Well, we made it look considerably less yellow with the power of RED AND BLACK SPRAY PAINT! This is the completed shell project from SNES Spray Painting - When Retrobright isn’t an Option (Part 1). Two cases, red and black, with the parts mixed together into something considerably sassier than brittle yellow plastic.

It’s getting a bit late in the day, but I thought I’d give you another look at how the painted Super Nintendo cases are turning out. I’m rather pleased with the colour combination. The red and black pieces give the machine something of a Super Famicom Disk System look, which is certainly an improvement on the yellowed plastic we started with!

The power and reset buttons have turned out particularly well. I’ve painted the different pieces so that they alternate between red and black when everything goes back together. It’s a nice little checkerboard effect, and the result is actually better than I expected.

There are still a few grey parts around the controller ports, unfortunately. I didn’t have the desoldering equipment available to remove the connectors properly, so they’ll have to wait until another day. At least the existing black sections help them blend in a little.

The original stickers didn’t come away quite as nicely as I would have liked either. Some of them are a little worse for wear, but there’s not a great deal I can do about that now.

I’ve also painted the cartridge-locking mechanism, and there’s another cartridge flap being worked on. I had to borrow a flap from a different Super Nintendo that had stopped working. One machine’s misfortune is another machine’s spare parts!

Putting the buttons back in brings its own entertainment. You’d think there would only be one sensible way to fit an eject button, but apparently I can find the wrong way without too much difficulty. A bit more fiddling gets it sitting properly.

The paint is intended for vinyl surfaces, rather than being ordinary household spray paint. It gives a rather nice finish, although I’ve found that it can still scrape off if you pick at it. I might look into applying some clear lacquer once everything has settled, but I haven’t done that yet.

One of the other consoles still has a SuperCIC installation in progress, so there’s a bit more electrical work to complete before everything is completely finished. For now, I’m mostly interested in getting a good look at the painted shells together.

They’re certainly not perfect, and there are still a few details to sort out, but I think they’re a considerable improvement. Perhaps some Nintendo or Mario decals would finish the job nicely!

Who needs yellow plastic anyway?