Discuss all things Ghostbusters here, unless they would be better suited in one of the few forums below.
User avatar
By abaddon5
#4875757
Hello all! It's so weird to me that this community is so warm and welcoming. It's rare on the internet, but you guys are awesome! Beyond the pleasantries, a few months ago, I got to wondering: what does a proton pack cost? I was born in 85 and, as a result, loved Ghostbusters. I got the proton pack and ghost trap toys as a kid. I loved them. They were fun and cool. A few years back, I went to a wedding that had a Halloween theme. The groom was dressed up as a Ghostbuster. He had the whole 9 yards. EVERY man in that room was jealous. So to a few months ago- what would a proton pack cost? I found that many people actually *build* their own stuff. You can get the good stuff, but I'm not exactly the richest person on the planet, so building would be better. I have a bit of model building skills, so this would put me up to the task of scratch building stuff. So I decided: I'm going to do this. PERIOD.

I have the uniform (mostly) complete. And yes, before anyone asks, I did change the position of the hose (pee tube) connector (what was I thinking?).
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The uniform, patches, belt, etc., were from the gbfans store. I found the boots at a local antique mall. They're not 100% accurate as they don't have the zipper sides, but they're Carolina and they fit. I'm usually a stickler for details, but these will do for now. The only problem I have is with the pockets on the flight suit: I think that I'm going to cut them off to make them more comfortable while tucked in my boots.

I also wanted to get a shot of me with my original Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man that I've had since I can remember:
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Beyond the suit, I wanted a proton pack! I decided that the fiberglass and aluminum parts weren't for me as this time. I wanted to utilize stuff that I had and stuff that's easy to work with. I decided that wood, PVC pipe, and styrene sheets were going to be the main stuff I would use (outside of resin parts and other stuff like tubing). So I got started. The power cell was my favorite part of the pack, so I wanted to start that first. Here it is in the early stages:
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Box somewhat built and pipes cut to length. I didn't compensate for the extra piece of styrene for the caps, but...

Here are the two parts all painted up and ready to go:
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A few things: I utilized hot glue as a "weld joint". I also used thin sheet styrene as a covering for the power cell to give it a cleaner look. A few problems: "Goop" glue, to my horror, actually melted the styrene, and can be seen in some of the pictures. It's not *bad*, but it really did anger me. But- "nothing ventured, nothing gained". Also, my clear blue acrylic paint peeled! It didn't do that the first time I removed the mask, but it did the second time. For those of you familiar with airbrushing you'll know that just re-coating it doesn't make it go away. We'll see after I get lights installed as to whether or not I'll have to strip and repaint.

Moving on, I think that the people at Kinkos thought that I was messing with them. They didn't print the motherboard and cyclotron motor blueprints very well. But this was the result of printing and cutting:
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Oh, and my uncle got a good shot at the Ecto-1 (-A?) in California!

Moving on, the ion arm was next. This was two wood pieces, sandwiched with thin styrene. I got the resistors from eBay. This was for two reasons: 1. the real stuff is expensive, and 2. I would rather have the people building the really good stuff get the original stuff than me. It still needs some parts, but here it is:
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Here's my current progress:
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I committed a cardinal sin here: I was trying to fit parts around a motherboard when I should have cut the motherboard around the parts. Oh well- I'll get the stuff build and cut my motherboard around them. It will probably work out better in the long run since I'm only 5'6" and it'll look better on me.
Last edited by Kingpin on September 28th, 2016, 5:09 am, edited 1 time in total.Reason: Added image coding
JurorNo.2, MonaLS liked this
User avatar
By abaddon5
#4883967
Wow, I had said that I would update this, like, a month ago. It's funny how life and work and all that other jazz just creeps up on you...

Anyway, I've been a bit of a flake when it comes to giving an update on my progress on my pack. But, fortunately, I have made quite a bit of progress on it and other items as well.

First is the belt gizmo. I have a habit of keeping crap (and I use that term in the most accurate way) around. I had a DVD player that my wife had since about 2000. It finally decided to stop working, so I decided to bust it open and grab stuff from the innards. There's some really cool stuff in there and I saw that there were some circuit boards that would do for creating a belt gizmo. I saw Spongeface's boards and loved them, but they were a bit out of my price range at the time, so I created my own. I wanted to make a board that looked cool and had an "action" feature- that is three positions: off, constant on, and an "action" position. Here's what I made:
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It's not accurate, but it'll get the job done until I can get the good stuff.

Next up, the goggles. I really wish I had done more research as I have recently found that Nick-a-tron makes an awesome kit of the goggles. But hindsight is 20/20, so I did what a few people have done and used Hobart welding goggles to make mine. I cut out pretty much everything was wasn't essential and created a pretty cool piece. I also wanted to add lights to make it pop.
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I really want to clean up the straps at some point, but I do think that these look pretty good. I was impressed by the ones I've seen that were just Hobart goggles with some parts added on (before I knew the stuff like I do now), so the general person would be impressed.

Anyway, some actual pack progress:
I ordered some tubing from the GBfans store (which seemed to take forever) to help my build. I was at a crossroads on a couple of things. The first was the cyclotron motor. Foam or solid wood? I choose to use foam with sheet styrene "skin". The second was the EDA box. Solid wood or box? I decided on solid wood. I found 1" thick wood at my local Lowes and tried to cut the shape out of three pieces and stack them together. Luckily I got a pretty decent bonus from my employer and was able to buy a belt sander which helped even the stuff out.
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I knew that the EDA would be tough: those angles were not going to be easy with the miter saw that I have. But I did make some progress with it:
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and also with the absolutely beautiful "ladder" piece from the GBfans store and other pieces:
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The cyclotron motor "cover" was a piece that I took inspiration from many other users: a cake pan. The shape isn't perfect, but it'll do for now. One thing I always hated seeing was the "lip" from the cake pan. I tried a can opener but that didn't work, do tin snips did their job. I wanted to eliminate the seam. I decided to epoxy from the inside and use liquid nail in the outside (since liquid nail takes paint). Pro-tip: excess epoxy from the inside should stay inside. Epoxy does not take paint well. Also, I work for an industrial supply company and found washers of the correct inner and outer dimensions. However, these washers were much too thick and heavy to be used, but they provided a great template for sheet styrene washers (using double stick tape). I also didn't get it 100% centered, but here's the progress so far:
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A couple of things: 1. I think that adding a textured paint and using flat black on top will help cover any type of wood grain (a method I've used in the past), 2. I'm thinking about using the method of clear filters and painting the cones from flashlights to actually color these areas. I was also trying to think of a way to use Sephiroth's smoke generators in this kit, but it may be impossible with what I'm doing.

Edit: I used a 10" wooden clock base for the bottom of the cyclotron "cover". I forgot to mention that.

I also bought a want/gun/thrower kit from Throwingchicken. I'll post later on that, as I'm having some problems with the electronics kit (the one from GBfans).
Last edited by abaddon5 on October 28th, 2016, 11:46 pm, edited 3 times in total.
robandliv liked this
#4884064
abaddon5 wrote:Scheisse! I used to be good at HTML, but do you know how to directly post them? I put a straight up address to them before but that's exactly what it turned out as: a text address.
Not sure I can type it because the forum software will try to interpret it so I will describe...

leftsquarebracket img rightsquarebracket pathtoimage leftsquarebracket /img rightsquarebracket
#4884216
bishopdonmiguel wrote:
abaddon5 wrote:Scheisse! I used to be good at HTML, but do you know how to directly post them? I put a straight up address to them before but that's exactly what it turned out as: a text address.
Not sure I can type it because the forum software will try to interpret it so I will describe...

leftsquarebracket img rightsquarebracket pathtoimage leftsquarebracket /img rightsquarebracket
Thank you! Like I said before, I used to be really good at HTML...but that was back in the days of dial-up and WebTV (if anyone remembers that...), so yeah...there have been a few generations since then. I didn't even know what C++ was (just that I think I got that in gym class once).
#4884401
abaddon5 wrote:
Venkman's Swagger wrote:Nice dude
Thanks! You seem to be pretty prevalent on here, so that means a lot to me. I hope to be getting some more work done this weekend.
You're welcome man. Nah I'm just a random Brit :-)
#4884572
Venkman's Swagger wrote:
abaddon5 wrote: Thanks! You seem to be pretty prevalent on here, so that means a lot to me. I hope to be getting some more work done this weekend.
You're welcome man. Nah I'm just a random Brit :-)
None of us are just "random" on here! This is what I love about this community: everyone, in my experience, loves to see this stuff. Whether we're trying to create screen-accurate builds or just wing it, everyone on here is great.
#4884580
abaddon5 wrote:
Venkman's Swagger wrote: You're welcome man. Nah I'm just a random Brit :-)
None of us are just "random" on here! This is what I love about this community: everyone, in my experience, loves to see this stuff. Whether we're trying to create screen-accurate builds or just wing it, everyone on here is great.
We definitely have that in common dude. This community rocks
abaddon5 liked this
User avatar
By abaddon5
#4885359
Alright, some progress has been made and I really want to keep up with this stuff.

First off, even though I didn't have my whole impression completed, I really wanted to wear my jumpsuit when I gave out candy for Halloween. I was surprised at how many kids knew what I was dressed up as. It's not perfect, but I was really happy with the response I got.
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Also, pack stuff! Unfortunately, ThrowingChicken's gun kit doesn't seem to be designed for GBFan's thrower light kit. But since I've got plenty of model building experience, I was able to remedy the situation. It mainly required sheet styrene to beef up the box of the ear fire area.
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I also had to route out quite a bit just to get the connectors to fit through the hole. Again, not a big issue considering that I've had plenty of experience using model putty (such as filling in the "grid/aztec" lines on a Refit Enterprise model. If you know what that is, you'll understand). I had to use quite a bit, even after bending the terminals from the light and switch. But here it is almost ready to epoxy into place:
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I've puttied the seams and still have some work to do on this guy. I'm going to once again use ThrowingChicken's method of "welding" (using epoxy putty) to help cover up the seams between the box and the barrel.

Now on to actual pack stuff. The EDA box was a part that I was dreading. I don't have a band saw and I only had access to wood that was 1 inch thick, so I was forced to cut three separate pieces and glue them together. Since I have a belt sander now I was able to level things better. I went ahead and bought the PVC pipe that was about the right size for the booster tube, as well as the HGA. I then tried to cut a piece of wood to match the angle of the booster tube. I also decided to use textured paint to not only try to get the look of the original packs, but to also cover up the wood grain. It's not too terrible. Here's the progression:
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I airbrushed the booster plug just to ensure that was thoroughly covered
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And here's right before I glued on the ion arm and PPD:
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I have yet to install the "ladder", as I don't have the correct bolts and cable tie-down yet. That will hopefully be sooner rather than later.

But here's my overall progress thus far:
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I'm currently working on the crank box at the moment. I've made some progress and will post things when I get a bit further with it. Thanks for reading!
#4888646
It's been a while, hasn't it? Anyway, I've gotten an absolute TON finished on my pack since my last update, so I'll start with the more boring stuff:

First off, I ordered a set of basic stickers from the GBFans store. These things are simply amazing. Not only do they stick to irregular surfaces, they just make a pack POP. It's amazing how much better stuff looks with these things. Also, with Christmas money (as well as selling an old Fender half-stack amp), I got a bunch of money. So what did I do? I bought a bunch of Ghostbusters junk! I bought a few things from the GBFans store (which was ordered on January 1st, but they went on hiatus, so hopefully it will be sent this Monday...), a V-hook from FreekyGeeky, and a bumper from KCGhostbuster (more on that later).

So on with some progress pictures!

My wand:
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I've mostly finished the wand. I'm still waiting for the trigger (part of my GBFans order), but it's pretty decent. I also decided to use the banjos that came with ThrowingChicken kit until I get the better stuff. One thing that I did was add bolts: I found some bolts that matched the size of the ones on the resin parts- but those had some areas that needed to be filed to match the original stuff:

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I'm also at a crossroads here: I was recently talking with FreekyGeeky about a barrel popping mechanism. I apparently can't have a twisting handle with their mechanism, but I really want both. I bought toilet paper roll springs in hopes of making the mechanism myself. Most of the posts regarding this method have pictures that no longer work, so that isn't helping me at all. I'll try to figure something out.

Anyway, on with pack stuff:

I had to completely re-fabricate the center plate (who knew that sanding more and more on a part would shrink it j/k). So I have that stuff measured out.

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One part that didn't turn out as well as I had hoped is the crank generator. It's not bad, but it's not great. I decided that I would combine that with the corner plate and gun box as one "super piece". Here's the progress:

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And speaking of the gun box, here's the progress on that part:

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The ribs have been cut and are waiting to be glued on.

The part I was dreading most was the n-filter. I really screwed up by trying to measure and cut pieces of PVC pipe to match my cyclotron. I used these screw-ups to measure and cut the holes in the cyclotron itself. The results were surprisingly good:
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The last part I'll mention is the wonderful piece from KCGhostbuster: The bumper.

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This bumper is worth the praise it's received. I made the bellows as others have: washers. I work at an industrial supplier, so I was able to buy them. I wanted around twenty of each size (1.5 inch and 1.25 inch). I was told that I couldn't buy the amount I needed: I would have to buy 100 of each size. These set me back about $3.00. That leads me to something: if anyone out there needs these washers, send me a PM. I can send you the amount you need (for free).

Lastly, again: I LOVE status shots. It makes me happy to see how far I've come.

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I can almost taste it! After I finish these last few parts, I'll need a motherboard. I'll probably just buy the aluminum and cut it myself.

Next, I want to buy a better gizmo from Spongeface (a black one) and a good set of goggles from Nick-a-tron. A fiberglass body and aluminum parts is the ultimate goal, but I'm really happy with what I've achieved here.
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