Hey guys I finally got around to starting on my next build since my previous one is done. Of course for this build I’m using the bigi71 shell from the Socal GBs. The shell is just awesome in detail and Bjorn did a fantastic job constructing this thing.
but of course with every shell I’ve owned I always find a few discrepancies but since Bjorn is such a great craftsman I’ve one found one so far :-). To others this detail would probably be nothing but since I’m a little anal when it comes to certain accuracy aspects I decided to do the fix. The powercell fins seem to be a tad to short. On the screen packs the powercell fins are about 1/2 inch wide like in Venkman71’s plans.
I broke out the sharpie and did some measurements.
Then added some magic sculpt epoxy putty to sculpt the remainder of the fins
Then sanded everything flush and added a light coat of primer, still got a little bit of touch up to do but they came out nearly perfect.
The only bad part about this is I cut out the powercell window before I noticed the fins. So now I have to fill the window with some resin and re center it which should be pretty easy.
Originally I was going to go a little budget on the pack and use acrylic tubing and some resin parts but I decided to use all metal parts on the pack like screen used ones. Don’t know what route I’m going with the wand yet still in the air.
The is the next job to do hack off the n-filter and add this pretty baby.
The build everyone was waiting for. Chris with a Bigi shell. This is one for the history books.
Great job on the fins. Absolutely flawless, can’t tell that it wasn’t like this for the start. But like AJ said, damn you for pointing out a flaw in something we all considered flawless! (I never would’ve saw it either :P)
You’ve said it, Vince: 2011 will be THE year for proton packs.
Chris, so far so good. If you are in the business of fixing inaccuracies, might I suggest on other fix. The Gun mount box on EVERYONE’S shell is about .24" too short, so instead of being 4", it should be closer to 4.25". Now fixing this can and probably will threaten the integrity of the shell but if anyone is anal enough to do this, I think its you.
Great job with the powercell fins Chris, now im considering doing this too…damn…lol
Im also glad you decided to go with all metal parts for this pack, will be cool to see the progress
The gun mount box is actually pretty close to 4.25" (its 4 3/16 if i measured it correctly) where Stefans plans suggest 4", because its much more tapered than in the plans. But another measurement on the gun mount box is off too…anyone know what it is ? …i mean except for Vinny, haha
I’m only going to guess, since I’ve never had a chance to see one of these shells in person but is the gun mount box on the shell 4.5" tall (as stated in Stefan’s plans) instead of 4.1875", like it should be?
Sorry guys I didn’t mean to start a trend with the powercell fins I didn’t even notice it at first either until I really looked at everything before starting to drill holes and what not, but it was pretty easy to do for anyone that might be upset of having to do the extra work.
Thanks everyone for the comments I plan on taking my time with this build and try to get the little things right the first time around instead of having to go back and fix thing after thing, but we’ll see everyones input is appreciated.
Yah Burkit I noticed the gunbox measurement on Bjorns shell is pretty close but either way I think I could have lived with that since It’s not as obvious to the unkeen eye.
Are you referring to the larger upper and lower gun mount fins? On the screen used packs they look to be about 5/8’s of an inch thick instead of the 1/2 making it a tad bit noticeabley larger.
Just a really small update today. I got the L brackets mounted to the mobo via pop rivets and gave the inside a paint job. Since this will be yet another GB1 pack I really wanted to go all out and replicate the GB1 insides but from what I’ve been told the GB1 insides are just a huge mess and aren’t worth replicating. I just decided to take a page from both the GB1 heros and GB2 semi-heros. Eventually when I recieve my light kits I’ll be able to finish the inside off but this is what I got so far.
I decided to replicate the paint job from the inside of the Ken Volguus GB2 semi-hero
My mobo
I have a spare FC2 board I’ll be using to match the Volguus pack once again this is actually the last correct printed version left. The new FC2 boards are practically the same in functionality but they are printed slightly different then the ones used on the GB2 semi-heros. I was thinking of actually having the cyclotron lights function off the board this time around but stay tuned for that
I tried to be pretty precise with the rivets and get them close as possible to matching the hero packs.
That’s it for now hopefully i’ll get some more done soon.
Are there any pics of the inside of a GB1 pack? I’ve never seen any pics of that or any close ups either. And only one pic of it behind the scenes (with the Marsh-mellows on it).
Thanks guys for the comments, and that is just to awesome Chris I haven’t got around to tinkering with the board yet and try to get it functional but a pm is on it’s way for help with that :-).
