View new posts | View your posts Techdisaster's Semi-Hero Pack Build

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Time to start my build thread. Initially, I didn't have the confidence to post my build thread here - I was totally intimidated by all the incredible builders here. But I kind of impressed myself with my wand build. I'm a total noob, and maybe this will inspire someone else with as little skills as myself to give this a try.

This build has been a blast so far. I sneak off to the garage every chance I get to find something to work on. I love it!

Here is my work space. Fun fact about my work bench - I was driving home one day and I was a couple blocks away from home when I spotted it at the end of someone's driveway with a "Free" sign on it. I don't own a truck, but I got my friend to help me carry it two blocks home.



Here is my drawer full of goodies...



Painting the wand (MMM)



Letting the parts dry over night.



Installing the light kit (Jupiter Electronics)



Stickers:



Almost complete - waiting on my aluminum trigger tip from AJ - should arrive Tuesday!






My DL4567 Pack - right out of the package! Motherboard mounted by DL.











Thanks for looking! All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Looking good so far Tech, bet its a lot nicer shell to work on than that other disaster you had on your hands. Cant wait to see more, and feel free to ask any questions along the way. Only thing I will suggest is moving your instrument bar on the back of your gun over a bit allowing the the room for the green lever that operated the barrel pop. (Thats if you can, and want to get even more accuracy), otherwise great work!

Very pretty.

You've done a fine job!

I agree with Ecto_1, just move the instrument bar over a bit to allow the 1/4" gap for the green lever, the holes should still be covered. Not sure why you put the two #8 bolts beside the heatsink, they were to go on the front barrel behind the gunlock, along with the brass washers

Send me a picture of your completed gun and I'll add it to my customer build page on my website.

Nice clean shell....Going to be a nice pack

Yeah buddy its looking good. Im a noob to this as well i purchase a mmm gun kit and a DL shell i cant wait so far so good for you maybe we can help each other out ? Well good luck with ur pack

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I might be past the point of no return with the instrument bar. After mounting all the electronics and using epoxy glue to hold it all in place, I really don't want to take it a part at this point. I may just wedge the green lever in a different way, or pass on it altogether.

I added the two #8 bolts for strength and to get the barrel as straight as possible. It's not perfect, but I want to do a lot of busting with my gear and added an extra bolt here and there for extra strength. It might be overkill. I still plan on adding them to the front barrel gun lock with the washers - I just forgot about those altogether.

I appreciate your feedback and I will send you pics as soon as it is finished.

I worked on my pack a little bit today.

Whos bumper do u have on ur pack?

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Nice looking build. That DL shell is miles ahead of the video on shell in terms of quality, looks and accuracy.

Ya, theres actually more than an inch worth of space in between the PPD and the Cyclotron, and the Cyclotron isn't dented inwards, lol. Good parts make builds go sooo much faster and easier.

It's a Nick-a-tron bumper.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know how these are supposed to fit, but here are some photos to show you how the nick-a-tron bumper fits:

The bumper is about 1/4" too small to just slide on - I kind of had to stretch the ends a little bit and then it fit like a glove.



Absolutely no gap on the left:



Absolutely no gap on the right:



The gap between the bumper and the cyclatron was exactly the width of a 5/16ths hex nut.



Maybe one of the prop experts can verify if this is the perfect fit? I know I couldn't ask for a better fit, and I would buy another nick-a-tron bumper in a heart beat.

Yes it is. I did a little bit of sanding in three places on the shell, and removed some of the burrs (for a lack of a better term) that were here and there between the ribs - and that's it. Not much more I need to do before I prime and paint.

I even nicked my wrist on the motherboard and bled a bit today. This thing is sharp!

Not an expert by any means, but the legs of the bumper should sit flush with the back of the shell. So, if you have those mated up, then whatever gap you end up with between the cyclo and bumper is all you can do. Also, the screen used bumpers had gaps on the sides of the pack. They had to be drawn down to the sides of the shell. Nothing wrong with Nick's or DLs, just depends on what measurements they used when building. Nick's parts are top notch in my book and I have never used DLs, but they look nice as well.

Tech ....your off to a great start on your new pack .....I have both a DL shell and a Nick-a-tron bumper mounted on it ...really good parts..... you can see my pack in my profile....a little advice I would offer would be to purchase a hardware set gEkx,If you havent already ...It was my first build and it makes it real easy by taking the guess work out of what hardware goes to what ...for instance your clipard on the pack should be mounted with cap head screws not the stock clipard screws .....just my two cents ...its all how accurate you want to go.....

I'll be darned. I have a gEkx kit, and I still used the wrong screws. Ha! You can study the pictures a thousand times and still miss the details.

My last shell had several huge chunks chipped out of it. I filled one area in with bondo and sanded it over and over again until it was perfectly smooth. Checked the reference photos and the area that I spent so hard to make perfect is completely covered by a pack label. Darn it.

Yes . . I know what ya mean . . . I made a refrence book for myself out of a three ring binder and looked it over ,and over as I was building. plus I had my galaxy tab handy to cross reference to one pack to the other. . I didnt really chose one pack to look at ,l looked at all of them ,after all my aproach to this was that I am building my pack . . Not some one elses. Yea that DL shell is a million times better than that VB bullshit . . . Glad you chose Derek . .Hes a real stand up guy. . And great quality craftman ship. .

Hi techdisaster, great build thread! Looks like you're doing a fine job so far!
Very interesting to see the fit of a Nick-A-Tron bumper in pictures. Over the months, many people have asked me how it fits, and I knew it should fit "in theory," according to the measurement that Nick gave me.
There is some flex to bumpers as you've probably found out, but if it's a little tighter than your liking when stretched over the shell, you could always use a sanding block and sand a bit off the left and right points on the shell where the bumper squeezes against. You wouldn't see the sanding as the bumper would cover it completely.

Wow, time flies! It's been over a month since my last update. Here is the progress pics.... (sorry about the crummy cell phone pics...high resolution images at the bottom)

Getting all the parts fitted..


Mounting the wand.


Getting her ready for paint.


Mounting parts. The bumper wasn't screwed on, which is why it looks crooked in this pic.


Mounting more parts and adding some labels.


Added boosters and more cables.


Mounted lenses and lights. Still waiting on some new pieces I ordered from MMM at this point.


Almost fully assembled...




You can see the switch I added for the lights below the mounting screw for the motherboard. I didn't want any wiring on the motherboard at all, so I made the decision to put this rocker switch where I did. It shows up really well when I use flash on the camera, but it is much less obtrusive than you see here.



More detail




Here is what I have left to do:

1. Add the red stripe and mesh to the N-Filter. Still just empty holes at this point.
2. Replace stickers with aluminum pack labels.
3. Weathering

I'm pretty stinkin happy with how this is turning out. Pictures just don't do it justice, and everyone I show it to has been pretty amazed by it, especially when I turn on the lights.

Thanks for looking!

Gorgeous! Absolutely beautiful pack! Is there a reason you masked off the parts that you did prior to painting?

I laid down a coat of Rustoleum Hammer-On texture paint and masked off the areas that I wanted to keep smooth. The hammer-on ended up to be really subtle though, and I decided I preferred it that way. It really takes a close inspection to see the difference.

Now that's a good lookin' pack right there man! Nice job!

Aah, that'll do it! ^_^

Splendid pack!

Thanks for the comments everyone! I really owe it to all the people here who supply really high quality and accurate parts. My pack wouldn't look this good without you!

Beautiful proton pack.

But I have to ask......what did you do with the VB shell?

The VB shell is still sitting in my garage. I haven't decided what to do with it. I was kind of thinking I would do an anti-ghostbuster costume. Kind of like a zombie/walking dead Ghostbuster and dress the pack up all macabre like. That way people would think it looks like sh!t on purpose. But I may move on to better projects (Darth Vader costume) and not waste my time.

You should mount it to the alice frame upside down.

Nice looking pack! You have used the resources here wisely!

Your pack looks AMAZING techdisaster! Really really beautiful build there. I particularly love how the hammertone texture turned out. That subtleness looks perfect to my eyes. Great job!

Thanks DL and Ecto_1!

That'd be awesome...