With T-minus 19 days and counting to Collectormania with Slavitza Jovan, I really should get cracking with things as not only do I have a Proton Gun to build, but I also have the damage from New Year's to repair.

For the replacement, I'd opted for Multimediamayhem's Proton Gun Kit.

Continuing from the last update, more prep work was the first order of the day, and I set to work finalizing the placement of the parts of the gun, as well as updating my reference “Bible” to include Sean Bishop's plans for the Pack and Gun.



With a good idea of where I was going, I drew up a list of things I would be doing with the Gun Box and rear handle. I'd limited myself to these two thirds of the Proton Gun as I'm currently waiting on the brass spacers for the front barrel, and didn't want to get too involved with the forward barrel's assembly unless time gets too tight.



The first actual step was the one I was most concerned about: Installing the brass threads for the cap screws. Although I'd marked out the positions for the screws and brass threaded inserts on both the Gun Box and base, if drilled separately there would always be the chance one or more holes wouldn't align when it came to installing the screws, the simple solution was to tape the base to the Gun Box and drill both at the same time.



Although this guaranteed that the holes in the Box and base would be perfectly aligned, it didn't prevent two of the holes drifting slightly from their corresponding Xs.



Once all of the pilot holes had been drilled, the base was removed and the first pilot hole enlarged to accommodate the brass threaded insert.



When enlarging the hole, be sure to note the thickness of the threaded inserts, there are roughly three thicknesses, the smallest being at the very bottom, the second thickest separates the base from the patterned section which will grip against the walls of the drill site. I suggest picking a drill bit that corresponds with the thickness of the middle section, as to give the insert plenty of material to grip to.

Remember that despite the shortness of the threaded inserts, each of the six holes in the base of the Gun Box should correspond in depth to the length of the cap screws.



One down, five to go.



Once the holes have been enlarged, it should be possible to slide the threaded insert part-way into the drill site. Once it stops, place a piece of wood atop the thread and tap lightly with a hammer until the wood is flush with the base of the Gun Box, the threaded insert should be nestled inside the drilled hole, and flush with the bottom edge of the Gun Box.



Once finished, I test fitted the Gun Track to make sure the placement of the screws didn't interfere with the placement of the track.

Once satisfied, the base was unscrewed from the Box and I moved onto the Heatsink.

Following the damage to the barrels on the old gun, I'd decided to try strengthen as much of the Gun elements as possible to avoid other potential breakages, not just it falling on the floor again. One such measure would be to bolt elements like the Heatsink onto the Gun, as well as use more traditional means such as adhesives.

For this I selected nick-a-tron's resin heatsink, as it came with four pre-made drill marks in each corner of the heatsink between the fins.



I proceeded to drill three of the corners (due to how close one would be to the edge of the Gun Box, I wouldn't be able to fit a bolt in the top-right corner of the Heatsink.

For the installation, I'd searched B&Q for some appropriately-small bolts… however I left empty handed. The bolts I was after had to be small enough to fit between the fins of the Heatsink, and also long enough to fit through its resin, and the resin wall of the Gun Box. Visiting the Halfords next door, I found what I was looking for in the form of a pack of 1" x 6BA Screws and Nuts.

These will also come into play with the front barrel of the gun, but I'll go into more detail on that in a future update.



Once I was satisfied with the fit of the bolts with the Heatsink, a set of corresponding holes were drilled into the Gun Box, and the Heatsink attached:




With the Heatsink as good as finished, my concentration turned to the Gun Knobs.

As I'd wanted to step up the quality of this Gun from the previous one, I purchased one of Exoray's metal Gun Knob sets (excluding the two large knobs from the Trigger Box side of the Gun). The holes for the knobs were drilled and will accommodate each fitting, although I will need to remove some of the interior material with a Dremel in order to permanently affix some of the fittings, a few others I may need to find longer screws/bolts for due to the thickness of the resin.



With the metal gun knobs finished for the time being, my final task for the night was to ready the forward Palm Rest for installation. Like the battery cover on my Ecto Goggles, the Palm Rest was drilled and a 20mm mushroom headded bolt was threaded into it. Once the head of the bolt was cut off, it was then threaded into a corresponding hole in the Gun Box for a test fit.




You may be able to see a slight gap at the base of the Palm Rest, this is due to the bolt thread not being quite level when it was installed. This will be corrected by a slight widening of the hole - in the final installation the Palm Rest will be held on by an adjoining nut, just like the Ecto Goggle battery cover.



With today's work wrapped up, I fitted the rear barrel for one final parting shot.



Stay tuned for another update soon.

Drilling gun vents. For this particular part of the gun build, the following items will be of significant help:



“Miniature” files, and a drill bit that's about equal size to the gun vents.



Each vent will first be drilled to remove the majority of the resin, and the remainder will be filed away. Once the vent has been completely cleared, a mixture of the small flat file and a more commonly-sized file will be used to flatten down the sides of the vent.



Once the first vent has been completed, lather, rinse and repeat for the other two.





Once I'd finished the work on the vent, I turned my attention to the Clippard Valve.



As you can see here, only one of the screws fully fits into the Gun Box, due to the thickness of the interior walls, I'm only able to run one bolt through the Gun Box wall into the interior space, the other mounting hole just opens into the wall itself. I'll also have to see if this hole has actually drifted as to whether I can just screw the bolt straight into the resin. If I can't screw the whole bolt into the body, I'll cut it down and glue it along with the Clippard onto the body.

For those wondering, that isn't a real Clippard, that's one of nick-a-tron's resin Clippards, and it's sporting a superb paint job that he gave it (as at the time, he was sold out of unpainted Clippards). I'm pleased to say that as I got a pair for the Pack and Gun, his superbly-painted Clippard will also appear on my Proton Pack.



As the morning progressed, the mounting holes for the Rear Instrument Bar were drilled and it was given a test fit.



After a great deal of thought, I decided to opt for the wiring method which employs a channel cut through the Rear Instrument Bar, and a set of mounting points for the Trigger Box. Although more difficult to install, on the reverse of the coin it provides a cleaner assembly, leading to fewer exposed wires on the Proton Gun, and a bit more rigidity to the Trigger Box. One of the factors that led to this decision was the thickness of the metal used in the green lever which Colin had provided with the kit.

The first hole to be drilled was the small bolt-mount on the lower-right side of this side of the Rear Instrument Bar. The wiring channel was then drilled, followed by the second bolt-mount.



The completion of the first stage of drilling presented the opportunity to test-fit the first of the two switch wires.



Some slight enlargement, and the wiring channel could accommodate both wires.



Following the work on the Rear Instrument Bar, a series of matching holes were drilled into the Trigger Box.



The mounting pins of choice were from the same pack as the ones holding the Heatsink onto the Gun Box, one quick snip with a pair of bolt cutters and the heads were removed from the pair of them.



Once finished, the Trigger Box was given a test fit on it's new mounting bolts.



Due to the way the Bolt Cutter chopped into it, only one of the bolts will take a nut after being shortened. Although annoying, I'm sure a bit of hot glue should fix this small snafu.





Having reached this point in the Gun build, another test fit was in order (especially as the Green Lever had now been installed). I believe that in a similar fashion to my old Proton Gun, the Green Lever is held in place by the Trigger Box, but in this case with no glue necessary.



By now my drill's battery was getting low, so with a borrowed battery from another, I set about finishing the last few bits of work for the day, drilling the hole for the Rear Instrument Bar's light and cover and the two Clippard barbs.

Due to the light cover being so close to the right-hand Cap Screw, I had to snap off part of it's base to allow it to fit into the corresponding hole without the screw being obstructed. Despite the removal of one of the four base pieces, the light cover still holds in nice and tight.



The final task of the day was the drilling of the Gun Box for the Trigger Box wiring.

And that's it for now folks.

This update covers today's and yesterday's progress… for reasons that'll be revealed shortly.



Following my posting a copy of this build diary on GBFans, CPU64 suggested I take a file to the Rear Instrument Bar bolt that wouldn't take a nut. A quick bit of filing later and success.

A trick I'll end up using a few more times before the end of the project, I suspected.



After that, I began the process of drilling the Gun Box so it could accommodate the different lights from Exoray's Kit.



Although Colin had marked the positions of each light on the box, the light above the Palm Rest proved the most troublesome… if you drill straight down into the box, you'll end up just going into the side of the box, due to how thick they are. After drilling the first hole, I opted for a second angled one from the inside of the box to as close to the first hole as possible… as you can see they haven't quite met up. Hopefully this can be covered up with the light cover, if however there's still a hole visible, I'll fill the first one up with Bondo, leaving only the angled one.



Despite that, work proceeded quickly on preparing the Gun Box and the other elements of the Gun to prepare them for the light installation.



The final bit of the light work (prior to slight modification) was to drill the Gun Ear.

As things would turn out, that would end up being the last bit of work that'd be done yesterday as not long after drilling the Gun Ear, the announcement came that Gordon Brown was resigning as Prime Minister, and that the Conservatives were now back in power in England.

As has become a bit of a tradition, there was some drinking involved… as you can see here:



Although I considered resuming work several hours later, inebriation and fatigue won the better of me… just as well frankly.



After getting back from town today, work quickly resumed.



I'd given a lot of thought to installing the Gun Ears, they had survived the plummet to the floor of my Dad's car, but they've always seemed terribly vulnerable.

I'd considered mounting them with support posts, but had initially dumped this idea as anything I installed would likely impede the installation of the clear tip.

Despite having come to that conclusion, I decided to see if I could mount the ears with the bolt method, as I didn't want to leave the job up to glue.

Once I'd made sure the hole for the red switch was the correct size and the switch held firmly in place, I set to work planning how I'd install the ears and their supports.



Precision work like this would need a fine selection of tools:



Using the small set of bolts I'd gotten from Halfords (now employed on the Heatsink, Trigger Box… and now scheduled for the two Gun Ears).



I drilled appropriately sized and positioned holes in the ears and barrel, I set to work trying to mount them in place (a note here, when I'd dry fitted the pieces in place, I'd accidentally placed the triangular ear too far forward compared to the rectangular one… but when I drilled the hole, it ended up drifting… and shifting the ear into the correct position. A rather happy little accident).



Although fiddly, I managed to get both nuts onto the corresponding bolts within the barrel (it's here that the eyebrow tweezers were extremely useful).

Despite this though, it's become clear I'm still going to have to give the rectangular ear a dob of glue as it was still a little loose due to the curvature of the barrel.

Despite how successful the mounting method had been, it presented a new problem: how would I install the clear tip? There's no way I could drill a pair of holes into the clear tip and then attach the nuts… so what could I do?



I opted for channels, first drilling a pair of holes using a drill bit that was slightly larger than the nuts mounting the ears, then cutting the length of the clear tip from the end that'd be hidden in the barrel to the drilled holes, and then filing the cut sections until they were the same thickness as the holes I'd drilled.

I couldn't tell you how long it took to perform all that, but it sure was worth it:




However, once again a new complication surfaced: the clear tip, although held very well in the barrel by the Gun Ear nuts, was still shaky… I didn't want to glue the clear tip into the barrel in case I decided I wanted to remove it for maintenance, so I opted to use a (mostly) concealed mounting bolt:



Situated on the underside just behind the rectangular ear, the cut-down bolt feeds through the barrel into an identical hole drilled into the clear tip, allowing it to be locked in place.



Through all this it's remained in the back of my mind that these intrusions into the barrel may affect the way the light shows up in the barrel… whilst unfortunate, I rationalise it as the price of given the Gun elements a stronger design.



With that work finished, I proceeded onto installing the Trigger Tip I'd gotten from AJ.

This piece is absolutely excellent, and a metal one is so much better than a resin one.

However it should be noted (probably only for non US-owners of this piece) that the screw provided with the tip to fix it to the clear barrel has a hexagonal inset that doesn't appear to correspond with the normal range of Allen Keys, or at least the ones I have access to here.

Despite this I was able to install the Trigger Tip thanks once again to the Eyebrow Tweezers.



After that, I drilled the pilot holes for the two cap screws which'll feature gold-coloured spacers. I'm actually going to use an idea McFly detailed (LINK), where he used the two screws on the barrel to hold the Vibration Module from Exoray's kit in place.



One final shot of the front barrel for tonight, sporting the accumulated parts I'd installed during the course of the day:



After that, glued the grip to the rear gun handle and left that to dry, as well as a spot of glue to hold the rectangular Gun Ear in place:




Finally, I'd like to close this installment on a question, what advise would you give for rectifying a switch hole being made too large? (The switch won't hold in even with the nut threaded onto it):



I was attempting to extract some of the excess resin on the inside so the threaded section of the switch would actually stick out of the outside edge of the Gun Box, but the drill bit went too close and make the hole too large… can you guys suggest anything that'll help me fix this? I suspect the same will happen with the lower switch as well.

Tonight's is a smaller update, due partly to a later start in the day on the prop side of things, and also due to one particular element of today's progress monopolizing a lot of time.

I'd like to thank those who offered advice for fixing the problem I encountered with the switch, the advice was rich and varied, and I'm sure they would've put things right.

As it was I also came up with my own pet solution, making use of a plate that would be bolted over the switch holes:



However, this would result in a detail that wasn't screen accurate, and I really wanted to avoid implementing such a measure if I could.

Thankfully, I was able to find a quick solution, which was the one nick-a-tron suggested, relying on simple old washers.

Once again it gives credence to the old adage of Occam's Razor. Looking through the components of Exoray's light kit, I noticed one of the components sporting a Star Washer (finding the technical name for that was an interesting task). It was just about the same size as the switch hole, and when combined with the nut they held the switch in place nice and tight:




However, I decided that I didn't want to have the remote chance that something could undo the work of the star washer that was currently being used on the switch, so I decided to opt for one that was notably larger than the hole to prevent any remote possibility of the switch somehow getting pushed through its corresponding hole in the Gun Box.

I'm satisfied with the final result, as the switches are held on tightly, and the washers give them an extra bit of detail and contrast to the black once the Gun Box has been painted:



However, the installation of the upper switch was not without its own problems. In this version of Exoray's kit, the upper switch not only activates a number of the lights be it also would interact with the sound kit he sells… requiring an additional line into the Proton Pack. Due to this additional length of wire the box at the base of the switch is larger than the other three toggle switches featured on the gun, which required the extraction of a lot of the resin in order to fit it:



Files, my drill and a dremel were all involved in the extraction process, something I hope I will never have to do again.



With afternoon giving way to evening, I prepped the base of the Gun for assembly. The new base was compared against the one on my old gun to help position both the Gun Track and the hook, and the three elements were drilled to fit the two bolts which would hold the whole assembly together.



It was rather strange posing the new Proton Gun next to the old one, the level of work on the original was nothing to be sneezed at, but in some ways it was still an inherited gun, rather than fully being “mine”.

It's also an interesting thought to linger on, the first gun was perfect for me at the time I got it, as I was such a greenhorn back then… the last prop I'd tried to make before I got the gun was the foam Proton Pack, and we know how that went.

And now, the MMM kit is what I feel is appropriate for my skill level as it is now. The difference of a few years, and a boost of confidence thanks to a number of really close and really awesome friends.



As if to solidify that the old gun may be cursed… I managed to knock off the front gun knob.

A reminder, as unnecessary as it was, that such elements need far more of a support structure than hot glue.



With night drawing in, the rear barrel was fitted into place, and given its fake weld with the tried method of hot glue.

Now I've got to start thinking about installing the front barrel, and modifying the front gun grip to accommodate the Gun Ear electronics.

Sorry to interupt the flow of build updates but I have to say, it's great to be able to follow this build step by step. I look foward to seeing the next updates.

Originally I was very inspired to start my own build after seeing this, but i'm starting to think that it's a bit of an advanced project for someone who's never built any type of prop before. My own build would have to be made entirely out of wood and bits I can get access to at minimal cost and the proton gun especially seems like it would be a heck of a challenge without atleast a basic kit to build from. I think I'd struggle to commit to the same time and level of patience it has taken for you to produce a build of this quality.

Anyway, great work, and look forward to seeing the finished article!

This update covers the work performed on the 14th and the 15th.



Work commenced on drilling the holes for the metal gun knobs I'd gotten from Exoray. Due to the thickness of the resin, the provided screws for the front and side knobs, as will the one on top (although this'll be more difficult to find a replacement for due to size). Thankfully I was able to find some longer bolts that could be screwed into the pieces, and should hold them in securely to the Gun Box.



Thankfully the fitting for the smaller side knob was still usable following less than ten minutes of Dremel work.



After that, I enlarged the hole for the Palm Rest so that it'd fit flush against the Gun Box when screwed into the square-shaped nut.



After that, I set to work preparing the resin side knobs for installation, using the tried and tested method I'd used on the Ecto Goggles:





After those small bits of cosmetic work, it was finally time to turn my attention to a larger element of the gun design which I'd been holding off, the front barrel.



Unlike the rear gun barrel, the front one was less cooperative in the installation process… a minor issue which necessitated a light degree of sanding with my Dremel. The fitting of the barrel is still a little tight, but I've opted to leave it like this to give the barrel less room for movement, a issue which is still giving me pause for thought with the rear handle.



After the installation of the front barrel, I turned my attention to one of the other elements of the conversion that I was most concerned about: The bargraph window.

This was one of the elements that could easily be messed up, and if so would cause complications for the installation of the bargraph. I've seen plenty of Proton Guns where the bargraph is not held in all that well, or if it even is installed, there are gaps visible which it hasn't covered up.

I must stress that careful measuring is paramount in order to make the window a success.

First, I measured the second-largest element of the bargraph frame, which is found separating the glued in LEDs from the upper portion of the frame. Once I had this measurement, I proceeded to measure the width of the graphic transfer I'd gotten from PeteVenkman_Jedi, so I'd know how wide the red circles that go beside the graph would be.

Once I had the graphic measurement, I drew the footprint of the window, allowing for the overhang of the frame and its placement in relation to the switch holes.

Once plotted and corrected (following a second measuring of the bargraph frame to ensure my measurements were correct… I moved to the drilling stage.

Using a drill piece I knew was notably smaller than the full width of the window, I drilled several holes running from the top to the base of the window's footprint.

Once drilled, I used my small set of files to remove the material separating the drill holes, until I was left with one, rough rectangular hole.

Starting with the small files, and working my way up to a file of more conventional size, I eventually transformed the window into a neater rectangle with sharper corners.

I cannot recall the exact amount of time it took to work on the bargraph window before I retired for the night… but I know it could easily have been close to two hours.

This was a detail I didn't want to mess up, so taking my time to do it right was worth it… despite this though, even though a lot of material had been removed it wasn't yet enough to let the bargraph fit into position in the Gun Box.



Eventually work would continue on the following day, which would involve constant small amounts of filing and test fitting to reach the optimum height and width.



Eventually, I was able to install the bargraph… it's held in tightly by the resin, but can be popped in and out if the need required.

Suffice to say, after how long it'd taken… the result seen in the following shot was VERY rewarding… but I once again stress that although it took hours, the results more than justify the work involved.





Even with the Rear Instrument Bar fitted, the bargraph's installation isn't impeded.



And there should be plenty of room for it to be reconnected with the ribbon cable when the time comes.



Following that development, I began to enact some other slight modifications on various bits of the Proton Gun, such as a small bit of milling to install one of the light covers.



- And some work to ensure the Trigger Box switches were held in place tightly (I know they're the wrong way round in the photo, that'll be fixed in the final installation).



I was also able to fit the other Clippard screw in thanks to enlarging the hole with the Dremel.



On the subject of the Dremel, I turned my attention to one of the more complex elements of assembly, the front barrel grip and the wiring for the Gun Ear elements.





Using the Dremel, I wore a channel into the underside of the grip to allow for the wires to pass from the Gun Ear into the barrel past the point where the barrel lights would be fitted.



The channel accommodates the wiring nicely, and the wiring even held the grip in place without any support from me… however I'll now have to tackle how to install the grip without the use of glue… even if I did use any on the grip, I could only put it on the back two thirds of the grip to avoid getting it on the wiring… and I'm not sure gluing only two thirds of it would give it enough strength, especially with the potential pressure of the wires pushing against it.

I may have a potential solution through rivets, or some screws of some sort… but it requires further consideration.

Until then, that's it for tonight's update.

This is great! I love the step-by-step detail of your plans.

Keep up the great work, I can't wait to see the finished prop.

Very impressive! Thanks for sharing the steps and pics.

You're welcome. Stay tuned as there'll be another update this evening.

This post covers the work covered on May 18th and 19th.

As work on the Proton Gun approaches the planned temporary haitus (as I wait for those small cosmetic parts to arrive), the last major bits that didn't involve installing the front barrel became the subject of my attention.



First task of the day was to make mount the front barrel grip, and use a method which would give it as much strength as possible. With the LED for the hatlight in place and the switch in position, I used a pair of rubber bands to hold the grip in position (with the wiring fed through the channel into the barrel) so that I could get as close to the optimum position as the various elements would allow.



Two holes (one in the 4th groove and one in the 2nd were drilled to the thickness of the threading on the cap head screws. The holes in the grips were then partially milled to allow the heads of the screws to be submerged in the grip and run flush with the finger grooves.




The end result keeps the grip on nice and tight, and actually gives it a nice, manufactured look despite not being screen accurate.

After that, I made a brief detour to the Proton Pack in preparation for the N-Filter repair.



Visiting my local B&Q, I found the above part. It's a round terminal box (with one channel fitting). This happens to be a 25mm Terminal Box, and incredibly it fits the internal diameter of Exoray's N-Filter beautifully (once the channel fitting has been sawed off):




With the base cover removed, the Terminal Box will be screwed onto the Spacer of my Proton Pack, and will act as a support post for the N-Filter to slide over when the Cyclotron is installed.



Returning to the Proton Gun, I added one of the few cosmetic parts to the front barrel, the Front Lock Gun Block (say that three times fast). This is one of nick-a-tron's pieces… something I'd considered but ultimately decided to ignore on the past Gun build… but decided to include in the pursuit of making this a more significant Proton Gun. The Lock Block was drilled and milled to accommodate a Cap Head Screw, although due to the placement of the screws that'll hold the gold spacers in place, I may not be able to include the small screw in the side of the Lock Block, we'll just have to see when they arrive.



Following the success of with the cap screws on the front grip, I decided to copy the method into the rear grip, even with it glued in place.



The visit I'd made to B&Q and the Halfords next door also allowed me to correct a couple of mistakes.

The first was the top knob on the Proton Gun, which I'd inadvertently drilled too-large a hole for, this was corrected by using one of the bolts from the range I'd mounted the Heatsink with (which was longer than the one provided with the knob), which was fed into a hole that I'd drilled into the section of the rear handle that stuck out beneath the top-most gun knob. This new hole was drilled to the correct measurements, and the bolt screwed in nice and tight.



The second correction wasn't brought about by anything I'd gotten from my trip into town, but I suspect I'd simply been inspired and given a moral boost by the first mistake I'd corrected.



Originally I'd dismissed using the nut from the bolt I'd mounted the front knob too, because I didn't think there'd be enough room to fit it against the inside resin wall.

Returning to this element, I decided to see if I could somehow fit the nut onto the bolt. Carefully working it into place with my fingers, I held the nut and rotated the metal knob, and the bolt screwed into place as the nut was held still by the barrel tubing… a completely unexpected, but entirely pleasant accident, which I'll hope to repeat for the final installation. Seems appropriate that one accident has corrected another.


Those improvements were the last bits of work I'd get done on the 18th, and so I shut down for the night with thoughts in mind as to how to lock the rear barrel in place to prevent it ripping out of the Gun Box if it'd gotten pushed a tad too far into the mounting hook.


After returning to the project on the 19th, I'd come to the conclusion that really the best method would be to screw it in place, a trip into town later and I had two packs of different-sized screws to accommodate whatever needs might arise.



I'd indended to drill the pilot holes, and then only mill some of the resin to countersink the screw heads… however I misjudged both holes slightly and removed pretty much all of the resin beneath the screwheads.

Despite this, the barrel should hold in place pretty well regardless.



Once finished and satisfied with the work, I dug out my tin of Bondo and filled in the screw holes.



A few hours later (I know it only took 12 mins for it to dry out, but I had other tasks to attend to before the night was over) and the dried bondo was sanded down.



I'll probably give it one more going over with the sandpaper tomorrow, but any imperfections should hopefully be hidden by the paint, and by the presence of the Trigger Box.


And that's tonight's update. We're getting close now, I can feel it.