Terran's Ghostbusters builds (costumes, props, and RC cars oh my!)

[TerranCmdr]

I honestly wasn't sure where this thread belonged but I figured since most of the stuff I'm making is to be worn, it is indeed costuming.

My yearly Halloween build for 2024 ended up being Ghostbusters themed. I've been wanting to do this one for a while but wanted to wait until my son could come up with the idea "on his own." I may or may not have put "The Real Ghostbusters" on our media server for him to find.

I'll detail the initial build below but I've kept on going down the rabbit hole since then, so this will be an ongoing thread for updates.

Here's us on Halloween, featuring the crappiest rendition of an RTV you've ever seen.

The initial research into these costumes bolstered me with confidence. "Oh, it's just a flight suit and a backpack, doesn't seem too hard!" Somehow I fall into that same trap every year...

Well I've gotten pretty good at making custom-sized flight suits over the years so at least that portion was pretty straightforward. I sourced patches online: iron-ons for the "no ghost" arm patches and velcro for the nametags. I also sourced a few other items early on: the pistol belt and elbow pads for myself, a cheap set of ecto-goggles, and webbing for the boys' belts.




Once I was satisfied with the suits I decided to move on to the proton packs. I started with the neutrona wands as I kind of wanted those to be the showpieces. I found some 3d files online that were super accurate but that wasn't really what I was going for so I used some blueprints to model the wand myself. I designed them to house electronics for some play features for the boys. The first one was 50% scale and turned out so cute. I add one mini SPST switch and an LED that can be turned on or off with the switch. I integrated magnets into the slot underneath for an easy way to store it on the pack and used m3 heat inserts to make the bottom accessible for battery changes. The second one was printed at 80% and designed to use PVC tube as the handle and emitter. The electronics in that one are slightly more sophisticated - one SPST turns the red LED on and the momentary switch activates a UV LED in the emitter end. I sprayed them flat black, masked and sprayed the silver parts, and finished with some silver sharpie for weathering and a few wires for the details.




For the packs, instead of modeling and printing them I decided to do some good old fashioned scratch building - both to save time but also to save weight. I used the Q-Pack template for the motherboards, scaled to 50% and 80% respectively, and cut them out of black foam core. I then rummaged through my junk and found a couple of ramen bowls that were just about the perfect size for cyclotrons. The rest of the packs were mainly built from hand-cut foam core and assembled with hot glue. PVC and other caps and things helped me round out the builds. For the 80% pack for my older son, I spent a bit more time to carefully score and bend the foam core around to create the bottom of the cyclotron and I'm happy with how that turned out. I spent a bit more time on the 80% pack as I had more room to work with. I had some retro-reflective tape that I added to the circles of the cyclotron and for the blue LED strip I used a bit of cereal box cut to shape. I weathered both packs with silver sharpie and hot glued some straps on to the backs to finish them off. Very happy with how these look, especially the larger one.



For my own costume, I was able to find a proper flight suit at a local surplus store. I also picked up the military backpack that I will eventually attach my own proton pack to. I got some black gloves to stick in the belt and we already had a PKE meter we found at a thrift store. Ordered some Spengler style costume glasses and I think they actually look pretty good on me. I painted my elbow pads, dyed my belt, and that's as far as I got on mine for Halloween. On Halloween day I somehow got the notion I wanted to make a rudimentary RTV so I took my Arrma Gorgon, printed body posts and constructed the simplest faccimile of a ghost trap to slap on top. Very quickly painted some yellow stripes on that were still wet when we went out. It was great fun ripping it down the street though, got lots of compliments on it.



So Halloween was fun but that was just the start! More coming in the next post.

 

[TerranCmdr]

With the Halloween crunch over I decided to direct my attention to my own costume. I started by printing the pieces for the Q-pack. I have a large format printer so was able to use the "large" files, greatly reducing the number of prints needed. However, some of the prints were multiple days long, and since I printed it all out of PETG it was a bit nerve wracking (in my experience PETG can be somewhat temperamental.) With some judicious application of hairspray though nearly all my prints came out perfectly. At the same time I also began printing Sean Charlesworth's ghost trap on my Ender 3. Since I needed many specific fasteners for both prints, I put in a rather large order with Bolt Depot. It was a bit of a tough pill to swallow but if I'm going to do everything from scratch, I might as well do it right!



At this point in the project(s) my Ender had finally had enough, after 5 years and nearly 2000 prints. Luckily I had some birthday cash to spend and ended up getting a Bambu P1s. What a change from my other FDM machines! Truly plug and play and SO FAST! I used my shiny new printer to print the handle and the flat panels (all of which I plan to replace with aluminum), and printed the knobs and tubes on my resin printer. Using my expensive fasteners I was able to do a test assembly of the trap and I'm really happy with it! I will of course need to take it all back apart to sand and paint but it's nice seeing it all together.



Since I haven't had a chance to pick up any of the aluminum for the trap or pack, I decided to cut a motherboard out of some thin plywood I had from another project. I printed out a stencil from the Q-pack files, used spray adhesive to glue it to the wood, and cut it out with a jigsaw. This should work well for assembly until I can get a good sheet of aluminum.



I also received a very pleasant surprise from a good friend who has been in the costuming game way longer than I have. Shoutout to Ryan who graciously donated two real Clippards, a Dale resistor, two aluminum heatsinks, a GB2 wire loom, and most impressive of all, a proper relay for the pedal. I wasn't necessarily planning on making a pedal but now I think I have to! I have an idea to make it a mechanical action with the trap, connected by something like a bike brake wire. We'll see if that even makes sense when the time comes.



Anyway that's the current state of my costume. I will most likely work on the pack next - I have a lot of sanding, assembly, and painting to do. Not to mention a neutrona wand to print. However I do have one more piece that I want to finish first... more on that in the next post!

 

[TerranCmdr]

Yep, I'm making a proper RTV. I've recently re-discovered the RC hobby (man, so much has changed from when I was a teenager) so I feel almost obligated to do this build.

There are a couple versions out there but I decided to go with TacoBelli's files. (Nearly) everything has been printed. The majority of parts are PLA but I used ABS to make the chassis and the suspension parts, as well as the upright handle attachment. My hope is that this will make them more durable but they may end up being more brittle. We'll see!

The most challenging part of this build so far has just been tracking down a decent donor car. For this build you specifically need a Traxxas Stampede 4x4. I wasn't about to drop $400 on a car just to tear it apart, so I searched for a used 'parts car.' I talked to all the hobby shops around me with no luck, as well as posting on Facebook and Reddit. I finally found one on eBay for about $20 more than I was hoping to pay but the seller was cool enough to give me a slight discount so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. The donor Stampede came with more than I even needed for the build which saved me some money. Haven't tested the servo that came with it yet but I will probably end up having to upgrade it since the tires I'm using are extremely heavy.

I took a trip to my local hobby shop with a list of parts I needed and they seriously hooked me up. They had everything I needed (they are a Traxxas dealer) at prices lower than Amazon. More reason to support your local hobby shop! I didn't realize I already had a drive shaft and ends for it so I ended up getting new parts for those but they were cheap enough that I don't really mind having some spares. One issue I've run into is I need two sets of front suspension with red springs. The springs that came with my donor car are white, but I don't necessarily want to buy a whole new set of suspension for the springs. I'll probably try painting these first, and then when I realize you can't really paint them I'll just buy the other set. The hobby shop also set me up with a Spektrum ESC so I can use batteries I already have for my Arrma Gorgon, saving me quite a bit of money!

One of the hardest pills to swallow was the massive wheels and tires. They are very specific to this build and are not cheap. I paid around $80 for a set of 4. I get it though, they're absolutely massive. Hilariously massive. Here's one next to my 1:18 scale crawler.

Since the wheels are oversized I also had to order some wheel adapters to fit them to my Stampede axles (link here if anyone needs it.) And once I had nearly all the parts on hand, I began disassembly on the Stampede. It was pretty straight forward - I took off the front and rear assemblies first, then removed the unnecessary bumpers and splash guards. I swapped out the rear suspension tower for another front one and the assemblies bolted up perfectly to my 3d printed Q-frame. The chassis looks messy on the inside because I decided to print it upside down in order to have a nicer finish on the bottom.

I then bolted up the wheels to see how they'd look and they look as silly as I expected. The car is already super heavy and now I'm a little concerned about using a stock motor and servo. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though! Next up will be a test fitting with all the pieces.

 

[TerranCmdr]

I'd say test fitting was successful! Some pieces took some finagling but for the most part everything went together without a hitch - save for the larger light. No idea how that got out of alignment but I may end up having to reprint a few things. Now I've gotta disassemble most of it to get back to the chassis to install the electronics.