DOUBLE-PLAYFIELD SET
REPRODUCTION PROJECT
BEHIND-THE-SCENES PHOTO GALLERY
May 2007 to December 2007

COMMUNITY CREDIT - REPRODUCTION FILMS provided by JEFF ELIE (Canada)



Upper Playfield.  This is the blackline for the upper playfield (black plate).



Lower Playfield - Blackline. The detail is absolutely stunning - those million "sand" dots are all there!!!.



Time for the inserts.  The upper playfield goes first.  Here are some of the grab-piles for the gluing stages.  This is what sits in front
of you while you glue, piece by piece.  You start seeing these in your sleep  :)



Upper playfield "glue station"...set up in front of the TV so two 'gluers' can watch Big Brother or movies while the thousands of individual
inserts are hand-epoxied into each hole.  This area will change when its time for the lower playfields !



Thousands and thousands of custom inject-molded inserts for Black Knight.  The third box is worth noting.  Instead of ordering the standard
blue insert color mixed by the factory, we insisted on a special mix which they called Double Blue Transparent ("DBT") which means they
mixed a custom dye for us. A much darker "Noxema bottle" or "Skyy Vodka bottle" blue, which we believe will be much more pleasing to
the purists who want a bold blue in their inserts.  The blue inserts used on Fathom and Centaur were commented by some as being too light.  This mix cost a fortune, as it is not off-the-shelf, and the leftover unused color will be thrown away at some point. Nobody else but CPR,
including Stern, ever requests such a color.  These are only four boxes of about 15 !!!



Sitting at the glue table.  A factory original is in plain view so there is never any mistake in what colors should go where. A constant
reminder so even after hours of repetitive hand work, you can always refer to the original to remember positioning.
A repro whitewood without its inserts is ready to be the next in line for inserts.  Each hole has a CPR-designed "lip" that seats the inserts
but allows maximum exposure to the bulb in behind.  The factory lips were huge...well...WAY too big, making the opening on the backside
of the factory playfields very small.  We couldn't repeat this crappy design without improving it....so we did.



Freshly glued upper playfields laying around on newspaper, hardening.
These will go onto be drilled, dimpled, and levelled on the top and bottom.



TAKING OVER THE HOUSE !!   You can easily tell when its "playfield season" at CPR.  Our homes get taken over quite easily
as every bit of space is optimized (furniture moved to other rooms) and floor space is dedicated to spreading playfields all around
in different stages of development.  As much as its fun to see this stuff going on, it's always a welcome sight to see these leaving
once the project is over.  Time to take back the household !! ....  eventually (sigh)



LOWER Playfield being milled out on the CNC machine.


Completed LOWERs piling up with and without inserts.



NOVEMBER 2007 - SILKSCREENING UNDERWAY

With the goal of the first waves of these shipping out in December, silkscreening is well underway.
The upper playfield went through its print shifts and is now complete.  Now you can take a look:


The press in operation.  Yellow enamel is being screened onto the woods (second color in the series for BK).


Looking inside the press after a yellow print is complete.  The strange angled shape of the upper playfield caused the creation of
a special frame to encircle the playfield to ensure a smooth print pass from front to back.


The wet yellow woods head into the Atlas for a 200-degree bake.


Fast forward to all colors completed....here are piles of the completed BK upper playfields.
In the background you can see the upper playfield whitewoods, soon going to take their turn in our silkscreen shop.


Here is an advance peek at some of the special upper BK playfields we decided to produce as a "side-run" of Limited Editions.
The CPR SILVER KNIGHT Limited Edition. For the ultimate BK fan, we will be offering these as a numbered series.
They feature the knight character printed in sparkling silver instead of the standard grey enamel.  Way cool and looks fantastic.
AFTER-RELEASE NOTE:  The Silver Knight Limited Editions sold out in 15 hours after announcement !



Completed prints heading into the Atlas.






N O W   Y O U   C A N   C H E C K   O U T   T H E   Q U A L I T Y
UPPER PLAYFIELD CLOSEUPS
ALL PHOTOS CAN BE CLICKED TO ENLARGE TO DIGITAL CAMERA ORIGINAL


Completely clearcoated and finished upper playfield - ready for installation.  Semi-backlit photo to glow the inserts.  NICE !!!
































COMPARE !  factory original (front) to repro (rear)  -  Click here to enlarge



DECEMBER 2007 - SILKSCREENING the 'LOWERS'

With the goal of the first waves of these shipping out in December, silkscreening finished up first week of Dec 2007.
The lower playfields took their turn at print shifts and are now complete.  This makes Black Knight complete!
We could have done TWO completely different playfield titles in the last 7 months, because BK requires two boards.
This classic deserves the double-time and double-attention.  It was the only way it was going to happen...


Didn't take many photos during the lower playfield silkscreening.  Looks much the same process as the upper playfield run shown
up above.  But here is what a bunch looks like standing together cooling, after coming out of the Atlas.
These are complete prints, with black going on last.  Seeing the image form from a blob of colors into blackened & outlined art
is always a magical sight after the final print shift of black.  That day brings a true sense of accomplishment and conclusion.


COMPARING REPRO (left) to FACTORY ORIGINAL (right)
Fresh wood and even fresher artwork make the comparison a stunner!  While some people have very nice Black Knight machines
with decent playfields that survived the years of route play...not all Black Knight owners are so lucky.  The playfield on the right
reveals what SOME owners are facing today.  Again, it is the reason CPR tends to focus on older playfields and leaves the
DMD playfields aside as a low low priority.  Black Knights are almost always worn-to-the-wood in some areas.


Holy crap...that poor baby was trashed...  a little closer look at the original (right) versus our repro (left).
This factory original was actually one of the donor playfields we used for measurements, layout duplication, and CNC programming.



N O W   Y O U   C A N   C H E C K   O U T   T H E   Q U A L I T Y
LOWER PLAYFIELD CLOSEUPS















































Backlit to reveal the inserts.







REPRO PLAYFIELDS INSTALLED
Silver Knight Limited Edition #19 - owned by Hans Eilers
In this restoration:  New Silver Edition repro plastics from CPR,  New Silver Knight playfield pair from CPR,  New red posts, New repro flipper
assemblies and flipper bats, All new rubber,  New plastic post nuts,  Cleaned and tuned every switch,  Replaced all marginal light sockets,
  Replaced every bulb with new #44s,  New pinballs, New playfield glass, Cab stripped and sanded + repainted, stenciled, clearcoated,
New legs, All metals polished: rails, door, ramps, etc,  New bolts, nails, screws.  Pinball Pro SUBWOOFER KIT, (3) custom GI bulbs on upper right














AVAILABLE NOW - SEE OUR ONLINE STORE FOR ORDERING