#342239
I started super gluing all the separate components together this afternoon. It's looking REALLY good, and because it's paper...it's REALLY light. I dont imagine these being very heavy after a face layer of resin, and then a few with fiberglass and rondo on the inside. I havent been doing this very long today, and it's damn near almost done.

This is good. Im really excited about this.


Where Im at now, I have one pack almost finished being glued, Im going to TRY to take pictures of assembling the other pack, even though it's tape everything on the back, glue every part where it meets on the face and where they sit on each other. You COULD probably get started doing this, if you're at that point with your build and are good to go with out any guidance from me. I'm even starting to notice some places that will need to be filled with bondo after the resin is finished, this is also a really good thing for you to make notes for your packs.

Also, since Im going to have game ribs on my packs, I had to go the extra mile making them out of paper...but I could do a slight walk through how to make the ribs for your packs, after I do the resin update. Start investing in that 1/8" styrene Ive been talking about so much, or some 1/8" X 1/2" X 24" balsa (at least for the ribs.) I also will have to show you how to make your own motherboards, BECAUSE unfortunately there's no way to make a uniform motherboard for this project. Not to worry, it's SO damn easy.

Anyhow Im f****g stoked about this project. I was getting a little run down with it and overwhelmed because of all the game scratch building I have to do, but holy smokes, this is just the kick in the pants I needed. I hope you all at the same point I am, get that feeling too. We're totally in the home stretch now, and it feels good.
#342262
I would be in the home stretch too if I had the money to get the last few pieces printed off and to get the styrene, resin, fiberglass, bondo, and any other stuff needed to finish. being unemployed sucks. :-(
#343024
nah you can ignore the skeleton files, they were an idea i had before i discovered the aluminum air conditioning duct tape.
however, when we start resining, i have some parts from the spacer and the cyclotron that ive highlighted to reprint to make skeletons out of using cardboard.

i'll show a picture of them when i update for resin, right now im in the process of gluing everything together.

but totally awesome you bought that styrene! that stuff is a time saver!
#343618
Ugh. This is more of an update to let you know Im still alive and very much still working on this thing. As excited as I am how the progress is going, Im starting to run into hang ups for my personal pack's greeble crap and things like:
my head wrote: hey remember when you were resining this stuff the first time and experimenting on the parts? remember how much better it was to have a skeleton inside of some of the parts with more surface space?


So, it's to get you at least started on your skeletons, if you havent started gluing your pack together already and dont want my help for that part, which is commendable. I didnt come to the realization I needed them until after I started gluing mine together, and got to the point where I was ready to glue on my cyclotron.

Anyway.

Making card board skeletons for a pack is annoying as hell. Fortunately, the concept is easy and i covered how to do it earlier on other parts:
the Bumper
http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtop ... 36#p333036
and the Spacer:
http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtop ... 08#p321208

I will have a few pictures, the difference here is where we were using it for parts of the pack, we'll be using it for interior parts of the pack to support it while we resin the face, which will be the first step when we start to resin. With those links you should already have a pretty clear idea what you're doing, it's not so hard, just time consuming (and taking time away from parts of your pack that you've been putting off)

You'll notice a few files that have skeletons or are skeletons and it says to print them out, most of them we've ditched the opportunity to put them into whatever they go to, and it you're going along with how Im building mine, you've left your spacer and cyclotron open on the bottom. As far as I can tell, these are the only skeletons you need to concern yourself with since they have the most surface space and are more likely to cave in with the weight of resin on top of them. If you have the bottoms on them, carefully take it off, put the skeletons in, and the replace the bottoms. They'll just help you with more stability than what I have.

Here's what i used for my skeletons:
for the Spacer:
Image

for the Cyclotron:
Image

I actually ended up having to print out a couple more for my cyclotrons so add another set to that.

While you are not limited to using just the spray glue, you can use sticker paper for these.
I ended up using both because I ran out of spray glue after doing 2 sets of Spacer skeletons and one set of Cyclotron skeletons.

Here's an idea for my Spacer's skeleton:
Image

WALL OF BORING BUT IMPORTANT INFORMATION

NONE OF THESE ARE GOING TO BE EXACTLY ALIKE. 'member Im making two packs? Both of my spacer skeletons are different. You just have to finagle each piece of the cardboard rectangle into the spacer where it fits nice and you think will support surface space the best. Hell, in this one, you can kind of tell I threw one piece in there, I was trying to figure out where to put it, that's been remedied, and it has a home now.

Anyway, you want to put a little dab of hot glue on the corner on each side every where each piece meets the piece it touches. You dont want that hot glue to go over the flattest top edge of these because the pack will rest on this an anything popping up can throw everything off and give you more crap to sand later. When it's cured, and you feel it's secure enough; take it out of the spacer and repeat everything you just did. When it's totally undoubtedly not going to move, put that sucker back into the spacer and call it a day.

Then do the same thing for the Cyclotron.
#344889
Proton,

Thanks for the excellent article. I've been getting everything printed and organized to start the build. I was wondering what your thoughts on using expanding foam to fully fill the voids on the back side of the models. I'm hoping to actually mold shells (for personal use, not profit) from this when I'm done.

John
#344911
I know you don't want to discuss future phases of the build process, but I'm concerned that one of your material choices could hinder the final piece. I've read through the whole thread and hadn't seen this question posed; hopefully I'm not retreading old ground.

Are you planning on removing the aluminum tape from the interior after the exterior layer of resin is set down? As it is, it'll act as a barrier between the resin-soaked cardstock and whatever you use to reinforce the interior, whether fiberglass or simply slush-cast resin. If you're molding the pack this shouldn't be an issue, but you could have some layer separation problems if you plan on wearing the Pep pack.
vcm1613 wrote:I was wondering what your thoughts on using expanding foam to fully fill the voids on the back side of the models.
I know this was directed at Proton, but to what end would you be using the expanding foam? The piece would still need to be resined and reinforced before expanding foam could be used without warping the pack, and at that point it would really only help to keep your molding materials from seeping underneath the pack... but wouldn't you want an interior lip on the mold anyway, to ensure a consistent wall thickness in your casts?
#344931
Im looking at expanding foam as a reenforcement to the structure. Proton has been using resin soaked chop mat to reenforce the corners and body. I was essentially looking at a way to take it one more (possibly unneeded) step. Also as a possible alterative to some one making a mold from the form rather than making that actual Pepakura construction as the wearable model. You have a valid point. I don't want to muck up Protons thread with cross chat though.

John
#345090
vcm1613 wrote: I was wondering what your thoughts on using expanding foam to fully fill the voids on the back side of the models. I'm hoping to actually mold shells (for personal use, not profit) from this when I'm done.

John
I guess it could work john, but probably not necessary when you have the inside fiberglassed. Fiberglass is already strong enough. If you're set on doing it, I dont see a problem with it because there isnt much for stiffening material inside the pack for molding and that would take care of that. Even bigi's shell had some sort of interior skeleton for making a mold.

If I went your route, Id probaly make some sort of handles on the inside so it's easier to remove from the mold. BUT, just in case, be prepared for the foam not working and having to redo everything again from the beginning. Ive experimented alot with it lately (once to make a mold) and that stuff is garbage for anything other than filling a void or sculpting something out of a pile of it (and I do mean pile) and often ended up wasting 5 bucks, time, and materials starting over again. To make a mold or a pull, dont waste your time.

RoboTrap wrote:I know you don't want to discuss future phases of the build process, but I'm concerned that one of your material choices could hinder the final piece. I've read through the whole thread and hadn't seen this question posed; hopefully I'm not retreading old ground.

Are you planning on removing the aluminum tape from the interior after the exterior layer of resin is set down? As it is, it'll act as a barrier between the resin-soaked cardstock and whatever you use to reinforce the interior, whether fiberglass or simply slush-cast resin. If you're molding the pack this shouldn't be an issue, but you could have some layer separation problems if you plan on wearing the Pep pack.
Nope. When I first started making my packs and before I released the files I was testing some parts to see different ways to make it a stiffer shape to resin. It was recommended by a friend of mine that fiberglass will attach to the aluminum air conditioning duct tape really well and keep the shape it needs to for resin. I've also experimented with that quite a bit lately too (by working on other parts of my pack that would deter the progress of this build). So far it's doing everything I want it to do, but like you, Ive had this annoying tinge in the back of my head about it. This is how i imagine the different layers of the shell:

resin
paper
interior is covered in AACDT tape
spray the inside of the pack with spray adhesive
adhere the chop fiber mat to the adhesive
resin
spray adhesive
chop mat
resin
repeat for a few layers

Some places will have a layer of rondo (resin/bondo) around them so it's easier to route/sand/file rounded edges like the cyclotron and the crank box.

I figure this weekend while Im putting a coat of resin on the outside of the packs I could do a test to share, showing different ways resin could be applied to the AACDT tape so it has a stronger grip. With out fail, one pack will have a coat of resin on it. Ive been waiting on getting my girlfriend to do it, because she doesnt know how, to prove a point in this thread that if my girlfriend can resin and fiberglass these packs that anyone here can do it too.

IF and ony IF I end up resining these packs, it's not because she couldnt do it, it's because Im about 2 weeks behind on these for resin and it NEEDS to get done before the first of October so I can paint and greeble crap them, and Im tired of waiting on her to stop going shopping or taking naps to get it done.


Also, very important note:

Removing that tape from the paper will f*** everything up. When it's applied to paper, it's not going any where. Ive had some accidents while taping, and it's ripped full pieces apart, torn off important face pieces. If I had one concern, it's not that the tape wont do it's job, it's that the resin may not stick to it, though im finding it is. The test I mentioned I'll be doing is simple:

I'll take a sheet of paper, AACDT the two long sides.
sand one piece of tape completely with 80 grit sand paper
separate by permenant marker sections of the tape on both sides into the following:
bondo
resin
rondo
fibermat/resin
spray glue/fibermat/resin

Im wasting material...fortunately my student loans come in next week.

but wouldn't you want an interior lip on the mold anyway, to ensure a consistent wall thickness in your casts?
that's not really a big deal. you can always take that away from the inside of the pull to get the width you need. better to have it too strong, than not strong enough. i mean, if you've gone more than 1/2" you've gone way too far.
#345216
Cool! Nice job! I've been at the same stage you're at for a while now. Hopefully I'll be able to get all of the parts I need to catch up and start resin and fiberglass this weekend. BTW, is the gun mount box shaped different without the ribs?

Image
100_0280 by Dallas Toku Force, on Flickr
#345245
sagedismal wrote:Cool! Nice job! I've been at the same stage you're at for a while now. Hopefully I'll be able to get all of the parts I need to catch up and start resin and fiberglass this weekend. BTW, is the gun mount box shaped different without the ribs?
Comparing yours to mine and I think you missed one of the fixes. The larger section comes down about a 1/2" from the small square that connects that piece to the pack. There was a fix for that detail and then the corner plate on page 2 I think. Its really up to you at this point if you want to go back and redo those pieces.
How was it modeling with ribs? Looked a little to intense for me. But... I guess when you first look at the files it all looks pretty intense. After I got started though it came together pretty eaisly.
#345246
modeling with the ribs wasn't too bad until I got to the gun mount box. there were some pretty large gaps in some spots and since there were so many folds in certain sections the numbers just turned into a large blacked out area where you couldn't tell where the edges of the piece were. I didn't see an update for the gun mount box with ribs (I could have sworn I got all of the updates before printing). are the ribs going to be added to the one without later? if so I might just print off the updated GMB w/o ribs and add them later.
#345248
gEkX wrote:Heres where I'm at. Hope to have the bumper and thrower done this weekend and hopefully start or get done with the skeletons so i can finnaly catch up to you :) what do ya think?
Image
I LIKE IT! Now get your build thread going to show off your awesome work!

ps, This guy's been pmming me on occasion with tips for fiberglassing, this stuff helps me out, and I'll be sharing them as I go along!
sagedismal wrote:Image
100_0280 by Dallas Toku Force, on Flickr
Man.Are you gonna hate me. So i'll give you the worse news first. The question you had about the gunmount box was because my original set had an incorrect gunmount box. This is the correct one I linked here: http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtop ... 59#p308759 (if it doesnt work let me know via pm and I'll set you up with a new file).

The reason why it's different, is I couldnt wrap my head around one of the angles stefan presented in his plans. I got as far as assembling one, showed it to Burkit and he pointed out what was wrong with it. It was fixed and reuploaded that night.

The reason why I took off the ribs for my pack, and the other files is because it's easier to build them with out, but I gave the option there if people wanted to. Outside of my screw up with posting an accurate gun mount box later your pack is looking awesome!

Feel free to spit flames when you think about me. It's cool. but be sure to get a build thread here going to show off your progress!


Just a note to people following along, I LOVE SEEING OTHER PEOPLE'S PEP PACKS OR PACKS MADE USING MY FILES. It really means something to me to see people really getting use out of something I put a lot of time into. So that hand full of you who's packs Ive seen so far, thank you!
#345266
no worries. what I'll probably end up doing is taking the ribs from the one I have completed and gluing them onto the fixed one without ribs to see if that works. if not, then it won't be much to just take them off. lol
#345303
ProtonCharger wrote:Nope. When I first started making my packs and before I released the files I was testing some parts to see different ways to make it a stiffer shape to resin. It was recommended by a friend of mine that fiberglass will attach to the aluminum air conditioning duct tape really well and keep the shape it needs to for resin.
Glad to hear that! Most pep work involves internal support structures built directly into the model, so delamination wasn't a possibility for those builds. If the resin does bond to the AACDT, then there should be no problem at all!
#345973
We started resining the packs this weekend, and FINALLY my girlfriend got involved in this process other than cutting the bits for our packs I didnt catch.
So, I dont want to hear any "I cant's" or "This is over my head's", because she's a pretty girlie girl, and she did it. Do you want to be beat by a girl?

Seriously. With the exception of the throwers and smaller bits, she resin'd the heck out of her pack. There is no trick photography of some cute girl standing next to a bunch of paper proton packs, then me resining them, and that's it. I wish I had some forethought to have taken some more pics of her doing just for some sort of record's sake, but my hands were covered in resin and I was too caught up in the moment.

Just to derail a bit more, she's thrown some pretty cool ideas for the direction she's taking her pack. Mine'll be accurate, but I will be showing hers off when it's finished, because she'll be putting that work into her pack and she's pretty much a novice at the world of prop making and Ghostbustering and those of you STILL SCRATCHING YOUR HEADS, can benefit from knowing a chick that never made any sort of movie prop replica mostly made her own proton pack (I mean, comparatively, you fellas buying shells, she's working right from a shell from that point) and if she can do it, you can too.

Anyway. After I finish the resin on all the outside of the pack bits (I have a few pictures of the materials needed and a couple of mixing resin) which should be pretty much done by Wednesday afternoon, I'll get into resining the hell out of the inside. I still plan on doing my experiment to see how we can make sure resin totally adheres to the tape.

Super fair warning, you should completely and totally familiarize yourself with the directions on the resin container before you begin. Get used to the idea of mixing amounts that are recommended to you in the instructions on it. I have resined enough that i just dump it in a container I use to resin, and eye ball my catalyst, so, while I'll be showing you how I resin, it's probably not how YOU should resin
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