# SDTM Cary Hardy: Air Brushing Your Pinball Playfield

**Source:** Straight Down the Middle  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2021-07-16  
**Duration:** 19m 43s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6AioBAYKw8

---

## Analysis

Cary Hardy demonstrates advanced playfield restoration techniques using airbrushing and frisket masking to repair and touch up a pinball playfield. The video covers base coat application with Createx paint, color matching challenges, removal and re-application of paint layers, and creative solutions like the 'Mentos method' to handle imperfect color matching while maintaining aesthetic authenticity.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Frisket should be applied as one giant piece covering the entire playfield rather than cutting individual segments first — _Cary Hardy demonstrating his preferred masking technique; stated as personal methodology_
- [HIGH] Paint removal with lacquer thinner is only practical if done immediately after application; waiting overnight makes removal much harder — _Cary Hardy explaining why he had difficulty removing paint the following day_
- [HIGH] Opaque white base coat is necessary to prevent wood stain and natural color from bleeding through subsequent paint layers — _Cary Hardy explaining the purpose of the white base coat before transparent colors_
- [HIGH] Touch-up paints should never be applied before clear coating, as they will absorb into wood and become impossible to remove — _Cary Hardy discussing paint removal methodology and timing_
- [MEDIUM] Early Williams games used small white segments on certain inserts for visual emphasis and light-catching effects — _Cary Hardy referencing historical game design as justification for the 'Mentos method' approach_

### Notable Quotes

> "the point of this stuff is just to make sure i don't paint anything that's not supposed to be painted"
> — **Cary Hardy**, Early in video
> _Explains the fundamental purpose of frisket masking in playfield restoration_

> "i'm not scared of using a whole bunch of it so we're just going to cover the entire playfield with this frisket"
> — **Cary Hardy**, During masking application
> _Demonstrates his confidence and experience-based approach to material usage_

> "i'm not happy with the coloring on this does not look good"
> — **Cary Hardy**, After first brown color application
> _Shows quality control standards and willingness to restart work for desired results_

> "i'm wretched when it comes to color matching it depends if it's a solid color then i can do it but if it's some special off tone like this teal or a gray then it is horrible to try to match"
> — **Cary Hardy**, During color matching discussion
> _Honest assessment of restoration challenges and limitations with complex colors_

> "if you can't match at least one segment then redo all of it so it all looks the same"
> — **Cary Hardy**, Introducing the Mentos method
> _Creative problem-solving approach to color matching failures, naming it after vintage commercial aesthetic_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Cary Hardy | person | Pinball playfield restoration expert demonstrating advanced airbrush and masking techniques on Straight Down the Middle |
| Straight Down the Middle | organization | YouTube channel/media outlet featuring pinball restoration and technical content |
| Createx | product | Paint brand used for airbrush work; available at Hobby Lobby and online retailers like Amazon |
| Williams | company | Referenced as historical pinball manufacturer; mentioned in context of insert design techniques on early games |
| Frisket | product | Masking material used to protect areas during airbrushing; cut with razor blade to create precise patterns |
| Lacquer thinner | product | Chemical used to remove wet paint from playfields during restoration |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Playfield restoration and repair techniques, Airbrushing and paint application methods, Frisket masking and cutting techniques, Color matching and paint mixing challenges, Paint removal and correction workflows
- **Secondary:** Playfield preparation and sanding, Pinball history and design references

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0.5) — Content is instructional and technical with occasional frustration when color matching fails or results disappoint, but overall tone is problem-solving and methodical. Hardy shows satisfaction when results improve.

### Signals

- **[technology_signal]** Demonstration of modern airbrushing techniques with Createx paint and frisket masking as preferred methods for playfield restoration (confidence: high) — Hardy's systematic approach to masking, base coating, and layering paint using contemporary hobby supplies and heat gun drying

---

## Transcript

so the play field's been cleared it's been sanded but now i need to start doing any kind of touch-ups that i'm going to do so what i plan to do is mask off all of these switch slots right here because they look pretty bad so i'm going to be masking off all of these and my shooting shooting lane over here and this one up here and this one up here and i'm gonna be repainting them and i'm going to try to do the best i can to keep it a wood tone and we're going to see what we come up with i'm going to have to do a little bit of mixing it's going to be very difficult to match the current color that's over here but we're going to give it a shot just to give it at least a nice good wood tone this is going to be the only area of the playfield where a lot of bare wood is going to be showing in comparison to this area is going to be underneath plastics and rubbers you're not going to really get a good visual on it and the same goes oh yeah i need the mask off around here and do this as well but uh yeah with all these gonna be masked off and uh we're gonna do a repaint on them now a method that i can use also is just literally cutting out a small segment of this brisket and covering up and then all that kind of stuff and junk but i'm actually just going to use one giant piece to cover the entire playfield that does two things that masks anything that i do not want to get paint on and it also gives me the ability to see the entire play field and cut where i need to cut so and i've got a whole roll of this i've had this for years now so i'm i'm not too s i'm not scared of using a whole bunch of it so we're just going to cover the entire playfield with this brisket now i'm not worried about air bubbles or anything like that the point of this stuff is just to make sure i don't paint anything that's not supposed to be painted [Music] greatly about digging too deep obviously i don't want to go into like real deep into the wood but i need to make sure i cut deep enough to where i'm cutting out the frisket so since i'm going to be painting my shooter lane let me start right here and the amount of pressure i've got going down is almost just like the weight of my arm and controlling where i want this blade to go is merely like controlling just a little twist is all it takes and that is the shooter lane [Music] all right and i just gotta rinse and repeat all that around all of these [Music] all right so i've gotten these four and my sugarling done oh my god this is gonna suck all right guys we are ready to start airbrushing on the white which is going to be our base coat when you're airbrushing you want your first coat to be opaque white because that will allow the other colors on top to be their true colors about any other bleeding through of the natural wood or anything like that so i use createx it's available at your hobby lobby or online like amazon or anything like that i the areas i have cut out and will be coloring are up here here the target areas right here and here the all of the slotted switches right here where you can adjust the difficulty on these two ends right here and the entire slingshot areas and all of these right here and the shooter link those are the areas that are most prominently visible when everything is assembled i could do all of these but they're going to be very negligible and hardly able to be even seen so i'm not gonna worry about going through all of that all right here we go i hope i got enough air to do all of [Music] this [Music] i get it all right so i noticed a spot that i did not get i've got it now so that's all covered i've gone over the painted areas with the heat gun and i have mixed me up too much but i have mixed up what i believe will be a good color but we're gonna find out that is the last bit of transparent brown i've got so we are about to find out if this was good or bad [Music] all right guys i'm not happy with the coloring on this does not look good i ran out of my color so i tried another method was not happy with it so i am going through and going to be removing said colors it's going to be a daunting task but it's got to be done if i want this to actually look good and i don't want to pile on layers and layers of paint because then i'll have to put down a thicker coat of clear and i definitely don't want to have to do that i'm glad i didn't do everything just these uh portions so it's going to make it a little bit better i'm using lacquer thinner to remove this paint this would have been a lot easier if i would have removed it when i first didn't like it last night but no i'll let it sit overnight so it's had a little bit more time to dry but that's not too bad it's also another good reason why you don't want to apply any touch-up paints until after you've clear coated otherwise these paints would have absorbed into the wood and i would not be able to clean it off like i am right now all right so you've pretty much seen what i'm going to have to do for the rest of it so i'm going to go ahead and cut the video right here so i can put something on the tv for me to watch all right back to square one i've cleared off all the paint off of everything that i painted the day before and we're gonna lay down our base coat once again with white all right you've seen it before so we're going to do it again all right i am 100 more satisfied with this color that i've got going on now that is much much better um i just got finished doing a real quick little just go over with the heat gun to kind of dry out a little bit and i may go over it one more time with a coat but i may not i don't know i'm gonna have to wait a little bit and see what we get from it all right i'm much more pleased with the color and everything on here i'm now gonna be using a light transparent brown to go over the shooter lane to give that a little bit more of a realistic look all right so that's what we look like now obviously this is all my test areas this is from brisket so this is not going to be on the playfield so remember that but uh i like this color so much more it's gonna look so much better but uh there we go all right and we're gonna put a little heat gun to it get it all nice and dry all right i think we're ready to remove the frisket now guys we're going to see how we did we'll start from here on the top area on this particular slot so far we're looking pretty good that slot looks a hell of a lot better than what it did that's for damn sure and it'll look even better once it gets clear-coated [Music] looks good let's give you guys a pan over here now as you can tell there's still some shiny spots that are kind of low i'm a little disappointed in my sanding right here guys so i'm gonna have to go over this by hand to get these uh low spots right here before i go putting the other coat on i knew i wasn't gonna be able to clear again today anyways because uh it rained a whole bunch and the humidity is a little too high that looks a lot better all right i've got the black touched up we've got this small section in this teal color right here in the corner and i was gonna do my best on color matching and just filling that one little spot in uh i'm wretched when it comes to color matching i it depends if it's a solid color then i can do it but if it's some special off tone like this teal or a gray then it is horrible to try to match this this has got like a just the right amount of blue and maybe even a touch of green in there and it's just no fun to try to match these things a lot of the times so i've got a couple of options that i could do here i could mask off and paint all new blue on these triangles this is this is called the mentos okay i'm calling it the mentos version because if you can't match at least one segment then redo all of it so it all looks the same i don't know if you guys remember the mentos commercials or not where this guy sit on a park bench and he put straps on just the bottom portion so he popped a mentos and he got the right idea to make the rest of his suit all striped to match so therefore it just looked like that's the way it's supposed to be so what i'm actually going to do is mask off and i'm going to cut out a little segment in this corner here the here and right here and do a white and it's going to give them all a certain little segment of white right there it's going to make it look like it's legitimately that's the way it's supposed to look there's been certain plenty of games even on williams where they do like a little white segment on certain inserts just to give them what like like their shining or something like that kind of look but a lot of games will do certain things like that just a little small segment of white to make it stand out a little bit better and that's what we're going to do here so i'm going to frisk it over these cut out a small little section in the same area on all three of these shoot it with some white and then it should blend in so that's what we're going to do now all right so i've got everything masked off this right here is from me making sure that my nozzle is clear of any uh black color from the previous and so now we should be able to just and let's see if our mentos worked out mentos the fresh maker now whenever the clear goes down guys this is going to look even better so you can see where the paint's outlining on certain things but once the clear goes down it'll all be nice and shiny and blend in

_(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 837d2ba7-28fe-4d53-a540-2bbfbb54748f*