This page details how I made the stencils and used them in painting the Backbox & Cabinet.  It contains all the info you'll need on the products I used.

To see how the Stencils are used go the the Cabinet Painting page.

Fathom uses a 3 color scheme for its Backbox (BB) & Cabinet (Cab).  The 3 colors are Blue, Yellow & Teal.  The primary color is the first color to be applied to the BB/Cab.  The entire BB/Cab is painted with the primary color.  After the primary color is applied then the other colors are applied, one at a time.

The first color to be applied to the BB/Cab is the primary color, Blue.

The next color to be applied to the BB/Cab is Yellow or Lime.

The final color to be applied to the BB/Cab is Teal.

Links to areas within the Stencil page.

Backbox Section

Cabinet Section

Process Section

Tools Section

Pictures Section

BACKBOX

For the Backbox I will need a total of 4 stencils.  2 stencils for the Left-hand side and 2 stencils for the Right-hand side.  2 of the stencils will be for the color Yellow while 2 of the stencils will be for the color Teal.

For the Backbox, the stencils for the Left-hand side and Right-hand side are nearly identical, but not 100%.  The stencils are basically reversed when moved from one side the other.  However, there is about one inch along the edges of the stencil that are different for each side.  There is probably a clever way to only make/use one set of 2 color stencils, however I used the conservative approach and made a unique stencil for each color on each side. 

CABINET

For the Cabinet I will need a total of 6 stencils.  2 stencils for the Left-hand side, 2 stencils for the Right-hand side and 2 stencils for the Front side (where the Coin Door goes).  3 of the stencils will be for the color Yellow while 3 of the stencils will be for the color Teal.

For the Cabinet, the stencils for the Left-hand side and Right-hand side nearly are identical, but not 100%.  The stencils are basically reversed when moved from one side the other.  I probably could have used only one set of 2 color stencils, however I used the conservative approach and made a unique stencil for each color on each side. 

The Yellow stencil for the Front was extremely simple, just two small sections.  The Teal stencil for the Front contains some details but was still fairly simple to create.

The Yellow stencils for the sides of the Cabinet were pretty simple to create.  The Teal stencils were a pain in the rear!!  Very complex and tedious work.

PROCESS

There are a lot of different methods to use in touching up OR repainting a Backbox/Cabinet.  My Fathom was in sad shape (I'd rate it a 6.5 out of 10), so I decided to go with a full-blown repaint.  One approach would be to mask off each color and apply the paint with either a hand brush or air brush.  Another approach is to create stencils for each color and apply the paint with either a hand brush or air brush.

I've heard that masking off a cabinet takes a lot of time.  I've also heard that creating stencils takes quite a bit of time too.  Cabinets were originally painted with stencils.  Since both processes were time consuming, I decided to go with the process that was originally used by the pinball manufacturers - STENCILS.

Now the question of how to apply the paint - air brush vs. paint brush.  Its easy to use a paint brush, however you get brush strokes and "sharp" edges.  Air brushing is a different skill set that most people have no reason to acquire.  I did not have any experience at air brushing.  However, air brushing gives a "soft", feathering edge and looks great.  I decided to go with the process that was originally used by the pinball manufacturers - AIR BRUSHING.

There are a lot of different ways to make a stencil.  Some people use tracing paper (trace the image from the cabinet onto the tracing paper and then transfer that image to the stencil material, such as brass, sheet metal, acetate or frisket).  Original stencils were made using brass plates.  Well, I don't have anything to make intricate cuts in brass plates or sheet metal so I those were out of the question.  

I decided to go with Acetate since I would only have to make one tracing of the stencils.  The tracing goes directly onto the clear Acetate.  I figure I had a lesser chance of screwing something up if I only had to make one tracing of the artwork. Also, using Clear Acetate makes it easy to verify if the tracings on the stencils are correct prior to any cutting.

Below are the different steps it takes to create a stencil for 1 of the colors on one of the areas of the BB/Cabinet.  I'm writing the next section with the following assumptions: 

1. Measure the Area - get the measurements for the area where you want to create a stencil.  
2. Cut out the Acetate - transfer the measurements from above to the Acetate.  I used a fine-tipped Sharpie marker & a long straight edge (4 foot level) to apply the measurements to the Acetate.  Cut out the piece of Acetate using a pair of household scissors.
3. Un-curl the Acetate - Since the acetate is coming from a roll, it will want to retain its form and curl back up into a roll form.  The trick to straightening the acetate is HEAT!  I take my cut out pieces of Acetate and place them over a piece of plywood and then lay the playfield glass on top of them.  Next, I place this "sandwhich" out in direct sunlight for about 2 - 4 hours (depending on how hot it is).  Works like a charm!
4. Tape Acetate to BB/Cab - Place the Acetate onto the section where you are going to create a stencil. Tape all 4 sides of the Acetate to the BB/Cab.  Be careful - do not place the tape on the area of the Acetate that you need to mark for your stencil.
5. Outline the Stencil - Remember, only 1 color per stencil.  Trace the outline of every section for a specific color onto the Acetate.  It is best and helpful if you color in the area that you outlined.  Use a marker color that is different from the color you are creating the stencil for.  The marker should NOT go outside of the color you are creating the stencil for. Once you are finished, stand back and double check that you can no longer see any of the color you are making the stencil for. 
6. WARNING - TIP ALERT - WARNING - The Yellow stencil will be painted prior to the Teal stencil.  When tracing the Yellow areas that butt right next to the Teal areas, make the Yellow lines go INTO the Teal areas - you want it to overlap!!  You do NOT do this technique when you make the Teal stencil - you only do this on the Yellow stencils, in the areas adjacent to Teal areas.  This way when you lay down the Teal stencil to paint, you will always have some overlay of Teal paint onto Yellow paint.  This prevents any Blue paint from showing up between a Yellow area and a Teal area.  The classic area of doing this is in the letters of the word "FATHOM".  Each letter is SOLID yellow.  The Teal dots are painted onto of the Yellow letters.  Similar technique is used in the area where the Yellow & Teal "waves" touch each other.  Study the original paint job closely and you will see what I'm talking about.
7. Label the Stencils - In an area that is not going to be cut out, Label the stencil to indicate what color it is for and where its going.  For example, I labeled my Backbox stencils "Left-Hand Yellow", "Left-Hand Teal", "Right-Hand Yellow" and "Right-Hand Teal".  Once you cut out the tracing area, you won't know where the stencil goes and its orientation unless you do this part! 
8. Make Tracings for one Area at a Time - Make stencils for one area at a time.  Do the Left-Hand side of the Backbox prior to moving onto the Right-Hand side.  You'll be tempted to move around, but don't!  Do one area at a time - it will save you from making mistakes and thus lots of time down the road doing rework.
9. Double Check your Stencil Outlines - Take your 2 stencils for the area and lay them on top of each other.  Do they look good?  Do they look like the image on the area of the BB/Cab?  Now take your  2 stencils and lay them onto of the area of the BB/Cab?  Do they look good?  Do they look like the image they are stencils of?  Can you see any of the original colors?  Take your time - double check prior to cutting out the stencils!
10. Cut Out your Stencils - What a pain in the wrist, literally! This is painstaking and time consuming.  Take your time, do it right - once.  If for some reason you screw up and accidentally cut too much out (go past the lines) or slip you can patch your stencil a number of ways.  You can take mylar and place pieces on each side of the stencil (to stick to itself) OR you can take an overhead transparencies and tape it into place OR use Duck tape (a last resort).  Remember to cut out stencils for one area at a time.  Same reasons as when you created the Stencil tracings...if you make a mistake its better to isolate that mistake to one area that to an entire set of Stencils.  Use a sharp Exacto knife to cut out the stencils.  Initially I did this with a piece of plywood on top of my desk, but I eventually starting cutting grooves into the plywood.  I ended up using a "self-healing" cutting pad.  Seamstresses and Artists usually used these.  You can find them at Office Depot for around $17 - works great!
11. Double Check your Stencils - You're almost done, prior to moving onto the next section of stencils.  Take the 2 stencils and overlay them on the desired area of your BB/Cab.  Do they look good?  Do they only show the area to be painted for each stencil?
12. Store Your Stencils Flat - Creating your stencils will take several days.  It may take several weeks between the time you first start and the time you finish painting.  To prevent the stencils from curling, store them flat.  The best way to do this is to take a piece of plywood and lay the stencils on top of it.  Next place the playfield glass on top of the stencils.  I then place this "sandwich" in an out of reach place (on top of my refrigerator in basement).

So how long does it take to make stencils?  Below is a rough listing on the amount of time it took me to make the complete stencil kit for Fathom.  As you can tell, its some serious labor!!

Can the Stencils be reused?

Good question.  Stencil reuse is the Holy Grail of Cabinet repainting.  While technically you can reuse a stencil made out of Acetate, I would not recommend it.  The  Acetate curls ever so slightly once it gets wet with paint (or water).  Not bad to the inexperienced eye, but enough where the stencil will not lay flat during its second use.  This causes quite a bit of over spray - more than is desirable.  

Also, I use very tiny pieces of Tac 'N Stik putty to keep thin & fragile pieces of the stencil flat to the wood.  I do this because you can not get rocks with enough mass to stay in place on these tiny portions of Acetate - the air pressure from the Air Brush blows them onto the area you are painting, thus creating a big mess.  When removing a stencil, sometimes the portion of the stencil with the Tac 'N Stik will tear away from the main portion of the stencil.

An example of where I used the Tac 'N Stik on my Fathom stencils is on the Yellow Backbox stencils.  On the word BALLY, the 2 "L"s have a very thin portion of acetate that must remain on the wood to prevent over spray.  I also used the Tac 'N Stik on the inner portions of the "B" and "A". 

Even though I would not recommend using a stencil over again for painting, you can use it to create another new stencil.  This is beneficial if someone needs a stencil for a cabinet that is missing artwork.  

Thanks goes out to...

I would like to thank Ben, Clay & Johnnie Terry for providing me with guidance on how to make stencils.  I also found lots of good posts on RGP in regards to the process of making stencils.

I did perform quite a bit of air brush testing with stencils made out of portions of the artwork and plywood.  This is how I tested, learned and perfected the process of air brush painting and stenciling.  It also gave me 100% confidence that the stenciling would work and how I could eliminate the unnecessary over spray.

In the picture below showing my tests, notice the Blue and how light it is compared to the Blue on the plywood in the background.  The lighter Blue was my original (incorrect) color match.  The darker Blue in the background is the correct color match that I used to repaint the Backbox and Cabinet.

TOOLS

.005 Clear Acetate (Roll 40"x12")

I purchased this off the internet from Michaels, an Arts and Craft store.  I got the roll of 40" x 12'.  It costs around $20 (including shipping) and is enough (barely!) to do an entire Backbox & Cabinet.  We have 2 Michaels store in the Louisville market, but neither of them carried the product.

Ben used .003, but had troubles with it "curling" on him so he recommended I use the thicker .005 material. 

Exacto Knife

I purchased this from the local Super Wal-Mart.  I found it in their Arts-n-Crafts section.  I got the 17 piece set which includes the wooden store box and a bunch of different knife blades.  It cost around $16.

Stencil Cutting Tool

I purchased this from Dick Blick Art Supplies on the Internet.  This is basically a soldering iron with an extremely fine tip.  The tool cut right thru the Acetate w/o any pressure or force.  This was a 1000% better than using an Exacto knife - I highly recommend it.   It cost around $25.

Sharpie Markers

Get the FINE-TIPPED markers. I purchased the "rainbow set".  I got this set to use for multiple purposes around the house.  I used the non-traditional darker colors to do the stencils since I didn't think they would ever get used around the house.  Do NOT use the Black or Brown markers from the "rainbox set" as you can use them on many other projects.  I forget how much these costs, but it couldn't have been much, maybe around $10. 

Tac 'N Stik 

This is Elmer's "Reusable Adhesive".  I call it putty.  Its blue.  This works great for sticking down the tiny, detail portions of the Acetate Stencil when you paint.  These are areas where you can't get a rock with enough weight/mass to fit.  You just peel off a portion smaller than the smallest booger you college roommate ever picked and showed his beer drinking buddies.  If you think you've got one small enough, make it smaller. I got this for $1 at Office Depot - it enough to last a life time. 

Self-Healing Cutting Board

This works great for cutting out stencils.  I initially started cutting the stencils out over plywood, but I ended up cutting grooves into the plywood which were interfering with my Exacto knife staying on the tracing outlines.  My mother-in-law makes curtains and I saw her use this one day when the idea smacked me upside the head.  This thing works great.  I picked up a small one for $17 at Office Depot.

BLUE Masking Tape

This is the low-tack tape that isn't suppose to stick for up to 7 days.  Its not false advertising - it works!  I used it to mask off my freshly painted cabinet.  I was worried about the masking tape being stuck to fresh paint for over 7 days.  I picked a roll of this up a t Lowes for around $4.

Masking Tape

I just picked up the standard issue roll of this stuff from Lowes.  Its suppose to be non-stick, but it isn't!  I only used it on areas that were going to be re-painted.

PICTURES

This page was last updated on 09/04/04