By Undrtkrbob
#312031
Ok, finally getting around to posting this thread. I've been reading, what feels like, this entire site for the past 5 months. My friend and I built Gareee style packs for Halloween and now its time to finally get to work on the new ones. Been ordering parts nonstop since January and the only thing left is the Sound and light kits. Just to let everyone know who's building new packs for the first time, I promise you can find everything you need right here on this site. The only thing I ordered outside of this site was the magic sculpt and alice frames.

I main goal right now is to get them built. I'm working on 2 packs and want to have them ready at the very least by Dragoncon this year. They won't be GB1 or GB2 at the moment but have elements we like from both. Later on I would like to put Legris elbows and straights on the packs, but I'll worry about those later.

I'm using an Alkaline shell and TC gun kit. The shell should be here soon. Alkaline has been doing a good job to get them out in this last run and keep everyone up to date.

I started with some milspec LC2 alice frames but came across some cheap LC1 frames with accurate straps and pads.
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I got a good bit of aluminum parts from Jpa35 and Momeraths24. Definitely worth it. Momerath's parts should be here soon also. From Jpa35, I got an ion arm, shock knob, vhook, resistors and gun knobs.
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Nick-a-tron supplied the booster frame, bumpers and crank knobs for me. The bumpers are excellent.

Thanks to Jaystantz, Crix, TheRandalovic, Phish4dinner, MMM, parksdesign and Carpeteria for the rest of the supplies.

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So far I have the motherboards fit to the frames and have done some work on the gun kits. The green lever is just there for now, I do plan on cutting it to the right length. Once the magic sculpt gets here I'll start on attaching the bottom plate. I've been so busy at work this week that hopefully I'll make some large leaps next week.
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By Undrtkrbob
#312138
Thanks guys. We have been talking about doing this for a few years now. When my friend and I were at Dragoncon last year, we saw all the GBs in the parade. We decided then and there that that would be us this year.

@Phish; btw Thanks for the screws you sent me. Funny thing is a couple of days ago, I was looking for some threaded inserts for the bottom plate of my gun. I usually use the Ace near my house. I decided to go to Lowes, Home Depot and a couple of other places though for this first. I finally went to Ace and found the inserts I needed. As well as several cases of socket head cap screws that I have just never noticed before. Every size and length I would need for a full pack build...including an entire box full of nothing but 4-40s!
User avatar
By Phish4dinner
#312141
thats cool, your lucky man.. Those arent a common product. Ive looked everywhere in this populated area i live in and nobody sells the 4-40 3/8 except one model train store. They have holes on the head of the screws and cost alot more. So i cant use those lol I saw some metallic phillips head 4-40s at the local ACE as well. If they werent too long i couldve used a few for a gb2 pack. Plus they were more than i wanted to pay lol
:cool:
User avatar
By parksdesign
#312150
Undrtkrbob wrote:Yeah, I need to stop doubting Ace. Everytime I think they won't have a particular part they come through.
You found inserts at your ACE hardware?!

Be thankful. I can't get shit at my local Ace. Not even 6-32 cap head screws.
By KagaSakai
#312284
Undrtkrbob wrote:Yeah, I need to stop doubting Ace. Everytime I think they won't have a particular part they come through.
I have an ACE not three blocks from my house, and they had nearly everything I needed. I was there almost everyday last summer during my build. :-P
User avatar
By parksdesign
#312285
KagaSakai wrote:
Undrtkrbob wrote:Yeah, I need to stop doubting Ace. Everytime I think they won't have a particular part they come through.
I have an ACE not three blocks from my house, and they had nearly everything I needed. I was there almost everyday last summer during my build. :-P
you as well, go to hell. :)
By Undrtkrbob
#312931
Ok so I got my Magic sculpt in yesterday. I was hoping to get some work done last night before the girlfriend came over. I got the inside corners of the guns dremeled out so I can sculpt some inserts in the corners. Taking a page out of Libtechinit's book for that one. When I got everything dremeled I realized I messed up with the shopping last week. I purchased 10-32 inserts instead of the 8-32 I need for the bottom plate. Going after work to pick those up and will hopefully have another update later tonight when I get them molded in.
By Undrtkrbob
#316173
Ok, finally a little bit of an update. I learned an important lesson over the past week when trying to get some of this work done. Mainly that I need to learn to think the whole process through before proceeding forward. lol Basically I wanted to use threaded inserts to hold the bottom plate plate onto the guns. Originally I was going to use the originally holes marked on the plate by TC. Well I marked them, measured everything and started proceeding with installing the threads. I then realized there was some misalignment because of the walls of the gun boxes and where the holes were marked. Its something that TC mentions in his build threads but I really didn't think about. So at this point I dremel out all the blocks in the corner and start from scratch.

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After this point I smooth out all the corners and started again with magic sculpt. I made new blocks in each corner to put the inserts into. I decided to make the blocks then drill the holes and install the inserts after it had all dried. Which worked out pretty well for me because I wanted to be extra sure that I had everything lined up right.

The only snag I ran into here was I messed up one of the inserts by getting magic sculpt all over the inside. So I'll just pick up another today to finish that one corner. The two middle screws will just be dummy screws when the bottom plate is finished.

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This is the first time I have worked with resin parts. I'm still learning what can and can't be done and going by what others have done as closely as I can. I think its coming out ok so far. The hard part is done (so far) on the guns. going to install the rear handles tonight hopefully.

One thing that did go right was I have the ion arms ready. The only thing left is to decide what we're doing with the top assembly. We can't decide whether or not we want to keep the tops the way they are or black and weather the edges. I'm also going to do something the elbows. Will probably paint them and try to get rid of the orange. I'm trying to find legris elbows currently. I used Filandrius' paint ideas and went with the Krylon BBQ Black. I love the finish and it works great on the aluminum parts.

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User avatar
By parksdesign
#316175
Undrtkrbob wrote:Ok, finally a little bit of an update. I learned an important lesson over the past week when trying to get some of this work done. Mainly that I need to learn to think the whole process through before proceeding forward. lol Basically I wanted to use threaded inserts to hold the bottom plate plate onto the guns. Originally I was going to use the originally holes marked on the plate by TC. Well I marked them, measured everything and started proceeding with installing the threads. I then realized there was some misalignment because of the walls of the gun boxes and where the holes were marked. Its something that TC mentions in his build threads but I really didn't think about. So at this point I dremel out all the blocks in the corner and start from scratch.


After this point I smooth out all the corners and started again with magic sculpt. I made new blocks in each corner to put the inserts into. I decided to make the blocks then drill the holes and install the inserts after it had all dried. Which worked out pretty well for me because I wanted to be extra sure that I had everything lined up right.

The only snag I ran into here was I messed up one of the inserts by getting magic sculpt all over the inside. So I'll just pick up another today to finish that one corner. The two middle screws will just be dummy screws when the bottom plate is finished.

This is the first time I have worked with resin parts. I'm still learning what can and can't be done and going by what others have done as closely as I can. I think its coming out ok so far. The hard part is done (so far) on the guns. going to install the rear handles tonight hopefully.

One thing that did go right was I have the ion arms ready. The only thing left is to decide what we're doing with the top assembly. We can't decide whether or not we want to keep the tops the way they are or black and weather the edges. I'm also going to do something the elbows. Will probably paint them and try to get rid of the orange. I'm trying to find legris elbows currently. I used Filandrius' paint ideas and went with the Krylon BBQ Black. I love the finish and it works great on the aluminum parts.
Looks great.

I would paint the ion rod and aluminum block with the bbq black and then scratch some off. I was like you, wondering if I should keep it the way it is but it looks great when weathered.

Let me know if you find a source for legris elbows. I might cut a deal with you.

Otherwise, I would just file the orange caps off and then paint the elbows with gray primer. I used Krylon. Then use one of those Krylon shortcuts paint pens and paint the injectors gold. They'll look much better.
By Undrtkrbob
#316186
parksdesign wrote:Looks great.

I would paint the ion rod and aluminum block with the bbq black and then scratch some off. I was like you, wondering if I should keep it the way it is but it looks great when weathered.

Let me know if you find a source for legris elbows. I might cut a deal with you.

Otherwise, I would just file the orange caps off and then paint the elbows with gray primer. I used Krylon. Then use one of those Krylon shortcuts paint pens and paint the injectors gold. They'll look much better.
Yeah thats what I was planning on doing regardless as I started to complete the build. If I any point I found real legrises, I would just swap them out. You're right on the ion arm. The more I look at it and other packs the more I like the edge weathering.
By Undrtkrbob
#317533
Just a tiny update. Got one of my Alkaline shells in yesterday! This thing is awesome. I'm glad one came in before the other. This way I can hopefully get this one sanded and evened up before the other one comes in. Its still funny when I look at all the accurate parts I've ordered. It makes me realize how huge the "junk" packs were that we built for Halloween. lol

Made a lot of progress on my guns too. Got the bottom plate on and dry fit all the knobs I had. Just need to do a little adjusting and dremeling to make everything a little cleaner. I'll post some pics when I get home from work tonight. Even though gun has given me more fits than anything I've worked on before, I think its turned out great so far. A couple of the inserts twisted out when I put the screws in the bottom plate. I finally just threw every adhesive and epoxy I had at it to get it to stay.

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By Undrtkrbob
#317650
Ok, so I did a little more work on the guns. I was wanting to start sanding the shell but I'll save that for when I have a full day to work on it.

I took yet another page from Libtechinit's book and wanted to save space in the gun. I dremeled out a space around the nuts and screws that hold the vhook on.

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And yeah I pretty much massacred the inside of the bottom plate trying to get everything to line up right. Which after going over everything again, was pretty much unnecessary. After the space was dremeled I cut and drilled a small metal plate to go in the space I made. Then filled it in with magic sculpt around the nuts and the plate.

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We got pretty much everything else on the gun except for the other switches. I am very pleased with how they came out, especially after I had to redo just about everything a few times lol. We definitely did not need nearly as much magic sculpt as we used in the corners. Live and learn. We decided not to go with the fake weld on the rear handle. We like the smooth look better. I have the parts for the front assembly but Momeraths24 is making the front assembly he offers for these kits. I'm going to go ahead and have the TC assembly ready though as a back up.

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Also went ahead and painted the top of the ion arms. Definitely looks better. Probably going to just let everything weather naturally. Especially the aluminum parts. I'll hopefully be able to dress up the elbows this weekend also.

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By Undrtkrbob
#322096
Ok, just a tiny update. Been real busy lately and haven't been able to put in as much work as I would have liked to lately. I got the first shell prepped and ready to go. I'm just waiting on my aluminum parts so I can attach those and do all my drilling before painting.

So after lightly sanding the shell inside and out, we noticed we were a little too rough in come areas. Tiny pin holes showed up in the curves of the shell, mostly around the cyclotron. I decided to lay some fiberglass over these areas on the underside of the shell. I don't know if this is recommended or even necessary, but it made me feel better. lol

This is the cyclotron after laying the fiberglass around the inside. I goofed in the bottom right because I accidentally put too much resin down.
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I also hit the rest of the shell, mostly to be safe and because I'm paranoid about something going wrong with the shells.
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The next day I decided to mount the bumper after giving the resin ample time to dry. I've never been so nervous about drilling into something in my life. Mounting the shell on the mobo is going to wreck my nerves I'm sure.
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I put a spacer between the shell and the bumper for the threaded rod to run through. Then I put a nut and washer on the inside of the shell. The bumper is on there nice and tight.
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The goal for this weekend is to prep the second shell and get the bumper mounted. Hopefully we'll also be able to get them both mounted to the mobos. Then I'll try and tackle evening up the lense holes in the cyclotron. So far I'm well pleased and can't wait to wear these things.
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User avatar
By | alkaline |
#322605
Looking great so far! Instead of using fiberglass next time try using bondo for pin holes or even plumbers putty. Its easier and cleaner to work with than fiberglass/ resin and can be just as effective. Sometimes laying new fiberglass over cured resin does not adhere correctly. You shouldn't have any issues though from the pictures it looked like everything turned out just fine.
By Undrtkrbob
#322635
Yeah everything dried fine. I was more worried I sanded too much in the surrounding areas and thinned the walls around the pin holes. After the resin cured I went over it with a thin layer of magic sculpt just to be sure. I'm about to start on the second one and I'll use your tips on that one. Thanks for the advice and the great work on the shells.
By Undrtkrbob
#328294
Finally some more progress. ( I know the updates don't matter much with all the builds going on lately...but it makes me feel better :-P)

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Finally got around to mounting the bumper on the second pack and at least getting one of them mounted to the mobo and alice frame. I goofed slightly on my measurements of the L brackets on the top of the mobo. The dry fit went on fine, but when I did the finally mount they ended up being a bit close to the shell somehow. It works fine though, just a little snug.

The only thing left to do on the guns is to finish the barrel adapter that holds the acrylic tube in place at the end of the front grip. All in all I'm extremely pleased with how they have come out so far. I'll hopefully start painting sometime this week.
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Just as several people have mentioned in other threads, this is where I really got excited that I had a proton pack. The first dawning of the pack...
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More to come this week...hopefully.
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