WIP-Proton Pack/wand tutorials/tips!Weathering! Update 10-17

Although I haven't been around lately, I am finally getting my act together and getting of the Off Topic board (at least for a while hehe)!!! After many, many years I've finally got something to post on the prop section of the RPF!!! I can't remember when was the last time I posted here!

I've begun working on my Halloween costume, and after many, many years, I finally took the plunge and started to work on my proton pack! I think it was time to get away from Star Wars costumes for a while. I got an Exoray's V71 Mark X fiberglass shell and MMM's wand kit. Both pieces are absolutely stunning!!!

The wand progress pics were taken during the course of 3 days. Once I'm done, I'll start with the pack I'm still waiting for a few parts and real Clippards that will finally be arriving next week. I haven't worked on props for a long time that I really needed to get my confidence back! At first I was a little hesitant, but after some time everything kinda fell back on track! Although, I've never worked filling resin bubbles, etc, so it was a whole new experience for me.

I know, I know... pics. But first of all, I needed a place to work. It was either setting my shop upstairs or getting killed by my wife for working in the kitchen... so I decided to set up shop on the second floor. Perfect place! I can work inside with lots of ventilation and take 2 steps outside to the terrace and paint without making a mess inside!

Although it doesn't have to do that much with the pack, I am so excited about having my own shop that I have to show you guys! I spent the weekend setting up the space (lots of other things to do), and finally began working on my pack and wand!

Here are some pics:

Stairs to the second floor/terrace



This is the place! Foreman Hulky is supervising the whole thing. Mini-fridge is a plus! Hehe


Making progress


Out thru that door is the Painting Area. That surfboard over there was shaped by one of the guys from the original Endless Summer film: Robert August!


After some beers and a few hours later...



And now... let's get to business.

This is my first build. A long time ago I worked on some Star Wars costumes, a few drain pipe sabers... small stuff; nothing as big as this. I've never worked with resin parts before, so I am learning as I go: browsing here and there, tutorials, etc. I've tried to use some putty to fill holes, sanding, etc; so if you notice I am doing something wrong, please let me know! This thread might be of help to many newbies like me

I decided to start working with the wand, since there's a lot of info around. Here are some progress pics. Please feel free to post. I really appreciate your feedback!

MMM parts are just great. There's little to be done, and the castings are absolutely beautiful. Props to Colin (MMM)!

First day:

The top holes were already cut, so I just took some time to clean them up a bit.


Time to drill the bar area.


Almost there...


I decided to try and fix a spot over there. I've never done that before so please bear with me I used Squadron's green putty. It is my first attempt so it was a bit hard to get it right. I've heard some people mixing it 50/50 with thinner. I'll sand that later.


That piece had a little crack. I tried to fix it with that green putty thing again.


I *think* this one came up a little better. I applied the putty and removed the excess.


This part had a few bubbles. I sanded the top and decided to try my luck again!


It looks like it has a few bumps, but actually it's pretty smooth. I tried using my fingers to apply it and then used a mini spatula I had around.









Second day:

The filling/sanding came out pretty good!

I drilled a few more holes, added switches and glued a few parts. The side disks and the grill were glued with epoxy. The other pieces, like the barrel, front grips, were attached with hot glue to see how will they fit and use it as a guide when I decide to glue them permanently. I'm still waiting for real Clippard valves to arrive. This was put in place for position only.

I believe you might have seen tons of "WIP threads" mostly with the same stuff, but I'll appreciate your input. Please let me know if something's not looking good... anything!

Here are some progress pics:





The stuff on the front barrel is being held with hot glue.




I wonder if I'll have enough space for the sticker that goes on the left side of the graph bar If not, I'll have to make some space!







I need to cut the acrylic tip




Holding some parts in place until the epoxy dries.









Third day:

Last night I worked a little bit more: I glued a few parts with epoxy, drilled some holes... everything is coming along great! I'm almost ready to start priming, but the weather has been awful lately. I'll be adding a real Clippard and metal knobs, so need to drill for now

Here are some progress pics:

I had to drill a bigger hole in the back to accommodate the momentary push button. Do you guys fill the back once the button is set or do you leave it open?











Taking shape now!











That's it for now!

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

You deffinetly seem to be making good progress! Are you planning on lighting it?

I'm working on my 2nd scratchbuilt one at the moment for a friend. I'd post pics but I don't want to steal your thunder. I'm also scratchbuilding a proton pack at the moment as well

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

Thanks for your post!

My friend, you have all my respect! Putting a kit together is one thing... but scratchbuilding one is just amazing!

Yep, I am planning on adding lights on both the pack and wand, but I have no electronics knowledge at all, not even to save my life! So I'm planning on getting them in kit form

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

if youre lighting it i'd suggest using exorays light kit, but in that case you will have to sand the light bar frame off and fill the hole in a bit. Exoray makes a drop in assembly that already has the frame around it. The kit also includes prewired switches and buttons.

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

That was one of the kits I was taking into consideration. I've heard great things about his kit. I was wondering if I'd need to sand the light bar frame anyway, because I'm affraid I won't have too much space to add the transfer sticker that goes on the right... the one with the little red circles.

I was alson considering Proptronix and JT94's. Have you heard about their kits?

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

Proptronix light kit is a bit cheaper but it's not as animated and takes a bit of work to put in. Exorays is really just drop in. Go to www.hprops.com and print out the label at 100% so you'll know youll have the room for it. I just ordered more transfers myself because on my first thrower the paper slid when i was working on the bottom circle, you know just the thin outline? so mine is missing that one for now.

Here's my scratchbuilt, I'll remove the pics if you have a problem with them.

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

No man! Not at all!!! That is a great build!!! Looks awesome!

Thanks for the link! Although I'm waiting on my transfer set, I think I have a set of stickers for the wand that I won't be using.

I think the bar frame is a bit wide. I tried the other set of stickers and I'm running short by a hair... I don't really know what's the best thing to do here. I could try to sand the area and make the frame thinner, or get back to the drawing board: sand the whole thing down, and fill it with epoxy or something, which doesn't sound too appealing right now. Hmmm...

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

yeah just sand the frame around the window off its way too wide. if you dont use exorays light kit you can just cut one to the right size out of sheet styrene

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

Thanks!

Right now I'm in the point of not sure what do next after I sand the edges... I don't have the baseplate, so I can't work with the gun track nor drill the holes in the base (but it'll arrive soon). I'm missing 2 white caps. I'm also wating for a metal ear, so I can't drill this one...

It's not humid outside, but it's night, so I don't know if I should add primer to the parts. Have you painted/apply primer at night?

If not, maybe I should start sanding lightly the fiberglass shell...
it seems I'm kinda stuck now. argh!

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

as long as you have the light to paint and its not rainning there no harm in it.

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

It's been raining the past few days, but we've had a great day today... right now there are no clouds. Everything looks good.

but then again... I don't have the baseplate to work with. I think I'll be rushing things if I primer what I have without attaching the baseplate, since the bottom part hasn't been drilled, yet. If I apply primer now and then work with the baseplate, I might ruin the whole thing. It's feel awful to have your hands tied! This sucks. It's like I've just hit a road block...

I could apply some heat to the hoses and attach them! :lol

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop!

Update!

I managed to get some stuff done... not much, but I got to drill some stuff, fill, sand, sand some more...

I drilled the end piece of the gun, and also cut the acrylic tip




Glued the whole thing together



I've always felt I was running short on space on the right side of the graph bar and since I'll be getting Exoray's wand light kit, I had to get rid of the frame around the graph bar anyway.




I used some epoxy putty to fill in the hole.






After sanding the epoxy. Looks rough but it's very smooth. I'll then apply primer, re-apply some more epoxy, sand again, and re-apply primer. Once I have the bar, or the exact measure, I'll proceed and drill a new hole.








Applying primer to some parts that were ready to go.




Now onto the pack! This is the pack as it came outside the box. I didn't do any drilling today. I sanded the whole thing with a 220 grit, washed it with some water to get rid of the fiberglass dust, and wet sanded the shell.

As it came out of the box.



After sanding with 220 grit.








After wet sanding the shell for a smoother finish












HGA, N-filter and Ion arm




MMM's motherboard.




ALICE Frame. This one I got around 8 years ago. It has weird mustard yellow straps. Those will be replaced for LC-1 straps



That's it for now!

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop! 5-26

Great Work! Really enjoying the progress on this awesome prop

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop! 5-26

Great work man, love the progress shots, the most fun building a prop I ever had was building my Neutrona wand, GB props are great fun, I have a pack and parts on the way, cant wait to start it!!!

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop! 5-26

Puuurtty!!!
Can't wait to see more!

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop! 5-26

Thanks a lot!!! I agree! This is a lot of fin, and it's becoming addictive!!!

Tonight I'll be doing some more work. I applied primer to most of the wand parts, and will be drilling the new graphbar. I think I'll also file the motherboard to have a nice fit. I think I can put together the resistors on the ion arm, but I can't seem to find the appropriate socket head screw size. I can have them glued in position at least.

I can't wait to get home! hehehe

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop! 5-26

Here are more update shots!

I cut a piece of styrene to match Flynn's bargraph size specs. I placed it and traced on the box for reference.




Mmm... Clippard! that's a R-331 for the pack. Tomorrow I'll be gettingTomorrow I'll be getting the R-701 for the gun. I have one R-701 up for grabs if anyone's interested




MMM's motherboard ready to be traced and filed. It just needs a little trimming. Nothing much.










I did some filing, but it was late at night and didn't want to wake up the nieghboors... hehehe. Maybe I'll file a little bit more tonight. If not, I can live with that




Applied epoxy putty to hold the bars in place




Bars in place






Ready for some fake welds






As you may notice, I've never welded anything in my life!!!! LOL!!! They didn't come out as expected, but I hope they'll look better once everything's painted in black.








Some greeblies I painted last night




A quick mock up on how everything's coming out (I know... the gun is upside down ). When I finished that setup it just hit me... I have a proton pack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





That's it for now... until I get home from work. Hehe. Thanks for taking the time to check my progress, fellas! I really appreciate it!

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop! 5-28

Update 5-31

I got my hands on a set of Clippards. Aren't they gorgeous?




The previous holes were a bit spread apart for the new valves, so I drilled a new hole for the center peg, filled the old holes and sanded. While the putty was drying, I placed the valve and marked the new spots on the putty as a drilling guide. I also removed the "key" part from the peg.












Now, to attach the Clippard on the pack, I drilled a hole for the center peg and side knobs, but I decided to create threaded holes for the socket head screws. That way I can get a stronger hold on the pack. Once I was finished, I even lifted the pack in the air just by holding the clippard. Pretty strong attachment!









Clippard's holding power!



Attaching the peg for the looming tube:
Exoray was kind enough to pre drill a lot of the holes in the pack. That made our job a lot easier! (Thanks Flynn!). Syco54645 also posted a GREAT suggestion on how to attach the cable to the pack in top of the cyclotron. He mentioned to bolt a peg on the pack, then glue a 2" PVC pipe along with the cable. Since my looming was splitless, I couldn't glue the side of the peg to the PVC, or the cable wouldn't fit. So I drilled a hole so I could fit a lag bolt. The bolt would come from the back of the pack. I epoxied a piece of dowel (which had a pilot hole on the back) on to the pack and held it in place for 24+ hours, with a heavy object on top so it wouldn't go anywhere. Once dried, I bolted the peg from the back of the pack. It held great!!!!!!!! I thought the peg would come of, but it stayed in place and it's not going anywhere! Now that I see the pic... I forgot to ad a washer. Hmmm... oh well. I might take it out and add it later. Suggestions?












Attaching the other end of the tube:
Exoray showed us a pic on how the original tube was attached near the HGA. Drilling that part is very hard, so the other route would be like the originals: attaching a dowel and holding the tube in place with a cable. Since there was no way to bolt the dowel from the back, I bolted it from the front and added some Gorilla glue to the dowel to create a tight grip.







Both dowels attached. I also placed the PVC tube for position only and test the looming tube fit. There was plenty of space for the tube to fit. Once ready, I'll add glue to the tube, dowel and PVC pipe.










HGA and Ion arm: I removed the orange tip from the elbows. I also applied primer and a clear coat to make them a bit darker in color. The HGA will also be held in place by a screw on the back and some glue. Once set, I'll add another screw in the back, just in case the glue fails.












A bit update the wand: I applied primer and sanded. Then used some metallic paint as a first coat. After that, black matte paint will be used.



That's it for now!

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand - and a few tutorials/tips! Update 5-31

Great update, your doing a incredible job!!! How hard was it to file the motherboard?

Re: WIP - My first Proton Pack/wand and prop shop! 5-28

great work, man! exoray's shell is an absolute work of art. are you planning on detailing the gun light kit install? i'm planning to tackle that this summer...