[tobycj]

If you want real arcoelectric lights for the wand (red slo-blo and clear on top next to the hat light) then Farnell are the cheapest place in the UK, I think they're about £3-4 each from memory.

[l3w1sb159]

Not sure if I want the proper incandescent bulbs as they pull a lot of power so might just stay with LEDs under the cliplites.

I've had a look at Radwell and they've got a few piece's that will come in handy, just bummed trying to find nycoil tubing on there that isn't in 100 meter spools for over £100

I only need like 3 feet!

[tobycj]

You just gut the bulb from them and put an led in, so they just act like a cover is all. It's just a nice little more accurate touch.

If you manage to find any nycoil tubing let me know, would love to get some too!

[l3w1sb159]

Ah right, I assume the real covers are more accurate than the gbfans led cliplites.
It's like finding the holy grail of tubing...

[l3w1sb159]

So I got to work attaching the bracket to the injectors and where it will attach to the shell.
I used a drill bit to keep the injectors in place while I marked the hole locations on the shell and injectors.

So two 5mm holes for the rivets to fit through the shell, and two 3.2mm holes tapped for m4 cap head bolts into the side of the injectors.

Bosh.

[Darth_Egon]

Hey bud reverse it. Rivet the tubes and use the screws for the bottom

[l3w1sb159]

I was a bit worried of the rivets bursting the resin so I decided to do it that way round, plus it seems pretty sturdy as it is now.

I'll be putting the rivets through from the other side when I assemble it all properly as I know theres a picture of a screen used pack with rivet heads visible on the inside of the shell like so...

[Darth_Egon]

What I did is pop the stem from the rivets just hold them with pliers and hit it . I epoxied them in place so that way they wouldn’t crack the tubes. Looks like it’s riveted but not lol

[Darth_Egon]

Wow I have never seen that pic! I guess both ways are correct! Thanks for educating me my friend!!

[JWils23]

I was a bit worried of the rivets bursting the resin so I decided to do it that way round, plus it seems pretty sturdy as it is now.

I'll be putting the rivets through from the other side when I assemble it all properly as I know theres a picture of a screen used pack with rivet heads visible on the inside of the shell like so...

I tried to mimic this detail without actually using rivets since I wanted to be able to easily remove the injectors and bracket should anything need repair. I used some smaller socket cap screws to imitate the little stem nubs on the back of a pulled rivet. Once it’s all painted black I think it came out looking close. Love the obscure details!

[l3w1sb159]

After a long wait I got the last of my parts from BenofKent, and they did not disappoint!
All aluminium, shock mount, v-hook male & female, ribbon cable clamp, ion arm cap with copper rods. Plus a GB2 ribbon cable, brass straights replicas and legris elbow replicas.



So first off I set about finishing off the ion arm, I had already marked and drilled pilot holes for the elbows and resistors so it was just a matter of drilling and tapping the holes for each.
Once they were attached I cut the tube to size.
Attaching the ion arm cap, I simply lined it up on the front face and marked the holes. Unfortunately once the holes were drilled and tapped it turned out they were slightly off so the cap is on the piss a bit.... somewhat annoying. But it can be a little quirky flaw to my pack.




Next I finished off the HGA by attaching the last elbow with a 4mm hole and an m5 tap. I had already marked out drilled and screwed in the 4 m6 bolts and clippard elbow, aswell as drilling and counter sinking the hole for the central bolt to attach it to the shell using stefans plans and reference pics to find the location. I've put the clippard elbow slightly higher on mine to mirror the spengler pack look.




And finally the last elbow in the cyclotron, I eyeballed the position from stefans plans and other reference pics.



Then I moved onto sorting out the ribbon cable and its clamp. Again using stefans plans I eyeballed the location of the clamp in relation to the filler plug and cyclotron side plates. You know the drill - pilot/4mm hole/m5 tap
I also used the clamp to cut the cable to match the curve of the cyclotron.




After that I threaded my shiny new shock mount onto the m6 coach bolt ready from installing the bumper, although I did have to chop the rest of the bolt down to about 12mm past the bumper to thread it on properly as only half of the shaft inside the shock mount was tapped which made it stop halfway down the original length of the bolt.





And last but not least, the v-hook.
Again, I used stefans plans and reference pics to eyeball the location... as accuracy is my top priority...
Once I had marked the holes I drilled 4.5mm clearance holes and it fit just right.



Then came sorting out the inside of the shell, as I had planned to use some leftover 3mm aluminium plate for some extra support for the hook. But in order to get the plate to sit flat I had to dremel down the mountain range where it needed to go. Once it sat fairly flat I marked the holes and drilled for clearance. Should be a fairly sturdy mount for when I get my Throwing Chicken thrower kit.






The straights need a 9mm hole once I get a drillbit big enough, as they dont have a thread I'll just push them in and epoxy them from the inside so they dont fall out.

And as far as I know, that is everything to be dry fit before painting...

As it's going to be a few months before its warm enough here to even think about starting painting I'll leave this here..

[l3w1sb159]

Just a quick little update.
While I'm waiting for various orders to arrive I thought I'd give my alice frame a lick of black paint and once it was dry, I sorted out the foam on top of the frame that I got from the gbfans shop. Wrapped in some black gaffer tape, it looks fairly screen accurate and yes I like the little bit of white showing through....

[l3w1sb159]

Okay guys, seeing as it's starting to get warmer here I want to be prepared to get on painting as soon as.

So as I've never "properly" painted anything before I could do with a fool proof plan of attack for prepping the shell, resin parts and aluminium parts, laying down the Proxl Protex texture spray (before or after primer?), primer and black top coat. I also want to do an under layer of metallic silver on the resin parts to mimic the proper aluminium ones for when I come to weathering.

[RedSpecial]

I've touched on painting the shell here on this ProXL tutorial.
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=46475

The basic steps are:

Thoroughly wash the parts with soapy water, then rinse really well to get rid of any soap or other residue.
Dry as best you can then leave them to fully dry out for at least a few hours.

Mask off the various areas of the pack where you don't want texture.
Spray the texture, using the two nozzle sizes for the various levels of texture across the shell.
Let it dry for 24hrs.

unmask the shell, then spray with primer.
Use light mist coats and build it up to an even finish in intervals that are usually referenced on the product ( often 15mins between coats)
Let that dry for 24hrs.

Spray your black top coat, once again using mist coats to build up to an even finish.
I usually let the paint fully cure out and harden for a week or two depending on how warm the climate is before any scuff weathering where you sand or scratch the paint.
I find this gives me the best results.

As for the other parts, Its the same process with the addition of your metalic layer.
Clean and dry the parts.
build up your primer
build up your metalic layer
build up your black top coat

letting each one dry for at least a day
This gives you better separation of the layers during weathering.
You can spray one after the other giving each an hour or so between adding the next but they'll tend to bond to eachother and won't separate in the way you might want when you're weathering later.

I'd recommend using a chrome silver paint instead of a basic silver.
while it still wont read as well as real metal would, it'll look much closer to the real thing through scratches, etc than silver paint does.

[JWils23]

Agree with Red on letting things really dry. I’m the worst when it comes to patient painting, I want to coat and reassemble ASAP. For the build I’m doing now I did the initial coats and then let everything dry for serval days (if not a week in some cases) before adding anything else. This really does make a difference in the paints durability and I’m glad I did it.

[l3w1sb159]

Thanks guys, that's cleared up the exact process and order as I'm wanting to make sure I dont screw the paint up too badly. And Red I've been going over your tutorial for more detail on that stage, it's super helpful, thanks!

[RedSpecial]

No problem.
Glad it's of help

[l3w1sb159]

A quick little question...
I assume the protex spray can only be applied at minimum temperature of 10°c the same as the primer and paint?

[RedSpecial]

I haven't tested that personally but I'd assume so.
I wouldn't want to risk it as its pretty tenacious stuff and would be really difficult to remove if it went wrong due to low temperatures

[l3w1sb159]

Probably best to be safe, I'm just very impatient as I've hit a rut with my build at the painting stage thanks to the wonderful British weather.
I'm hoping my Throwingchicken thrower kit will be sent soon so I have something to tinker on; as he has reworked his front handle to have the grip separate now, which is perfect as I'm aiming to have a pop mech so the wires can be ran up the underside of the grip a lot easier now.
Plus my GBfans orders for the electronics arent going to be seen for a while until the VAT customs thing can be cleared up...

[JWils23]

I feel your pain, waiting for weather to paint is frustrating. But better to wait than try to paint and have to redo it because it didn’t take. Enjoy the TC kit, I have one and it’s a great kit. I had a lot of fun putting it together!

[RedSpecial]

Im in the same boat.
Ive been trying to take my time with things in the hopes that the temperature will be high enough to paint by the time I'm ready but I'm running out of things to do and we've just been hit with a cold snap in Scotland.
Hopefully it'll warm up enough in the next couple of weeks and you'll be able to crack on with it.