I arrived home this afternoon and was delighted to see a package on my front porch postmarked from the UK. Inside the final parts I have been searching for that would allow me to get my pack build underway
Everything you see is in need of sanding, filling and general cleanup, which will hopefully take place this weekend. Having a Proton Pack has been a dream of mine since I was child and quite frankly I dont know that it would have ever come to pass without GBfans…Wish me luck folks…more to come as I progress…
Not yet…crix is doing a kit run atm but so far nothing currently available is capable of what i want for my pack…i have a buddy who is handy with electronics that is going to give me a hand should i decide to custom build the light and sound system myself…this build will be a little slow anyway so i have time to contemplate
Rain delay…bummer…weather this weekend has really sucked ass…i did get some sanding and filling done on a good portion of my parts…im debating laying some extra fiberglass on the interior of my shell…ZR does good work but i think i got one of the last shells he made before going mia…there appears to be a couple of spots that are a little thin for my tastes and a pretty good size air bubble on the cyclotron just below the ppd that i want to address before i start drilling it.
I did address one thing though…i had originally bought one of nicks resin bellows…now dont get me wrong here…nicks work on what i picked up from him is top notch however the more i looked at the bellows cast the more i contemplated another option. So i perused the forums here for a few and came across Mr Spiders pack build and used his option for a shock mount which consists of layering washers and eva foam for a proper shock mount. Once painted i think it will look better then what i had originally planned. (whoever put together the thread that consolidated all the various pack builds and resources…thank you. If someone asks if you’re a god you say YES.)
here is the shock mount with the first coat of primer on it
I had some issues on the home front this weekend I had to address so I havent had a lot of time to work on my pack much…however I did get the motherboard brackets mounted with some slight issues. I havent read a build thread yet that has mentioned the problem I had so it must be something I am doing wrong. I played hell getting the rivets set…the pins in the rivets themselves were cutting off short of the flanges and leaving about 1/2" of the pins protruding out. I drilled them out a couple of times and set them again but had the same problem so I finally just cut the pins off and grinded them flush with the top of the flanges. The brackets are well secured…so no harm done but it was a minor annoyance.
As I was lining the brackets up and test fitting to make sure everything was nice and flush I noticed that the shell wasn’t sitting completely flat on the mobo, this created some small gaps that I’m wondering if there is a way to correct. It would seem to me that if the shell isnt sitting completely flat light from the electronics would bleed out when its complete. this all could be just me stressing over tiny things that woudlnt matter to a pro pack builder…but I put this stuff up here for you fine people to tear apart and give me feedback on. propping is by its nature a learn by doing hobby afterall. heres a couple of photos of the tiny gaps I spoke of.
Opinions? No really opinions? A lot of folks come on here asking for opinions and then get all butthurt when people dont say things they like…I’m not that guy…
Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about the gaps bleeding too much light. Depending on where they are in comparison to your lights, you probably wont get much. (or if at all). Not only that, the screen used props had gaps in them if that makes you feel a little better.
Thanks jimbo…I think i just needed to read a post stating that…I was contemplating ways of sealing those gaps somehow which would have probably led to …minor catastophe.
I got the pack shell set and mounts drilled and tapped, then attached the alice frame using a door stop as the center spacer and some plain steel 1/2" spacers I picked up at Ace Hardware. Naturally after all these months of planning and parts collecting I couldnt help but try the thing on =) This build is like so many others here…collect parts, assemble, tear down, paint, re assemble etc… so there is really nothing special about it in the grand scheme of things…but damned if this didnt put a smile on my face
There’s quite a few gaps on my shell also and I don’t forsee it being a problem. When the shell and mobo are painted the correct dulled black, it’s going to be harder for any light bleeding through to have an effect on the lights.
Yours looks like my Zombie shell and has the gap in the same spots…I did a few tests and the light bleeding was extremely minimal with the pack shell non painted so I suspect with the paintjob it will become even less noticable…One of the few things I worried about but after testing it seems my fears were misplaced.
Its probably something with ZRs mold…once i put together what you in the photos i came to the same conclusion…and even if light bleeding out were to become a problem…a little epoxy putty and some sanding would erase any issue that arose…
TBH, I’ve had 3 different shells, 2 came with custom made boards and one used a stefan plan shell and they all had some problem with gaps…I don’t think it’s any worse on this shell than others, however there may be some shells that have better fit to boards…However, don’t see it as a problem cause the screen used packs did have some differences.
I put together my ion arm and n-flter mounts tonight and proceeded to install the resistors and end cap on the Ion arm but ran into a problem. While tapping the screws for the end cap I stripped the hell out of the holes…so now the screws just slide in and out with nothing to grip to… The benefits of aluminum are suddenly even more clear o.O So now I am pondering a couple of options here…I could try to find some longer cap head screws and drill through the end of the ion arm into the hollow area of the cast and nut/washer the end cap into place or drill the holes out larger and maybe Milliput a screw into the holes, possibly casting some threads in the process…(dunno if I trust this method to hold). This is the first big oops of the build so far…so not exactly earth shaking…I’m sure the look on my face was pretty priceless though…
Good luck with the build.