Doing research....have a few questions.

Equipment Proton Packs
1

Greetings all,

I’m eager to begin construction on my new pack. I’ve been lurking on the forums, pouring over the fantastic builds here, reading old threads, and studying as much as I can and I have learned a lot. The hobby has come so far since my first pack. I have a few questions about material I’d like to bounce off you all.

  1. Base material

I see that the material of choice for the motherboard and various shapes tends to be wood, MDF, or styrene. (I don’t wish to use a shell). Can you guys give me your preference? Is sheet styrene durable enough to last years and years? What is the best styrene glue? I’m worried about the glue drying out and the pack disintegrating after a few years.

I’ve never worked with MDF. Is it reasonably strong but easy to cut? Also it looks like it might get funny if exposed to moisture. Has anyone had any problems? Is 3/8" MDF thick enough? I will likely use regular wood for the MB, and cover it with painted plastic sheet. My main concern is that I want this pack to be durable and not have to worry about parts breaking or falling off.

  1. Suppliers

Once I get past the scratchbuilding stage, I’ll be looking for suppliers. I’ll be using Radio Shack and hardware stores for most things, as I am not going for screen-accuracy, but there are a few things I’d like to get right. Right now I’m looking for the v-hook, and a source of cheap Clippards and other doo-dads.

Finally, I’m going with a custom approach on this pack. I’m not going for 100% movie-accurate, rather I’ll be doing mostly movie style with a few RGB elements blended in. Thanks for reading.

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If i were you id make the shell from styrene and the motherboard from MDF (although aluminium isnt too hard to hand cut).

Use polystyrene cement (the same as you use on model kits) to glue the styrene together. Youll want the liquid syle. It actually melts and welds the pieces together so the join is extremely strong.

Why arent you going for screen accuracy? There are plenty of suppliers of the real parts around here and even a few that sell resin casts of them if you have a limited budget.

3

Thanks, I’ll try my hand at styrene.

To be honest I am still waffling on what kind of pack to make. Movie accurate is great and all, but I’d much rather try to create something unique than try to re-do something that a lot of other people have already done. My pack will definately be 95% movie, in that it will be black, have the usual shape, but I am planning on adding some RGB elements such as a silver bumper, a voltmeter in place of the crank knob, etc.

I also assume that if the GBs were in business for 25+ years, adding new franchisees all the time, eventually the 1984 packs would be retired and replaced by newer models with various upgrades. Thats essentially my theme.