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Here's my story; I will keep it short and sweet.
By day I am an angry federal law enforcement officer; by night I am a huge Ghosthead.

For years I have sat back and watched the community make some of the most beautiful things known to man in regards to the movie.

I am now in a financial spot where I can ACTUALLY join the fray.
Today I took the plunge and began the purchasing of major parts in order to build a pack.
The beautiful thing was that it was LITERALLY one stop shopping for the major portions to get started. Thank you for providing this site for reference, moral and technical support and items no less lol

So In a few months time, in between shifts, beers, and overtime, I will be posting updates on my SLOW progress.
I think I am shooting for a GB1 pack. Mostly because I wasn't a huge fan of GB2. That and this whore will be going into a special case with lighting in my mancave. That will be a sick conversation piece.

Bear with me on this journey. I will be hammering this thread with updates, pics, drunken ramblings, and questions as I am not what you call creative, artistic or have a simple building bone in my body.

As I go along, I will be requesting purchasing some parts (mostly aluminum bolt-ons) along the way.
In essence, I think I am out to prove that even a mental midget with no ability can do this.
Lets see if this can provide people sitting on the fence about whether they want or can do this the confidence to just dive in and attempt it. Learn...have fun.

My final note: Based on my career choice, and noting someone else's thread on this site. I am taking on this hobby as a way to bleed some stress after shifts off. I will be documenting my progress on both fronts along the way.

I thank you all in advance for the pokes, prods, encouragement, and help that will be coming in the months ahead.

Thanks!

Welcome to the crazy-enough-to-build-one-of-these-things club! Look forward to watching the progress .

This is going to be a slow progressing thread. I work 12hr shifts and while the project looks and can be time consuming over the past year a lot of work related stress has caught up to me.

I'm blessed to have a great career and it pays quite well and my wife and child support me.

This last 12-16 months I've been on multiple physical altercations, armed issues, multiple worldwide deployments and seen somw truly frightening/angering things.

I am hopong that this will be able to turn the bleed stress screw on my life a little bit.

If anyone has anything to say about how this hobby has helped I am all ears!

All I can say is enjoy the process and take your time. All hobbies can be a great stress reliever but can also be a source of stress as well if things don't go right so do a bit at a time and enjoy it, walk away when it's needed and it's sure to have the desired outcome

Good luck with your build!

Can't wait to start watching this build. I love first build threads. Being LEO I'm sure your going to smash this out of the park

Thanks Colin. I'll be in touch soon re: this project.

Yep take your time and have fun with it. And figure out how accurate you want to be, make a list of parts
you want to use and then just keep an eye out for them.
Some parts are hard to find but they usually pop up if you wait long enough.

Best of luck with your build, I'm sure it will be a great pack and there are loads of people and threads on here that can help you here if you have any problems. Good luck!

Thanks to all already. Your support is amazing and all I have done is order parts lol

Good luck on your build sir! I took about a year to build my pack, 11-2am was my play/relax time and even though there were frustrating moments building it then end result was better than I expected. So I hope your have fun in your endeavor

I am lucky that my career affords me a week off every 8 weeks due to our scheduling and hours set up.
So on those days I can bang out a few hrs a day on the pack.
I think my goal on this is to have an almost interactive build experience start to finish in one thread also.
Anyone in for that?

I failed one major thing in this build already:

I am using a GBFans shell, motherboard and Alice frame as well as lenses purchased.

At current, I am mulling options for my beam line, filler tube, vacuum line, booster tube, Ion Arm cap & rod, HGA and bumper. Shock mount/bellows is something I need to research further as well.

I don't know how accurate this build will turn out but based on the parts and choices I am making I am hoping to turn out just fine

My bolt on parts are desired to be aluminum minus the bumper which at current it appears that nobody has ventured that far to make one of aluminum (I can imagine the cost to be astronomical).
I've read tons of feedback on 4 major sellers of Aluminum parts. I am looking to make this as easy as possible for myself. Mainly because of time and skill restraints (LEARNING PROCESS LOL)

My quagmire will be the following:
I want a great lights and sound kit. Right now, I am good with wiring electrical in a house as well as cable, network, phone etc. I've looked at some of these kits and some look downright deviously complicated for a numbnut meathead such as myself. Crix appears to have one of the most favored kits out there and I'm leaning that way right now (which at a later date it will come to fruition).

I also want to be able to wire up a rechargeable battery so that I don't have to consistently remove the shell for power source replacement. Again, a bridge to cross at a later time.

Thanks for listening to today's "I must be out of my mind but....I still haven't even got the products I've ordered 2 days ago in hand but Im so damn excited that I can't stop talking about doing this project that I have wanted since I watched the first movie!"

For lights, I would suggest going with Jupiter Electronics rather than Crix.

That isn't to say that Crix's light kits aren't well made (I have his Slime Blower lights, and a number of his audio kits), however Crix's Proton Gun light kit, like a number of others past and present, have more lights than are actually ever seen lit up on the gun in either of the two films... the most common inaccuracy being that the developers light up the sunken hat light on the Proton Gun (possibly the second most common mistake is missing out an additional light for the orange hat light near the front of the gun.

Jupiter's kit isn't perfect, but he does offer fixes. He is able to add an extra light for one of the front hat lights, and change the vent light so that it's static rather than pulsing (as seen in his demonstration video).

If you need help wiring the pack for a rechargeable battery let me know. The way i have it set up is the battery is velcrowed to the motherboard near the bottom section of the Alice frame and is connected to a kill switch i put on the frame as well. I did this so i could swap batteries quickly and recharge while off the pack

Yeah I will be crossing that bridge and I will definitely be in touch about it.

Hey Hoot I just wanted to put in yet another positive comment of encouragement. I started my pack in 2011 and just finished it in February of this year and I could not be happier. I live in a condo and all I had was a 10 dollar rotary tool and a pair of jewelry needle nose pliers and it came out great in my eyes. So I think you will find out that you will be great mat this. The best part in my opinion is when the pain is dry, the lights are on and the sound is humming and you just sit back and say, I made that! I look forward to seeing what you produce in this thread. Best of luck.

It'll be interesting. I'll do my damnedest to keep the beer cans outta the pictures lol

Beer helps keep your nerves calm when you get pissy with the build. Lol

I go to the work range for that.... lol
The beers start flowing about the house then we are all in shit lmao

So I am trying to source an aluminum gun kit. So far I see only Anhcon and CPU. did I miss anyone?

While I can't really answer any of your questions, I myself am just building a pack from scratch starting next pay period, I just wanted to say best of luck! It's always great to see more ghost heads jumping in!

Hoot wrote:So I am trying to source an aluminum gun kit. So far I see only Anhcon and CPU. did I miss anyone?

Freeky Geeky.

He shows some "In Stock" but I'm still unsure of the wait time. Unfortunately if we go off of history, you will be waiting a very long time, no matter who you go with. Hope you aren't on a time crunch.

I'm definitely not at all lol

As much as freeky geekys stuff is great, I will warn that his wait times are absurd. I waited almost 2 years for my full gun kit and I'm still waiting on my goggle parts and that ordered 2 years ago. Order with caution knowing it might take forever

Patient but not that patient.

So this is where we are now.
I wait for my parts that I have ordered.
A large portion of parts have been ordered from this site's store.
On the recommendation of the members here, I have also placed an order for a bumper and a booster frame from Nickatron.

I am weighing my options again for aluminum parts and have sent requests for quotes to a few members and will wait back patiently.

Also now looking for an aluminum thrower and have messaged a few members in regards to that also.

Cheers!

Todays update.
Had a day off so rather than sit in the house, I drove an hr away and visited my folks. I had told my mom a few nights prior that I was going to indulge on this project and was asking if my dad had a Dremel. Being in Canada, and being fiscally responsible (thats my story, I'm sticking to it) my dad went to his local Canadian Tire and bought a MasterCraft Rotary Tool with flexible hose wand...thing...and ....some other greeblies, a stand and bits and pieces. HYPED. $50 (its on sale this week if there is any other Canadians lurking about).
I then proceeded to purchase the following from MMM:
Filler/Beam Line Tubes, HGA, ION Arm, Injector Tubes, resistors, and...a cable P clamp.
I still need to buy a ribbon cable and some other stuff while I source other stuff.
The project may wind up going a bit slower as I will need to also source a new vehicle. Stupid PT Cruiser. Its like a mobile prophylactic. Luckily; Im married and looking at my new upgrade...vehicle, not wife.

Thanks for listening to todays "still can't believe I am going to be doing this project at 30 years old and trying to tell myself Im still a grown up".
I should have some photos this week of parts coming in. Im hoping a number of them will arrive friday and next week. I dunno when Nickatron will send his but again, I am in no hurry.

Cheers all!

Addendum:
I have looked and can't see of anyone who sources bellows/shock mounts in aluminum as replicas. Just resin and stacked washers. Any ideas guys?

Kingpin wrote:For lights, I would suggest going with Jupiter Electronics rather than Crix.

That isn't to say that Crix's light kits aren't well made (I have his Slime Blower lights, and a number of his audio kits), however Crix's Proton Gun light kit, like a number of others past and present, have more lights than are actually ever seen lit up on the gun in either of the two films... the most common inaccuracy being that the developers light up the sunken hat light on the Proton Gun (possibly the second most common mistake is missing out an additional light for the orange hat light near the front of the gun.

Jupiter's kit isn't perfect, but he does offer fixes. He is able to add an extra light for one of the front hat lights, and change the vent light so that it's static rather than pulsing (as seen in his demonstration video).

I wanna pose a question here about this. For his kit he is only missing the front hat light on the trigger ear? or is it on the gun box itself?
Also; can someone recommend a sound kit to match this light kit?

If you're going for the GB1 look, go ahead and order the ribbon cable from the GBFans shop ASAP. That stuff sells out quickly and takes a while to restock.

I got an aluminum shock mount a few months ago from another member who was upgrading to one of the more accurate ones that AJ had sourced and put in the shop. It was from a seller that doesn't make parts anymore. Just because you don't see something for sale doesn't mean there aren't any available. You'll be surprised what you might get just by dropping a request in the wanted section.