Amazing. The fact that it's done without a shell makes it all the more awesome.

Nix;153608
Amazing. The fact that it's done without a shell makes it all the more awesome.

It's why I'll encourage more people to try build it themselves… there aren't many people offering shells at the moment, and it's just more satisfying to build it with wood and such.

For those who have been following along, you haven't missed Part 4, I counted that as part of the Part 3 update in August.

I know, it's been just shy of half a year since my last update, but things are going to change. One of the major stumbling blocks… or what I like to call my “Propper's Block” was the method in which to mount the various components of the Proton Pack to the motherboard I got from Colin, thankfully enough Carl Hopcroft of the U.K. Ghostbusters, a group I've been involved with for the better part of half the year, was available to help.



And of course, no prop build is complete without a massive frigging drill! This was a beaut to use, would cut a hole in no time at all and left them beautifully smooth.

As I'd been hoping to get as much done as physically possible over the period of about two days, I ended up bringing everything I could. One of the other items whose absence had caused extra delay was the Bumper (there weren't any available through the marketplace for about a month it seemed), the absence of which was no longer a issue once Flynn's beautiful resin bumper arrived, which I proceeded to drill for his equally beautiful Shock Mount.







Once drilled, I tested to see how it fitted… although I messed up the vertical placement slightly, the horizontal placement is about bang on.

I also sought to work giving the N-Filter a filter mesh, an item which I'd purchased at Halfords which is commonly used for car bodywork repair.



The next element to be completed, would be the installation of the four cyclotron lenses (and as seen in the photo, one reflector). Interestingly, Carl had different coloured glue sticks, so I used a red one to glue the lenses down… making the glue dribble blend in more than if it'd been cloudy white.



I don't have a manufacturer brand for them, but these sticks could be useful for making different coloured buttons by squeezing the coloured hot glue into a mould, similar to one experiment into replicating the Proton Gun hat lights.



As I'd been tackling these, Carl had been concentrating on the Pack's structural integrity. He'd started by drilling the “upper assemble” (EDA, Power Cell, Gear Box, HGA) so that the central plate and Filler Plugs could be attached using a set of small screws.

Once these had been attached, he then set out to mount the upper assembly, which we'd decided was the best method after reviewing the mounting method Nick-a-tron had used in a Pack Carl owned. I hadn't been convinced of the durability of using wooden battons, and so it was a pretty persuasive argument for Carl.

Two brackets were rivetted into position, and adjoining holes drilled for the bolts. When fed inside, the bolts screw into a corresponding nut which had been glued to the bracket. One bracket was placed inside the EDA above the Power Cell, the other in the Gun Mount.



With these brackets in place, Carl tentatively picked the Pack up, and we both subconciously prayed…



It's stuff like this which makes or could break a friendship.



"I once caught a Proton Pack THIS big."

And then work resumed, concentrating on the Spacer and Cyclotron sections.



As you may notice, two of the Cosmetic Plates have been removed from the spacer. I'd found that when test fitting Flynn's bumper after having received it, it was a very tight fit over the plates… and I was concerned that if I mounted it there might have been a risk of possible damage to the bumper after a period of time… so I'd decided to reduce the stress on the resin, and remove the plates beneath the bumper… but more on that later.

I've decided to include the full version of the shot to give you an idea of what the floor was like during the build:



As quickly as he'd made and attached the brackets in the upper portion of the pack, two more had materialised within the inside space of the Spacer.



Whilst this had been happening, and as the sky turned dark, I'd been giving the Bumper it's coats of primer, and then the layer of paint. I wish I'd thought sooner about weighing down the unprimed/painted end when waiting for the primered/painted end to dry, would've saved me the length of time I was holding it waiting for the primer and paint to set.

That said, the results speak for themselves:





Again, Flynn's Shock Mount looks brilliant against the black finish.

And then, we had “moments that make/break a friendship” Part 2 as Carl tested to see if the brackets in the Spacer could handle the weight:



A gratuitous shot of the incomplete gun, Bumper and Cyclotron.



And some more gratuity:






“Your Magic Missile can't withstand my +5 Sheild!”

Returning to the Cosmetic Plates… in order to fit the Bumper onto the Pack, but also not have any visible gaps where the plates should have been, I decided to go for a half-way measure, removing sections of the plating that would lie directly beneath the bumper. Before it was painted, I drilled both sets of mounting holes at each end of the Bumper, as indicated in Stefan's plans. We used these to plot the adjoining holes in the Spacer. Once drilled, we placed the Bumper into position and fed the bolts through so that it would be held in place. Carl proceeded to trace around the Bumper, so we'd have the outline of it against where the plates would fit (conveniently, these spaces had been left unprimed and unpainted as the plates had gone on before the Spacer had been treated to either of these.

Once we had a visual guide, the areas where the bumper fitted were transferred onto the removed cosmetic plating, and the negative areas were removed via a hacksaw.


Unfortunately, half-way through the hacksaw cutting part, Carl's father stopped by to inform him that a truck would be making a delivery at 7:00AM the next morning (Carl's shed is partially within a nearby salvage yard, a bit like Totter's Yard from Doctor Who, but sadly there was no Police Box). Due to this, the window of work substantially shrank, as Carl would be indisposed for a large chunk of the day helping with the delivery.

So we set to work getting as much done as we could. Unfortunately this also means that the photo documentation after this point is extremely limited.



The aim to finish as much as possible was still a priority, so with a deadline of 12:15 AM set by Carl, we geared into action. I can't quite recall the exact series in which the following parts were installed, but the following were done in the time between the news from Carl's father, and the set deadline.

The holes for the Clippard Elbows were widened in the HGA and Filler Plug so that they could be screwed in without the need for glue.

The holes for the Legris Elbows were drilled into the Cyclotron, HGA and then the Ion Arm and the elbows were fitted in place, with two of them presently glued into position, the third will eventually be glued in at a later date.

As I returned to work on the Cosmetic Plates, Carl set to work mounting the Ion Arm. The arm was mounted using a similar (if not identical) method to the other large parts of the pack, using a L Bracket.

The pack sections were bolted down for travel and the cosmetic plates were tested, adjusted where neccesary and glued into position around the installed bumper. Finally, the remaining light reflectors were glued into place inside the Cyclotron.

As 12:15 had approached, there was nothing more we could so… and so it was time to head home.

And here's how things with the Pack stand as it entered my front door last night:




And that's everything thus far. I wish to extend my eternal thanks to Carl for the help he's given me and for tollerating me in his shed. Work will resume early next week, as I clean the motherboard to prepare it for priming, painting and for drilling for the A.L.I.C.E. frame and for the wire holes.

For now, I'll close on a parting shot of this bad boy:

Sigh…

Today's plan included (but was not limited to) some priming and spraypainting of the Spacer and ‘Upper Assembly’ in order to cover the parts that were missed during the sessions at Andy's garage…



…Unfortunately winter had other plans. Snow on the ground, and zero degrees celcius.

This is how things stood at the end of Tuesday night:



I'd had the opportunity to prime the inside face of the Motherboard, readying the exposed sections for the course of black paint once the board had been readied for mounting and for housing the electrics. Unfortunately Monday's efforts were few, as I spent an untold amount of time scraping the plastic sheeting from the board where it wasn't covered… beneath some of the spots around the inside area of the Spacer, the plastic sheet is still there… mercifully hidden away inside so it can't be seen.

An added irritation was that in transit home, two of the nuts which had been glued to the mounting blackets had been knocked off, adding an unexpected fix to the pile… thankfully it didn't take too long to resolve with a hot glue gun.

Sadly there was no work on Tuesday due to business that had to be conducted in town, but things resumed today. The first point of business was to make the motherboard wearable. Colin had pre-drilled two holes as standard with his Motherboards, so all I had to do was add the third and final one on the upright of the A.L.I.C.E. frame.

This was complicated by two factors, the first that the existing hole which had been drilled at Andy's was set lower than the recommended spot, three inches about the frame crossbar… placing it roughly somewhere near the top portion of the Middle Plate… it also appeared that even if it had been correctly placed, it still would've encountered the Middle Plate, and due to the plate's construction, it did not have a hollow recess that the bolt could be fitted into, like the Fibreglass shells.



Eventually the issue was resolved, partly by drilling a second ‘third hole’.
As the day progressed, an additional series of holes were drilled to accomodate the wires which, due to the specific nature of this pack, would have to exit through the Motherboard to reach the batteries, and in the case of the Pack-specific lights, had to exit near the Power Cell and re-enter at the Cyclotron due to a lack of a channel in the Middle Plate.

Further work included the implementation of rivets to fill up all bar two of the unintended holes that were drilled when it was planned to mount the Pack sections with wood. The two unfilled holes were one created for one of the brackets, where Carl had decided to leave it unplugged by a rivet to allow the bracket to be adjusted if it needed adjustment. The second unplugged hole would be utilised for the wiring.



The holes that were plugged with rivets are indicated in red, the holes drilled/used for the wiring are indicated in green.



As darkness set in, I treated the motherboard's outside face to a course of primer, it's nice seeing it all smooth and untarnished after how scratched up it got.



And a final parting shot for tonight.

Great work you´re doing there, Ben… “like a Pro!”

Keep on posting pics of it!

Someone up there really doesn't want me to finish this Pack.



The door to the garage:



Ah well. Work on Thursday (I believe it was Thursday, we've had so much snow it's confusing) started with getting the pack side of the motherboard painted up.

It was either the 17th or the 18th where I discovered I had a small problem with one of the rivets. During the application process, one of the rivets had gone off-centre slightly, and it left a lump of jutting metal sticking out of the side of the board that the Cosmetic Plate would lie against. It was enough to push the Cosmetic Plate away from the Motherboard, and I wasn't keen on taking the time or effort to try hollow out part of the Cosmetic Plate so that it would sit flat again, so the decision I opted for was to drill the rivet and remove the ‘flashing’.

Drilling it proved far easier then expected, as within moments the head of the rivet had sheared off, and the washers came free. My Mum, Dad and myself were all surprised how quickly it happened.





As I continued to wait for the first batch of paint on the motherboard to dry, I worked on filling the gap between the Cosmetic Plate and the Gear Box with bondo, spreading it into the gap to block it up.

As of this writing, the gap between the base of the EDA and the Cosmetic Plate has a slightly visible gap, but unlike the edge at the base of the Gear Box, it's far less obvious and will be hidden in shadow most of the time.



As various pieces dried, work continued on other various pieces, giving the Clippard Valve, amongst other things, a coat of Warhammer silver for the top portion of the valve.



Continuing the constant juggling act, paint was then given to the A.L.I.C.E. side of the board.





…and was then followed (once the bondo had dried) with a course of primer to touch-up the green, and to cover some areas I felt could benefit from a new application.



By the evening of the 19th, I'd gotten the chance to give the pack it's first sticker.



I gotta say, those metallic stickers are beautiful. I wish I could remember who they were from.

December 22nd: Have I angered some higher authority? I'm getting the feeling someone doesn't want this Proton Pack being finished for the parade:



Boxing Day, and I've stood the Pack on it's side in order to start preparing the ‘inside edge’ for a course of paint. It's here you can get a good look at the inside of the EDA/Gear Box/Gun Mount and the back of the Cosmetic Plate (with the base of one of the Filler Plugs).

Now this is a detail that I'd be interested in knowing how many people miss/forget/or don't bother about… as we've come to find with the Packs we build, when using a purchased Motherboard, and even those that make theirs by hand in the same timeframe as the rest of the pack, how many people conciously plan to paint the ‘inside edge’, the bottom edge of the main ‘assembly clusters’ to make sure that the natural colour of the material used doesn't slip through where the board and sides of the components don't quite match?

I suppose I'm fortunate that the stories of the parts not quite lining up simply by the variation of each build have become common-place, so they're there as reminders for when building a Proton Pack.
Of course, I'm also reminded of one infamous metal motherboard (not produced by Colin), where the block that the Injector Tube tubes feed into, was placed one Cosmetic Plate higher then it should've been. An important reminder to double-check your plans.



With the upper assembly balanced, I proceeded to mask the block for the V-Hook (which appears to have fused with the paint) and the Clippard Elbow (which has been glued into place) on the Ion Arm, to prevent them going grey once I give them a coat of Halford's Primer.





… and then black once given a coat of Halford's Matt Black.



As seen before, despite going on and reflecting like crude oil…



It finished up a nice, slightly satin-like black.



It's now December 27th, and I take the opportunity to glue in the cap-head screws into the HGA… something in hindsight I should've done before painting… but better late than never.



The screws have now been given their own coat of black, and should be dry long before this is posted.



With that done, one of the final jobs of the evening consisted of drilling the sloped Spacer block for the tubes that'll feed out of the Injector Tubes.

In a perfect world, these would've been drilled before it was attached to the Spacer… but unfortunately, it was a job that was skipped in order to get the Spacer as close to finished as possible during the weekend at Andy's. Thus, I have a domino-esque block.

The final major job, consisted of priming the Spacer to cover up the exposed sections around the base, and on the ‘inside edge’.





And that's the updates for the December 17th - December 27th period. Hope you had a Merry Christmas, I know I have.

Were it not for a very brief power cut last night, this would've been posted yesterday.

Once the primer on the spacer had dried on December 28th, the ‘inside edge’ was given a treatment of matt black whilst it was balanced upside down:



Whilst it dried, I took the opportunity to modify the bulb holders from the torches, the reflectors of which were glued into the Cyclotron the Saturday I was at Carl's. Holes for the LEDs were drilled with no incident, and are now ready to have the LEDs blutacked in place and screwed into position on the threaded parts of the reflectors.



Once that had been completed, I set to work on the battery box, which I'd purchased from Maplin. Due to the fact I wasn't able to look inside it, I had no idea of what the interior structure entailed, other than it would have four posts for the fours screws that held the two halves of the box together. The smaller screw posts (eight in total) were a bit of an inconvenience… as they added extra obstacles to work around in placing the box for the 9 Volt Battery, and the holder for the larger C-Cells. As of this writing I believe I have determined the best layout for all the components… but this hinges on how much wire I have to work with from the lights.



The first step in conversion, was to get it primed:



As the box dried, I took the liberty of colour coding the Cyclotron LEDs, to ensure I installed them so they would flash clockwise.



I'd used electrical tape for the colour coding, and in the same window of work, I applied the red stripe to the N-Filter, marking the first major cosmetic element to be added to any part of the Proton Pack itself.



Ironically, it's here that I take the best photo of the N-Filter mesh, seeing as I'd been aiming to get a picture of the stripe specificially:



With the underside dry, the rest of the Spacer was given the final coat of black.



The morning of the 29th, and I began to bring the various parts into the Dining Room for eventual installation. Seeing the Cyclotron with detailed N-Filter atop the Spacer looked great… it was starting to come alive.



I then took the liberty to add the diagram sticker to the N-Filter to give it even more contrast and detail.



Work continued on the ‘upper assembly’, where first I unwrapped the metal block for the V Hook, and later the Clippard Elbow. Despite a small bit of black getting onto the block at the ‘base’ on the Motherboard side, the rest is clean and brilliantly shiny, all thanks to the two-three layers of masking tape. With the tape removed, the V Hook was reinstalled with a minimum of inconvenience (thanks largely to a Putty Knife).



Sadly it is not documented here, but before moving it into the Dining Room to join the lower portion of the Pack, I was able to install the Power Cell lense, although I had to cut it slightly so that it would fit as flush as possible in relation to the blops of dried glue inside the Power Cell. Once fitted, molten Hot Glue was dropped into place using gravity to secure it.

And here's where I found a neat tip: If you get some hot glue on the lense in the region that will be lit, and you want the lense to be clear, grab a Putty Knife, apply a bit of leverage against the blob of hot glue and it should pop off without leaving a mark.

Once the glue had dried, I boxed the upper assembly up (like the Spacer before) to prevent the rain getting at it, and carried it into the Dining Room where it was sat down beside the Spacer and Cyclotron.
Once together, I set about applying more of the stickers whilst I had it in a flat, disassembled state:



Now the Pack was really coming to life, the difference it makes having the stickers on it!

By now, the battery box had dried, and so it was given it's course of black:



As it dried, I took the chance to install the greeblies.

Featured are real Alkon Straights (which were provided with a set of screws for the hoses by mburkit, whom I'd also purchased a set of real Legris (or real enough, anyway) Elbows and a set of real Banjos that had been modified (to make them accurate - They're not pictured here).

It's here where I feel it's worth noting that whilst there are some excellent resin copies of the Legris Elbows, I feel this is one of the times where if you can find the real deal, do so, as the threads on the genuine ones will always be better in holding them onto the Pack than any glue out there.
I also recommend real Alkon Straights, per the screw mothod mentioned above, and not having the need to drill the hose holes.



A detail shot of the V Hook, the foil HGA sticker (sadly a little too big, but not a huge problem) and the newly installed Clippard Brass and Legris.



Proceeding onward, I set to work creating the plastic spacer I'd be using on the third mounting bolt for the A.L.I.C.E. frame, fashioned out of a length of pipe formerly used on an old Wendy House. The pipe was cut to length with a sloped top and tested to fit - after a few adjustements… including the annoying discovery that it's pre-made flat base wasn't actually flat, I got it to the point where it should do the job adequately even if not superbly.





With the battery box now dry, I could do some in-depth investigation into arranging the two battery holders, the placement of the power switch for the Pack lights, and the places where the wires would enter.
I wish that in this particular design, that both of the short ends of the box were removable panels (only one is), it would make the job of placing holes for the wires much easier, as the larger space of the removable panel allows for larger wire holes, if the need arose.





As I shut down production for the night, I managed to work out where I'd left the Pack's Clippard Valve, so I was able to install that before heading off to bed:



A few parting shots of the whole kaboodle (not including gun) on the Dining Table:





And a final shot, of what I'm dubbing “Proton Art”:

Great pics Kingpin, thanks for keeping us posted.

Hopefully it has given others some inspiration!

I can see finally the weather let you get back to work on your proton pack uh?

Nice pics… I wish I have that time and patience to build my own proton pack.

Fantastic kingpin. It's very interesting to see how it is done stage by stage … it's actually inspiring me. Not that I'll ever be competent enough to do it properly.