Paper Bezel for Gravitar

Arts and crafts time here.  So I had to make a paper bezel to replace the missing one for this Gravitar.  Since the bezel for the Space Duel is in decent shape, my plan was to make a copy using card stock or poster board.  As usual I wasn't able to find a plain sheet of black poster board.  Michael's carries a thick, very hard material they call illustrator board. 

Here are a few shots of the process.  I pulled apart the Space Duel bezel and pressed it flat.  Then very carefully traced around it with pencil, making note of where the folds are to be made on the drawing.  I used a t-square to cut the straight edges, and just did the best I could with the inner curved sections.  Keeping a sharp exacto blade at all times is very important.  If I had used regular poster board this would've been much easier.  It takes several slices to get through the illustration board.  Once the two pieces are cut out, I then lightly scored the front edges, so that the outer portion would lay flat against the frame of the cabinet.  Then I lightly scored the two corners that fold in.  By "score" I mean I cut a very shallow groove with the exacto knife on the back along the angle of the fold.  Once the necessary folds were in place and it appeared to be taking the right shape, I used double sided tape to seal the two edges.  It's at this point that the magic happens, and the whole piece assumes the three dimensional shape.

Since the Space Duel and Gravitar use the exact same cabinet design, the bezel fit perfectly.  I used a few staples to hold it in place.  This one turned out nearly perfect, and even if it's not, it gets covered by a very dark tinted glass.

This leaves the coin door to be stripped down and painted.  I started on this process, and actually got alot of the paint blasted off the coin doors, but it will require more effort.  It looks as though the coin doors have been painted several times, and there is some rust too.  Hopefully I can get this done before the board arrives back from Eldorado.