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#4934742
Hey folks!

My name is Rob and I'm a long time lurker who finally decided to post so I could share the results of a project you all made possible. I've been a Ghosthead since I was a baby, Ghostbusters was literally the first movie I ever saw in a theater at the age of three and I've loved it since. Any time I see a piano, I always play with the keys and tell whomever is around that, "They hate this...", usually to blank stares... :[

Anyways! I've always wanted a proton pack but just don't have the funds to buy a shell and aluminum mother board and do it all properly, so I have never gone beyond wanting. When the Afterlife trailer hit it was like a time warp and I was a kid again, I probably watched the trailer two dozen times the first day alone. Ecto's siren gets me EVERY TIME. I decided I was finally going to take the plunge and try and make the pack so I could wear it to the premier. I've spent the last few years tinkering and making other props and it gave me the confidence needed to believe I could build a pack. After scouring these forums and reading Norm's, Stefan's and Sean Bishops plans, as well as seeing the amazing work by Astyanax and the foam speed build by KCGhostbuster I fully believed I could pull it off. So, I printed some plans and dove in.

It took me roughly three months, but my pack is now done, sans electronics. I'm currently scratch building the thrower and making good progress after botching the first go round. I came up with a few scratch built solutions that were unique, hopefully my process can help others like you all helped me.

Anyways, there are dozens of these posts so I'll try to keep it short. I did my best to make it as accurate to GB1 as I could, as that's my preferred pack for many reasons. I weathered it a good deal, with the idea that my pack was an original from '84 that had survived to today with semi constant use. Hopefully my paint job reflects that and doesn't look overwrought. I'm a designer and illustrator by day and it's bugged me a lot worrying that I made my pack look bad with the paint job, lol.

This has inspired me to save up the funds to build a proper pack, but given that I made mine with foam, styrene and PVC, I'm pretty darn happy with it. Would love any feedback, and thanks again for making it possible to accomplish a childhood dream. A 38 year old man giggled like a little boy when he shouldered this pack on for the first time, and it was GLORIOUS.

Pics to follow!
twmedford23, PaulDx508 liked this
#4934743
In the beginning I started building my pack using Sean Bishop's plans, coupled with the method KCGhostbuster followed in his speed build. Along the way I would also check against Stefan's plans when I had questions. I used EVA foam and foam core board, mixed with heaping doses of hot glue and contact cement. I started with the EDA Box and went from there building out the pack. Here's the basic body of the pack, more or less complete. For the HGA body I used a paperclip container that was more or less to scale, and who's lid had a recessed ring that fit the metal tag that goes there perfectly.

You'll notice my Gear Box is off, I didn't use source photos as much as I should have in the beginning and as such took some artistic license with the fins on the box, as well as not making the roof of the box dimple in like it should. :I

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You can also see in the image the MDF Motherboard I cut out for the pack to be mounted to. That board ended up being a failure, as did the second go round. Third try was the charm, but more on that later.

NOTE: I took tons of pics along the way but don't want to spam the thread with too many. If anyone is interested in specific parts, I'm happy to share.
#4934745
I'm skipping a lot here because I didn't realize how big the images would post, lol. Here's a pic of my pack, almost ready for paint:

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The Booster was made from a cardboard tube, with another cardboard tube mounted inside it using foam. The Booster Frame was made using a coffee cup silicone slip cover, EVA and some pencils. The PPD was an empty pill bottle, cut down and capped with styrene. The Injector Tubes were made from extra shelving legs I had in my garage, and the N Filter was a sugar container. I scratch built the bumper using styrene and EVA foam following the plans by Palm Coast busters. The hose tube coming off of the top of the Cyclotron was made with a dollar travel spray bottle that I cut the top off of and covered with foam.

All the brown was filler to fill the edges and sand everything down, after it had all been coated with Mod Podge.
twmedford23 liked this
#4934746
From there I painted my pack using a mix of Rust-Oleum 2X Flat Black and Krylon Truck Bed Coating. You can see some warping on the Gear Box that I had to fix, but overall it came out pretty well. You can also see a port I built for the ribbon cable to feed through, as I refused to believe that Egon would just drill a hole and call it a day. I get it, for movie purposes, but imagining the pack as a real world object, I decided to make an artistic change there. I did the same were the hose from the thrower attaches, but that's not visible from this angle.

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From there I cut down the acrylic sheets I bought for the Power Cell and Cyclotron lenses and installed them.

You can also see the mesh (dollar store strainer, cut down) and styrene I installed in the N-Filter. I left the N-Filter hollow, though strongly reinforced with foam, so I can add an LED to it in the future if I get brave. I know the mesh wasn't present in GB1, at least from what I could find in my research, but this was another artistic choice made to modify the original in order to make it seem more like a real world object.

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#4934748
My next step was to add the elbows, Crank Knob, Ion Arm bars (painted dollar store dowels) and other greeblies. I also attached my (third) MDF motherboard to the Alice Frame I picked up, complete with foam spacers that aren't visible. I created the L Brackets that mount the pack to the frame, and riveted them to the board, but they are not visible in this image.

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#4934749
From here it flew together quickly. I installed all the tubing, my GB1 Ribbon Cable I picked up from Fincher Technologies (Awesome!) and the ribbon bracket (made out of MDF and EVA, and painted. I did my best to bend and wrap the cable to match the way it looked on the Omni magazine cover seen in the film. I printed the labels myself using a foil metallic vinyl sticker sheet and used red electrical tape to make the ring around the N-Filter.

My bellows was scratch built using dollar store pirate coins. I had to make the bellows in such a way that it was light and wouldn't break my foam bumper. Turns out, pirate coins are the perfect size and it measured 100% accurate to Stefan's plans. I have more pics of this if anyone is interested in how I did it.

I was still missing the Clippard valve as I had been putting off scratch building it. I ended up making it from an acrylic paint tube (the perfect size) and stole Astyanax's process for creating the threading and cap. You'll see it in the next pic.

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twmedford23, kahuna900 liked this
#4934750
Once I finished building the Clippard and attaching it, as well as a small prong for the Dale resistor on the Ion Arm, I weathered everything per my first post. This is where my pack is at now, as I work on finishing the thrower. I have the V Hook, but haven't installed it into the Gun Mount yet. Once I finish the thrower I will install it and mount the thrower, then I will be investing in electronics to provide light and sound to the pack and wand.

My thoughts were this was a pack that has seen some stuff go down. Would really love feedback on whether I took it too far. I did the same to the motherboard and the Alice frame, beating it up a good deal.

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twmedford23, kahuna900 liked this
#4934751
This is my progress on my thrower. I built it because I need it to be light so it won't damage the pack, since I don't want to test how much weight a foam pack can accommodate, lol. I actually built the full body once before out of EVA and PVC but realized I got a lot of stuff wrong. I have been researching Throwing Chicken's kit and it has helped a lot with building this out.

I'm using plastic from a Sterilite container I had sitting around. It's incredibly strong, gives me plenty of space for electronics, and will need minimal clean up. Just need to install the PVC, build in the rotating barrel feature, and paint it up. I will post updates as it comes along.

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So that's my progress so far. This whole journey has been made possible by you awesome folks, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and skill, it helped me live out a dream and I'm so thrilled with my pack. Hopefully the thrower turns out well and I can get the electronics worked out. Will be my first time messing with that and I'm a little worried, but I think I can figure it out.

Thanks for reading along, I would love any thoughts. With the film being pushed back due to the pandemic, at least I'll have time to work on fitting into a flight suit better, lol. :D
#4939262
Wow looks awesome dude!

I also made mine with EVA/foam core back in February and using the same references as you and it's nice to see someone else on here who's doing a cheaper build like me recently.

Can I ask if your bumper is made out of just EVA foam?

I dunno about yours but i didn't know how fragile it can be. I made the mistake of not reinforcing edges with Bondo enough and started using it way too late in the process. Sometimes I would accidentally rub it against a wall or chair stool and the foamcore tiles at the bottom would rip a bit.

I have a few dents here and there as well and I honestly don't know how comfortable I feel about taking it out in public.

I'm wondering about your thoughts and concerns on yours so far if you don't mind me asking.
Robrebooted liked this
#4940603
Dan AKA wrote: May 13th, 2020, 2:55 pm This is really super cool. It's not often that you get to see a good old rough and tumble scratch build. The paint really brought your pack to life, too!

Keep at it, man!
Thanks so much! Yeah, after adding the paint I audibly giggled because it suddenly looked real, lol. My wife had teased me a good deal over how much this project has made me giggle like a kid.
#4940604
jonogunn wrote: September 15th, 2020, 9:20 pm Wow looks awesome dude!

I also made mine with EVA/foam core back in February and using the same references as you and it's nice to see someone else on here who's doing a cheaper build like me recently.

Can I ask if your bumper is made out of just EVA foam?

I dunno about yours but i didn't know how fragile it can be. I made the mistake of not reinforcing edges with Bondo enough and started using it way too late in the process. Sometimes I would accidentally rub it against a wall or chair stool and the foamcore tiles at the bottom would rip a bit.

I have a few dents here and there as well and I honestly don't know how comfortable I feel about taking it out in public.

I'm wondering about your thoughts and concerns on yours so far if you don't mind me asking.
Hi! Sorry for the late reply, I've had this put away for a bit thanks to Covid and being overwhelmed a bit. That said, I'm back on board and almost done.

To answer your question, it was a blend of foam and styrene. I built the main body of the bumper out of Eva and then went back over it and closed it off with styrene to give it the hard edges of machined metal. I did seal it a ton with mod podge and used body sealer on the edges, so I'm hopeful it's sturdy, but I'm honestly worried about my pack in general and how it would react to any hard bumps. I don't know how much I'll wear it out because I'm afraid to test it's strength, lol.

The foam build definitely makes it cheaper/easier to accomplish, but doesn't do much for strength concerns. I'm thinking of fiber glassing the inside to try and reinforce the pack itself, but I'm with you, I do have concerns over how sturdy it would be with constant wear and use.

At some point I just need to save up the money to buy an actual resin pack so I have one to wear and enjoy without having to worry about anyone getting too close, lol.
#4940605
So, long overdue update. As I mentioned in a post above, I took some time off due to Covid and having to transition to working from home, but I'm once again working on it and almost done. Having my Spengler wand arrive before I finished my own was kind of embarrassing, given the lead time, but it did help inspire me to get my pack done.

It's taken awhile to get the details right, I underestimated just how much was crammed into the wand, visually speaking. I've looked at so many reference photos and blue prints trying to get it as close to screen accurate as I can. I'm at the point where I'm more or less ready to paint it and work on installing the light boards I bought from GBFans. I have the lights for both the wand and the pack, so just need the soundboard for the full schebang. I also managed to engineer the thing where the barrel accurately extend and retracts, thanks to a dollar store pop gun and copying Throwing Chicken's design for the innards, and the barrel also rotates.

Here's where I'm at right now, with everything more or less assembled for test fits. I also tested the lights and led covers and everything fits like a glove.

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My goal from here is to get everything painted black, install the wand tube and lock it in place, then put the electronics in. Afterwards I'll weather it and beat it up a bit.

The thing has turned out much heavier than anticipated so I'm going to have to go back and do some work on the inside of my pack to ensure this thing doesn't rip the gun mount off. Debating the best ways to go about that, but I'm leaning towards trying out fiberglass for the first time if I can't think of anything better.

I'll post some detail pics of other things I've made for the wand next.

Thanks for following up folks. It's been a long journey, but I think I'm almost there! For a scratch built pack, I think it's turning out pretty good.
kahuna900 liked this
#4940606
I ended up scratch building some of the greeblies, such as the gold, hex stem base where the green hose runs from the control box to the tube below, and some of the hat lights/LED covers.

For the green hose stems, I took a mechanical pencil and found it was more or less the exact size I was looking for, as well as the shape. The plastic is very soft, so it was easy to cut two small pieces from it. I then used some leftover metal wire from the coat hanger I turned into my barrel extension switch to fashion a rod to attach them, and the green hose to. They are currently painted and ready to go, but I don't have any photos of them in gold yet.

They look really rough here, but they are smooth and shiny IRL.

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For the hat lights, I have had no luck tracking any down that weren't crazy expensive for what I was looking to spend. One day, while working on the wand, my kids were playing with their Nerf guns and I got caught in the cross fire. When I picked up the dart and looked at it, I realized the tip looked kinda like a hat light. I measured it and it was pretty darn close, so I stole one for the tip of the wand.

I needed an opaque one for the body of the wand, so I used Play-Doh (don't judge me) to make a fast mold, and cast it in hot glue. Not the ideal solution, but I'm trying to use what I have on hand as much as possible and didn't want to buy resin for a hat light alone. The end result was pretty good and both fit perfectly. And don't worry, the yellow Play-Doh came off fine with water.

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I used this same method to make another opaque cover using an LED lens I had that was the right shape/size, but not the right color. Here's a pic where you can see both pieces, and the resulting casts I made of them.

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The last pics I have are for the wand tip. I took a plain acrylic tube and frosted the two bands myself using masking tape and 200+ grit sand paper. Measuring out those rings and where they hit was a nightmare, but thanks to Illustrator and some good reference images I was able to get in the right ball park (I think). If anyone wants those, let me know and I can provide as I couldn't find hard numbers on the wand tube anywhere.

In my research for the frosted bands I also found lots of pics showing the bulb that is visible inside the wand tip. I hacked up a dollar store flash light and stole the LED from it, which fit pretty much perfectly. The silver thrower tip covers the area where the bulb is mounted, so all you see is the bulb extending beneath the silver tip. I'm debating adding more in, because other opaque elements can be seen within the tube in ref photos, but I'm not sure if they would hamper my lights too much to be worth the effort.

Here's the hand sanded and beveled tube:

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And here's the tube with the LED installed:

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I also have some red electrical wire, and brown leather cord (to simulate brown electrical wire, that crap is expensive!) that I will run under the barrel and into the gun body per reference photos I've found. I'll take pics of those and post too, but I'm waiting on the heat shrink to come in for that bit before I can get it together.

At this point I pretty much have to get it painted so I can move forward.

Thanks for following along folks, I'll have more pics soon.
JamesB922, kahuna900 liked this
#4940718
A Friday Night Lights Update:

Sorry, bad pun...

Anyways, I got everything painted with the first coat of black tonight after sealing it all yesterday. While I wait on it to dry, I decided to redo the bulb in the wand tip to closer match references I found online. Specifically, how the wires running from the Nycoil banjo elbows on the tip went into the wand and connected to the bulb. To do this I drilled a 3/16 hole into the tube roughly were it looked like it was on the Sony lobby pics of the screen used props. In the ref images it's clear that there is a small silver ring that the wires feed through into the tube. My kids are obsessed with Perler beads (look them up if you want a cheap, fun activity for your kids) and I realized that one of the beads was a perfect fit for the 3/16 hole and the two electrical wires fit in it snugly. I cut a grey one in half, used some Silver Rub N Buff on both ends, and popped it in.

From there I built a little light element to attach to the wand, as it's visible in reference images that there is an opaque piece inside the wand that sits behind the bulb, just above the first frosted band.

To build it I used an old white Christmas light holder, a silica container from an old pill bottle, some electrical wire, a 9V battery terminal, and a piece of opaque plastic that works as a placeholder of sorts for the bulb. Here's the resulting light bulb element I created. It's not perfect, but it matches up closely enough to the screen used pics I found that I'm happy with it.

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The fun part was inserting it into the tube, wires first, and feeding them through that 3/16 hole. For the wires, I also had to switch to red and black rather than red and brown. The brown wire I had on hand was too thick to be accurate, and I figured black was close enough that I would roll with it rather than spending more money on a brown wire.

Here's how it looks now in the tube (please forgive my crappy fake weld lines on the wand tip):

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The Nycoil banjo elbows are actually the only thing I have left to scratch build. I'll try and knock them out tomorrow, while finishing up the paint on all the main body parts of the thrower. Thanks for reading, more updates soon!
kahuna900 liked this
#4940745
Kingpin wrote: October 10th, 2020, 7:04 am There's some impressive work there, but why not purchase real clippard barbs and light covers instead of making them from scratch?
Thank you! I have bought some of the light covers, but I’m honestly just trying to cut cost where I can. I have ended up spending waaaaay more than I originally planned and since I’m so close to done, I’m trying my hardest to make do with what I have, if I can.

Also, it sounds crazy, but part of the fun is this has been trying to make as much as I could on my own.

That said, I’m hoping to make a proper pack after this one, and the next one will be 100% real parts, just have to raise the funds for it.
#4941499
Ok, so big update:

It's been awhile, but I got everything painted, lights installed and my barrel extending, all at the same time! Getting the lights installed was a challenge, and adding my launching mechanism inside the rats nest was even more fun, but it all works!

The wand is pretty much done, just have to weather it and attach it to the pack. That will be my next challenge, as the wand is much heavier than I anticipated, even using lightweight materials, and I'm worried it will damage the gun mount on the pack, so I'm going to have to go back and reinforce my pack too. I also went ahead and wired it to connect to the GBFans soundboard (The grey cable hanging out the back). I don't have it yet, but will be purchasing it, so went ahead and saved myself the work in the future, just have to run it up the wire loom and into the pack.

I did my best to capture and replicate all the details I found on the screen used props, from the wires running from the front barrel handle to the wand body, to the unfilled, drilled hole just behind the front handle. I realized after the fact that the block behind the front handle is off. I had a hard time finding clear measurements/angles, so I based it off the Spengler wand I had and realized after the fact that it's not completely accurate. I think it still looks good, but disappointed I got that bit wrong. Either way, for a scratch built wand, I'm extremely proud of it.

BTW, that heat shrink on the wand ear? Yeah, that was a nightmare to negotiate, lol.

Anyways, here are some detail pics:

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And here's a video where you can see me testing everything out:

https://youtu.be/zesKDFXL20g

That's it! Almost done, for real this time! Just have to age the wand, mount it to the pack, reinforce the pack AND install my pack light kit. Ok, maybe not quite done, but I'm almost there!
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