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Hello Folk's....My names Bart, and I wanna be a Ghostbuster when I grow up ( and have for the last 30 odd years or so....)

So yesterday I took the plunge and ordered up some .125 styrene sheets and a couple sizes of acrylic tube. Got the plans printed out and I'm ready to get on with this bad boy.

Heres to getting some templates plotted out and getting ready to slice and dice some styrene when it gets here.......


pack001 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Can’t wait to follow this.

Looks like the styrene sheet will be arriving tomorrow so I styed up late last night and laid out the first template.
]pack002 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Also got some components in today. Acrylic tubing for the prton thrower, and a Pilot Plasma tube, The envy of all pack builders!

pack003 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Finally!!! the Big Brown Truck rolled up this morning! Theres a proton pack in that there thang.........

pack004 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Yeah baby! Subscribed to this thread.

Look into getting a spst or spdt 12v relay, .1uf resitor, and dpdt momentary push button for the plasma tube. That thing throws off crazy emf making things go wonky. I just bought the relay and resistor Sunday and need to get them in line. Shhh, don't tell my build thread, I haven't told it yet lol.

Ohh yes.....I have already been sourcing that out........read a couple threads with how to wire round that particular problem......and I ain;t gonna reinvent the wheel........y'all done the heavy lifting already......

Got to spend a little quality time with the Hprops templates and the bandsaw today!

pack005 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

OK lets see some REAL progress for a change! I started assembling the gunbox. First up I rough sanded everything to get a good fit. Then I used a heat gun to bend the side /top section, draping it over a piece of pvc pipe to get a uniform radius

pack006 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

I cleaned up the front piece of the curve to make sure everything lined up nicely......

pack007 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Front bits glued up and doing a little rough sanding. Like how everything is fitting together. Note also the tube of Weld On 16. the only glue I will ever use on this kinda project.....Fantastic stuff

pack008 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Also on a different front I repurposed an old jacket (well my Mom did) by sewing a No Ghosts Logo over a Public atey Insignia that I'm no longer associated with........

jacket by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Nice, looking good! The thrower is a motivating piece to start with.

Yes it is! I was kinda stressing over getting that bend in, turned out to be super simple......Gonna try to get the handle/barrel on tonight and look at doing the syncgen and cyclotron next week.....

Didn;t get a whole lot done today. finished putting the back on the gun box and worked on sanding down the seams....hadda use a touch of putty here and there, but I'm sorta pleased with the way its turning out.

pack009 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Getting a handle on things........also drilled some pilot holes and cut the window for the bargraph......

pack010 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

OK now that the first round of Holiday Silliness has concluded, I can get back to work in the Bartwerx. Tonights silly Bart Trick is the Instrument bar and trigger bar.

pack011 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Left an opening on the front that will get a cover plate, and drilled through for wire access. theres a cover for the back of the trigger bar too I glued in some lugs to screw the retaining screws into as well.

pack012 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

I was wondering if my handle wasnt a little too long, but now I see it looks alot better with the IB/TB in place....also predrilled some pilot holes for the switches and lights that will get installed eventually

pack013 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Oh yeah, that's a great, clean looking IB/TB!

I see the hole in the back of the IB, did you also make a hole between that and the TB?

Yep I sure did......but that is something I would ferget to do.....lol The TB is bonded to the IB but I think I'm gonna bolt the IB to the gunbox, just in case......

Felt like doing something constructive and messy after I got home from work tonight. Why not start cutting out parts for the pack proper? Been anxious about building the syncgen/cyclotron parts So I figgered I'd go ahead and get them out of the way. I have laid out the spcer template on poster board and then used it to trace onto the styrene. then I had to refer to the plans to lay out the cosmetic plates.

pack014 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

I used a combination of the jig saw, band saw, mini hacksaw, and just scoring and snapping to get the basics done. yep, they are rough and will need a lot of clean up. Thats why I have several belt sanders.......

pack015 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Kept the cutout of the center to help make the top of the cyclotron and cut strips for the sides and reinforecement of the syncgen....

pack016 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

So even though I had to attend training, I had the day off. So after knocking out a few chores I decided to assemble some styrene! The girlfriends youngest decided she wanted to hang out with me this evening, so it was styrene, glue and Cutie Cars....

pack017 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

After I took the manual sharkskin to the jig saw edges, I measured out the individual plates and scored and snapped them. then did the same for some internal bracing so that the construction could begin in earnest. I started at the bottom and added extra bracing there. then began one at a time mitering one edge and assembling the wall.....

pack018 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Getting the individual plated on wasn;t as hard as I thought it would be, so look out boys....Im breaking out the heat gun. I had already glued in the PVC spacers so I used that as a buck to clamp , heat, and bend the styrene around ........

pack019 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Wow.....sometimes I amaze myself ......Getting the last two sections of wall in place were really a piece of cake after that.....

pack020 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

And there we have it Ghostheads.......... a rough syncgen ready for finishing........

pack021 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

What have I done? You too with the sandpaper synonyms. Lol. Keep it up!

On another modeling forum that I prequent there was a poll on what do you spend the most time doing on a build? Guess what the overwhelming result was!

Got slowed down over this weekend, basically All I did was the cosmetic plating. Thinking I'll move on to the EDA/PPD assmbly after work tonight......

pack022 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Welp....Made my first mistake..........

pack024 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Do ya see it? Lol When I built the EDA and snuggled it up to the Cosmetic Plating I discovered that I apparently miscalculated when I was laying out the CP. Note that it should be as wide as the EDA before the angle starts.

pack023 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Now the question is do I wanna just ignore it and pretend its a feature, or do I wanna go back and add some plating? Decisions decisions.........

You'll kick yourself later if you don't redo it now. Part of creating is messing up lol. The booster tubes line up next to this so things will start to get thrown off later on down the road.

Good progress speed though! Enjoy the construction part, it slows down during clean up and assembly.

Yeah its styrene, so its an easy fix........can just weld more matieral on....a lot more forgiving than wood.........I started sharkskinning the Sync gen this morning..........

Aaaaaand I fixed it.......

pack025 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

Something doesn't look right and i think i know what it is. The lower section of the eda is too wide looking. There should be a bare part of the base sticking out past to the left of the angled area.

Like so:



Your angled part sends to go all the way to the edge off the base. There should be about 1" or so of base gap there between the angled part and powercell. The cosmetic spacer was probably fine.




Hate to be the bearer of bad news.

DAMN! That explains why the cosmetic plating was "off" poopie, poopie, poopie............ Wheres the razor saw.......

OK that wasn't ashard a fix as I thought. I unfixed last nights fix, and fixed that part that needed fixin......... Now mebbe I can make some progress......lol

pack026 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

That's looking good now! Quick fix, wow.

I'm a dangerous guy with a hacksaw!

Welp we have lost 5 employees over the past week at work, so construction time has come to a screechin' halt. they are interviewing left and right, but dang.... findin people that can pass a backround check and drug test........

Anyways, did find a lil time and cobbled up the ion arm.........

pack027 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

And today made a start on the powercell. I gotta sand it up to hide the seams before I add the ribs, but I do yave the stock cut for that.....

pack028 by Bart Salmons, on Flickr

On another interesting front, the girlfriend and I went out to dinner with another Buster. Now that she has seen what a completed pack looks like in the flesh so to speak, she wants one of her own. So this just became a double build........Love that woman!