Sorry for the extreme delay, between one thing and another production has slowed down compared to the two days spent at Andy's, but things are progressing, and I decided to wait and give you a big update… so really this is more like Parts 3 & 4.
Knowing that my Dad was going to be heading up to Scotland for at least the better part of a week, I wanted to concentrate on the Proton Gun as I knew I could handle most of it's remaining conversion and construction myself. The first step I decided to embark on was to get the hole in the front of the Gun Box drilled so I could feed the wiring for the Gun Ear light and switch through.
It was a tight fit but they're both now nice and snug in there, and don't stray too close to the barrel “weld” area, either.
After that, I set about hotgluing the remaining gun greebles (minus the knobs) to the Proton Gun in preparation for priming, and then painting.
And then after that, masking the gaps in the box to prevent the primer and paint getting at the wiring which had to be left inside.
And then the primer was applied:
Once the body had been completed, it was then placed upside down so that the base and gun track could be primered.
And after that, a few coats of Halford's Matt Black spraypaint.
I also attempted to paint one of Nick-a-tron's Clippard Valves by masking off the section that wasn't going to be silver… the end results were mixed and I'm not sure how easy it would be to clean this up.
Once the paint was dried, the Gun Knobs (which were successfully painted with Halford's Audi Aluminium Silver - which worked a treat) were glued on…
…and weathering applied with a silver pen along the edges.
The gun is currently paused in its progress as I have to enlarge the holes for the switches to fir through.
My Dad ended up spending nearly another full week in Scotland which mucked things around further, but we were eventually able to progress with the new Center Plate.
We were able to find a board that was thick enough for the lowest part of the plate, but we knew there wouldn't be a piece thick enough for the raised section, so two boards were wood glued together and would then be cut as one when it came to shaping it to fit around the top of the Spacer.
I'd also decided, after spending longer than I wished looking for the correct guage of dowling for the Filler Plugs, that it'd be better just to settle for some plastic piping. The logic behind my argument was as follows:
The cheapest I could find the correct size dowling for was around £17, which was quite pricy as I was probably going to be using less than half its total length.
The piping would put less stress on the Center Plate and would be less prone to breaking off due to gravity.
Finally, the plastic piping could be given a push fit end cap which would flatten the Plugs off nicely and givem them a manufactured look.
Already the new Center Plate was looking to be much more enduring of what the Pack will likely go through in the public, and also allowed me to change a element of the Ribbon cable hole that I wasn't happy with. The issue in question was that on the original plate, in addition to being quite large it ran all the way down to the metal motherboard, leaving no suspension of disbelief in terms of what components were to be found in the Pack.
The hole in the new one spans the heigh of the raised block, but stops at the top of the baseboard: meaning that the ribbon cable doesn't have to be attached to the Motherboard and cause complications if the plate has to be removed.
Test fitting the new plate and testing the positions for the Filler Plugs.
The Plate is treated to a extensive course of bondo to remove any possible trace of the woodgrain on the visible sections, the parts that would be covered up were left untreated, but would still be primed and painted.
After part of the sanding - which would involve both hand sanding as well as an electric sander.
By this point, my work drive had begun to run down a little, due to the fact that there were parts that were outstanding that I needed in order to move on to the next stage. This, however, changed considerably on Wednesday when two beautiful bits of grey resin arrived in the post: My Exoray Ion Arm and N-Filter!
My drive renewed, work resumed on the Center Plate. This illustration shows you the Filler Plugs as they were being installed. Here's a bit of context for the setup seen here: Originally I had bought some piping from B&Q which was only a few millimeters off from the size listed in Stefan's plans. However, after getting the end caps I realised that the piping I'd bought was too small… and that I'd have to get some more piping, this time, from Wick's which was where I'd bought the caps. The newer piping ended up being significantly thicker, and ended up causing the holes for the Plugs to be scaled up, as I'd wanted to insert them into the Center Plate rather than glue them to the outside of it.
This change didn't cause any problems with the Filler Plug that didn't have a Clippard brass elbow in it, but the one that did caused a rethink. My Dad didn't believe that we would be able cut a hole big enough for the thicker piping and not risk blowing out the sides of the block as we drilled it, so a compromise was struck after we made an amusing discovery: The original, smaller piping I'd purchased fitted perfectly inside the bigger piping. So a hole would be drilled for the smaller piping, and the Filler Plug, made from the thicker stuff would be slid on top of it.
In addition to this, as the hole cutters weren't the exact size we needed, my Dad employed some rubber washers which were fitted around the base of the Plugs so they would be held snugly in their corresponding holes in the Center Plate.
With the first Filler Plug in place and the second one's support also in place, the second plug was added and the caps glued into place. By this time all the plastic pieces had been buffed with sandpaper to remove the finish so they'd be easier to take the paint and primer.
Once the Center Plate was completed, work began on the newly arrived parts. After a degree of debate and thinking it was decided to cut JT's Cyclotron cover rather than try carve the N-Filter to fit the Cyclotron profile. I watched carefully as my Dad cut the High Impact Polystyrene Cyclotron with a dremel-like tool (I didn't trust myself not to screw it up - but I endeavour to get to grips with the tool like the electric sander I used on the Center Plate), the tool made a awful howl as it cut through the Polystyrene, but left a pretty clean edge once finished. The N-Filter was then fitted and hot glued in place on the outside, to mimmick it had been welded.
Which was then followed by a treatment of hotglue on the inside for extra stability. In addition to this, a chunk of the wooden support for the outer rim which had to be cut to make way for the Filter was removed from the cutoff, and glued back onto the remaining rim of the Cyclotron cover.
And with the glue dried, the Filter and welds were primered and ready for painting.