Hello everyone!
So, for a long time now, I have always wanted an “accurate” semi-hero pack from the second Ghostbusters film. Everyone (especially now-a-days) tries to build “accurate” GB1 packs, but I’ve never seen anyone REALLY tackle the semi-heros, especially considering the reference we have for them. Well, at the end of last year, I decided I was going to purchase both a fiberglass wand and shell from Nick-A-Tron. Literally the week I made this commitment to start this project, Nick posted a finished pack here in the for sale section! I decided to ■■■■■■ it up because Nick does amazing work over all and instead of building a new pack from the ground up, I would end up having to modify it to where I wanted it.
With that in mind, this isn’t so much a “build thread”, its more of a “retrofitting” thread and photo reference for those that may someday want to tackle a similar feat! From here on out, there’s gonna be tons of photos and exposition, so I apologize in advance!
Original State of the pack as purchased from Nick-A-Tron
These photos were taken by Nick before he shipped it over the pond to me in the USA.
It was an amazing base for me to begin my tweaking!
Modifications
Cosmetically, the main things I changed around was drilling out all the pop-rivets holding the L-Brackets to the motherboard and replaced them with 1/4-20 machine screws as well as replacing the socket head screws holding the shell to the motherboard with machine screws.
I ended up having my buddy TJ make a new, GB2 v-hook with the counter sunk slotted screws holding it onto the pack, as well as switching out the P-Clamp mounted on the booster frame for a smaller, size 14 clamp. Other things I changed was the Clippard R-331 to a R-701 on the pack, a metal trigger tip on the wand and real legris banjos.
Lastly, I had purchased Franchesky’s Makita battery cover and installed that onto the motherboard over the battery cups from Nick.
Besides replacing things, I ended up adding some other small details on the pack. The pack I was replicating was the one pack that Ray wore to the birthday party at the beginning of the film, which is currently on display in the Sony Pictures Lobby in LA. The semi-hero packs had numbers scratched into them to keep all the parts together. The pack Ray wore has “#2” all over it, as well as a “12” stamped onto the ribbon cable clamp on the cyclotron.
Electronics
Beyond all these cosmetic changes, I feel the biggest achievement of this pack is that, with the help of my friends Chris Tillson and TJ, I was able to source and/or replicate the electronics that were inside the screen used packs! If you noticed in earlier pics of the motherboard of the pack, I retro-fitted Nick’s makita cups to actually work, and the electronics of this pack are working off of 2 Makita batteries! The major difference between my pack and the movie packs is that I’m running LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs and I added sound as well.
My cyclotron lights are being driven by a FC-2 effects board.
(Screen used pack)
My powercell is wire wrapped by TJ and a replica of what was found in Volguus’ semi-hero pack he purchased off of Ebay years ago.
(Screen used pack)
In the wand, they had 2 pieces of hardware that not many people know about. The first was the FL-1 board, driving the blinking white arcolectric lamp:
The second piece of hardware was what they had used for the bargraph; a Roto-tellite display.
Both installed in my wand:
The interior of the screen used semi-hero:
Comparison shots
And with that, I’ll leave you with some comparison shots followed by just some glamour shots I took on top of it. Thanks for reading my very long post! I hope it helps someone out if they decide to tackle something similar. I would also like to thank Nick-A-Tron, as well as my friends, Noslit, TJ, and Jack Doud for helping me out with this sucker! Also, in case anyone asks: the tape on the N-Filter is a homeage to Volguus’ semi-hero pack, since his had it for some odd reason.
