

Hello all,

Back again.  I decided to take a little break before tackeling the black stencils for Ms. Pacman.  This is going to be one hell of a major undertaking.  I initially thought about having the black stencil portion silk screened on top of the Yellow and Pink stencils.  I took a piece of scrap wood large enough to make a test stencil for the Yellow and Pink stencils from the kickplate front of the cabinet to my friend and he did his best.  Although his work was great, I was not happy with the result.  The difference between the spray painted stencils and the black silk screened stencils was almost glaring.  I have decided that the best way to proceed with this is to masking tape the cabinet up and freehand the the black stencils onto the cabinet.

The hobby knives here in Japan are very substandard so I won't be using them to cut out such delicate work.  My folks in the states sent me a real EXACTO knife set with will foot the bill.  I believe that with this in hand I should be able to produce a result that will please even an anal retentive bugger like me. 

Stay tuned. 

Jigenjuke

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[johncl]

Thanks for the tip on the EXACTO knives or X-ACTO as I believe the real trademark is. I ordered one of the X2000 model from USA now, although I could have used it yesterday when I cut my CP art.

Looking forward to your next update. Its all looking fantastic.

[Jigenjuke]

Thanks for the tip on the EXACTO knives or X-ACTO as I believe the real trademark is. I ordered one of the X2000 model from USA now, although I could have used it yesterday when I cut my CP art.

Looking forward to your next update. Its all looking fantastic.

Yeah the X2000 model is awesome and for just 6 bucks you can't miss.  The hobby knives here in Japan are about 10 bucks and made cheaply in China.  They are not really made for delicate work.  JohnCL where are you located?

[Jigenjuke]

Hi Jigenjuke!

Welcomeback and nice to see you are very active!
Mini Pacman looks awesome!

I put side art as sticker on my miniROBOTRON cab.

I ordered B0 sticker with data (illustrator file I send). The size is about 1000x1500(mm), so normal size cab won't fit but mini things fit perfectly!
The sticker is around 3000yen and for the raminate service add 1000yen.

ordered here http://www.naka5.net/
I think it is the cheapest found on internet.
I put many things in the B0. I attached the image.

Keep up GREAT WORK!

Hey there BlastAgain,

Good to see you around here again.  Yeah the stickers look pretty good.  You should post pictures of them installed on your cabinet.  Can'T wait to see what esle you have accomplished.  Maybe when we have our show in December you can stop by and check out the mini game center we have planned.  A total of 13 mini cabinets all operating at once.

Jigenjuke

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[johncl]

Yeah the X2000 model is awesome and for just 6 bucks you can't miss.  The hobby knives here in Japan are about 10 bucks and made cheaply in China.  They are not really made for delicate work.  JohnCL where are you located?

I am on the opposite side of the planet, in Norway. - I ordered mine on ebay from a company in USA and paid around $15 total. I am sure it will be a valuable tool for many things I do with paper and stickers. I also learned my wife had a nice ruler with cicular template holes in different sizes which sure comes in handy when cutting the CP graphics.

Hope to get the X-ACTO for cutting the bezel art and side art stickers, both which have a lot of detail and arcs I need to get right.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

A little bit of an update.  I taped up the front of Ms. Pac-man, freehand drew the black stencils on, cut them out, sprayed it black and waited for it to dry.  This was probably the most detailed work I have ever done.  It turned out OK but Ms. Pac looks a little like Tammy Fae Baker after a good cry.   Nothing that a little touch up paint wont fix tomorrow.  This mess took me more than 6 hours today so I didn't get anything else done.


Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, back again.  I have started stenciling the black on the left and right sides of the Ms. Pac-man cabinet.  Things are going a little bit slow as I want to make it as perfect as possible. 

I will be doing one of these cabinets as a galaxian cabinet.  A friend of mine came to visit the workshop and started poking around.  He was joking around and tried to place his iPad into one of the empty painted shells for the mini upright replica cabs, and low and behold it fit perfectly.  I couldn' t have planned it better myself.  So later on down the line I will hack a wii controller for him and get that project going. 

As I said progress on the Ms. Pac cabinet is coming slowly and I don't yet have pics that I am ready to share but I thought that an update was in order. 

I ordered some extra bright red LEDs from ebay.  God these suckers are bright!  Since I am going to need two of these little guys for the 25cent "window" (the 25cent logo is printed on heavy duty glossy sticker inkjet paper and then stuck to carefully cut perspec) on the mini coin doors.  I decided to do a little testing.  I tried both parrallel and series each with one resistor. (I will provide picks of this later)  Parrallel was way too bright.  Series ended up being perfect as it adds up to a very quick power draw.  After wiring these up I tested them in the behind the coin door price window I noticed that I had light bleed from the LEDs in back.  I toyed around with a few ideas and finally settled on using hobby clay around the inside hole of the price window.  PERFECT!!  God I love the 100 yen shops here in Japan.  They are the DIYers best friend.

I am going to be using hobby plastic which melts in warm water to form the keylock for all these coin doors.  I made a mold using metal washers and then using a dremel tool I made a reasonable facimile of the key insert.  Looks pretty good pics to come soon. 

I then drilled two small holes for the coin return buttons.  I painted the 11mm buttons silver and will install them when they dry, hopefully tomorrow.  The Left button will be player 1 and 2 coin and the right button will be Escape.  I am so far happy with how this is turning out. 

I never thought that I would be spending this much time on the coin doors but they are Awesome.  CrashWG did a stellar job.    props to him!!

I am providing a pic of the mini coin door with a placement legend.

The Red circles are where the LEDs will be installed behind the "Cost Windows".

The Blue circles are where the 11mm Tack switches will be installed.

The Green circle is where the replica keylock will be installed. 

I chose an unpainted coin door to again show off the work that CrashWG did.

Enjoy guys, I will be back soon.

Jigenjuke

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[blastAgain]

Maybe when we have our show in December you can stop by and check out the mini game center we have planned.  A total of 13 mini cabinets all operating at once.

Jigenjuke

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Oh! When and where is the event held?  Will you give the info please?

Also the photo of the sticker is in the message
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,106245.msg1229915.html#msg1229915
side view photo with black cover.

Cheers!

[Jigenjuke]

Maybe when we have our show in December you can stop by and check out the mini game center we have planned.  A total of 13 mini cabinets all operating at once.

Jigenjuke

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Oh! When and where is the event held?  Will you give the info please?

Also the photo of the sticker is in the message
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,106245.msg1229915.html#msg1229915
side view photo with black cover.

Cheers!

Hey there blastAgain,

Thanks for the pic.  We will be holding our event in Okazaki, Japan near Kagota koen at a little gallery called Fura.  I will post the address for ya later.  We will be holding the event at the end of Decemeber.  Again not for sure when yet but I will drop you a line when I know more details.  I do know that we will have four of the mini upright replicas (1 Pac-Man, 1 Ms. Pac-man, 2 gereric cabinets for people who want to design their own art for the cabs) three mini cocktail cabinets, three 3/4 scale Nintendo Cabs (Red Donkey Kong, Light blue Mario, and Orange Donkey Kong Jr.)  Two original art cabinets Beastress Upright based on the Tempest's cabinet shape, and an interesting cabinet shape and design that I am not really sure wil work, but my friend really wants to try.  Finally we will hopefully have two touch panel Jukes finished by then.

I will let you know when we have more details.  Hopefully a nice litte mini 80s arcade.

Jigenjuke

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[blastAgain]

Thank you for the info!
I'm looking forward to the details and success!

blastAgain

[Jigenjuke]

Hey guys,

As you can see I have transferred the stencil to the masking tape.  You can only see one side but trust me both are done.  Drawing this freehand took an ungodly amount of time and it seems a waste that I am just gonna cut and remove the work I did, but OH WELL...

The first picture is of my MALA layout.  I was pretty tired when I created it last night and this morning I realized that the orientation was wrong.  It needs to be in landscape mode not portrait but I will fix that tomorrow.  Enjoy guys.


Jigenjuke

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[Gaaargh]

Wow, nice work!

Hand cutting your own stencils really shows dedication.

[Jigenjuke]

Wow, nice work!

Hand cutting your own stencils really shows dedication.

Thanks Gaaargh,  I appreciate the nice words, however, the reality of this kind of undertaking is somewhat more unpleasant.  I am sure that when I am finished the result will look very good, but.....

Well guys, I am back and more than a little stumped.  The final black stencils on the left and rigt side of the Ms. Pac cabinet were coming along great.  The ghosts at the bottom turned out pretty good.  The main part of the stencil with Ms. Pac and the big ghost look awesome.  I am very dissapointed in the small Ms. Pac character sitting atop the "MAN" section of the lettering at the top.  I don't feel confident as of yet to provide pics.  I had to set the making tape down in strips and as they overlap a little to provide coverage this can prove to cause "slipage" when I start cutting the really detailed areas. 

BLAH :banghead:BLAH BLAH  

I think, owever that I have come up with the answer that will allow me to continue.  The masking tape does not have a very adhesive backing and causes "slipage" so I have decided to print that Ms. Pac-Man text/mini Ms. Pac sitting atop the "MAN" on inkject decal paper and cut from there.  I hope that this is the answer to my difficulties, because once the stecil cutting is finished and srayed I can complete this unit and start the easier projects of the final two upright replicas and the Three mini cocktails.  Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for me.