By thelegendofvix
#4833567
So my (almost) 2 year old loves to push the buttons on my wand. Like, a lot. So I thought why not make him his own little pack.

I started off by ordering a youth x-small black flight suit off amazon (it matches my flight suit and I couldn't find any tan ones), a new name patch, and a No Ghost patch.

I present to you MiniGhostbuster.
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I plan to start on the proton pack this week. To make it as light (and cheap) as possible I will be using EVA foam, cardboard from a shoebox (since it's thin), sintra for the motherboard, and some nylon straps with 1" buckles. I also think I can manage to make him a mini lifegard, a belt, and a tube hose thingie.
By thelegendofvix
#4833728
Made some progress last night on the pack.

When I wear my pack it occupies about 26" of heigh on my back. When I measured my son's back the same space came out to be about 10". So now we are talking about a 38% pack for scale.

I needed a template for the motherboard so I used Stefan's plans as a guide. I printed off the blueprint on a sheet of paper and it came out to a nice 10" height on the first try. Here it is next to my pack. So tiny!
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So knowing my ratio, I started shrinking everything down. I figured the last thing I would do would be to actually cut the motherboard out of sintra since most of this work will be freehand and making adjustments on the fly. Here is the cyclotron. I am using costuming foam and hot glue so that this will be super light. I may put a coat of wood glue down and then use black plasti-dip....or I may jsut leave it like this. Not sure at the moment.
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Now that I have the full GBFans lights kit, I can use my old one for my son's pack. It's rather bulky and has way more wires than I will need (and I don't feel like cutting) so I will have to basically build the foam around it. You can see how much of the motherboard it occupies.
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Here you can see the light kit surrounded by foam. Tight fit but it still gives me roam to make it look more like a proton pack.
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Here is the inside. Not much room for anything lol.
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Made the booster tube, frame, and ion arm. For the power cell window I just cut it so that it only show 1/2 of the LED's and hides the other half up under the ion arm.
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By CPU64
#4833767
Awwwe!! :D
My dad wanted to throw away my first pack.. Most of the stuff I built, to him was trash.

Good job you did!
By thelegendofvix
#4834083
On a semi-related note, I bought two of these yesterday to display my ghostbuster and mandalorian.
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Now on with the updates.

A lot going on in this this photo.
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  • I finished the upper half of the foam parts.
  • I went to Home Depot and picked up some 1/2" PVC fittings. An end cap works great as an HGA and the coupler will hold the corrugated hose.
  • I cut out a motherboard out of sintra. I cut a square to act as a hatch for access to the battery and cables.
  • I cut up a coat hanger and mounted it on the mobo. I then cut out two squares so that you could get to the coat hanger from the outside. I will later mount the straps to the metal hangers. I figured this way the mounts would be more secure.
  • I counted the on/off switch at the bottom of the mobo because I couldn't figure out a way to mount it facing "outward." I will add some padding so that the switch does not scratch my son's back.
In this photo you can see the elastic straps that I mounted and ran through the pack. I will use button snaps to connect them. You can also see the padding and the hatch secured via electrical tape. The holes that show the coat hanger will be used for the straps that make up the waist band.
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I mounted the cyclotron to the mobo. I used another end cap to simulate the clippard valve and a plastic barbed hose conenctor to connect the 1/2" split loom tubing to the white PVC coupler.
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Next I drilled holes in the HGA and certain parts of the foam. Then I ran wires over the pack to see how it was coming together. Also I stuffed some foam inside some excess splitloom tubing to make the shock mount.
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Test fittings.
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Pretty close to being done. What I have left to do is:
  • Make the booster tubes and wires that go with them.
  • Use the dremel to clean up the edges of the foam
  • Coat all fo the foam in wood glue (or modge podge) and put 3-5 coats of black Plasti-Dip
  • Possibly put a coat of satin black (not sure how "shiny" the Plasti-Dip will be)
  • Make the wand. I think I might just go buy a cheap "sapce" gun from walmart or the dollar store and gut the electronics. Basically, I just want something for him to push and make sounds and lights since that is what he loves doing on my pack.
By Hammer
#4834084
For booster tubes on my little guy pack, I think I used Pex...not the flexible. It's durable and seemed very proportional.
By thelegendofvix
#4834085
Hammer wrote:For booster tubes on my little guy pack, I think I used Pex...not the flexible. It's durable and seemed very proportional.
That's a great idea. I was also thinking of a chapstick tube or cutting up a cheap bic pen.

Plus, your build was one of the inspirations for me to get started on one for my son :-)
By thelegendofvix
#4834138
For the injectors I used a single empty sewing thread spool. I then taped off the lights and motherboard and proceeded to put about 5 really thick coats of plasti-dup all over the pack.

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I checked it this morning and removed the tape. Looking pretty good.

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I then put the wires bak in.
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Thoughts.
  • Overall I am really happy with this. I just wish I would have put the bumper on last so that it would not be so crooked. Cyclotron is turned a couple degrees too. I just keep reminding myself "It's OK if its not perfect, it's for a 2 year old who will wear it for maybe an hour or two total. It only has to look good from 3 feet away."
  • It's at this point that I realizze I forgot to make the n-filer. damn. lol
  • Tonight I get to do the stickers and wand! That will be fun.
By thelegendofvix
#4834204
robandliv wrote:That looks great!!! about the same size as the kenner one (8-1/2 x 13). What are you thinking about do about the thrower?
The thrower is where I had to depart (for now) from the norm. See here's the thing. He doens't seem to want to wear the pack. I guess it feels weird since he has never had anything on his back. So, I need something to keep him distracted/entertained. I went to Walmrt, Target, a couple of grocery stores, and a dollar store but could not find a toy gun that had lights and made a "space" sound (i.e. didn't make gunshots). I found some power rangers stuff that I might have been able to gut but it was $26 and I didn't think it was worth it as I have only put about $8 into this project at the moment. So when I went to the dollar store they had this wand thing that lights up at the end and makes a sound for as long as you press the button. It was $1 so I couldnt pass it up.

So I used electric tape to cover it and secure it to a barbed hose fitting that connected to the split loom tubing.

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Size comparison. Again my pack is 25" tall and his is about 10" tall (40% scale).

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My son wearing it and his jumpsuit. Note these were taken before I put the stickers on the pack.
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