View new posts | View your posts My Pepakura Proton Pack Build **PACK DONE!** pictures on pg8

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And now all of my crew will have better throwers (since the quicky ones I whipped up in October burn my eyes...)



Next up five bumpers!

you are really going to hate me for not making that trigger box separate in some way when you put the side trigger with green hose in. i just put mine in yesterday and almost screwed everything up.

i think right now would be a good time to take it off, make the sides that they meet a solid side by putting paper over them, and then fiberglassing them as different parts, so when you assemble the thrower, you attach them like you would other thrower kits. it's something i didnt think too far ahead about when modeling them, which isnt hard to fix if they ARE attached, but much easier if they arent.

Heh, no hate. I can build these things in my sleep now. I will just build one new one for the Pep pack. The ones for the guys are going on the Styrofoam packs we built and I was not going to do a lot of functionality on them. I don't know how easy it will be to cut them anyway since I super glued the Hell out of the seems

Seams. Stupid phone...

Just a small update, made the Bumper Center today. Not real pleased with my first effort but since (like the throwers) I am making five bumpers I know I will have a few nice ones to choose from.







More later. I hope to have a finished bumper in a few days.

Just finished the fifth BUMPER CENTER file. This was not really a that hard of a part to make but for some reason each of the five I made has one thing that came out wrong. I have to remind myself that these are forms that will hold resin / fiberglass / bondo and paint and that line for line perfect is not 100% necessarily going to happen (even though I would prefer it. ) plus I am tired of making these... I'm glad there are not six or seven guys in our crew.

I like this pic since it shows how a shape can pop out of a flat piece just by scoring it with a pen and then folding it. I use a red pen to remind me to fold one way and a black pen to fold the other.



And then the final five centers DONE!



Next week I will work on the other pieces and the bumper sides and hopefully have five finished bumpers to show off. After that I plan on making five bellows using wm6929's method found here - http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26358

My big thought of the day today... Don't cut off your left thumb while scoring your bumper sides out of styrene.

So five bumpers at a time equals images like this -



Not real pleased with these, the next ones will be better I hope.



Must not cut off left thumb... Must not cut off left thumb... Must not cut off left thumb...



It's got some issues but WOW is this a cool thing! On our first build I could not really wrap my head around this part. (Which is why we do not have bumpers on our v1 packs)



Another cool thing to see was this. Now if Chicago will warm up to 70 plus degrees I can move on to fiberglass. In the meantime I will finish the other four bumpers and then start on the bellows.

The weather is perfect here in Kansas as well. I've been playing with bonding and fiberglass all week. Feels good to see it coming together doesn't it?

INDEED! But DUDE... Seriously. You need to post some pictures. You're killing me.

So they last week has been spent getting our first packs up to snuff (These are the ones I made the extra gun bodies and bumpers for.) one of the things I wanted to do was the Shock Mounts. Using the method that wm6929 used here - http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26358

I'll be making five of these total.



Lots of sanding...



Before and after -



And DONE!



I just wish it was warm enough to paint and distress them. Stupid Chicago winter...

I haven't posted in a while since my crew and I have been busy updating our v1 packs for C2E2 this year. But I did get some things done. My first foray into using resin was a moderate success. Chicago has had it's warmest winter in many moons so I was able to get out and get to it. After two coats I am pretty happy with the result.



I wish I could control the drip factor a bit better but over all I am happy and after letting it sit for 24 hours it has a nice hard shell. Today I will try my hand at Mud-Casting the body. Fingers crossed as I have a lot of work in these and am not looking forward to redoing them.

In other news I have decided to redo my spacer and my bumper. I really like this Styrene and now am thinking of using it to replace the cardboard I used in those two pieces. I may also use it for the top of the spacer. One of the other problems is that even though I managed to find the extra thick cardboard like Proton Charger used in his thread... Mine seems to be mushy. I think they added some type of coating to it.. Who knows. But after the Cominc Con I plan on re-making those two parts and then moving on to fiberglass.

Anyone else going to C2E2?

Can't wait to see these in person...

Going to the con? We will be there Saturday and Sunday. Looking forward to meeting some other GB's.

Mud casting! Slush casting! Rondo! Whatever you want to call it. IS AWESOME!!!!

So first off, if you plan on doing this you should watch these two videos from a guy over at the Halo site 405th.com actually here is a link to his whole pep tutorial -

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/22923-How-To-Make-A-Helmet-From-Pep-To-Finish

Videos -





Ok, so for my project I had a 10oz cup. The first body I did I filled almost to 3/4 with Bondo and then 1/4 resin. But this actually was a bit much. The next two I did with 5oz Bondo and 2.5oz resin and that filled the body nicely without making any REAL thick spots. My first one is going to take some work to drill all the holes in.





It takes about 10 minutes of slushing before it starts to harden and when that happens it's like time slowing down right in front of your eyes. So be warned, stay away from places you don't want thick. Over all though I made 3 gun bodies for about $25 worth of body filler and resin and some paper. I would say that is an AWESOME value.

Yeah, I'm going VIP that weekend. I'll be the guy with the blue proton pack.

Great! There will be four or five of us. I'll be the fat bald one.

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Just a small update, moved my pack from Chicago to Toledo for fiberglassing. It was a real nail chewer transporting my paper stuff and one gun body got crushed. Harumph... The forecast for the week here was low 70's but now it's the low 60's and just not good weather for the job. I'll be back in May. Should have some nice weather by then.



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You could turn a little heater on in the workspace. That's what I was doing over the "winter" but you honestly may not need it. It will just take a little longer for the resin to set up in colder temps. Too hot is the true enemy.. it may cause the resin the crack and setup weird.

I have two 1000w lights set up in a workshop, but it's going to be low 50's and I just don't want to chance it. We'll see.. Maybe I will play with some pieces in the morning see how they set.

it's safer cure with out a heater and heat lamps if you're working outside when the weather is in the 60's. that's when it takes a little longer but i never had any issues. it's when it gets colder than that.

being that you're working inside, you should be fine, just open a window when you're doing it, and then close it tight when you're done.

OK, so... BOOM! Two coats of resin done! You guys were 100% right!



I decided to first do the spacer and the cosmetic plating as one unit and the top peices as another. I figured this would make it easier to remove the cardboard and also to work with the parts. When done I will pop rivet the two together to form a single shell.

I also rondoed these pieces -
Ion Arm
Gun body
Cyclotron
PPD 1 body

I come back to Toledo for Memorial Day and will do the chopmat then. Thanks for the help guys!

Oh god, Alan That is awesome, Do you have a list of materials that has cost you so far? Just interested. I love every thing you have done so far!

Well, my cost and work have been a little more since I needed some pep parts for our old packs. To date I have made 1 pack shell, four bumpers and four gun bodies -





So this would be my estimate if I had not made all the extra parts.

Ream of card stock - $12-$15
Loctite Super Glue - $4 a bottle and I figure I used two to make the pack.
Aluminum Air conditioning tape - $12
Resin - $20
Bondo - $20
Additional hardners for both - $10
Chop Mat (x2) $10
4'x2' sheet of 1/8" styrene - $20 (I also got a pair of Ecto Goggles and four ion arms out of this sheet, your local price may be different)

To make a shell, bumper and gun body cost me $115 and took about three months so far. And I have had a real BLAST making them.

Just a small update - I will be going back to Toledo to do the fiberglass work this weekend. Just read through Proton Chargers thread about this part and feeling pretty good / anxious about this phase of the build. I'll post pictures as soon as I can Friday.

Wish me luck!

Fiberglassing has become one of my favorite parts of projects I'm working on. The smoother your mat the prettier it looks. I've gotten better at it since my pack build, and get really excited when my glassing looks pretty.

You'll be fine.

Good luck! Can't wait to see how it looks.

Also, Make sure all the large flat surfaces are reinforced.

So I already have three coats of resin on the outside, so do I still need to shore everything up? I was going to put blocks underneath so that everything is level...

Thanks dude! I'm excited to see what your Game Pack looks like!

I'm just worried the heat from more resin and glass inside will warp the detail layer.

In all honesty I haven't gotten past the initial layer on the pack. If you've applied 3 it should be pretty sturdy.

Making sure its nice and level can't hurt.

PC's going to be more knowledgeable in this area though.

Nah heat won't mess with it if it's cured fiberglass resin much just like any other shell. However you can manipulate it a little using direct heat with a heat gun, but not a whole lot.

The only thing to worry about is if it's too cold because that makes resin cure longer, or if it's hot out it could also effect cure time with fresh resin the same way.