ServoPrime
New Member
Hello eveyone! This is my first entry here at the RPF. My wife wanted to go Ghostbusting with me this Halloween, and I didn't feel like building another movie pack, so I'm making a Real Ghostbusters pack. I'm also taking this opportunity to practice my foam building skills. My raw materials are the big, foam anti-fatigue mats (apx. 1/2" thick) and yoga mats (apx. 1/4" thick) from Five Below. I'm using Woodweld contact cement and hot glue. When my local Books-A-Million closed, I was lucky enough to snag a large piece of signage that was made out of 1/4" rigid PVC foam. It served as a perfect motherboard to mount my foam pack to. I know it would have cost me a doozy if I had to buy it.
I attached the ALICE straps directly to the motherboard at the top by cutting slots and placing a wooden dowel behind them. The straps loop nicely onto the dowel. For the waist attachment, I mounted a quicklink with a pair of eye bolts to either side. It does a good job of approximating the mount points on an ALICE frame.
I sealed my foam and patched up joints with a mixture of DAP spackling paste and white glue. Over that, I used plastidip spray. As luck had it, I had two cans of Rustoleum Satin Midnight Blue, which turned out to be the perfect color.
For the handle grips, I just wrapped the 1/2" foam around the PVC pipe that I used for the base of my Neutrona Wand. I glued it with contact cement and shaped it with the sanding bit on my Dremmel. It took some practice, but I got the hang of shaping with it- at least for simple shapes.
The red drum is a Pringles can. The brackets are clear styrene rod that I heated and bent- sprayed silver.
On the neutrona wand I needed the foam to be smooth on both sides. The floor mats have a texture on one side. I bent the wings out first by cutting out a groove on the outside and heating it. I used 3M 90 spray glue to attach card stock to the textured side. When it was dry, I coated the card stock with thinned white glue. It warped a little when it dried, but I stacked some books on them overnight, and it flattened them out.
The knobs on the wand are various caps that I had- two pill bottles and a Tamiya paint jar.
I considered a few ways of attaching the neutrona wand to the pack, but a simple hook and loop seemed the most practical. I'm still working a way to dress it up so it looks a little more aesthetic. The attachment point on the show involves some sort of clip that the handle goes into, and I'm not ready to build something like that.
I haven't weighed it yet, but so far it's really light. It should make it a real pleasure to wear.
I still need to round up a yellow cord, but I have a black one that's good if I don't find it in time.
I'll update when I'm farther along.
All questions and comments are welcome.
Thanks for looking!
I attached the ALICE straps directly to the motherboard at the top by cutting slots and placing a wooden dowel behind them. The straps loop nicely onto the dowel. For the waist attachment, I mounted a quicklink with a pair of eye bolts to either side. It does a good job of approximating the mount points on an ALICE frame.
I sealed my foam and patched up joints with a mixture of DAP spackling paste and white glue. Over that, I used plastidip spray. As luck had it, I had two cans of Rustoleum Satin Midnight Blue, which turned out to be the perfect color.
For the handle grips, I just wrapped the 1/2" foam around the PVC pipe that I used for the base of my Neutrona Wand. I glued it with contact cement and shaped it with the sanding bit on my Dremmel. It took some practice, but I got the hang of shaping with it- at least for simple shapes.
The red drum is a Pringles can. The brackets are clear styrene rod that I heated and bent- sprayed silver.
On the neutrona wand I needed the foam to be smooth on both sides. The floor mats have a texture on one side. I bent the wings out first by cutting out a groove on the outside and heating it. I used 3M 90 spray glue to attach card stock to the textured side. When it was dry, I coated the card stock with thinned white glue. It warped a little when it dried, but I stacked some books on them overnight, and it flattened them out.
The knobs on the wand are various caps that I had- two pill bottles and a Tamiya paint jar.
I considered a few ways of attaching the neutrona wand to the pack, but a simple hook and loop seemed the most practical. I'm still working a way to dress it up so it looks a little more aesthetic. The attachment point on the show involves some sort of clip that the handle goes into, and I'm not ready to build something like that.
I haven't weighed it yet, but so far it's really light. It should make it a real pleasure to wear.
I still need to round up a yellow cord, but I have a black one that's good if I don't find it in time.
I'll update when I'm farther along.
All questions and comments are welcome.
Thanks for looking!
