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By EnderWeggen
#4965409
Just a heads up on that check out https://marshall-arts.net/ProtonPacks/finished.html
if you check out his pack picture with his cyclotron removed he had built his bumper with no bolt all the way to the cyclotron,
This Post Contains Spoilers
Now I'm not saying that makes it true but I do believe he was vary methodical when he made his pack and I do believe the 84 packs did not have a spacer or bolt that went all the way. His reference pictures are panful to look at when it comes to this one spot. https://marshall-arts.net/ProtonPacks/references.html

I will WARN you not having that long bolt supporting your bumper can lead to sagging of the bumper over time. It will also sag if it is over heated in sunlight on a vary hot day. I know taking a heat gun to your bumper is no fun once you have finished it and then you may have to repaint it.
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By JWils23
#4965413
The bolt from the bumper into the shell was a GB2 mod. Stuart provided some screen grabs in his build thread that show no bolt connecting the bumper to the cyclotron in GB 1.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=45592&p=4959723#p4959723

It’s a matter of preference though. I kept the bolt running through the cyclotron on my build because I wanted a little bit of extra strength for the bumper. It’s really not noticeable and aside from the accuracy buffs like us the average person would either never notice or be none the wiser. So it just depends on what you’re looking for in your build.
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By Petzrick
#4965421
Thank you both! I'm definitely convinced on there being no hole through the shell for GB1. I worded my last question awkwardly (middle of then night). I was thinking about how the bolt head should look on the bottom of the bumper.

I do like the added strength. I think I'll try out the GB1 setup first to see how sturdy it feels. I've still got a little more to post to get this build caught up, but will circle back to this.
User avatar
By Petzrick
#4965427
I'm going for a semi-idealized GB1 hero pack, with a mix of pack details. I'm not recreating a specific pack, but want it to look okay next to the others, like it were a fifth "Petzrick" pack. I want a lot of the imperfections from the screen-used packs, but I also want to finesse areas that bother my OCD.

I went back and forth to working on the shell. The GBFans shell doesn't really need much work. Mine had some clean-up areas, a small MB gap, and some minor warping. I also wanted to redo the power cell window and make some adjustments because of personal preference. And of course, I would need to fix my own mistakes.

I had seen a recommendation and a warning against doing this, and should've paid more attention to the latter. To try and fix the MB gap, I did some sanding on the bottom edges of the shell. This helped, but took off a little too much in some areas. I was able to fix those later on, but it was tricky.

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I had doubts about this, but I used my heat gun and got better results. I'd get the fiberglass really, really heated up, hold it in the desired position, and repeat a bunch of times. For the thinner areas this worked without problem, but thicker areas tend to go back overtime. I've read that fiberglass cells have a long memory.

Here's fixing some slight warping on the gun mount. The heat took most of it out and I was able to fix what was left later on.

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Getting the shell to lay flat was tricker. I got into a habit of re-heating the shell after I stopped working on it, and leaving it under clamps. This seems to have worked. It's been unclamped for months at a time and has stayed flat.

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This was the second time I've mounted a shell to a MB, which helped. I did have an issue with my placement of the top left bracket, but fixed it later. I used steel rivets instead of aluminum, because some had gotten loose on my previous MB.

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*The GB2 side screws on the bumper are just there temporarily.
Last edited by Petzrick on January 15th, 2022, 9:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By EnderWeggen
#4965428
On the subject of the bumper I noticed in one of the Sony Lobby Pack pictures Number 285 That it has a wire or rod molded in to it and now I am convinced it was done to add support to the the part.
This Post Contains Spoilers

It is something I'm thinking of adding to my bumped to add support to it and that would help the bumper not need to have a bolt and spacer to the cyclotron.

What do You all think?????
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By Petzrick
#4965430
You can also see the wire really well in Demon Vice Commander's pictures of the Murray pack. I've seen the wires recreated in a couple builds. Just saw a cool one recently and am looking for it.

For my bumper, I opted for idealized. If I were doing completely accurate, I'd try to add the wires.

EDIT: Here we go. RedSpecial added wire to the bumper in his build. Really nice build!
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User avatar
By Petzrick
#4965432
Some sanding was needed, but mounting the HGA was mostly painless.

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For the injector tubes, I sanded out the sculpted-in plate on the shell first. I also needed to fix some damage I did to the bottom rib.

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This time, I wanted to mount the L bracket at the same time as the tubes. After measuring, I made one out of a 1/4" aluminum corner.

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This post helped with overall placement of the tubes. I have the front of the tube plate 1/8" back from the front of the power cell. I also wanted that odd angle and gap under the plate that some of the packs have. Having the bracket helped, but it was still tricky to get it lined up.

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After figuring out where I wanted everything, I made a removable wedge, then drilled.

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I used socket head cap screws temporarily on the bracket.

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Compared to some other packs, I've got a little more space between the right edge of the tubes and the left EDA wall. A little of this might be shell variations but I also sanded the left edge of the plate slightly so that the right edge of the tubes didn't go too far past the power cell. This area is mostly covered by the ribbon cable so I don't think it will make that much of a difference.

I also added the vacuum tube, PPD, and crank generator knob. I had already painted the PPD but I think it needs some detail work.

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For the knob, I was able to score a genuine Raytheon.

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By Petzrick
#4965436
This might cause some cringes and a skipped heart beat or two. For some of the shell adjustments, I built up thin layers of Apoxie Sculpt, sanded, built up more, sanded, etc. I hesitated to do this at first, but seeing Bishopdonmiguel's All-Fired Plain-Vanilla Pack Build really helped show what could be done.

Both the left and right step-down spacers on my shell had a slight inward warp that I wanted to level out a bit. These are also the areas that got messed up when I sanded the whole shell earlier on.

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I wanted to flatten the EDA surface to help with mounting the ion arm and booster tube. I also started to fill in the power cell window so that I could recut it.

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I wanted to reshape the bottom left corner of the gear box—sort of like an upward tuck. If you look at the corner in the picture below, I've added some Apoxie Sculpt to the tops of the ribs in that area. Basically, what I take off the bottom is going to be replaced with what's on top.

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Here's after I've done initial sanding and "moved" the ribs. I've also reinforced this area on the inside of the shell. Later on, I will need to add the seam lines back that go across the bottom of the box.

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Here's after several rounds of adjustments. Very dirty and there are small surface defects all over the place now… I will be fixing each and every one of them.

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Still more to work on, but I had leveled the EDA to the point I wanted. Next I attached my Freaky Geeky booster tube and GBFans ion arm.

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By tobycj
#4965463
EnderWeggen wrote: January 15th, 2022, 6:38 pm On the subject of the bumper I noticed in one of the Sony Lobby Pack pictures Number 285 That it has a wire or rod molded in to it and now I am convinced it was done to add support to the the part.
This Post Contains Spoilers

It is something I'm thinking of adding to my bumped to add support to it and that would help the bumper not need to have a bolt and spacer to the cyclotron.

What do You all think?????
I did them on my build recently too. You can see striations along the angled face of the bumper arm that looks like it may have been sawn, and I added those as well.
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By Petzrick
#4965469
For the vaccuum hose, I wanted something similar to Bishopdonmiguel's MagSafe Vacuum Line Gearbox Connector. I had a bunch of donut magnets from a past non-GB project, which I screwed into plastic dowels (instead of using epoxy).

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The white thing is a vacuum port that I made out of a SteelStik tube, and some washers and spacers. The white twisty is a reminder to add the steel wire twist later on.

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Here's a test fit. I haven't attached the port to the inside of the shell yet (it's just hanging loose) so the split-loom should lay flatter at the top when it's done. However, I want to redo the split-loom because I got it bent up in a weird way while messing with it. I saw a tip recently that I want to try—straighten the loom out, hold it taut, and then apply a little heat.

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I also installed the straight connectors.

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By Petzrick
#4965474
For the booster ladder, I considered making my own and started buying boxes of Ticonderogas. However, at least for the time being, I decided to go with a replica instead because I could always replace it later on. I had a few different replica options and was initially stumped by the differences in size. I read a lot of posts, like this one from pchrisbosh1 and this one from nick-a-tron. From what I gathered, the size differences were in part due to what references were originally available. For example, in the Sony lobby pictures, there isn't a good shot of the ladder with a tape measure.

Left to right: GBFans, my old one from eBay, and Machina28

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Although the GBFans ladder is the best quality, I decided to use the Machina28, because it was cast from one of the real ladders. The pencils seem smaller than the other replicas, but I think this may be because of how they were attached and filled in on the sides. There are also variations in the original ladders.

I filled in the back (the right one) to increase the thickness.

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I used the booster tube to sand out a curve.

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Then I drilled and tapped holes on the ladder and the booster tube.

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I was able to get an accurate MS21919-DG18 Umpco P clamp from Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co. They also have the DG-14.

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Addendum: Maybe a month after I attached the ladder, I got a notification from Mack's Factory that their ladder replicas were ready to order.

Below left to right: Machina28, Mack's Factory (idealized), GBFans, and Mack's Factory (lineage)

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The biggest difference between the Machina28 and the others is the overall thickness and the space between the bottom two rungs. The GBFans is very close in height to the Mack's. If you trimmed a few MM off the bottom so that they matched, it would also make the cut of the pencils look similar.

I'm going to switch mine out for the Mack's Factory later.
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By Petzrick
#4965485
I was really getting back into my build at this point…and a bit reckless. When I work on this project, I tend to accumulate assorted bruises, scratches, cuts (and sometimes blisters) on a daily basis, but I think this was the first time I nicked an artery.
This Post Contains Spoilers
No worries, I didn't mess anything up on the pack.

Anyhow, around this time, I finally got all of my stuff together in one place. This may seem odd that I never thought of this before, but it suddenly occurred to me that I had accumulated a lot of extra parts, mostly from upgrading to better parts.

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Up until this point, I had thought of this as one very long build, but I realized it was also three builds. When I first began this project, I was 17 or 18 and my main goal was a pack that could dispense alcohol at parties. There's been quite a few detours over the last 2+ decades, and my end goal has evolved a bit.

But for the hell of it, I've decided to finish all three! It's nice sometimes to take a break and mess around with the shittier ones. *Going forward, I'm only showing work on my main build.

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This was the first time I had ever assembled my junk pack parts, and also the first time assembling my resin pack after overhauling everything. The second pack caught me off guard—big difference compared to what it originally looked like.

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I think the new paint job and airbrushed clear coat really helped. For the second pack, I mostly just need to finish my MMM thrower. In the 2021 shot above, I temporarily hooked up my Freeky Geeky hero thrower. I wanted to scare the neighbors and piss off the superintendent.

User avatar
By Petzrick
#4965514
The warp was more pronounced on the power cell and top of the gearbox. I was able to decrease it quite a bit with my heat gun, but also used Apoxie Sculpt to build up and sand in small increments. I still have work to do, especially on the corners.

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I added rivets for the EDA disc nipples, then filled in the edges and sanded. For this and a lot of the small details, I need to hit it with some primer to see what I need to work on.

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My GBFans shell had a larger window that I wanted to do redo. After filling in the hole, I measured, punched in big holes with a drill bit, and then filed out to the edges. Probably an easier way with better tools.

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In addition to getting straight edges and nice corners, I wanted a uniform depth (5/16"). I had made a more elaborate "depth gauge" for my resin pack, but it didn't give me the detail I wanted. This time, I just wrapped a lot of electrical tape around a piece of metal with 5/16" exposed. I held this on the edges to help with filling/sanding.

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Except for some clean-up, I'm good with the window now.

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By Petzrick
#4965523
Next I installed the beam line, filler tube, and ribbon cable clamp. All of these are from GBFans. I may replace the tubes later. I want a slightly different height and am working on getting some new ones.

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Once again, I made another L bracket—#4 I think. The base on my previous bracket was close to being a square. On this one, I extended the base so that it would make contact with the filler tube plate. Although there's a lot of variation with brackets, this detail seems distinctive to me.

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I sanded the top edges of the GBFans tubes to smooth out the weld lines. I sanded off a bit more than I wanted to but just the right amount off the tubes.
This Post Contains Spoilers
GBFans GB1 V-hook

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I also tapped a hole for the Legris elbow on the cyclotron.

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By Petzrick
#4965530
Taking a break from working on the pack outsides, I worked on figured out a rough plan for my electronics. Although I wasn't ready to install anything, I did not want to wait on ordering a new switchcraft charging plate from nstevic01. I already had a general idea of what I wanted but needed to test it and figure out what would be attached to the plate.

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From GBFans, I'm going to use the packblaster, thrower lights, and power cell/cyclotron lights (2021 version). I've also got the awesome Fincher e-cig venting kit and vent relay from Spongeface. The thrower lights are already set up, including some add-ons from Spongeface. I've had the packblaster for a few years and had modified one of the pack hum sounds early on.

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I'm going to run this off of a single TalentCell battery and opened it up to see how it was set up. I'll get back to this later, but I may dismantle it to set up a kill switch and move the charging LEDs.

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This is a rough plan of how everything will be set up. I also set this up temporarily so that I could test everything, especially the battery. My final set up should be a little simpler and will also use a harness from Nathan. I had a bunch of questions for him as I figured this out, and as you can expect, he was tremendously helpful.

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The charging plate arrived. Beautiful. My current plan (left to right): XLR for charing, aux port for sound, and switches for the e-cig venting and battery. I may tweak this later on. I'm seriously tempted to
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User avatar
By Petzrick
#4965532
And finally, the build is caught up to present day.

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It took about two months to dig through pictures and notes to post everything up until this point. Now I'm much more organized and I've dedicated an ~8 ft³ cube of my apartment (and kitchen) to this project. I also watched Ghostbusters Afterlife seven times. I am very ready to get back to work. I'm all in until it is done.
By Prologic9
#4965540
This is a fantastic build thread, top tier.

I particularly love the work you did on the ion arm rods, and the way you transplanted the legris fittings (I'm stealing that).
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User avatar
By bishopdonmiguel
#4965735
Really nice work!
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By WShawn
#4965996
EnderWeggen wrote: January 15th, 2022, 6:49 am Just a heads up on that check out https://marshall-arts.net/ProtonPacks/finished.html
if you check out his pack picture with his cyclotron removed he had built his bumper with no bolt all the way to the cyclotron,
This Post Contains Spoilers
Now I'm not saying that makes it true but I do believe he was vary methodical when he made his pack and I do believe the 84 packs did not have a spacer or bolt that went all the way. His reference pictures are panful to look at when it comes to this one spot. https://marshall-arts.net/ProtonPacks/references.html

I will WARN you not having that long bolt supporting your bumper can lead to sagging of the bumper over time. It will also sag if it is over heated in sunlight on a vary hot day. I know taking a heat gun to your bumper is no fun once you have finished it and then you may have to repaint it.
Bryan and I were as methodical as we could be under the circumstances given the angles of the photos I took and the sketches I made of the dimensions, but we definitely missed details that came to light later. I have no idea whether that Spengler pack had the bolt going all the way into the cyclotron in 1984. Due to the angles we captured we never noticed that the body of the main gun "box" was rounded over on the left side. Some of our proportions are off.

Our bumpers are 1/4" masonite, plywood, and matte board. Mine is bolted pretty securely into tapped aluminum plates bolted into the cyclotron. No sag.

BTW, I rebuilt my website for that proton pack build, along with a bunch of other props, costumes and models I've made:

https://shawnmarshallmakes.com/1984-proton-packs/

Sorry for the mini-thread tangent.
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By Petzrick
#4965998
That’s really cool to have you respond on this build! Your new site looks very nice. I’ve been to your older site many times. Compared to how many references there are for the packs set up for GB2, there’s so much less for GB1. The first time I saw those pictures, I think my jaw just dropped.

After looking at the 4K screen captures on the other builds that got linked, I’m convinced that at least those GB1 pack bumpers were not bolted through the cyclotron. I’m still debating on whether to leave mine just for the added structural security. But I’m amazing what you guys pulled off. Forget 4K. In 1985, laserdisc may have been around but I doubt most fans had access to more than VHS. When you were taking measurements off the pack, what were some of the trickier parts, and how did you measure them? I’d be especially curious how you went about the cyclotron holes/rings.
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By Ryanc3187
#4966722
Petzrick wrote: January 24th, 2022, 3:05 am That’s really cool to have you respond on this build! Your new site looks very nice. I’ve been to your older site many times. Compared to how many references there are for the packs set up for GB2, there’s so much less for GB1. The first time I saw those pictures, I think my jaw just dropped.

After looking at the 4K screen captures on the other builds that got linked, I’m convinced that at least those GB1 pack bumpers were not bolted through the cyclotron. I’m still debating on whether to leave mine just for the added structural security. But I’m amazing what you guys pulled off. Forget 4K. In 1985, laserdisc may have been around but I doubt most fans had access to more than VHS. When you were taking measurements off the pack, what were some of the trickier parts, and how did you measure them? I’d be especially curious how you went about the cyclotron holes/rings.
I just wanted to thank you for this build and the amount of information provided at this point. I am stating my build within the next month or so and I have been using your thread as a baseline to help get me situated and have a starting point. One of the best pack build threads I have found so far
Petzrick liked this
By WShawn
#4967870
Petzrick wrote: January 24th, 2022, 3:05 am That’s really cool to have you respond on this build! Your new site looks very nice. I’ve been to your older site many times. Compared to how many references there are for the packs set up for GB2, there’s so much less for GB1. The first time I saw those pictures, I think my jaw just dropped.

After looking at the 4K screen captures on the other builds that got linked, I’m convinced that at least those GB1 pack bumpers were not bolted through the cyclotron. I’m still debating on whether to leave mine just for the added structural security. But I’m amazing what you guys pulled off. Forget 4K. In 1985, laserdisc may have been around but I doubt most fans had access to more than VHS. When you were taking measurements off the pack, what were some of the trickier parts, and how did you measure them? I’d be especially curious how you went about the cyclotron holes/rings.
Thanks for checking out my site, and I'm glad those old photos have been helpful.

Your work is excellent, and your documentation is a work of art in and of itself. I wish I was a fraction as organized as you are. Great job!

Shawn
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User avatar
By Petzrick
#4968318
Short post… I replaced the Machina28 lineage booster ladder with the Mack's Factory idealized version. Because of the different height, I needed to fill the booster tube holes and rethread. In doing so, I realized that I had used the wrong size socket head cap screw and washer before. These have been replaced with the correct #8-32 screws and #8 brass washers.

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Other than some minor fixes, that's all the progress I've made on the pack itself. However, I've been obsessing over some research/planning that I will be post soon.
EnderWeggen liked this

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