View new posts | View your posts WeeMadHamish Styrene Scratchbuild - now with texture!

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Like many in this community, my fandom started in my childhood. My first proton packs were cardboard numbers, neither of them particularly accurate but fun to strap on nonetheless, vague mishmashes of the movie and RGB packs complete with basic lights and an extending tip (via a bit of elastic tubing). Bustin' ghosts in the neighborhood with my friends was the favorite afternoon passtime.

And then I grew up. Oh, the humanity. When I stumbled upon this site last year, it rekindled my love for the franchise. And I knew it was time to build another pack. Having never tackled a prop-building project this big since those days of running around in the jumpsuit my mom made, I decided to start small to see if my skills were up to the task. So I tackled the thrower first, since the materials were readily available locally. It has since sort of become my "tinker project" that I futz with in passing a few minutes here and there. The body is built out of .08" styrene sheet and 1.25" x .0625" plastic drainpipe, reinforced with 2-part putty.

Unfortunately up until now I've been bad about taking pictures, but here is how it stood a few weeks ago, after finishing the main body. I just had to dry fit the switches and lights -- to see if they fit, of course, and not to play with it or anything.




The red lens on top is a placeholder until I can either find an appropriate clear version or cast one up on my own.

And today I got a few parts in from MMM, so here is how it stands, with the gaps puttied, the edges sanded, the palm rest added, and the knobs test fit.





ToDo:
Finish front barrel assembly, patch, sand and fit grips


Build injection cylinder


In a couple of weeks I plan to order larger sheets of .125" styrene, and the full pack build will begin in earnest. Lights and sound will be provided by a custom Arduino setup which I've got roughly 75% complete. I am trying to build as much from scratch as possible, sans the detail bits.

Halloween '10 is the target. Here's hopin'!

Fantastic looking thrower.

Keep us posted with proton pack progress (hows that for an alliteration?).

Cheers
Sebastian

Seems like you were up to the task. You are doing a great job so far. Can't wait to see how your pack will look!

Indeed. This thing looks great! Congrats.

Nicely done Hammish. Love seeing the styrene builds.

Good, patient work on this!

G

Thats looking really nice, Cant wait to see how you get on with the pack !

Nice work, and nice user name, Hammish! It's always nice to see another Pratchett fan around these parts!

Absolutely brilliant. Did you cut those vents by hand? Nice clean work!

Sure did. Rough cut with a drill and dremel and finished with a modeling file. By no means perfect but good enough for me! Thanks!

very impressive. "futz" is also a word i need to add to my yiddish vocabulary.

Finished the injection cylinder today.











Shot of the inside. The socket for the front barrel assembly is puttied in there nice and solid, knowing that it's a stress point... should be plenty stable.

In the words of Darth Vader: Impressive, most impressive.

I am jealous of your scratchbuilding skills.

Flippin' fantastic mate! You have skills!

Wow, what an awesome scratch build!

Styrene ordered, along with aluminum for the inner tube of the thrower and the ion arm cap.

*rubs hands together* Soon it begins.

Can't wait to see the rest. You have the tools, you have the talent.

Scored this on eBay tonight:



Seller says the turnbuckle is missing, but I figure a reasonably intelligent human being like myself can make it work. I'm just pumped to have found an LC-1 at a reasonable price.

You can find turnbuckles at ACE hardware. That's what I had to do for mine that was missing the turnbuckle.

This is some FANTASTIC scratch building!

Can't believe I missed this thread!

So my styrene arrived last Tuesday... this is what I've been working on off and on during the week.



Some filling and sanding left to do, but I can count the gearbox as done.

Nicely done. Get that dreaded gear box out of the way first! Keep up the good work.

That is one gorgeous gear box!

You have some amazing skills with styrene!
if you dont mind me asking, how do you make the bends so seamless? Like in the gearbox, the fins look like they were moulded to the rounded corners of the box and everything. Even the angled piece next to the round pipe looks great. Also in the proton gun where the top curves around the rear handle. Ive tried heating styrene before, but it just kinds melts or doesnt really work with me too well :/ lol
If you have any other hints or tips with working with styrene, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks and happy building!

I originally tried heating and bending the strips, but I found that it made them buckle and distort the edges on the bend. Like others, I wound up justing gluing the strips on at right angles and sanding/filing away. I have a set of jeweler's files that I used to round the edges between the strips and keep the transition sharp.

On the thrower, I did in fact successfully bend the sheet (it helped that it was a wider curve) but it did distort a little there as well. It was just a matter of heating and bending a little bit at a time around the pipe, and sanding away the imperfections in the bent surface. Sandpaper and spot filler correct a lot of little building sins.

Ain't that the truth!?

And how. Look at that gearbox! Impressive, sir. Most impressive.

Wow ! Nice work sir. Will be watching this thread that's for true...

Yes, That's very skilled work you've done there WeeMadHamish. You definately have the patience!
2 thumbs up!!

~raider57

Not as much work done this last week as I would've liked, but I have the spacer for the EDA done and the power cell.