My Proton Pack build (including Afterlife-to-1984 wand mod)

Indy Magnoli

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
As a life-long GB Fan and with the advent of the Magnoli Clothiers Paranormal Jumpsuit, I thought it about time to put together a proton pack.

I think most of you know about my work in props and costumes, but what you probably don't know is that my very first prop replica was a proton pack! When I was a kid (over three decades ago!), I assembled a proton pack from a cardboard box, round cookie tin for a cyclotron and a karate belt for shoulder straps. The neutrino wand was a wooden dowel, foam and electrical tape for the grips and another cardboard box for the main unit. Although I've been making prop replicas ever since, I've never gotten around to making a proper proton pack... until now.

So far, I've got a good shell, ALICE frame, a resin booster and a few bits and pieces. I've got the Afterlife wand, which I might mod to a classic wand at some point.

I've also just picked up a bunch of Clippard pieces locally for cheap. They're not the right models, but I'd rather have some real-world parts (and I love the challenge of doing everything on a budget or by trading with other fans) than resin castings. So, at the moment, I've got:

Two R-305 valves:

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Three R-431 valves:

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And one R-731:

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If anyone has some hand-me-downs you want to get rid of, let me know! I've always been more interested in "real life" looking/feeling than perfect resin castings... so I'd opt for a slightly incorrect brass fitting to an accurate resin copy of the original piece. But beggars can't be choosers, so I'll take anything! If anyone would like to help guide me down this rabbit hole, drop me a line! Looking for sound and lights as well.

Here are the parts I have right now (not shown is my Afterlife want and ALICE frame):

H0PikaP.jpg


Once I get all my parts together, I'll start building this and post updates here.

And a BIG thanks to Primrodo for the jumpstart to this project!

Kind regards,
Indy
 
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Well, I've finally gotten around to fiberglassing my shell and will start doing the pre-painting shortly. In the meantime, I still have a LOT of parts left to get. If anyone can help... here's what I'm still missing:

-Mounting Brackets and other Mounting Hardware (Bolts, Nuts, Standoff / Spacers)
-HGA
-Filler Tube
-Beamline Tube
-Vacuum Tube
-N-Filter
-Injector Tubes
-Legris Straight Fittings
-Ribbon Cable Clamp

Tubing:
-4mm OD Yellow Tubing (1 foot)
-1/4" OD Red Tubing (2-3 feet)
-1/4" OD Blue Tubing (2-3 feet)
-3/4" Split Loom (4-5 feet)

If you've got any spares, leftovers, miscasts, broken parts or inaccurate pieces you've upgraded from, shoot me a message. My pack need not be 100% accurate. I'm going for the overall look with a well-worn final appearance.

I love trading, so if you'd like to send me a message with your offers, feel free to shoot me a PM or e-mail.

Kind regards,
Indy Magnoli
 
My pack shell is missing some detail at the bottom, so I've cut some thin ply to spruce it up a bit:

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I've masked the parts I want to keep with the original smooth finish, then sprayed several coats of hammered metal texture:

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I'm starting on the extended ion arm piece now... looking forward to finally getting some greeblies on this thing:

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Painted up a white resin bellows:

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Silver spray paint, graphite powder, rust-colored acrylics and added a metal washer and bolt on top to tie it all together.
 
I added some more to the base of my pack, using a couple of screws (and some hot glue) to mount the loom hose:

YKuo1abl.jpg


The bumper I got was a bit rough and too big for my pack, so I trimmed it, reshaped it a bit with some files, dremel and sandpaper... I had to putty the holes up (since they no longer matched up to my pack) and drill new ones:

LyJHIszl.jpg


After a repaint and adding a decal, I got to do a little test fit (so exciting!):

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On to the clippard... So, I started with the incorrect R-431:

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Unscrewing the top to remove the bulb thing was no problem:

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For the top piece, I thought I could 3d print an accurate knob, but I like having metal pieces when possible, so first I thought to dig through my greeblie collection (this lot kindly provided by Blaxmyth ):

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See that thing in the bottom center of the picture... once I popped the cylinder off the arm holding it, I found a brass piece inside:

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These two piece sat perfectly on top of the Clippard lid and the proportions were close enough for me:

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A nut, bolt and couple of washers put it all together easily:

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Sure, there's no knurling, but it looks the part and matches the original lid so nicely:

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Once I get some cap screws I'll add this to my pack! :)
 
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Just got a package from a fellow fan with a couple of cleaned up pieces:

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Those injector tubes are solid resin, so heavy! I decided to try and lighten them a bit:

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The used Plastic Weld to sculpt the welds on the edges (and used a hole puncher to add some ridging):

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I had some plastic weld left over, so added some to my booster tube:

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Some black spray paint and a little silver Rub n' Buff and they're starting to look the part:

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I added a couple of screws to the injector tubes so I could hot glue the loom tube to them. Here are the new pieces on the pack:

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Thanks again to all those helping with this build!
 
Time for the motherboard: I was debating what to use for the material... I ruled out MDF early on as many said it was too heavy. I thought of using ACM (basically an aluminum/plastic ply) but discovered it wasn't much lighter, nor much cheaper than aluminum itself... so I ended up just getting a piece of 3mm aluminum and tracing an outline of my pack:

yeWW2lsl.jpg


I cut it out using a regular jigsaw and it came out pretty good (just needed a bit of cleanup with a file and some sandpaper):

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Next was to cut some tubing (kindly provided by Blaxmyth ) for the pack spacing:

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Test mounting to my ALICE frame:

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For the brackets, I found some L pieces I had laying around and JB Welded some nuts onto them (3 our of the 4 in the wrong place!):

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I pop-riveted the brackets onto the motherboard (here you can see I moved the nuts to the lower holes):

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Some spray paint...

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The best part... the pack fits onto the brackets!!! So I put it all together and popped it on my back for the first time:

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I was surprised how light it felt on my back and was giddy to have a proton pack on my back for the first time since I was a kid wearing my homemade cardboard box nuclear accelerator! :)
 

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