[Chris Ellis]

Disclaimer: This not an attempt at screen accuracy. I’ll get it close in some places, spot on in others, and WAAAYYY off on the rest. I don’t care. This isn’t one of the other ghostbuster’s packs, this is my pack. Each pack in the movies is unique in some way, and this one will be too. I like things about the packs in the new movies that I’ll incorporate (like the removable cyclotron lid with guts inside that light up, a removable wand hose, etc), but overall it’ll resemble an ‘84 the most.

This project has a lot of aluminum parts added and some major plastic surgery, including a removable cyclotron cover. I’ve got a lights and sound kit from GPStar waiting to be installed and I intend to add the vent lights and smoke kit later. I have an aluminum motherboard and vintage Alice frame to attach as well. I have the 1984 wand that I’ve been slowly modifying with aluminum parts, and more will be done on it eventually.

Here’s a teaser shot of a while back when I was test fitting a lot of the new parts.

[Chris Ellis]

Here’s a couple angles showing all the parts I’d just cut off.

[Chris Ellis]

A good friend designed and printed a removable cyclotron lid for me. The base plate is two pieces that are screwed together over the plastic rim of the hole. This restores a lot of the rigidity lost when removing the original structure.

[Chris Ellis]

Primer complete after lots of sanding, Bondo, more sanding, more Bondo, then more sanding…

[Chris Ellis]

For the textured parts, I prefer the look of hammered metal paint vs the other techniques I’ve seen for the texturing. It’s just a a little more understated than drywall texture and easier to apply than truck bed liner.

I use hot glue for fake welds. I think I redid this one later.

I went over the hammered paint with brushed aluminum.

[Chris Ellis]

Here’s after I’ve applied a coat of high temp matte black stove paint. Then I rub the wear points with 0000 steel wool to show the aluminum through. I follow this with a thin coat of stove polish that contains graphite. This puts a metallic sheen over the whole thing and darkens the revealed aluminum paint. Kinda makes the exposed aluminum look like steel and the black like really dark, DARK gray cast iron. When you buff the polish, you don’t hit the grooves, just the lands, and it creates that dirty greasy weathering in all those grooves and crevices. Saves a step later. I’m totally in love with this look vs the usual glossy black painted look I see on some packs.

The decals are from a seller on Etsy. I’ll post parts list and seller links for all my stuff later.

[Chris Ellis]

Same finishing techniques on the bumper. I love the worn metal sticker. You can see the aluminum showing through the wear on the edges and corners of the bumper. I prefer less wear on this pack, because I like to think I’d take just a little better care of mine than Venkman. Or maybe I’m the new guy and I haven’t had pieces of skyscraper dropped on me yet.

[Chris Ellis]

Glamour shots of the completed cover and bumper.

[Chris Ellis]

Here’s the 3D printed replacement (Etsy) for the HGA corner along with the new aluminum HGA from GBFans shop. Next shot is the finished HGA with some parts off GBFans and an aluminum plate decal from Etsy. Then a shot of the freshly glued in corner piece.

[Chris Ellis]

New Clippard and base plate.

[Chris Ellis]

Here’s a couple more shots of the ring base for the lid. I just think his design is the best I’ve seen yet for the spirit pack. It involves removing those two big side sections that were part of that stupid looking one piece mold of the bumper/cover.

First pic is the inside so you can see what the larger piece of the base looks like. This piece has brass screw inserts on the other side for securing the two pieces over the hole edge. I had to trim out the ring to make room for the packs internal structure. I didn’t want to remove any more plastic from the packs interior and risk it getting floppy.



Just another shot of the top. You can see the screws. Those three big slots are the keyways the lid locks into with its three big keys. Those cut out sections on the sides where the number was removed show the backing ring for the base. Not seen in this pic, I’ve added ABS sheet into those cutouts and will fill the gaps around them with bondo. When this is done, you’ll never know this was a spirit pack by looking at the cyclotron.

[Chris Ellis]

Here’s the model of the base rings so you can see how they fit together with a gap just big enough to grip the plastic body material left over after cutting off the cyclotron/bumper.

[alphabeta001]

That's really impressive. To think this was a spirit pack at one point.

[jonogunn]

the hammered texture looks good. hmmm now i'm at an impasse. hammered or truck bed liner....

[Chris Ellis]

That's really impressive. To think this was a spirit pack at one point.

Thank you! In retrospect, there are probably easier and cheaper ways to build a proton pack, but I like this challenge and I like how light it's going to be even with all the metal parts added.

[Chris Ellis]

the hammered texture looks good. hmmm now i'm at an impasse. hammered or truck bed liner....

I highly recommend doing tests of all the finishes you're considering before pulling the trigger on one.

I purchased a stack of black ABS plastic sheets ($35 for 8 sheets, Amazon, 16"x12") for doing a lot of the body modifications and had so much left over I was able to test the finishes on those. That let me know what adhesion properties I can expect out of each, how the layers are going to react to one another, and how many coats of each I would need to use.

For example, I experienced some crazing in the matte black finish going over the brushed aluminum. This may have been my technique, as I'm an inexperienced painter. I actually ended up really liking that look and just went with it.

In case you want to try my method.

In order of application, I used:

• Bondo Body Filler - https://a.co/d/hMCRGfT As needed to fill voids, seams, etc.

• Gray Automotive Sandable Primer - https://a.co/d/bgivlIu

• Hammered Spray Paint - https://a.co/d/1OiN3Be I went over this with brushed aluminum just because I wanted the smooth finished to share the same color, but this probably wasn't necessary as the colors were so close.

• High Heat BBQ black spray paint - https://a.co/d/a4WCBID

• Williams Stove Polish - https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rutland-2-3 ... /300981904This stuff is just graphite and carbon. The graphite is what gives it that cast iron color and sheen after you buff it. I used this stuff to refinish the Denix C-96 that I built into a Han Solo DL-44 blaster. I learned this trick from a guy in the UK who collects replica firearms but doesn't like the paint used on them.

The only real drawback for me with this finish is that you can't clear coat over the polish or it removes the graphite sheen entirely. I recommend clear coating (matte or satin) over the black first and then applying the polish. It'll rub off some if you're handling it a lot, but its super easy to touch up with a little of the polish.

[Chris Ellis]

Here’s the process I went through to modify the Spirit pack’s original ion arm.

I added a couple sheets of the ABS plastic to reshape to get rid of that goofy curved section and to make it longer. Lots of bondo afterwards to fill in all the holes.


This angle lets you see the hot glue for the fake welds. Also, you can make out the old curved section peeking through the Bondo a bit.


Brushed aluminum paint applied. I got a metal end cap, so I had to cut off the molded plastic one. I filled the resulting cavity with massive amounts of hot glue just because I was holding the glue gun in my hand at the time. I could have done this with bondo but it didn’t really matter.


Test fitting after final finishes applied. The end cap is just sitting there pretending to be attached. You can see I finished the new metal booster tube and fitted it. Behind that and the ion arm, you can see I used ABS to reshape the pack to be accurate.


Completed arm with all the real parts added.





Here’s a shot to capture the crazing I mentioned in a previous post. I could have redone it, but I actually like it. It adds to the hand built, used roughness. It’s not everywhere and it’s not visible except when the light hits it just right and up close.

[The_Y33TER]

Nice build!
I'm gonna be doing something similar to this at some point soon, once I find the budget (somewhere) for all the TerrorDogDesigns parts.
Unlike your build, I'm gonna be rather inconsistent when it comes to year, since I'm gonna have the AL yellow particle injector loom, FE Ion Arm, GB1 ribbon cable, as well as my own fancy goodies I designed. I'll be sure to let ya know :>
Not sure if I'll do a build thread on here. I'll post photos on the GBFans discord, but probably not a thread on here.

[Chris Ellis]

I think we’re on a similar tracks, my friend! I’m not aiming for a specific pack form myself. I’ve got quick disconnects and an internal cyclotron cake from Afterlife, a GB1 ribbon cable, and probably a few other tweaks before I’m done. I’ve got the GPStar kit which lets me have lights and sounds from any of the films because I LOVE the spinning lights from afterlife. I also have a number of parts from TerrorDog. In fact I have two packages from him that arrived today!

This is the one that has me the most excited as i have been scratching my head over how to fix this area for a few months now. I had thought about filling with sculpting putty, cutting plastic and patching with bondo… neither of which seemed doable without some issues.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/4309373466 ... ve_control

These ones also came today. I’ve hated the ribs on the spirit pack always.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1715076165 ... ve_control

[Chris Ellis]

I’m excited to have a real Raytheon crank generator knob! I got the correct one plus a bigger one because they came as a pair. The bigger one will go in a bin for possible future project.