Project: ProtonPack (On Hiatus til 10/1)

this is quite interesting. Though very snob.

 

This mod is very well put together, but I'm wondering what you mean by "snob". Are you sure you don't mean "boss"?

Thanks boss.

 

Putty, sand, cut, glue, putty, sand, rinse, repeat

Not sure what to make of this comment... Thanks for replying. And thanks to 1005UnlimitedHours for the kind words.

Anyways, happy to report that I'm thundering along...on with it!

This part made me cringe because many of the worklogs I read involve people paying top dollar for a nice, shiny chrome finish...and here I was running 80grit over these pre-primed pipes. I chose these because they had the desired outer diameter and those neat flanges at the end to help attach them to the power cell body. In this pic you can see a before (right) and an after (left). I just needed to rough them up a bit so that the primer would stick.


Most of the weekend centered around building the parts for the top of the outer body, coating them with spot filler and then power and/or wet sanding them to a smooth finish. This part is the Ion Arm that sticks out from the upper left of the pack.


The gearbox without any detail:


The gun mount box before putty (btw - I love working with balsa!):


And the power cell sporting its own 1/2" balsa slat detail:


Here's a moment that got me excited. I finally had all the pieces built to some degree, so I could set them on the body to see how everything would line up. From left to right is the Power Cell, EDA box with Ion Arm, Gearbox and Gun Mount. You can see also how they relate to the Sync.Gen and the Cyclotron, and how the upper body pieces will cover the hole where the PC cards will stand up.


As I said above, I love working with balsa because it's easy to cut, shape and attach. Unfortunately, it also has to be sealed with putty or filler before it can be painted, otherwise the wood grain shows through. All these parts got coated with Bondo red spot filler and were set aside to cure.


Then they were sanded in one way or another down to a smooth, non wood-grain texture.


So far, this Gearbox is my favorite part. I spent the longest time on the detail, and I think it will look really cool when it's all primed. The box itself is made of 3/16" birch plywood on the sides, and 1/8" balsa on the faces with 1/2" square balsa dowels at the outer corners for support. The yellow part is from a thin styrene 'for sale' sign. The grey threaded tube will eventually accept the end of a piece of wire loom that runs from the gearbox to the tube that stands up on the top of the sync.gen. The next four pictures show the box before and after the application of the 1/2" balsa ribbing.





After the glue dried, I coated all the exposed wood in filler and set it aside.

I wanted a nice clean mounting plate for the ion arm to the EDA, so I chopped up some more balsa to fit, and glued it to the front of the EDA box:


Lastly, I wanted to profess my love for the utility of this little darling:


I've cut it in half, but it was a simple sanding stick. I bought it months ago for a different project, and unearthed it in my tool box at the beginning of this project. I've used them everyday, on every task of this project. They are truly indispensible but are becoming worn...I have to figure out where I bought them in the first place.

I hope to post big updates every other day or so this week...stay tuned and as always thanks for czeching out my mod!

 

Textual progress update

Well my 'deadline' of the 3rd came and went without a finished proton pack. I realized late Wednesday night that it would take a miracle for me to get it to a workable landmark. I'm currently painting/sanding/filling/painting/sanding, etc. the parts for the top of the case as well as finishing the filling of the main body. We're moving at the end of the month, so I'm having to work around boxes of things prepped for moving, and sharing modding time with packing time. I still hope to have the pack done before the move, it is just becoming harder to find time to mod. Hopefully I'll have some progress pics up before the end of the week. Thanks to all the people who still czech out this thread daily. I'm not quitting, that's for damned sure. There will be a finished proton pack here at some point!

Again, thanks for taking time out to read my worklog, and to the ppl who thought to reply or comment. You've definitely kept me going through the times when I've thought to toss the shell out the balcony.

 

u can get those sticks from chemists over here they are nail files sure there be the same ove there.

 

Thanks for the info, Dex. I was able to dig one more outta my toolbox...and I think I bought them at Hobby Lobby. I'll czech out the nail file section as well.

 

Please tell me you're going to mod a mouse to look like the trap with the hinge doors that they used to catch the ghosts in...

 

this si lookign really sweet mate keep it up

Phil

 

Really looking forward to the completion of this project. Hope you're able to finish it with all the moving and whatnot. KEEP ON A-TRUCKIN

 

I like it! Nice work. More pics

 

thins is looking great man, i agree with mj007, the mouse needs to be modded like the trap

very well put together

 

Thanks for all the kind words, fellas! One of my friends also suggested making a mouse/ghost trap...though I think he meant for the ghost trap to be full size..imagine that!

I was just going to use my MX1000 to mouse, but who am I to ignore the will of the great BitTech! I'll be workin' out sketches to build a ghost trap mouse...henceforth to be known as the mousetrap! Ha! I promise I'll get some pics up before the end of the working week.

 

How 'bout putting some disgusting elektoplasma/slime from that fat creature someplace on the pack

 

I've been trying to think of a good way to represent slime, but in a solid manner...any ideas? I don't know if I'd wanna put it on the pack, depends on how it looks when it turns out. Anyone have any ideas? Maybe some of that resin that Mashie uses...can that be tinted? I'd want a Greenish color, that perhaps could be affected by UV light. Oh gosh...that's starting to sound like a good idea, Edvuld!

 

Maybe a whole lot of melting glue (if that's the right word It's not greenish though, and you'd have to melt a lot of it at a time to get a big consistent part.

Maybe a better way is a huge pile of silicone, that you have added some kind of green glass-paint into. It'd take a whole bunch of time for it to cure though. I think silicone is the way... You could even light it up from the inside of the case with some green LEDs

 

Melted plexi?

 

mix up alot of varnish & green food coluring, and pour it into a moul, in very small layers, and let each layer dry, and then pour another layer etc, thas how games workshop make 'water' on their boards

 

Isn't varnish tinted brown or whatever? Do they make clear varnish? I guess they would...that sounds cool.

I still haven't decided where I'd put some slime...we'll see. Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

 

You'd probably do better with clear casting resin, the stuff hobby shops sell for
making paperweights, etc.

See the middle of this page.

 

ur mod is looking good.

another fan of ghostbusters here cant wait to see how it turns out