Proton Pack 2.0 Finish line is in sight!

Been a while since my last update but I've been busy working away. This is the point where it takes a lot longer because I'm working on a much smaller scale. It's fairly easy to get the main parts created and fitting together, but come time to wire...it's a headache.  What follow are pictures from the past few weeks moving oh so close to the final product. At the time of writing this I'm actually only left with creating a stand for the pack.

My friend who this is for has requested a black one and I'm hoping I can improve on the hastily put together stand I made for the original one I made.

So here we have the bumper being created. This is always one of the harder pieces because before there are layers of primer and filler and paint...it's pretty fragile. Here you can see it's basic shape coming togther

Let there be light! The power cell is lit and glowing and looks amazing. Successful test indeed.

This is a quick test to see if the barrel of the gun will light up with the LED. It's basically like a huge fiber optic. I'm using a cell battery for it's unique ability to illuminate a single LED without the need of a resistor.  It works, trust me. The flash is just causing too much light to see the glow.

Successful test of the cyclotron lights!

This initial wiring had to be taken a part and redone as lighting LED's can be tricky if you're not paying attention. And I was clearly not paying attention during round one. When I tried to hook up the gun, it wouldn't light up. Remember, different color LED's do not play well with each other when on the same circuit. 

Lesson Learned

The Ion bar and it's mount. Just sitting around saying, yeah, I'm done. 

Yup...Hermione. Don't judge.  Some of the labels are being applied to the main body.  This has been requested to be Ray's pack from the original Ghostbusters.  There aren't too many differences. His HGA is straight up and down as opposed to Egon's which is at an angle. And you can see in this pic that the label is correct. The bolts will be painted on accordingly as well. 

The gun coming together. Adding a few little cosmetic details. I love that half the wires on this model are functional and the other half do nothing. I'm assuming the original prop was the same way.

It's officially all together! I use tape to clamp things together when drying. Rubber bands or actual clamps would damage the pieces. Tape is harmless but applies enough pressure.I believe in this pic the mount for the red and blue hoses on the left side is slowly drying.

HANDLES! There is so much wear and tear on these that when making them I tried to keep them a little rough. There is some red coming through from underneath to mimic the actual screen grabs and prop images that show them as such. It's a simple thing to do. Use a base primer of red and then just lightly sand off the final coat until you get some bleed through.

Shock mount...pre-paint. Ray's is actually bent in some scenes and normal in others. There is so much discrepancy between the hero packs and the foam stunt packs that I chose to make this normal. 

Almost done!You can get an idea of scale too in this pic. As this was taken, the ribbon cable was being heated up in order to make it more malleable so I can attach it. But this is a great shot of the almost done pack! All electronics work by a switch in the back. Along with the battery housing (bit of a tight squeeze, but what ever) And almost all detailing is done.

More to come...

Updates on Proton Pack 2.0

It's been a few weeks since I've posted any updates on my second proton pack. I've been slowly toiling away. In my defense though it's been so insanely hot here that the paint hasn't been drying right. I've have to go back several times and re-sand and re-prime many of the main pieces in order to get rid of the dimpling from the humidity. That'll teach me to paint in a heatwave.

So aside from the cyclotron being covered with copious amounts of paint and primer, it's coming along really well. Slow, but well.  My first time around I worked on the body and then the gun separately. This time I'm trying to build them at the time time to decrease build time, decrease the amount of paint and primer I go through, and to keep the paint looking more uniform. Although it's a flat black, so really there isn't much you can do to make it look THAT different.  Still.  Both sections are coming along.

The following pics are of the past few weeks' worth of work. Still a work in progress and still some much needed sanding has to happen in some places. But Enjoy!

Pretty much right where I left off, here is the gun mount box with it's first coat of filler. It helps strengthen the wood and makes it easier to smooth and detail.  (however it does gum up the sandpaper a bit) 

Crank Case also with thicker primer.

The packs use 2 Clippard resistors. I have to admit I like making these. Something about the small size and detail that can be added.  Granted, they're a pain in the ass because they're so small. but they come out looking great.  One is on the body of the pack and the other it attached to the gun.

Like I said. I like these. Which is why I'm taking too many pictures of them.

The gun body!

This strip becomes the panels that borders the cyclotron as seen a few pics below.

 I like to test fit pieces together often. Usually everytime a new pieces comes closer to being done. It's important to me to make sure that measurements are still correct and lines still line up. After primer and paint pieces increase in size slightly. So I'm always checking to makes sure everything still fits.  (Plus I get a kick out of seeing it come together)

The paint! I'm going with a flat satin which I'll scuff up with 1000-2000 grit paper in order to dull out any shine. Even though it's a matte color it still gets a bit shiny.  As you can see from the 

Here we have a "before and after" with paint.  

I'd say things are slowly coming together. Next will be to start putting in the electric components. I need to obviously cut holes for the four red lights and to make the bumper. Which was a huge pain, to be honest. I'm taking my time with it this time around. I have to find a better way to create a piece like that.   

Here you can see the crank case, almost finished with crank knob and decal. Just resting in place. And the power cell and injectors off to the side. I'm in the process of hollowing out the power cell for the blue LED.

Closer view of the crank case! And the light playing tricks on the paint.

And this is where we are now. I suspect that the next week or two things will start to really fall together as the majority of the housings and major components are done (or close to being done) and it will just be a matter of fine tuning certain things.  I'm going to spend time tonight working on the gun since it's almost ready for lights as well.  

It's coming along, I say!