Ms. Pac-man Stencil File Missing Artwork?

That is the question right now. As I started to lay down my pink stencil on my Ms. Pac-man kickplate I noticed something. It appeared as if the left hand of the left ghost on the kickplate was missing the yellow highlights on his knuckles. I thought for a second that maybe the shop that cut these stencils had missed some pieces and I had better check Joymonkey’s Ms. Pac-man stencil file. Sure enough, the yellow pieces were missing from the artwork file as well.

Ms. Pac-man Stencil Artwork file still accurate

The artwork itself is still accurate, my question is whether a couple of pieces got turned off on a layer or something when the final PDF file was released to localarcade.com.

I even though, well, maybe there are some slight differences between each Ms. Pac-man, which there could be, at least in terms of artwork registration. But I looked my extra Ms. Pac-man, and photos of this pre-paint stripped cabinet and both has the yellow highlights on the ghost’s hand.

Here is a photo of my extra Ms. Pac-man kickplate;

Ms. Pac-man kickplate - Ghost Yellow Hand 1

Here is a photo showing my pink stencil applied to my new Ms. Pac-man;

Ms. Pac-man kickplate - Ghost Yellow Hand 2

Here is a shot from the yellow separation from the artwork file.

Ms. Pac-man kickplate - Ghost Yellow Hand 3

I emailed Paul Murphy tonight to see what input he has.

I guess my main problem now is obvious, what do I do? The main problem is that I am missing some yellow artwork on my kickplate. The other problem is that I am out of yellow, I used up the full quart when I painted. I had a tiny trickle in the very bottom of the can but I didn’t figure I’d use it and I had a busy day on Monday so I left it open in the garage until tonight. What was there dried up.

So, I have no yellow paint, and don’t really want to buy a whole second quart of yellow just to fake touch up this spot…

I don’t know. I’m going to wait a little while longer, but consistent 50 degree weather is almost here.

Suggestions?

I am looking for suggestions on what to do that I haven’t already thought of if anyone can offer something.

Update – October 29, 2008
Today I finally had a break from MBA coursework that I got out to Lowe’s and picked up a half pint sample can of the Sunny Side Up to patch up the missing artwork on my ghosty.

I made a makeshift mini stencil from some extra material on the kickplate black artwork, painted it and here is how it looks now.

Ms. Pac-man kickplate - Ghost Yellow Patch

The lines are definitely ugly, and I think I over compensated and got the paint too thin, but with a little bit of the hair dryer and a space heater it is dry and hopefully will be completely hidden with the black layer. I am way past time to get this finished, and I couldn’t wait on Paul to get me a mini stencil any longer.

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Comments
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Hey Jeff,

That sucks that you are missing some yellow areas. Maybe you can do them by hand after?

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I see what you mean…I guess if it were me I’d hit that area by hand with some yellow after doing the pink, and before the black. Too bad you are out yellow.

No one will ever notice if that hand is entirely pink, but every time you see it in your game room you will. I have some touch up spots on Moon Patrol that didn’t come out the right color, and they jump right out at me.

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@Jamie:

Is there anything I can add back to the very bottom of my dried out can of paint to reactivate / rehydrate that paint? I actually put some water in there tonight and shook it up. All it seemed to do was make a mess. Maybe drain some of the water and put a little bit of thinner in there?

I would like my first stencil project to be *perfect*, I can shoot for that and fall a little short and still have a halfway decent project. But I would always notice that defect, but my guess is that a year later I probably won’t care about fine issues on my Ms. Pac-man artwork.

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I’m not sure if there’s a way to do that. I *think* thinner would only help with oil based paint.

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Hate it when that happens
what am I seeing wrong in pic 2?
the eyes, touge, hand should be pink
when all other aeras of pink to be painted are shown as yellow. so why not those pieces??

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You are using latex and cannot do anything. You doing flat or semigloss? Valspar has small little pints of paint they can custom mix to test your colors before buying multiple gallons. However, it’s flat. Any chance the yellow would match any semi gloss or satin Krylon spray paint? If so, I’d just get out the old exacto and make a quick template, tape it down, mask out everything you don’t want over spray on and hit it will the old spray can. Go and visit your good old Krylon dealer with a sample of your yellow.

Good luck and the project is looking great!!!

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@audiomidiman:

I can’t do anything with latex meaning, I can’t do anything with the paint left in the can once it is dry?

It’s a Satin base, which is between flat and semi gloss, just below semi gloss according to the Glidden quart can.

You are saying that at Lowe’s they may mix me a pint with the idea to do color matching? They are the place that carries Valspar.

I contacted Paul, it sounds like he may send me a tiny stencil for the hands, so I should be ok there if he is able to really do that quickly. If I can’t mix a pint that would be the best idea. I’ll call Lowe’s.

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I believe once latex is dry your SOL as far as breaking it down.

I know my Pro Hardware carries Valspar and they carry the “pint sample cans” (or whatever they are called). I’d call lowes to see if they can mix it for you in those super small cans. The issue I see is that they only come in FLAT so you’ll need to talk to a paint expert to see “IF” you can spray clear satin over the flat. How much is a quart of yellow? I’d just pickup another quart and use it for touch up or use it on another project.

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@audiomidiman:

Lowe’s said they mix the half pint size for color testing. Since I had mixed my quarts at Home Depot, the Valspar base may be a little different from the Glidden. I feel like it won’t matter, in such a small spot, no one will notice.

I also really wonder if it will matter if the half pint paint only comes in flat, because I will be spraying the whole thing with a coat or three of Minwax clear coat, so that should equalize out any inconsistencies. Does that sound right? Or am I not thinking of that right?

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@Rich:

It might be hard to tell from the photo, but I have the blue vinyl stencil overlaid on the yellow, so the bright yellow areas are what will be painted pink, and there are a couple of areas that will be painted pink right onto the blue, like the ghosts hand and eyes.

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ahh I see said the blind man while stenciling his pac cab

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hard to say that joymonkey’s art is wrong, ive seen at least half a dozen variants of ms pac through the years. Guessing pretty much every run had new stencils made that may or may not be the same as the ones of the run before. I’m betting the stencils are pretty on target for what paul’s specific source cab had on it.

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@brian:

Hmmm, so at a production number of 100,000 Ms. Pac-mans, what would be a run? 2,000 you think?

I was thinking that maybe Paul’s cab didn’t have the yellow on the ghosts hands. But when I emailed him about it he did seem to agree that those highlights should be there. I don’t know if he looked back at his own cabinet, if he had reference photos from when he started, or he based that reaction on my post photos or what….

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That new pic looks good. Can’t wait to see the black. 🙂

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