# King Kong pinball DIY madness! Make your own Gong mod for Stern's King Kong PRO Machine!

**Source:** Wild Dog Arcade  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-09-18  
**Duration:** 13m 6s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE5O15xhxoo

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## Analysis

Gary from Wild Dog Arcade demonstrates installation of a 3D-printed gong mod for Stern King Kong Pro machines. The mod replaces the flat plastic gong found on Pro models with a functional 3D-printed decorative piece that improves visual appeal without changing gameplay mechanics. The video includes detailed installation steps, painting techniques using automotive primers and acrylics, and clear coating application.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] King Kong Pro models have a plastic gong without ball-blocking mechanics, while Premium and Limited Edition models have a physical gong mechanism — _Gary states the Pro gong doesn't reject the ball—it goes in and kicks it up, contrasting with Premium/LE versions_
- [HIGH] The 3D-printed gong mod is available under Creative Commons license and cannot be sold — _Gary explicitly states: 'These models are available to anybody under the Creative Commons. They can't be sold'_
- [HIGH] The 3D-printed mod doesn't change gameplay mechanics but improves visual interaction — _Gary clarifies: 'it doesn't change the mechanics of the gameplay because it is not a mechanism, but it gives a little more interaction with the game'_
- [HIGH] PETG plastic requires adhesion promoter before painting because paint won't naturally stick to its surface — _Gary explains: 'Things don't like to stick to it. So you actually want to do some additional prep' and recommends adhesion promoter_
- [HIGH] The gong was 3D-printed in polycarbonate at 100% fill for durability since the ball will contact it — _Gary states: 'I printed the gong out of polycarbonate at 100% fill, so it makes it nice and strong and robust since the ball is going to be touching it'_

### Notable Quotes

> "Are you bored of that plastic stern pro gong? We were. And we did something about it and you can too."
> — **Gary (Wild Dog Arcade)**, Opening
> _Sets up the motivation for the mod—dissatisfaction with the flat plastic gong on Pro models_

> "it doesn't change the mechanics of the gameplay because it is not a mechanism, but it gives a little more interaction with the game"
> — **Gary**, Early in mod explanation
> _Clarifies that the mod is purely aesthetic/decorative and doesn't alter core gameplay_

> "Things don't like to stick to it. So you actually want to do some additional prep."
> — **Gary**, Painting techniques section
> _Practical advice on painting PETG plastic—highlights a common challenge in DIY modding_

> "I find it makes a better visually appealing item rather than starting with a really dark base and trying to lighten it up. I think it looks better if you start light."
> — **Gary**, Painting philosophy section
> _Reflects Gary's design philosophy on color layering for visual impact_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Gary | person | Owner/operator of Wild Dog Arcade; demonstrates and explains the King Kong gong mod installation |
| Wild Dog Arcade | company | Arcade/pinball venue where the King Kong Pro machine is located and the mod is demonstrated |
| Stern King Kong Pro | game | The pinball machine being modified; subject of the mod demonstration |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of King Kong Pro; produces gong mechanism differences across Pro/Premium/LE tiers |
| Pinside | organization | Online forum community where the 3D-printable gong mod was originally shared by a community member |
| King Kong Owners Club | organization | Community forum on Pinside where King Kong owner modifications are discussed |

### Topics

- **Primary:** 3D-printed playfield mods and aftermarket upgrades, King Kong Pro vs Premium vs LE feature differentiation, DIY pinball machine modification techniques, Plastic painting and finishing for durability
- **Secondary:** Community-driven mod design and Creative Commons licensing, Pro model mechanical limitations vs premium tiers

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Gary is enthusiastic about the mod, presents it as a worthwhile upgrade, and encourages viewers to attempt it. He's satisfied with the visual improvement and provides detailed, helpful guidance. No criticism of the mod or dissatisfaction expressed.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Active homebrew/mod community creating and sharing 3D-printable upgrades via Pinside forums under Creative Commons licensing (confidence: high) — Gary credits anonymous Pinside community member for the mod design; shares installation walkthrough to encourage broader adoption
- **[design_philosophy]** Pro tier cost reduction achieved through mechanical feature removal (gong becomes decorative only), creating aftermarket mod opportunity (confidence: high) — Pro explicitly lacks the physical gong mechanism present in Premium/LE; community responds with decorative 3D-printed alternative
- **[product_strategy]** Stern King Kong Pro/Premium/LE tiers have mechanically different gong implementations: Pro has static plastic piece, Premium/LE have active ball-blocking mechanism (confidence: high) — Gary contrasts Pro gong that 'doesn't reject' and 'goes in and kicks it up' with physical mechs in higher tiers
- **[technology_signal]** Increasing viability of 3D printing for pinball playfield components and toys; enables community mod ecosystem (confidence: high) — 3D-printed gong mod uses polycarbonate for durability against ball contact; demonstrates practical printability for functional game components

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## Transcript

Coming up next at the Wild Dog Arcade. Are you bored of that plastic Stern Pro gong? We [music] were. And we did something about it and you can too. So come join us. [music] Hey everybody, Gary from the Wild Dog Arcade. Today I'm going to be installing a decorative mod on our King Kong Pro Edition pinball machine. So, as you know, the King Kong Pros have a few mechanisms uh removed from them uh that the Ellies and the Premium Editions have. One of them being the gong. The [music] gong in the premium and the Ellie is a physical mech that will block the ball. The Pros just have a piece of plastic that's got some LED boards on the back side. So, pretty simple. Basically, [music] it just doesn't reject. The ball goes in and kicks it up. So, what I have done is I have found on the Pinside forums for the King Kong [music] Owners Club, a gentleman has made a 3D printable [music] mod for your King Kong Pro game. So, basically, it is a three-dimensional printed mod that basically gives you a gong. It doesn't change the mechanics [music] of the gameplay because it is not a mechanism, but it gives a little more interaction with the game. [music] So, I'm going to install this on here today. It'll be a nice improvement visually. Um, [music] and then, uh, we can go ahead and put it on. All right. So, I'm going to walk along the installation of this 3D printed mod. So, first thing, these models are available to anybody under the Creative Commons. They can't be sold, so you [music] can print them yourself if you have a 3D printer, which we do here. Um, it it's comprised of [music] a main part, a pin, some spacers, and a gong. Uh, this gong actually pivots on a rod, which I actually got off of Amazon instead of having a plastic [music] rod. So, that way it's a little more freer flowing, a little bit more robust. I'll also put the link to that in the description below. So, follow along as I put this part [music] in place of this plastic. So, the original gong mod included a pin for the gong to actually pivot on. You can go ahead and 3D print it, but you'll probably have to do a lot of sanding to get it smooth enough and have the gong swing [music] freely. What I found was I substituted a 3/16 in quick release pin that I found on Amazon. And what's nice about it is it's steel, so the gong swings nice and smoothly. You just remove the little keyring on the end and it works perfectly. The other nice thing is it's got this little detent ball on it. And that will actually help keep it in and not walk out of the slot without any [music] additional gluing or retention. Okay. So, the first step I'm going to do is I'm going to remove the LED [music] boards on the back of this plastic. This plastic is actually attached to the lower plastic underneath. So, the first thing is you'll notice [music] there are three screws uh and nuts on the back side. So, [music] these hold three individual LED boards. Two of those make the little eyes in the temple glow. The third one [music] in the middle actually shines on King Kong in the back. So that's going to be reattached to the new part. So I need to remove those. So it's pretty easy. Small Phillips and a 1/4 in wrench. That's one LED board done. I'm going to do the middle one. [music] Okay. These three screws and bolts and spacers that I took off will not be reused cuz they're [music] meant to bolt through this piece of plastic. The other one's going to screw into the back of the plastic on the other one. So, you'll just have to get some actual like regular screws. So, this plastic is actually held on by two more of those screws underneath this plastic. So, this is where you got to get um you got to remove at least four of these plast of these nuts here so I can pull the plastic up and access those screws which are hidden underneath. You probably don't need to remove these [music] back screws. I'm just doing it so I can get at this stuff a little easier and it'll make it so the plastic can flex out of the way. So there you go. This shows you access to this screw down in here. So now I'll grab the uh screwdriver and [music] wrench and pull these two bits of these two nuts and bolts off here. Oh, these are actually I was wrong. These are just screws that are screwed into a plate. So, this should just unscrew. All right. And the plastic just comes [music] out revealing the two the three boards underneath. So, [music] to put these boards on, there are two green ones. Those actually operate the eyes of the ruins. [music] So, look at where the LED is. Place the LED in the hole. line [music] it up on the actual back of the sculpt. Mark them with a Sharpie [music] cuz then you're going to want to go and kind of do a pilot drill on these things. So, I'm going to make sure that that LED goes in the hole. And then the third one goes right in the middle [music] and that actually shines backwards to light up uh King Kong here. So, I'm just going to mark these. All right. So, now I've got three marks on the back of the idol. I'm going to go drill a pilot hole for that so I don't crack [music] the plastic when I put the screws in. All right, so I've got three of these little screws. I have a whole bag of hardware over there, a couple of bins. [music] So, I found these screws. They'll work in there. So, I'm just going to drill into the backside and That'll make it easier to put on in place on the game. All right, next step. Come back to the game and I'm [music] going to screw in these boards. So, going to screw the middle one in first Okay, that is the the parts [music] uh attached to the th to the back side. Then the last step is to put this on and then reattach the nuts. All right, so this mounts to the original two screws that hold the main plastic down. So, what I've got here is I've got two the the original nuts, but I'm actually adding a little washer over the top of it out of paranoia to not crack the plastic. There we have it. So, I'm going to fire up the game. There we go. Nice. And the uh I printed uh I actually printed some extra filters in here out of a translucent yellow or transparent yellow so that way it evens out the glow instead of any harsh LEDs. I actually made this filter. So I added designed and added the extra pieces in here. But this is actually the whole the whole mod. Um ruins, couple of spacers, a pin, and a gong. I printed the main body out of PETG. Um, the gong I actually printed out of polycarbonate at 100% fill, [music] so it makes it nice and strong and robust since the ball is going to be touching it. It's going to barely clip it on its way, but it's going to u be durable. [music] So, I did all the painting and clear coating on this. So, so that's what it looks like. So, now my ruins are updated instead of the plastics. So, look how much nicer that looks. All right. So, the uh the original part was held on with a bunch of screws and nuts and spacers. You are not going to use these again unless you want to return the original [music] uh plastics back to the game. So, put them in a bag, keep it in your coin box. That way, you've always got the original part. All right. All right, I want to apologize for not showing you the actual painting of the objects here cuz I was kind of doing it in the middle of other projects and I never got a chance to set up the camera. But what I am going to do is walk you through some of the different paints that I use cuz painting plastic can be a little tricky, especially if you want to make it durable when you've got a pinball flying around. You don't want it chipping off and stuff like that. PETG, which is a very common higher strength plastic that you 3D print with. Things don't like to stick to it. So, you actually want to do some additional prep. [music] So follow along. I'll show you some of the different paints and tips and tricks that I do when I'm painting this stuff. Okay. First step when painting any kind of plastics, you want to make sure you use some sort of adhesion promoter cuz the surface, you know, whether it's an injection molded, 3D printed plastic, you know, won't have things stick to it. So you want to use something like this. I picked this up at the auto parts store. It's very common. This actually kind of etches the surface that allows the other paints to stick to the item very well. Next up, I would paint all the items with a [music] primer. And I like this two-in-one primer here. Uh it actually is a primer [music] filler, so you'll fill little gaps and stuff like that. And you can kind of sand out some of the high spots and make your surface a little bit smoother. So, this is step number two. So, after the primer was dried and I did any little bit of sanding I need to do, I actually painted the items with this kind of gold titanium color. This particular one was a light driftwood metallic. It's a body color paint for automotive. The ruins themselves I had painted gray, but then I just misted it with this gold just to give it kind of a goldy tint, but not really spray it heavily with it. The gong itself, I use the heavy coat of this as the base color. I tend to like to go with light colors for my base and then [music] darken them up with the additional detailed paintwork. Um, I find it makes a better visually appealing item rather than starting with a really dark base and trying to lighten it up. I think it looks better if you start light. Okay. For the detailed, [music] you know, designs, the little bit of algae and the things that I painted on the gong and the ruins, I use just kind of a variety of acrylic paints. I've got a bunch of different paints for between airbrush and other work that [music] I do. So, this is kind of the color palette I used. I had a black, a silver, a brown, a green, a copper, and a [music] gold. And kind of a mix and match them. The ruins themselves, I used more of a silver palette [music] with a little bit of the brown and green mix to paint on the algae. Now, on the gong, I actually spent more time [music] with kind of a brown palette because I wanted to darken that, but I wanted to keep the brassy finish. And in the end, I actually used a paper [music] towel and this gold pearlized thing to tap on there to produce a little bit more goldy feel to it. So, kind of between all of these, these are the paints that I use to color the ruins objects. And last but not least is after you get everything painted, you're going to want to clear coat it. I use this this Rustoleum Painters Touch 2X Ultra Cover. Um I find it works really well. It sprays on pretty easily. Uh, it does it is really nice and clear. So, it really makes the items look really good after it's done. You definitely need to do this to make it durable. Okay, that's the [music] mod. It's cool. If you got a 3D printer, go do it yourself because it's a nice upgrade to your flat plastics. Thanks for uh watching this video and I hope you have a great day. where those going. [music] Under painting the braille. Oh, sorry. That's okay. I just want to make sure you know. Well, now now you screwed up the video. [laughter] I didn't want you to mark the thing up.

_(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: c0571a94-ab3f-41d7-abf9-f2d1a45a1213*