View new posts | View your posts Vincenzo's bigi71 Proton Pack Build

---

This will be my 3rd movie style proton pack but it will be my first time attempting a GB1 build. Updates on this one will probably be slow as I don't seem to have much free time lately since I started casting up these shells.

So firstly, I'm starting with a bigi71 shell that I cast myself. If you're interested in getting one of your own you can check them out here viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23910
I also documented the process of creating the motherboard for these shells here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24286
And just for the hell of it here's a sweet little crossover pack I made from a Kenner Proton Pack toy viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20732

OK soooo on with the show I guess...

The best place to start would probably be with the molding process.

It all began with this masterpiece made by my friend all the way in Germany, Björn (bigi71).



Everyone should definitely check out his original build thread for this. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21988 As far as I'm concerned it's the most amazing scratch built shell ever made.

Anyway, after we received the buck from bigi we gathered up all of our materials and got to work within a few days.

The first thing that needed to be done was to secure the buck to a board and make sure that it was flush all the way around. Luckily for us that was the way bigi had shipped it







Next we covered the buck with some thin plastic garbage bags.





The buck was then covered in a layer of "white clay".













Eventually it looked like this



A little trimming around the border





And then a little smoothing with a damp sponge



I know it looks like this guy is doing all the work but I swear I helped I just happened to be the one taking pictures.



Then another layer of plastic bags





The next step probably won't make any sense to you right now so that sounds to me like a perfect place to leave you hanging

Cutting up soda cans...

I think i figured it out. You must be makin a custom Duff can with all of those to match the hat?? lol Looks great so far. I have wet dreams about that shell

Love it! I have no clue about the cans but can't wait to see more.

MORE, POST MORE!!

The cut up cans are obvious. I can't believe no one got it.

To make a hat that keeps out the government mind-control rays. DUH!


Seriously guys, it's coming along great. I'm really impressed.



Vin, if you need another folding table ( 3' x 6' ) let me know. I'll be working on the car in the batcave (tm) tomorrow and will be in your neck of the woods if you need me to drop it off.

I'm inclined to agree. I would like to know more.

Thanks Bryan, I might just take you up on that!

To the rest of you keeping an eye on this I'll try and reveal the "mystery" of the soda cans today

woo hoo. something to read at work ,alright !

Are they going to be used to create the part in the mother mold?

*is clueless about the soda cans*

...but this will be a great threat for sure

It figures TC would have guessed it. Good job. ( We used playing cards on the Nite Owl costume mould. )

Haha, I really didn't know for sure, it was just the only reasonable thing I could think of. My second guess was that they would be rolled up to create pipes to form air holes while pouring the silicone, but I figured there were easier ways to go about that.

Beautiful mold

Ok, so mburkit yelled at me for taking baby steps with this thread since these pictures have been on my facebook for months and a lot of people have already seen how we made the mold. So, I'm gonna knock the whole rest of the molding process out now and get to my actual pack build.

ThrowingChicken was correct, the cans are being used to make a divide in the middle of the mothermold.

Observe...









Next be began fiberglassing the "jacket". Unfortunately fiberglass resin is really sticky and I had to be pretty hands on, so I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of that process as I didn't want to get any resin on the camera.

Basically we mixed small cups of resin, placed small chunks of fiberglass mat down and "patted" the resin onto the mat. You have to have some finesse for this stage and take your time to make it smooth and avoid air bubbles and voids in the mold.













The first side was done so we waited for it to cure before moving on.

I should mention that before we started applying the fiberglass we sprayed the whole thing with a mold release agent so that we'd be able to remove the fiberglass jacket after it had hardened.

The second side was just more of the same, so no need to post a bunch of pics. We started this project at about 9am and by the light of a neighbors drop lamp we finished at about 7pm. We probably would have starved to death if RedVirtue hadn't dropped by with some pizzas (Thanks Jorge!)

So there she is, all finshed





After it had completely cured we trimmed all the loose fibers off and pulled the jacket away to see how we had done. I really like this shot, it shows the different layers pretty well.



NICE JOB WE DID!



Here's the buck after she had been freed from her fiberglass prison



And a kinda cool shot of the clay with the indent of the buck in it



Day 2!

We started prepping the mother mold by drilling pour holes and air holes for the silicone. You can also see that the 2 halves are clamped together with nuts/butterfly bolts.



There are 2 pour holes, one above the n-filter and one above the ppd. The idea is to place them at the highest points in the jacket. The air holes are to help keep bubbles out.









The buck was then placed back into the jacket and the jacket was screwed down onto the board that the buck was secured to (that was a mouthful).







Using more white clay we sealed off the entire perimeter of the mold.



We also made some small over flow molds since we figured there would be some leftover silicone



Ladies and Gentlemen, the incomparable, Venkman71! I have no idea what he's doing in this picture but it sure is hypnotic isn't it?



One thing that's great about living so close to Hollywood is that we have movie-quality supplies and materials available. The silicone that we used was a dream to work with.





The reason that the silicone is poured from so far away is to aerate it on it's way into the mold. This helps prevent bubbling inside the jacket. The pouring is done extremely slowly as well to give the silicone a chance to settle.



You can see how thin of a strand of silicone we allowed to enter the mold.





Ross had a perfect pour going on the first bucket until Sean hip-checked him

This was the result.



You finally get to see a picture of me actually working





This was about 5 buckets of silicone later...





As the silicone level started to reach the air holes they had to be plugged with clay.





The final stretch!





The silicone takes a full 24 hrs to cure but unfortunately because of all our schedules we had to wait a full week to meet back up. It was so exciting to finally bust this baby open though!























Wanna see what Phil did all day...



So after about 20 minutes of struggling and prying we finally had the jacket completely removed.





Now it was time to de-mold the buck





Yes, it did take 4 grown men to get the damn thing out





Right around here was were I heard a *snap*



Yup... that was it







As you can tell I was pretty upset about the damage that the buck incurred.







Buuuuut...












































GREAT SUCCESS, YES!!!!







So next, I'll take you through the process of casting a shell and then it's onto the fun stuff!

i was wondering why you molded it in one piece from two pieces of the pack. but the snap makes sense, and i should have looked at all of the pics.

So awesome.

Danger Will Robinson!

As i already said before thats really great work Vinny. This will be my guide if i make a pack mold again

Not so great to see the buck like this, but i expected it to crack there again. You know the seams broke there too when i did it but it didnt really break into two pieces and it was an easy fix. Apparently i didnt reinforce it enough to survive a second time of demolding though.

Anyway....cant wait to see something of your pack build

You'll be happy to know that I've fixed the buck and reinforced a few areas too. I have a pull from this mold put aside to make the next mold when it's time but I'd much rather use the buck again.

Believe me, it was for the best that you gave it a week to cure, especially with how damn it's been lately.





"It's a whoooollleeee neeewwww worrrrllldddd!"







His David Duchovny impression is without equal.

Absolutely fascinating. Keep those updates coming!

Awesome! I like

Mmmmmmmmmm slobber, drrrrrroooooollll!

Oh would you like me to introduce you to Phil?
































Bahahahaha Sorry, I had to Julz. That's what you get for not reading my email in it's entirety

I did read your message in it it's entirety....Just after you pointed out I hadn't

PS this thread = Awesome

I have to thank Vinny for inviting me over today. I learned a lot and even got to help out making a shell. They look amazing in person!

Joe

Pity this thread doesn't have any new posts and updates....

puff puff..."blows away the cobwebs"

Much better!

I can't find the pics that I have of the casting process I'll have to have someone snapping some pics on the next shell I pull.

AWWwww stinkbuzzz!

OK, I know that it's been a long time with no update and I know that I promised to show off the casting method next but as you probably already know a few months back I got a hare up my ass to make some modifications to the bigi71 shell for accuracy's sake. Well, I'll first walk you through that and then we'll cover the casting method, and then we'll finally get on to my own pack build.

So here goes...

I started with a bigi71 shell and began planning my evil dissection with some quick mark-ups on the gun-mount.







And then I mustered up the courage to make the actual cuts into this pretty shell :'(





The next step was top make the height adjustments to this part so I made the cuts in the center as I thought it would be least noticeable because of the tapers that it has.





As you can see it fit back together rather well and I was pleased with the new height.












My next concern was re-joining the cuts to the shell, so out came the Ave's Apoxy sculpt










I like to use playing cards for a lot of things that I sculpt, they're flexible yet just rigid enough to support some weight and create a firm barrier for putty.