[GBforever84]

Hi Ghostheads! I'm a new member here but have been lurking the site for a while, researching it and just in awe with all of the great resources and work people have done here! This will be my first post ( besides my introduction ). I'm going to begin a build thread on my scratch built Proton Pack that I started building a couple months ago with about a month of research. It all stemmed from the foam-core Ghost Trap I was making. I was looking for insight and possibly some tutorials when I came across Naptime's foam-core pack thread in a Google search. A really cool and useful thread that inspired me to want to build my own! I still plan on finishing my trap but I put it off for now to start on my pack. I tend to take on different projects at the same time and don't mind multi-tasking, lol. I live in Illinois and the weather is still not quite up to par yet for painting anything outside nor in the garage, I've had a couple nice days but I'm doing as much as I can on the pack now inside the house for now. I started reproducing the main parts of the shell from foam-core based off of Sean and Stefan's Plans. I'm also utilizing many different methods used in Norm's plans plus adding methods of my own that I have learned along the way in my 5 years of prop building. I researched Naptime and LordGilpin's threads for the majority of this project, but have come across a number of other threads that have inspired me in this build ( too many to list frankly ). I am using a variety of materials and resources for this project. Foam-core ( for most of the shell parts ), EVA foam ( on the Sync Gen and Cylco ) wood for Ion Arm, Gun-mount, and support pieces, and can't forget the basswood strips! MDF motherboard, PVC pipe for the tubes, and other various parts from Hardware stores and the GBfans shop. I am sealing edges of the foam-core with joint compound, and filling in any imperfections with Durham's water putty and Bondo spot putty. I also recently purchased a 3D printer so I have been printing some hard to find and hard to replicate parts with some files from Tgoacher and Dancinfool on Thingiverse. I've ordered the light and sound kits from the shop as well with plans to bringing this thing to life. I plan on updating this thread with my build progression in the weeks to come and have hopes of completing this project in full by late August for Wizard World Chicago which is still 5 months out. I have quite a bit done already on the pack just need to get started on building the thrower ( I've printed a few parts so far and purchased the hat light lenses from the shop ). I bought a spirit pack for my wife that I am going to modify using techniques I learned here from the community as well, but that will be for another thread. Until next time, here is some pictures to enjoy, and keep on bustin!This was the very start of my build and I didn't even have parts in the right place! Lol
Figuring out part placement and getting a feel for how things may look just throwing some stuff together quick.
Cake pan for fun!
Added the injector tubes and re-positioned the PPD .
Side angle shot with some changes made, Ion cap & rod from wood ( I'll still may print one and make a resin cast, idk )Beam line and filler plug aren't official in this pic. I must inform you that I'm trying to be accurate as possible but I know a few things may not be considering a few factors. But that's ok with me, I still plan on building a more screen accurate pack in the future.
This really gave me a feel for what it was going to look like, and man is this thing big! I knew it was going to be. Things were finally coming together. Added the cosmetic plating into it as well with the cake pan acting as cyclo for cosmetic purposes.
Drafted up the Cyclotron pattern to transfer to the Foam-core.
At this point I had redone the cosmetic plating, I wasn't happy with the first one. Added more support pieces, new filler plug and beam line. Also I made a prototype booster ladder.
Measuring for the motherboard and getting lines just right because I'm only cutting once! There was a small area under the power cell where the angle does not match up quite right when the shell is on, but...it wont really be seen. I'm not too bothered by it.... yet, lol. I will share some more pictures on my next post. Not sure how many I can share in one.

[GBforever84]

From where I left off in my original post to this thread.

Trying out the printer for the first time. Printed a crank knob from Thingiverse and the cyclo rings I designed in Tinkercad from Sean's plans.
Ultimately I rebuilt my powercell out of thin hobby plywood. I printed this part I designed in Tinkercad myself, to attach to the bottom of the powercell so the injector tubes would be supported better. I made a resin cast of the print and mounted it to the bottom with 4 screws.
Some of the parts I have printed and filled in with spot putty. I have since made resin copies of some of these parts just so they are stronger, the PLA can be fragile and I have broken some pieces already.
Printing the Particle Thrower box, this took 18 hours to print but these prints are turning out really good, like resin quality!
This is pretty much where I sit now with the pack. Waiting to paint some things, went shopping online for pretty much everything else I need on the pack. Got my uniform, patches, belt, elbow pads. Hey look I even printed this!
Everything I got for the pack so far minus a few things I forgot to put into the picture, lol. I also have the blue brick, a speaker, and the decals.

[TragicManner]

Things are looking really good! You're well on your way, once the weather warms up it seems you'll be ready to really get this thing going.

I've been using Tinkercad for one-off things as well, including I just modeled the cyclo rings as well, haha! I specifically used this technique to make them really round, as the limit of 64 sides for a circle in tinkercad is a bit lame sometimes. Seems like you did something similar? Or maybe pulled a user-made cylinder off their user made stuff? Either way, they look great!

I finished up my crank knob last night and used the filler/primer approach that I mentioned. Here is the final result if you're curious: Crank Knob Finished

For the longest time I was convinced that, if a print had much detail on it, I just had to live with the layer lines, but this approach has made a huge difference.

Your prints are looking super clean, by the way! What approach are you taking to print? Are you using cura? What settings are you using generally?

[GBforever84]

I did do something similar to achieve more sides for my circles. I made the Attenuator discs the same way as well.

That Crank Knob turned out A+ man! Definitely going to try that technique!

As for my prints, I am using Cura as a slicer program. I haven't made many changes to the settings. I believe things should still be set to default. I have tried to print at a faster speed than 60 when I first got it but the quality wasn't as good and I had a couple failed prints. I keep it on 0.1 for layer height with a 20% infill. Usually print everything with a raft as well because otherwise things don't like to adhere to the bed properly. I'm sure there is some shortcuts to slicing some time off these prints but like I said the quality is great, so I really don't mind waiting extra time for a completed print.

[GBforever84]

It's been a while since my first post on this thread but I wanted to make an update and show my progress on this project. I stay with it! I took a short break to mod my wife's spirit pack which turned out great and really got me hyped for whats to still come with my pack! I'll start another thread with that later and show you guys! But I'm back! Spring is around the corner and the weather is starting to warm up some. Getting really excited to start moving forward with this build, onto the paint phase!

My small 3d printed parts, resin copies, ion arm, and gun mount both crafted from plywood and sanded like crazy .


The powercell, got the final touches of putty applied, gonna sand it again and get it ready for some paint!


Cyclo getting a few coats of Mod Podge/water applied for a sealcoat, mainly for the styrofoam edges, but I just end up covering everything for overkill. Watching for drips too, less sanding that way! Mind you this is my first pack and as for screen accuracy, I'm trying my best to keep it as close as possible so pardon the flaws.


It's finally nice outside! Spring is here! Set up a table in the garage. Enjoying a nice import waiting for things to dry! Also printed up some Ecto Goggles while I was waiting! Sprayed em up with the gray filler/primer using TragicManner's method to fill in the print layer lines. Which I may add works pretty good!


Another shot of some parts drying from the Mod Podge. You can also see the cosmetic plating sitting there.


Close up of the Gun Mount with a couple coats of acrylic spray paint applied.


The PPD assembly and Crank Gen shell. This may be unusual to some builders out there. It is to me even! It's kind of a buffet of things going on here but I figured I'd show how I'm holding things together. Bonded by wood glue, JB weld, and trim screws. I placed blocks in other places as well, where I knew there was going to need the durability. I would let the glues and epoxies dry 24 hours before I even thought of drilling. But this thing is holding together nicely, and getting heavy!!


Letting that JB weld dry 24 hours clamped in position, I will continue the next day drilling 5 inch construction screws in from the back of the shell making sure things stay level.


All of the wood parts added the rest of the shell. The Powercell is a little hard to see, but we all know it's there. Did I mention this thing is heavy! Lol. I went the route of foam core in the beginning but as the build progressed I wanted the thing to actually be durable and be able to take a little wear & tear so I built it that way. Plus its going to be housing electronics so I def don't want the thing to just fall apart! That would be embarrassing! This thing is built very sturdy, and level, I was constantly making sure things were level! There is still a few things to do but I plan on getting the shell painted here sometime in the coming week. I 3d printed the Clippard valves for this project but now the plan is to purchase the real ones and make this pack even heavier!! I'd imagine the Clippard valves have some weight to them. I've worked on some pneumatic parts at my job in the past but never ran into Clippard brand. I plan on updating this thread again soon!

[Brads_gimmick]

Looking good man!!

[TragicManner]

The post-processing is looking great! It's so cool to see you making so much progress.

[GBforever84]

Thanks for your kind feedback! This has been a long haul since back in January when I first started the build. Been some stressful moments but things are still coming together on schedule for me so that's good!

[GBforever84]

Not as active as I should be on here with the updates, but summer is as busy for me as it is for most of you I'm guessing. I haven't given up on my build though, still going strong. At this point I have everything I need to finish this project. It feels great finally seeing this come to fruition! BIG UPDATE! I'm back with some more pics for everyone to enjoy. I know many veteran members have seen similar build pics of packs but I post these also in hopes of newcomers like me to use them as reference or inspiration on their own packs.


First coat of paint finally going on the pack back in May


3d printed bumper primed, filled, sanded, ready for paint


Not the greatest pic but it will have to do! All painted up!


I did some light dry brush weathering with testors metallic and mounted the bumper and shock mount bellows.


You can't see in the pic but under the bumper I used a steel rod as a spacer from the cyclotron to the bumper for some more detail! Another shot of painted shell.


I could have purchased the smc elbows from the shop but I tried to make a few buys on amazon as well and found these, figured I would just paint them to make them look a little accurate. They turned out pretty good I think, at least for me.


This was a fun part! I had been waiting for the moment I finally got to start adding all the parts to the pack! Cutting a fitting all the hoses and such. Next..the decals!


Tubing and decals added with a closer shot of the pack.


A shot of it out in my garage after I had to make a few adjustments on the inside which caused me to repaint some things.


In all of it's glory!! I found a ribbon cable on amazon I used for now until I can get a GB1 style one.


Been working on the motherboard as you can see as well with some ideas that may look familiar that inspired me from Canpara's build. I constructed a place for the reflector cups to rest and bondo'd them in place. Cut the hockey pucks for spacers, and also made the "shelf" for the powercell lights. Tested with my shell and after a little bit of modification I finally have it all fitting and working!! Super happy about that!





Lots has come together as you can see since my last update and posts. I am about a month out from Wizard World Chicago and I know now I will have this thing done in time! The wand is almost done too and I will post pics of them in my next and probably last update to this thread. I have had some issues with the battery I purchased for the pack though. It's a blue brick, just purchased from amazon and this thing has been charging for a couple days and the charger light still has not turned green. I purchased a different battery as well that will work as plan B but it's also a bit bigger and will become more a problem to fit in my shell. See everyone on my next update!

[livewire008]

Looking really, really good!

Mine doesn't turn green like the instructions say either. My light only goes green if it's on AC only and not plugged into the battery... I've read about a couple different light configurations on these boards and it seems like everyone's Blue Brick is a little different... all I can imagine is it's a factory change/revision but they just keep putting the same instructions in there.

Originally I left it plugged in for a couple of days as well, but after 48 hours it was just like "this thing has to be charged by now" and for the sake of battery longevity I don't like the idea of overcharging in general. What I've been doing is just charging the battery for 12 hours. Period. Following that recipe, my battery lasts about 4 weeks before needing another charge (due to the batteries "always on" red light) and as a display piece with the pack lights on it will run approximately 12 and 1/2 hours continuous (a little less if there's a lot of play with the neutrino wand, due to extra lights and sounds pulling more current).

I would disconnect the "always on" light, but opening up a battery makes me more than a little nervous.

Hope that helps.

[GBforever84]

Thanks for the input, that definitely helps!

[GBforever84]

I'm back, with my last update on this thread. It has been quite the journey getting to the finishing point like I stated in my last update. This community is awesome and you guys taught me so much! I'll be back with new threads, I got more things in store! For now, I want to share the rest of my build pics with you and some shots of me at Wizard World Chicago this past weekend! Enjoy!












Primed up!


It all works, perfect! The wand light kit is awesome btw!


Uniform ready to go!


Mirror selfie shot of me!


My son's and I posing!


Side shot of me looking at Thor from Supernatural!


Group pic of everybody in the lobby, apparently the man in the middle with the microphone was Kato Kaelin.


Another group shot!

I saw some pics of some Wayne's World Ghostbusters that were also there, but never saw them at the convention to catch a pic with them.


And one last shot of the pack on deck! Ready to roll! I also integrated an mp3 player into the pack. I just mounted it on the outside of the mobo so I could use the remote to change songs and what not. Loaded with both soundtracks, and a bunch of retro-wave music! If you haven't heard "Ghostbusters" by MAGNAVOX check it out! Once again thank you all! I will return! Til then, see ya Ghostheads!