Proton Pack Build Date: 2013
Greetings everyone,
Due to some other current threads, And to help possibly clarify a few things, it was suggested by numerous members of this forum, very close friends, and sister franchises, that I share with all of you one of the builds I worked on and sold last year.
Quickly,
For those that may not know, I’m a special effects make-up artist and prop builder.
Been building packs since 2008, Member of Ghostbusters of Southern California, and co-build all kinds of cool junk with my buddy Joeluna33 at our 107props site. Occasionally might take on a commission build for a prop, but mostly do that on a referral basis.
About this build:
This particular pack was solely built in my spare time though out most of 2013 and was sold last September/October.
So without further ado, here are some photos and descriptions cataloging different stages of this build, Not going to go into every nut and bolt of the build, that’s been done a million times on these forums, but this should catalog things nicely:
First off here is a picture of the shell and a shot of the resin pack parts after they were pulled and were being prepped, Once everything was cleaned up, drilled, and fitted for all of the pack parts, the shell and parts were prepped for texturing, painting, etc:
Once painted, initial assembly was started, (Note that all of the resin pack parts were dilled and fitted with inserts to allow for a hero style assembly and allow for the future owner to possibly swap the resin parts out for metal ones very easily and convert the pack into a full hero pack:
Parts:
For this build, to help it stand out, many numerous vintage/OEM/real parts were sourced and added to the pack: LC-1 Straps, waist belt, kidney pad, Vintage LC-2 Alice frame, Real Grey Crank Knob, Gen-2 Legris elbows, real clippards, hat lights, arco electic lights, all aluminum gun knobs, aluminum heat sink, aluminum trigger tip, replica brass banjos, brass hose barbs, brass clippard fittings, aluminum ribbon cable clamps, aluminum gun track, aluminum vent tube, accurate aluminum V-hook, blue and red acrylics and so on.
This particular pack also got a few vintage hard to find fan made parts, such as a GB1 madeinsocal06 ribbon cable, and a JPA aluminum replica bellow.
This pack also has a few very special resin parts such as a set of Venky screen used casted grips, and one of the screen used and casted bumpers from nic-a-tron that was acquired from my buddy quietontheset.
Thrower Kit:
Next, here are a few pictures of the fiberglass/aluminum thrower kit being assembled that Joeluna33 and I designed together and use on our pack builds.
This thrower kit offers aluminum front and rear handles, a lightweight yet strong fiberglass body, custom sculpted and casted resin parts, and a front rotating handle. Were still working on this kit, but are very proud of how it turned out. It was based on combining the elements of an aluminum hero and fiberglass semi hero thrower.
Ok jumping ahead,
Many months later, the pack was finally finished and ready to sell, the goal with this pack was to offer a nearly 100% completed pack, but a few things were intentionally left unfinished to allow the buyer the ability to pick and choose and customize via their favorite pack/actor from the film.
The things left unfinished included the following:
Unpainted Ion arm cap, unpainted aluminum side discs, no protection foam on top of the alice frame, no head protection foam along the top of the mother board, and doing a basic install of all hoses, cables, decals and parts that could easily be moved around to achieve different placement based on which screen used pack look was desired, however all parts were installed and assembled accurately.
Couple side notes:
*Dry rub transfers were not applied to the thrower or pack due to none being avail for sale at the time of the build, however decals were provided to the buyer should they have chosen to use them until dry rubs could be sourced.
*Due to time and budget, as well as lack of availability, a light and sound kit was not currently installed or offered with the sale.
So as you can see, once completed, this turned out to be a very nice and decent GB-1 style pack.
Moving forward to September/October of 2013,
I contacted a few members and people outside of the forums looking to buy a pack,
The pack sold rather quickly and all was well.
Around mid October,
The buyer contacted and asked if I would be interested in doing the install for his GBF light and sound kit, while this turned out to be an extremely hectic week as GBSC was preparing for the Eat See Hear October GB screening in Pasadena, and working on our Ecto, managed to find some time and knock out the install.
Below are a few pictures of the GBF light and sound kit I installed in 1 and ½ days for this pack:
The overall build, and light and sound kit install turned out great,
and the new owner ended up with a very nice top of the line pre-built pack.
By know you all must be wondering, who bought this thing??
Well…the proud owner is: GBF member - Moreydees.
Recently Moreydees has put up a thread about his pre-built pack, and he’s done a great job adding the few small details to make the pack look like his favorite screen used one. If you haven’t, you should stop by and have a look at the additions he has made.
I wish Moreydees many long years of enjoyment with his new pack,
As a builder, it’s awesome to see something you put a lot of time and effort into being enjoyed and loved so much.
All right party people, Onto the next build,
Thanks for reading!
DD74
For clarity’s sake, here’s exactly what I said in my first post: