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Playfield ceiling project Mk II

pinballslave

pinballslave

Registered
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Messages
130
Location
Litvinov, Czech Republic
Anyone who visited my pinball gamesroom/storage area when I lived in the UK would have probably seen the ceiling project I had half finished up there... all that got took down and the playfields, along with my games, got shipped to Czech... The arrival of kids along with the associated family commitments, not to mention the lack of another pinball room, have all contributed to the massive delay in making the Mk II version of the ceiling, but it's finally coming together... an 8 x 8m ceiling will (hopefully) have 14 rows of 7 playfields which will be back-lit after blocking off all the large holes with black card and lining the backs with baking foil to help bounce the light around... switch-wire slots remain open to give thin strips of white light. Some playfields are totally stripped, while others are populated to varying degrees on the front... I'll try and attach some pics here...
 

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Beautiful work Lee, just mentioned you in the AFM thread but realised that's not your username here
 
I posted the same pics on Pinside and one guy is now trying to persuade me to part with the Robot playfield because he wants to make a Robot game from scratch, using a playfield as the starting point... I really don't want to pull this one off the ceiling, and besides I butchered it a bit to let light through at the back to light up that 3D plastic... so if anyone has a Robot playfield then I can put you in touch with this guy... or if you go to Pinside you'll see his posts on the 'let's see pics of game rooms' thread and write to him yourself... nothing in it for me, but if someone can help it would steer him away from my ceiling 🤣
 
Lee,
Still waiting for the invite once everything is done and you have your gamesroom back up and running.
D.
P.S.
What was the game we played at your place , the back glass reminded me of Zenaida Warrior Princess, think it was a European machine , Playmatic or similar. It’s been bugging me cause I can’t remember the name, but looking forward to a few more games on it one day.
D.
 
I'm looking forwards to having my place in order so can invite all my old UK pinball mates for Czech style ****-up and pinball party! I'm a bit puzzled as to what game you're on about to be honest... it wasn't this youg lady was it?
 

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Very interested to see your progress on this. I have been collecting play fields for the same reason and hope to learn from your experience. I hadn't considered the foil idea
 
pinballslave said:
I'm looking forwards to having my place in order so can invite all my old UK pinball mates for Czech style ****-up and pinball party! I'm a bit puzzled as to what game you're on about to be honest... it wasn't this youg lady was it?
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Lee,
It might have been but I think it was something else. You have so many weird and wonderful games I’m not sure it was so long ago now I’ve forgotten.
I’m sure it’s still there in your collection so will look forward to being reunited with her.
Take care and talk soon .
D.
 
replicas said:
Lee,
It might have been but I think it was something else. You have so many weird and wonderful games I’m not sure it was so long ago now I’ve forgotten.
I’m sure it’s still there in your collection so will look forward to being reunited with her.
Take care and talk soon .
D.
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Actually, I think it might be this... it came to me last night...
 

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That looks more like it, what’s it called ? I would like to look it up on ipdb.
Or have you got more pics of it ?
D.
 
Matt Vince said:
Very interested to see your progress on this. I have been collecting play fields for the same reason and hope to learn from your experience. I hadn't considered the foil idea
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The main issue I have at the moment is how to get a uniform light distribution so that all playfields are lit to the same degree... the further the distance between the light and the playfield the better the distribution of course. My ceiling is sloping, and at the low end the gap is less because I didn't have so much head room there... so playfields at that end are harder to get good uniform distribution... I think ideally you could do with at least 30cm... my suggestion is to buy LED strip lighting and cut the strip up into small lengths, ideally put one length behind each playfield... there are probably better ideas to get good uniform lighting though... one thing I'm planning to try is to use a 30w LED spot light positioned in the corner (where my gap is biggest) and point it onto the reflective foil I have on the ceiling... More later, have to go out now...
 
replicas said:
That looks more like it, what’s it called ? I would like to look it up on ipdb.
Or have you got more pics of it ?
D.
Click to expand...
Yes, it makes more sense because that game was working and set up at one point 🙂 It's Playmatic Zira... funnily enough a Zira playfield is on the ceiling in that first photo I posted... I've still got the game and was able to pick up another playfield for it later! Here's a better pic of the playfield as on the ceiling... one back-lit and one not... I put a few pics on the IPDB.
 

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Paul said:
Could you not put an LED panel behind each one?? Wouldnt be cheap, however would give the uniform effect you wanted...
something like this (Not looked at sizes, just an example)... https://www.budgetlight.co.uk/led-panel-eco-v3-0-36w-3800lm-865-120x30cm-8719157041706
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They look great... and the watts/lumen value of 0.009 is good! Those big ones would be too much for just one playfield... if they do smaller ones, that would be perfect... 36w per playfield would come to 3.5kw on my ceiling 🤣
 
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Looking great so far, have started the same thing, only have two so far though.

Went for a cheap and cheerfull approach for lighting and stapled christmas lights to the back.
 
Matt Vince said:
Very interested to see your progress on this. I have been collecting play fields for the same reason and hope to learn from your experience. I hadn't considered the foil idea
Click to expand...
I've got a bit more time now... on the playfields themselves, I started by stripping everything off, but then I thought it would be cool to leave the plastics on, and maybe even things like drop targets and stand-up targets, pop bumper caps... on a Strange Science I worked on recently I decided to mount the pop caps on clear plastic heads from drink bottles... the caps amazingly fit straight onto the top of the bottle (no glue needed)... I left as much plastic as I could on that one, even the flipper bats have been pushed into the bushes! (I crushed the spindle of each bat with some cutters to make a small bulge in the spindle which was enough to hold it in the bush). Here are a few pics of it... it's my finest achievement and will go in a place directly in front of a light! 🤪 I still need to block off the big holes (which I do with black card stapled to the back) and then put tin foil on... There's a pic of the front and back of Gorgar after foiling and cutting the foil for places I want the light to get through.
 

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kev a said:
Looking great so far, have started the same thing, only have two so far though.

Went for a cheap and cheerfull approach for lighting and stapled christmas lights to the back.
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I've done that to one of mine, which I plan to put in the middle of the ceiling... I was going to do more, but I notice that where I live it's impossible to find Christmas lights that have more than 2 circuits, so you don't get a chase effect, just blinking back and forth... the lights I have on this one were bought about 20 years ago... and still work! They have 4 circuits...
 
pinballslave said:
I've done that to one of mine, which I plan to put in the middle of the ceiling... I was going to do more, but I notice that where I live it's impossible to find Christmas lights that have more than 2 circuits, so you don't get a chase effect, just blinking back and forth... the lights I have on this one were bought about 20 years ago... and still work! They have 4 circuits...
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Yeah mine are only two circuits, so just fade back and forth, remember as a kid having some with loads more wires and each colour would light individually, do full knight rider and stuff..... they were silly expensive even then, me and my sis had to bug my mum for ages to buy them.

edit:

Oh just another thought on lighting, do you have access to any broken old Led TVs and monitors? they have a freznel? lens, like a flexible layer of plastic with many tiny ridges, to distribute light evenly,
 
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kev a said:
Yeah mine are only two circuits, so just fade back and forth, remember as a kid having some with loads more wires and each colour would light individually, do full knight rider and stuff..... they were silly expensive even then, me and my sis had to bug my mum for ages to buy them.

edit:

Oh just another thought on lighting, do you have access to any broken old Led TVs and monitors? they have a freznel? lens, like a flexible layer of plastic with many tiny ridges, to distribute light evenly,
Click to expand...
It's strange that it's so hard to find Christmas lights nowadays with more than 2 circuits... I'd have thought the 'chase' effect would have been popular! Interesting idea on the freznel (fresnel) lens! Will bear it in mind!
 
taz turbo said:
How about something similar to what @AlanJ did, I’m sure a lot of work, but looks absolutely epic 😎

Project DELTA - Pin area - Yet another extension on the house!

EPIC !!
www.pinballinfo.com

^ Post #139
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Wow, that's crazy and amazing!! I don't have the time, patience or intelligence to do anything that sophisticated though, but it's certainly inspiring stuff!! I'm hanging a few oriental lamps through mine to take the edge of the industrial vibe you can get from pins...
 

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mufcmufc said:
Jesus Lee, it’s like Wimbledon only worse and without all the vans
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The days where I need to store broken vans on my garden as extra space to store games are long gone! I've since mastered the art of self control and limit the games now to what I can fit into buildings! 😜
 
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