adsfuse's Beater Pack Build Thread Update Post 7

[adsfuse]

Since I’ve been spending the better part of two weeks pulling late nights to get something together for Halloween, I figured I would share my progress with all of you.

First, let me state that there will most definitely be inaccuracies throughout this build, seeing as its being done in a harried fashion since I preferred sitting around on the For Sale forum instead of actually doing work. With that said, I kind of like packs that aren’t that precise. It gives them a little character and personality in my eyes, but by all means any criticism on how I can improve for my next pack is welcome.

I had been waiting on some parts that I found out at the beginning of this month wouldn’t be arriving in time for Halloween, so I had to scramble and try and figure out how to build a few things with a limited supply of power tools. I was lucky enough that a friend had an extra bumper lying around that he hadn’t used since it was about a 1/4" too short to fit properly on a shell, so that was taken care of, all I had to do was modify it a little so that it sat kinda right.

One of the other items that I was most worried about scratch building was an ion arm, since I only have a jigsaw, dremel, and palm sander to really speak of, but it worked enough, as you can see it ended up looking ion arm-ish.

These are my PPD, Beam Line, and Filler Tube. The PPD I filled completely with bondo, so that it would hold the screw coming out of the side tight, but the Beam Line and Filler Tube I just filled the top with bondo, let it set, and then turned it over and filled the bottom with some bondo so that it would hold the screw. When I did the Injector Tubes I photographed the process a little more since I don’t feel I’m describing it well enough.

I was wondering how to go about attached the ion arm, so I just decided to drill two holes into it…

Take a couple of 1/2 inch carriage bolts

And put them inside. I then filled the holes with bondo (after straightening the carriage bolts out)

And then I just gave everything a good coat of 2-in-1 sandable primer and filler.

Next up is the process I was trying to describe before. I traced the pvc I was using for the Injector Tubes, found the center-ish line for each and then put two screws through, with a two nuts to hold it straight and also to hold it high enough to make sure it was set well in the bondo.

This is the top already filled and sanded…

A shot of the side…

And a gooped up bottom.

Just plopped those on there and…

Voila, holds like magic. I also filled the space between the two with some bondo, on the side that will be against the shell but I didn’t get any shots of that.

All the miscellaneous parts with a coat of satin black on my alkaline shell. I actually kind like the way that this looks

And the shell and bumper get a coat of Rustoleum Satin Nickel in hopes that maybe I can weather it with some sand paper. We’ll see how that turns out.

And we can’t let all the parts feel left out, so a coat for them too. Why not, I’m feeling generous

And here’s a couple of shots of my fake welds on the ion arm. I know I went a little overboard, but remember I said we’re going for character here and this little Ion Arm definitely has it

I had some spider wed cracking with the satin black that I painted everything with, and since I was just about out, I sanded everything down and repainted it all with Rustoleum Hammered Black since I had it lying around. I think I actually prefer it personally.

And that’s all the photos for now folks. My deadline is 6pm Saturday night and I still have to put everything together, start my MMM gun kit, mount the shell, and get the light and sound kit together, otherwise I lose $20 to my brother who bet me I wouldn’t have it done in time, so stay tuned to see how it all turns out

[adsfuse]

Also, I forgot to mention, that I’m aware that during my dry fit the Ion Arm is backwards. I’ve since rectified that.

[KieranWalker]

I think that hammered paint is too glossy, but eh. It’s your pack. I do like the ion arm. The sloppy “welds” do kinda give it character.

[adsfuse]

Yeah, it does have a bit of a shine to it, but keep in mind that the picture was taken right after I painted it and that I’ll be dousing this thing in fullers earth, so long as it arrives on time.

[ProtonCharger]

you have a weld line on the flat part of your ion arm, that doesnt belong there. just the angled outside edge side gets that.

other than that, i really like how you got lucky with filler primer for your bondo filled pvc parts. i loathe filler primer with every fiber of my being, because it never does what it’s supposed to do for me but gives everyone else great results.

[Governor]

How heavy is that?

[adsfuse]

Hey everyone, so I didn’t win the bet for completing this by Halloween, mostly due to slicing my thumb open and a few issues with some of the parts for the thrower, but it’s all right because now I can take my time and adjust a few things I didn’t like after they were done.

I did however get to go out on Halloween night as a Ghostbuster and even without the thrower it was very well received, I ordered another flightsuit a size bigger because this one fits me a little too snug and I can’t fit a sweater underneath if need be.

Here are a few shots of the thrower, but I’ll focus on that more in a later update, since the pack is closer to completion and has a little more to show off.

A few shots of the pack in natural light, I still have to weather the pack, but I don’t seem to mind the bit of gleam that comes from the hammered finished.

And since I was bored I figured I would take a few more shots.

The shock mount came with just a regular carriage bolt, so I dremeled a line to make it look like the right flat head screw.

I also set it up so the red tube was on the inside of the bumper and the blue was on the outside like in some of Vin’s pictures from the Sony Lobby pack since I liked that it mixed it up a bit.

I still need to take the gold ring off here, but there’s a few things that need to be done to the ion arm that I’ll do once I receive my resin one from Nick.

I just really liked this shot

Real Legris Straights from Kenny, they’re down right beautiful. It’s a little hard to tell in this picture, but since I just punched a few holes into the shell for these, the top one is slightly closer to the pack than the bottom one is. I’m planning on straightening these out at some point. Possibly when I have the pack open to install the lights, but we’ll see how adventurous I’m feeling at the time lol.

My N-Filter looks so naked. The MMM set of labels didn’t come with the right label for the N-filter, but instead two exact PPD labels. And as far as the dry rub transfer I have a few sets from parksdesign, I’m just waiting until I know I’m done with painting to add those.

Once again, it’s difficult to tell in the pictures, but my crank knob is sitting slightly too high, which I of course failed to notice before securing the potentiometer during my late night pack building sessions.

Now unfortunately there was an impact test on my ion arm. Fortunately, it held up fairly well. I was bringing the pack into my friends house and I was just holding it by one strap since I was carrying a few other bags at the time. Well lo and behold the strap let go and the pack hit the asphalt and bounced. I was pretty sure that there was going to be some major damage, but it wasn’t until I was taking all these pictures that I actually found what had broken (previously I thought I just got seriously lucky and there was nothing wrong with it at all). The silver in the lower left hand corner on the ion arm cap is actually where the pack hit the ground. It dinged the metal pretty good and the sharp corner on the ion arm cap is smooshed in a bit.

The next three photos show the stress fractures in the shell, but aside from that everything is sitting straight and tight, so I’m actually fairly happy. Right now my best idea to fix this is just to smear some bondo on it, sand it down, and paint it up. If anyone has any more creative ideas on how to fix it I’m more than willing to give it a go.

I didn’t have time to get out and look for something to do the stripe around the N-Filter before halloween, so I just took some red electrical tape I had lying around and cut a strip of it. It came out a little uneven for my liking though. Does anyone have any recommendations on a product that might already be cut to size and usable for this purpose?

Here you can kinda see the fake weld between the booster tube and the eda

I dremeled down the rounded part on these smc’s to make them look a little closer to the right thing. I still have to take them off and get them painted, but all in good time.

Well that’s where I’m at with the pack any and all feedback is appreciated. Within the next few days I should have some shots of the thrower up.

[adsfuse]

@ Govenor: It’s about 25 -30lbs without the thrower. It’s really not bad at all though with the pack frame even after extended periods of time.

@Protoncharger: Yeah I know, I got a little weld happy when I was playing with it. What usually happens when you use the primer filler?

[BustinScottie1977]

For the red stripe going around the N-filter try your local automotive store like Auto Zone or Advanced Auto and see if they have red pin striping.

[FeinDTacticS]

I used red electrical tape also. It came out perfect… you just need to be very accurate and straight with cutting it.. try taking a ruler to it with an xacto knife