mburkit
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone! On Saturday night, I finished up a year long build of one of my favorite movie props, the "Proton Pack" as seen worn by Ray Stantz in the Hotel Sedgwick in "Ghost Busters". Building proton packs has been an obsession of mine for about 10 years now. I have either built or had a hand in building 10+ packs now. This one is personally the 5th one I have built for myself. My plan for this pack was to make it as screen accurate as possible with all the real hardware and materials. Everything that's supposed to be fiberglass is fiberglass, everything that's supposed to be aluminum is aluminum. If you're still reading, then lets take a walk through the build!
A friend of mine has sold proton pack shells in the past and had given me permission to cast one of his shells after I modified it for my own use. Here's a little bit of the mold making:
(Click on the photos to see the larger version of them)
From that mold, I pulled a shell for myself and took a giant leap into a journey I have been on since 2003: to create a proton pack as close as humanly possible to the hero packs of "Ghostbusters". And so we begin this leg of our Journey. . .
I had modified a few things on the master before casting, but as I began working on the build, and compared it to my reference, the need to modify more parts of the shell became apparent. Some of these things were the size and placement of some of the predetermined holes on the shell, as well as the size of some of its structures; in particular, the gun mount box had to be extended in length from 4" to 4.25" to accommodate the accurate sized V-hook and spacer. So you will see things change on the shell as I move forward through my little story.
I removed the cast in N-Filter, and increased the size of the top cyclotron rings and cut the rings to the same 1 3/8" ID as the Sony Lobby Hero pack. I also filled in the powercell window and recut it to the accurate size.
Now, it was time to start mounting the parts I've been collecting for this pack since 2003. But I didn't want just a generic GB1 pack, I wanted to replicate a particular pack. In the beginning, I originally chose to replicate the "OMNI" Pack, as seen here:
Has I moved on through this build, I changed my mind to what the pack eventually became, which was a replica of the pack Dan Aykroyd wore for most of the shooting. But for the time being, in some of the photos, you will see details specific to the OMNI pack until I eventually switched.
Here's a shot of the parts I had up until this time, dry-fitted on the shell before I began the painting process. I even cut my own aluminum motherboard for this build.
Here's a shot as the pack portion of the prop has been painted and assembled.
As you can see in the photos, I have an aluminum thrower for the build as well. Its construction was due to the help of several of my friends and their ability to work with metal. Here's a few photos of that.
Its around this point that I chose to switch over which pack I was replicating.
I was at some what of a stand still at this point, waiting for my front handle to be welded up for me. So I moved over to the electronics. All the electronics in this build are custom made. I purchased a GBFans.com sound board, contacted the individual that makes them for the website and had him reprogram it to operate the way I wanted for my set up. All the lights are designed by my friends and myself. Other then running LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs, I feel pretty confident that these lights have the same functionality as the props seen on screen. Here's some shots of my electronics installation.
And here's the inside of the wand before I installed the popping mechanism for the front barrel.
My next post will be the finished product.
A friend of mine has sold proton pack shells in the past and had given me permission to cast one of his shells after I modified it for my own use. Here's a little bit of the mold making:
(Click on the photos to see the larger version of them)
From that mold, I pulled a shell for myself and took a giant leap into a journey I have been on since 2003: to create a proton pack as close as humanly possible to the hero packs of "Ghostbusters". And so we begin this leg of our Journey. . .
I had modified a few things on the master before casting, but as I began working on the build, and compared it to my reference, the need to modify more parts of the shell became apparent. Some of these things were the size and placement of some of the predetermined holes on the shell, as well as the size of some of its structures; in particular, the gun mount box had to be extended in length from 4" to 4.25" to accommodate the accurate sized V-hook and spacer. So you will see things change on the shell as I move forward through my little story.
I removed the cast in N-Filter, and increased the size of the top cyclotron rings and cut the rings to the same 1 3/8" ID as the Sony Lobby Hero pack. I also filled in the powercell window and recut it to the accurate size.
Now, it was time to start mounting the parts I've been collecting for this pack since 2003. But I didn't want just a generic GB1 pack, I wanted to replicate a particular pack. In the beginning, I originally chose to replicate the "OMNI" Pack, as seen here:
Has I moved on through this build, I changed my mind to what the pack eventually became, which was a replica of the pack Dan Aykroyd wore for most of the shooting. But for the time being, in some of the photos, you will see details specific to the OMNI pack until I eventually switched.
Here's a shot of the parts I had up until this time, dry-fitted on the shell before I began the painting process. I even cut my own aluminum motherboard for this build.
Here's a shot as the pack portion of the prop has been painted and assembled.
As you can see in the photos, I have an aluminum thrower for the build as well. Its construction was due to the help of several of my friends and their ability to work with metal. Here's a few photos of that.
Its around this point that I chose to switch over which pack I was replicating.
I was at some what of a stand still at this point, waiting for my front handle to be welded up for me. So I moved over to the electronics. All the electronics in this build are custom made. I purchased a GBFans.com sound board, contacted the individual that makes them for the website and had him reprogram it to operate the way I wanted for my set up. All the lights are designed by my friends and myself. Other then running LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs, I feel pretty confident that these lights have the same functionality as the props seen on screen. Here's some shots of my electronics installation.
And here's the inside of the wand before I installed the popping mechanism for the front barrel.
My next post will be the finished product.
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I'm slowly working my way toward completion of our 'amalgam' pack, (somewhere between GB1 & GB2 - working mostly on the electronics & thrower these days), & LOVE the way yours turned out. 
