ghost342;164358
geust who has the best pack kingpin nice pack budy!

Thanks for the compliment… as it happens I've been working on the Proton Gun for it today.

This latest update was set in motion by an awesome arrival Saturday morning, a replacement Proton Gun light board from Exoray.

Unfortunately the next bit of actual work wouldn't take place until Monday afternoon, where I dremelled away more material from the front barrel in order to make the board fit in easier. After a couple hours careful work, I'd removed enough material and it would sit inside the Proton Gun pretty easily. I'd still have to see if it'd fit with all the wires in place of course…

The progress was brief, as I remembered that in order to finish installing the electronics in the gun, I'd have to sort out the split loom hose connecting the gun to the Pack, which wasn't held in place by anything where it exited the Proton Pack. I had a good idea of how I'd fix it into place, having seen a couple of ideas implemented by Rockman, Libtechinit and The Doctor - installing a fitting to hold the hose in place.

Admittedly (and Rockman covered this very thought) it's not screen accurate, but the original screen accurate route is not good enough at holding the hose in place, and as Rockman also mused, it makes it look like the Proton Gun plugs into the Proton Pack.

After a visit to B&Q I eventually settled on a solution that fell somewhere between the two options, a slim thread and washer combination, which by coincidence came from the Rain Diverter I'd sourced my Gear Box hose from (a similar fitting can be seen lower left):



With the new fitting in position and the washer threaded onto it on the inside of the Spacer, the wiring for the Proton Gun lighting was fed through and then covered by the split loom (held in place on the fitting with a thin zip-tie):




With the hose finally sorted, I was able to run the power cable into the Proton Gun and close the whole thing up. Although it's still tight inside for the wiring, and the base plate still doesn't quite fit flush with the Gun Box, it's closed enough that it isn't obvious there's a gap:



And the effort is worthwhile when you the barrel lights kick in:



With the issues involving the gun resolved, I could also apply the last of the cosmetic details which had been missing, such as the coloured hoses and a couple of the labels:






The next areas to cover are minor cosmetic repairs following the convention, and this most recent build update:


* Reattach dislodged Ion Arm resistor (with threaded rod)
* Reattach cosmetic panels..
* Add weathering.
* Attach angle-head torch to A.L.I.C.E. strap.

-and to modify the battery compartment, as it is not as practical in design as it first appeared to be.

Kingpin,

Good stuff.

Noticed you ran into some of the same issues I ran into in my line of work. I work in gunsmithing and use a material that would work rather well for replica-making.

The best material I have found for keeping things attached securely is Loc-Tite. It comes in two types / colors. Blue is a semi-permanent lock that can be dislodged manually, whereas the red is a permanent lock. I have removed Red Loc-Tite but that required an external heat application which I would be reticent to use on a replica. I'd stick with blue unless you know something would never need to be removed / swapped out for some reason.

They have a lot of specialized products for specific needs. Contact adhesives for general purpose work, epoxies for filling gaps and voids, thread locker for fastening nuts and bolts.

It's inexpensive and can be found at any of the larger retailers or hobby shops in addition to being available online.

Reference painting, the most durable and best color (not that it matters much when it's going to be black…) is by Aervoe. Its used by military vehicle collector enthusiasts and they have a rather extensive catalogue. Both their base paints and matte offerings have held up better than anything I have previously used (everything from Krylon to Halford's.)

Hope this helps.

-MB

Thanks for the tips, I've got to see who in the UK might retail Loc-tite and Aervo, the glue brand rings a bell…

Halloween and MCM Expo are just around the corner, so it's time to get some long-overdue work performed on the Proton Pack.

The points for work, following the last outing at Collectormania included:


* Repairing the rounder resistor knocked off of the Ion Arm.
* Sort out the power switch for the Pack lights, as the connection was poor.
* Replace the battery compartment with one that was easier to access for alteration and battery replacement.
* Apply the weathering to the Proton Pack which I'd intended to add since last December.

Over the course of the last couple of days, I ticked off the resistor repair and applied the light degree of weathering:




Enough to make it look like it's seen a bit of use, and made of metal, but not enough to make it look like it'd been through the wars.

The smaller cosmetic details were worked on first as I attempted to sort out some minor issues involving bullet connectors for the wiring. Once they were sorted, the wiring for the battery compartment was redone, and the switch resoldered to have a better connection. The end result, is finally, both sets of lights operating reliably at once:




There's probably still a few small things to work on, but the major fixes should now be sorted.