Playfield Swap: The planning stage

Now that I actually have the new CPR playfield in my posession,  it's time to get serious on planning for this playfield swap.   I've been throwing around ideas for a while about small areas that I'd like to improve upon, and it's time to start documenting them and getting a proper plan done.  This thing was not cheap, and the last thing I want is a cruddy half-planned swap with a lot of regrets later on.

This is also a great excuse to get more time playing on the machine, of course, so I've been getting a lot more games in lately with the specific reason of looking at areas I need to tweak.  The changes I'll be making will be subtle things, nothing overly dramatic, and not altering the dynamics of the playfield except if there's something that's obviously wrong with it.  Mostly cosmetic stuff,  or material improvements.

The most important to me will be eliminating all of the woodscrews being driven into the playfield.  These have the potential to strip out during maintenance, and possibly cause damage the playfield in the process.  Whenever possible, I'll be converting to the use of T-nuts.  This will mostly be for things installed into the top of the playfield such as lane guides, posts, and other similiar items.  

Speaking of posts, I'll likely be replacing the half dozen or so ring-posts on the playfield.  Instead, I'll be using sleeve style posts,  with color coordinated Cliffy post sleeves.  I'm seeing far too many airballs off of the older style ring posts,  and the sleeve posts I belive will alleviate that problem.  If I don't like them, I can always swap back with no problem.

Since I have to pull the whole pop bumper anyway, I'll be replacing the body and skirt that have become grungy over time.  The body will remain white, but I always felt that the white skirt was just too out of place compared to the artwork.  So I will be swapping in a black skirt.

But that's not all for my quest of color coordination.  I'm a big fan of LED's, so I'll use this opportunity to finish converting the entire machine to color-matched LED's throughout the playfield.  This should help the color pop even more though the inserts, particularly those beautful blues.  I haven't decided yet on which brand and style I'll be using,  I've got time still.

That's not all the lighting changes I'll be making either.  Along with all new braided GI wiring,  and GI light sockets, I'll be adding additional lighting in a couple of areas that I have always suspected should have had it installed already.  Once I show that info, you'll probably agree that it just seems to belong there.  After all, there's already holes drilled in the playfield for the lights. 

There's also another light in there, which I'm surprised at how easy it should be to add.  The apron already has the hole available for a "Credit" lamp,  which is plugged with some unsightly white plastic.  While digging through the software, it turns out this light is actually programmed into the game.  Not sure why, but if it's there I might as well install the wiring and the socket. I just haven't decided what to do for a lens.

Eventually I may replace the plastics, but I'll probably keep the current set for a while, as it's in fairly good shape.  But they will need a couple repairs.  I even noticed one that wasn't printed correctly,  which seems to be the case on every machine I've looked at ever since. 

Overall, I'm hoping that these changes will blend in nicely with the overall theme.  My intent isn't to highlight anything in particular, but instead to eliminate areas that I felt were un-finished in the original design.  If I do this right, you wouldn't have noticed these changes if I didn't point them out.  There are some machines that benefit from dramatic changes,  and the addition of things such as figures or other big modification.   For Black Knight, and how the artwork carries the theme instead of playfield toys and gadgets,  I feel that the mode subtle approach is needed. 

And in a few months, we'll know if I was right.