From all I’ve been able to uncover, it seems as if the mold is the toughest part to construct. If I wanted to buy a vacume formed mold someone had just created, how much would that run me?
I want to make a test pack in time for Christmas as a gift for someone who’s a big ghostbuster fan… and if that learning experience goes well, make one for myself…
We just don’t have the equipment here to make a mold, and I doubt Home Depot would take the time to cut all the wood pieces necessary to make a base for a resin mold or something like in that video…
The guy who does the mold, his name is jeff. Great man to do business with. He charges 65 a shell plus shiiping. I’ve got 4 of them myself. Very happy.
You can make a shell yourself out of insulation foam and wood cheaper, but it requires more work. Thos vacuform shells are good for a quick pack, but for a more accurate pack with sharp details, and a non plastic look, you are going to either have to spend a lot of time on them, or build yourself.
High quality more accurate shells cost about $400-$500.
Less back up just a minute on the vacum formed shells! Austin and his guys make a damn good movie accurate shell there not just a cheap fix,and once there painted you can tell their plastic!
Hey Shredder565 check out Austin’s profile,he has a hell of a vacum formed shell,I just picked up one of his shells myself and if they weren’t ACCURATE I wouldnt have bought it!
I can see what you mean by the plastic look. I just did a search for them here and holy crap that’s a shiny pack :).
As stated before, I’d love to do it on my own from scratch. I’ve got nothing BUT time for projects. but step by step instructions or video on the best methods available would be most appreciated…
Check out my wip build thread then. If you have time, IMHO a custom made pack is very satisfying, and its very cool to tell people you made it all yourself.. they are always amazed.
Ok, I think I know where you are going, you just have your terminology mixed up. A vac-formed shell is what you bolt to a motherboard, paint up and add all the do-dads to make a full proton pack. A vac-form buck (mold) is what you place on a vac-table and pull the shells from. It will be much harder to find some one willing to sell you the bucks because they are very work intensive. I should know, Vac-U-Props and I are just finishing up ours. And on top of all that you also need to build a vac-table and know a place to get the plastic from. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you don’t have the time to build them your self you might just be better off getting some shells from someone who already makes them, because two vacformed shell are going to be alot cheaper than trying to buy bucks off of someone.
Anyone with a buck is going to be making shells themselves, and selling them. I don;t think I’ve ever seen one post here anywhere from someone selling a buck.
It might take 40 hours to put together, and even charging only minimum wage, that would cost you $300-$400… and since buck creators are craftsmen, odds are they woudn;t charge less then $15 an hour for their labor. And that wpould put you up to about $600-700 for a buck, without a vac table OR materials to make packs.
Since you can buy a vac formed shell for $75 shipped, its easy to see which route is going to be affordable very quickly.
