#4796526
Hey everyone. My last build, a hardware "junk pack" was starting to fall apart, so an upgrade was necessary. After weighing the options, and under the wise tutelage of sensei Alan Hawkins, I went with a Studio Creations V.3 shell, reinforced with fiberglass.

First, a word on the shell. If you are a newer builder, or if you aren't planning on a hero pack, or if you're on a budget, the current Studio Creations shell is what you'll probably want to go with. That said, changes to the shell must be made before you mount anything to it, and then it must be backed in fiberglass. The shell comes in two halves, which must be bolted together, and then the seam must be filled with bondo or putty. This presents an interesting problem that I had, which is that once it's bolted together, it no longer lays flat against a motherboard. These sorts of problems were a theme with the build, and my experience was that I was fighting it at every step of the way. Still, it's inexpensive, lightweight, and more durable than you think.

So the way I went into this was that even though it's a vacuform pack, it's gonna be the best vacuform pack I can possibly build.

Parts:

-I bought the shell, booster tube, vac line, EDA discs, PPD, N-Filter, and HGA (Joe Luna's) from Mr_Stay_Puft.
-Booster frame, gun ears, barrel lock, tube adapter, front and rear thrower cylinders - Jack Doud
-Ion rod - Multimedia Mayhem
-Grips, gun track, heatsink, trigger tip - Nick A Tron
-Thrower body is a pep given to me by Alan Hawkins.
-Bumper is from KCGhostbuster
-Everything else is from GBFans shop.

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The interior of the shell gets fiberglassed.
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The thrower body started out as cardstock
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Alan Attached my handles with rivets and loctite putty.
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Thrower assembly
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Yep, I did the silver thing.
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Body is all painted.
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The thrower looks kinda cool with grey grips, actually.
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Eleven days until my event deadline. Wish me luck.
User avatar
By Giant Slor
#4796535
Looking really nice so far. I'm very impressed with your thrower build. I'd be terrified to build anything that complicated from scratch.
Alan Hawkins liked this
By venkman30
#4797013
I got a quick question for you. How many layers of fiberglass did you add to the inside of the shell? I'm about to do this to my shell so I thought I'd ask another fellow builder. Thanks for any info you can offer in advance.
#4797049
venkman30 wrote:I got a quick question for you. How many layers of fiberglass did you add to the inside of the shell? I'm about to do this to my shell so I thought I'd ask another fellow builder. Thanks for any info you can offer in advance.
I did one layer, but make sure you cover all the area. Some things to note are:

The more layers you add, the more weight you will add to the shell.

Any area that hasn't been fiberglassed is not strong enough to support something that has been mounted to it.

Because of the nature of the material the shell is made out of, if you drill a hole into the shell after the fiberglass is hard, there will be a little separation between the fiberglass and the plastic shell. You'll feel it pulling apart a little. Don't sweat it, as soon as you put a bolt through said hole, it'll be fine.
#4797516
I wired up the thrower this weekend with the GBFans kit. Works great.

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For the pack lights, the concept was to make stands to support the cyclotron lights and power cell lights, so that I can just remove the shell when I need to without ever disconnecting wires. This is my setup for right now.

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#4798428
The pack is officially done. Completed it with 16 hours before my event deadline, which was the Gallery1988 art show in Chicago. I'm incredibly happy with it. It feels sturdy and strong, and the little personal touches and imperfections make me love it more. I couldn't have done it without Alan Hawkins, who is a genius, and knew about every obstacle I would come up against before it happened.

Thanks for looking!

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By shootforit
#4799223
Dude.

FRV that looks absolutely amazing. Fantastic job!

I hope that when I start a hero build someday that mine will look half as good as yours.
User avatar
By Rvonvolen
#4941608
Hey man I know this is like 6 years old but I'm putting together my own studio creations pack and a had a couple of questions, what did you make the discs next to the PPD out of and what kind of fiberglass did you use (a link or name of a kit would be appreciated). This is my first build so any advice is appreciated!

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