Control Panel

First I printed the panel on sheets of paper.











Then I trimmed and glued them together, placed on top of the painted board and marked where to drill the holes.










After taping a cut piece of plastic in place, I drilled the holes.





Then I attached the plastic using mirror fixing screws and attached the push buttons.

Starting to look like an arcade machine now

Just a few spots to repaint and then get started on the large panel on the other side.
Shame it's such a poor photograph.

We live and learn

It was a mistake to leave the white outlines as primer. It's taking ages to carefully repaint them. If I'd put a white topcoat on the panel (like I did with the small panel after my experience with the other one) before adding the black, red and blue I would have finished the panel by now and had a better appearance. Well, that's what I'll do on the other side.

The last thing will be the fine black lines around the missile fins. Then I can get started on the small panel and think about making a fake coin door on the front panel.

Neighbours

Since the weather has been warmer I've been working with the garage door open and people walking by in the street have been slowing down and peering inside but nobody has spoken to me. I wonder what they think. I can't help thinking about the Tom Waits song What's he building in there?

Red added

That's the red section added. I'll probably need another coat of red and black. The next task will be painting the white outlines in top coat as they are only undercoat at the moment. I also need to figure out what to do with those missiles - leave them white or paint them gray? Should the white outline be gray too? Hmmm...

Progress

It feels like I'm getting somewhere now. I did a lot of painting yesterday and I'm pleased with the results. This panel just needs the red sections adding. (My shoulder is aching from spending so much time painting).

Side Image continued

After rubbing the lines visible through the back of the paper with the side of a pencil point I taped it to the cabinet and draw over the lines. I used masking tape to make the horizontal lines straight but it needed to be cut to half-width using a craft knife. There might be thinner tape available if I could be bothered to search. This picture shows the most of the blue background added and some tape still in place.