This is Awesome! I really want to build an aluminum pack and thrower as well. Dont have to worry about parts breaking and such at events, lol.
Keep up the good work, Jimbo!
Awesome job on the grips Jim. Very impressed!
Impressive!!! :shock: I cannot wait to see the whole thrower completely finished. Good job so far!
As good as those grips look right now, have you considered forgoing the Bondo and just finishing them in a dark, dark stain, almost to the point of being black but enough to show some wood grain? That would give a great impression of worn and darkened wood grips, as well as show off that beautiful work.
thats not a bad idea..but what did they do for the hero packs? i assumed that you’re not supposed to see the grain, thats why i was going to bondo them.
jim
I have to agree with Jairus (teliwhy). Maybe give them a final sanding by hand with a high grit paper and then stain away. I think the dark stain and mild grain showing through the weathering is a great look.
i agree, stain is sounding better and better with the more reference pics i look over.
thanks guys!
jim
Great progress so far, and awesome work on the grips. Not that it diminishes the great job or coolness of having wood grips, but the belief that the hero guns had wood grips isn’t correct, at least not the hero PH Minnesota that we all believed had wood grips. They actually look to just be resin.
Like I said though, awesome work!
You are just shamelessly plugging your resin grips. yeah that would have worked better if you offered resin grips. hop to it so that my joke will have more validity!
awesome work on this btw. when you starting on the pack. haha.
NOT WOOD GRIPS?!?!?! I think im gonna puke :walterpeck: lol. i think i may stick with them though. just really wished they were wood on the hero packs.
Heh heh, yeah if I sold resin grips it would be a good plug for them. 
I planned to put wood grips on my aluminum gun too, till I found that they weren’t wood. I think your wood ones will look great on there, and will look a lot like the ones on the PH Minnesota hero gun, even though not the same material. I’d probably go with a stain and then black paint so you can weather them to look like the hero gun grips.
Personally if they were or were not wood on the originals, I believe it adds a taste of elegance to the gun…
It’s not like the guns were all aluminum either so that isn’t accurate so why not add in more elegance, as the faux paint job on the hero gun sure looks wood like, intentional or not…
They were all aluminum aside from the switches, lights and such.
They do look like wood on the hero gun, so using wood won’t hurt. I personally think it was unintentional that it wound up looking like wood. Like Flynn said though, it’s a nice a nice touch to an aluminum gun, and will look the part.
I have been lied to for all these years! It would make sense that they were resin to make it easier for production but I am personally a fan of the wood grip. It realy does add a touch of class.
Only if you focus on the hero GB1 guns 
Ha ha, you know I read what you said wrong, I thought you meant the guns weren’t entirely aluminum, in ref to the hero guns, not “Not every gun was aluminum”.
im probably gonna stick with the wood grips..it makes more sense to me that they are resin though..when making them i was thinking “damn, i couldnt imagine making 8 of these things for all the packs” lol
thanks for the input guys
jim
hey guys,
here is a small update. ive had no time at all to work on my thrower but i got the sides cut out and bent into shape the other day so here they are.
ill be out of town this weekend so i wont be able to get much done with it. i did get all the metal in for the rest of the build though. i just need to get a good couple hours in to get the body cut out and mill out the rest of the parts.
thanks
jim
Your side with the bend seems to taper from bent evenly to almost a 90 degree angle, though that could be a trick of the light.
To avoid this, I would have bent the piece in it’s rectangular initial cut, then cut the cout out on the front followed by the rear angled section. This usually happens when the bend being made is done with uneven pressure along the length. Regardless, if you have something matching the inner diameter of the curve, it should be an easy fix with some minor forming. If that made even a lick of sense, I’ll be surprised. I’m bad at explaining things!
Looking great so far, keep it up! 