Finally got my Predator pack and cannon in from carlart yesterday and wanted to give a quick review of it in light of Prop Store allowing us to take photos of the original pack and cannon a few years ago (see photos of the original Predator pack and cannon here) and own research on many of the model parts on the pack and cannon seen here:
http://www.therpf.com/f11/predator-plasma-cannon-greeblies-11-parts-need-ided-146918/
and here:
http://www.therpf.com/f11/predator-backpack-greeblies-need-help-new-part-146351/
Carl's pack is incredibly lightweight for the size and is made of a slushcast, slightly rubbery resin. The slushcasting is pretty uniform, but very thin. At many of the corners, you can see light coming through the resin and in a few creases, there are actual cracks in the resin. Once I am done with cleaning it up, I plan to backfill it with expanding foam to give it support. The kit is pretty complete and gives you everything you need to create a basic pack. The med-kit is separate, but honestly, I am not entirely sure why as there are some severe join issues that are going to have to be worked out. I suppose if you decided to mechanize the cannon, the ability to remove the med-kit gives you great access into the pack and an area for storing a power source. I am thinking I will ultimately use earth magnets to hold the two pieces together.
There is a lot of slashing around the pack, but it is very easy to take off and due to the slightly rubberize nature of the resin carl used, it is very easy to sand down the surfaces... and omg, are there endless surfaces to sand due to the complexity of the pack.
There is a lot of subtle wonkiness to the sculpt, which would be a detraction on almost anything else, but on the Predator pieces, having a little bit of an organic feel actually works well and reminds me of the original pack. Overall, this is one of the most accurate packs/cannons that has been made available to Predator fans to date. If I had one major gripe it is that we found so many of the original model parts, but they weren't used and you can really tell the differences in size between the parts that were used and the parts that weren't. Still, it is a fantastic piece and I am looking forward to cleaning and painting it up. From here, let the pics speak for themselves.
http://www.therpf.com/f11/predator-plasma-cannon-greeblies-11-parts-need-ided-146918/
and here:
http://www.therpf.com/f11/predator-backpack-greeblies-need-help-new-part-146351/
Carl's pack is incredibly lightweight for the size and is made of a slushcast, slightly rubbery resin. The slushcasting is pretty uniform, but very thin. At many of the corners, you can see light coming through the resin and in a few creases, there are actual cracks in the resin. Once I am done with cleaning it up, I plan to backfill it with expanding foam to give it support. The kit is pretty complete and gives you everything you need to create a basic pack. The med-kit is separate, but honestly, I am not entirely sure why as there are some severe join issues that are going to have to be worked out. I suppose if you decided to mechanize the cannon, the ability to remove the med-kit gives you great access into the pack and an area for storing a power source. I am thinking I will ultimately use earth magnets to hold the two pieces together.
There is a lot of slashing around the pack, but it is very easy to take off and due to the slightly rubberize nature of the resin carl used, it is very easy to sand down the surfaces... and omg, are there endless surfaces to sand due to the complexity of the pack.
There is a lot of subtle wonkiness to the sculpt, which would be a detraction on almost anything else, but on the Predator pieces, having a little bit of an organic feel actually works well and reminds me of the original pack. Overall, this is one of the most accurate packs/cannons that has been made available to Predator fans to date. If I had one major gripe it is that we found so many of the original model parts, but they weren't used and you can really tell the differences in size between the parts that were used and the parts that weren't. Still, it is a fantastic piece and I am looking forward to cleaning and painting it up. From here, let the pics speak for themselves.
Last edited:
