Ok, so I have a question for all you prop makers out there who have made their own GB stuff. Over the last weekend I got into an argument with a prop maker friend of mine who likes to make stuff in order to facilitate cosplaying. I made mention to them about always wanting to create a proton pack but not possessing the necessary skill set to actually nor the financial backing to do the whole trial and error routine until I get the ability to pull it off. I went on to mention how the perfectionist in me was looking into getting resin casted pieces and putting together my pack that way so it would look neat and “perfect”. My friend essentially believed that if I wasn’t going to make it from scratch then I had no right making one nor the right to claiming that I “put it together” at all.

I said all of that to say this: What do you guys think about it. Do you think that if a potential first time GB prop maker isn’t going to make if from scratch they shouldn’t bother? What about my idea of getting resin casted pieces and or resin casted body and putting a pack together.

I worked my way up from a junk pack, to a vacuumformed pack, to a fiberglass pack. Same goes for the rest of my GB props.

Practice makes perfect, so build your pack the way you can and then build another one down the road.

Based on how much of a market there is alone, the majority of prop builders in the Ghostbusters community don't have a propblem with the use of resin parts, in fact there's been quite a lot of discussion on the implementation of new ideas into the resin-made parts.

Half the specialist parts on my Pack are resin.

Now, that's not to say a person can't go through the scratch-built method, and more power to you if you wanted to scratch build the whole thing.

But it's rather elitist to say that a person can't have a prop, or deserve one if they opt to use resin pieces.

Sometimes you just can't get the original piece anymore… or you can, but the genuine article is too fragile… resin can get fill the gap, and if he seriously thinks a person isn't as “real” propper because he's used some resin (which I'd bet you dollars to donuts is used by actual film and TV prop builders), then that's his problem.

It might be worth asking him why he feels using resin is a cheat (and also possible mentioning that point I made, that people in the TV and movie industries almost certainly use it - I'd like to see if he'd claim the professionals are cheating as well).

I totally misread that the first time. I thought you said they were insulting you for wanting to scratchbuild it.

They have the issue that you shouldn't be considered a prop builder if you get pre-made parts. When I use pre-made parts I still consider myself to have built it but not a prop master by any means. I just say prop enthusiast.

Ultimately ignore them and build a pack however you want.

I think I understand where your friend is coming from, but I'm having the hardest time putting it into words. I think he/she is hung up on two things… the learning process, and accolades/credit…

Assembling a pack from pre-made parts instead of building one from scratch is more like building a model kit than building a prop. Yes, it requires some skill but all of the really hard stuff is either already done for you, or optional. With model kits there's always the option to let your creativity run wild, to do some customization… some really cool paintwork… but as I said that's just an “option”… alternatively you can just slap in all together, paint it a solid color, and still end up with a decent finished product. So ultimately, you're probably not going to learn a whole lot from the whole process.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is building everything (minus, of course, the original factory made parts on the GB equipment that can just be bought… unless you can't find them, or they're out of your price range) from the ground up by scratch. Now, without a question, you'll learn the most with this method… but it'll also require a much MUCH bigger investment on your part. You'll need specialized tools, lots of raw material, more safety equipment, access to a decent sized work area, probably some books, maybe a class or three, maybe a few favors from people who have access to industrial grade equipment, and of course lots and lots of time and money.

Now, as I said, these are two sides of a spectrum… meaning that you don't have to just pick one option over the other… there's a lot of middle ground. So the first bit comes down to your needs, and what you want to take away from this experience. Do you want to learn a lot, a little, or do you just want the final product ASAP? Are you pursuing an interest/education/career in prop building, or is this just the only method to get an end product?

The second part is accolades. Are you going to stand on the backs of everyone who did all of the hard work and say “look what I did”, or are you going to be humble? Would it be fair to call yourself a “prop builder” if all, or most, of what you do is assemble pre-fab kits? How are you going to treat the attention your final product is going to receive?

Let me expand on this one with my own personal dilemma…

It's my New Year's Resolution to get caught up on most (if not all) of the projects I've had on the back-burner for the past eleven years. One of these projects is to make a Halloween costume (Halloween is my favorite holiday, but I haven't worn a costume since grade school).

Now, my goal is to make a Ghostbusters uniform… just the uniform… tackling a pack would be biting off more than I can chew at the moment (and well beyond my current skill-set). I'd also like to put the final product on my website (since another one of my goals is to update my website… “…two birds with one stone” etc.).

The plan was to go for a RGB uniform since the overall design is simpler (i.e. a lot less parts required) but there's still a lot of room for creativity (meaning that the final product will still be unique to me).

My geek dream, is to have GB uniforms for the both of the films and the two cartoons (four uniforms total), but for some reason the film uniforms always struck me as being harder to attain…

Well, in the process of collecting parts for my RGB uniform I discovered that assembling a GB1 style uniform would actually be way WAY easier (on account of that just about every piece of the uniform can simply be bought… from the name tag to the hose connector). There would still be some need for fabricating my own parts… but I'd still have a more than passable costume if I skipped over those bits for now.

So, with the GB1 costume I'd reach my goal much more quickly and easily, but the end result would be an almost entirely store bought costume not really deserving to be posted alongside the rest of my artwork. While with my RGB costume, I could possibly miss my deadline but in the end I'd have something a little more unique and suitable for my site (something with at least a little bragging rights).

If I can complete both in time, then I wouldn't be as torn about posting my GB1 uniform (alongside the RGB one). By itself however, it would be extremely misleading. As a result I have to ask myself, what's more important to me… the costume, or the web content… fast results, or pride?

It comes down to.. if all you're after is an end result than ignore your friend, but remember that a lot of the credit for the end product goes to someone else.

But if you're looking to gain something more from the experience… put some consideration into how you're going to reach that end product. Figure out what you'd like to learn doing this particular project, how much time, effort, and money you're willing to put into it, and as a result what compromises you're willing to make this time around (.i.e you may want to focus on learning one new skill, while leaving the rest to pre-fab parts… then on the next project you tackle you can focus on learning a different skill).

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One of the major problems facing me with making a Pack is construction space. At my current house there is not a lot of space for me to work on the pack proper.

But I got an idea yesterday and I want an opinion on what you guys think about about the plausibility.

Originally I was going to ask either family or friends it they had space for me to construct and store during construction my pack but came up empty handed. So I got to thinking…what about a Public Storage Unit. Essentially I was thinking about renting out a Public Storage and using the unit as a construction site over the course of a few months .

What do you guys think?