You can get threaded inserts that will screw into the resin. That way you have a coarse thread that will bite the resin and a metal thread that you can screw to. Lots of people use them when attatching the bottom plate to their gunbox.
A rookie mistake on my part for certain…ill have to see if i can drum up a supplier for those online in the morning… thanks jimbo
So I thought would backtrack a little and show some pics of how this thing has come together leading up to the photos of me wearing a pack that is essentially just a mounted shell and ALICE frame…
This thread in general is a good example of how you can pretty much find anything you need to know if you will take 3 seconds to use the search function…
Using Kind2311’s tutorial as a referance (Attaching motherboard to pack shell w/pics - Tutorials & Guides - GBFans.com) I took the shell and lined it up on the motherboard and then traced its shape onto the aluminum with a sharpie. This gives you a referance point for where the exterior of the shell will be, once mounted. I then measured the thickness of the shell at the planned mounting points and roughly laid the brackets out and taped them down with painters tape.
I didnt get photos of the mobo with the brackets taped down…but its so simple im sure you can imagine it… Once they were taped down I put the shell on and adjusted it to where I wanted. Adjusting the shell with the brackets taped down actually moved the brackets to exactly where they needed to be so when I lifted the shell off…all I had to do was adjust the tape so it was secure, clamp and drill straight through the bracket into the motherboard
I used 1/8" x 2" x 2" aluminum angle and noticed once I had the brackets riveted that the inside taper of the shell was causing the shell to not be flush with the motherboard on one side…so with a pair of pliars and a tiny bit of force…I bent them in a little bit and allowed the shell to sit flush.
Once you get the brackets set and the shell sitting the way you want the difficult part is over…simply drill through the shell into the brackets…tap…and run your cap head screws in…done.
Mounting the ALICE frame is even more simple of a procedure…what I used: 3 - 3/8 x 1 1/2" hex bolt, 3 - 3/8" x 1/2" aluminum spacers, 3 - 3/8" wingnut and a rubber door stop. All these things can be picked up at your local ACE hardware for pretty cheap. ZR’s Motherboard already has the botton holes drilled…so all I had to worry about drilling was the hole for the cross bracing of the ALICE frame.
I have been taking my time and jumping back and forth on different tasks…last night and today I got the notion I wanted to do some painting so i broke out the Injectors, vac tube, beam line, filler tube, bumper and Nfilter and went to town… the bumper and N filter are drying as I type this…but here is a photo of a couple of the parts with the first part of the weathering done.
These are a couple of the parts I made…They consist of sink drain pipe, pvc sheet for the bases and top caps and glue to hold them together. I filled them with cheap casting resin that you can pick up at Hobby Lobby and used Milliput to simulate the welds and smooth out the top part of the beam line and filler tubes.
For weathering I usually use a masking method that utilizes masking fluid..however my masking fluid was a solid lump when I opened it to do this…so since I didnt feel like going to a hobby store…I broke out the mustard.
Mustard is a great alternative to masking fluid…and look you get 40% more for the same price o.O
Use a paintbrush to mask off the areas you want the base color to show through and slap a coat of black over it.
Ill put some more photos of this up as it progresses but here is where the pack is atm
injectors, vac line, beam line, filler tube made by me… the HGA is a resin cast i picked up off jackdoud a little ways back
Moving forward… I got the bumper coated in black with the mustard weathing and once its dry you just take a damp cloth you dont care about and wipe away the mustard coated spots…
One more with the N filter shown painted and weathered
Now on to the booster tube… I ordered apiece of aluminum tube from Speedy metals and I picked up a booster plug from Nick a tron. A lot of folks find the task of cutting a piece of aluminum to the proper angle daunting so here is what i did. I picked this up at hobby lobby for a whopping 5 dollars…
you can lay this out on your pack shell to get the proper angle in degrees…for ZR’s V3 shell the angle was about 128°
next I picked up a cheap general purpose 10" metal cutting blade for my mitre saw…blade was like 4 bucks
set the cut angle on the saw and voila…
the cheap blade left a fairly rough cut…but its nothing you cant grind off with a dremel
Its a perfect fit though…kinda surprised myself…
This is all looking great so far, keep up the good work.
Its been a while since I threw anything up here so I figured id get something up so my thread didnt get bumped to a later page.
I have been slacking off lately on the pack build due to some things that have come down the line in my personal life but rest assured the show goes on… I got my Ion arm where I want it finally…and it was no small feat.
I came pretty damn close to chucking this damn thing in the trash a couple of times…not because the part I picked up was bad mind you, Nick a trons resin gear is great, moreso my own inexpeariance with working with resin parts led to a couple of pitfalls that got aggrivating as shit. i wont go into too many details on it as the problem was most assuredly me and I did get everything in order in the end.
As per so many other examples on this site… I cut a piece of wood to socket into the part with epoxy cement. I then drilled a pilot hole into each side of the ion arm…being careful that the holes lined up with the cemented wood. So I could concealed the screws, I took I larger drill bit and partially drilled into my original holes just enough so that when I set the screws they would be just below the surface of the ion arm. Once I got the screws secured I packed some Milliput on top of them and smooth it out along the surface of the part and let that sit to cure. 24 hours later I sanded down the milliput nice and smooth and laid down a coat of primer, then nickel metallic paint…some mustard weathering and then a coat of satin black…I now have this…
The Ion arm end cap is by MMM…painted with stain black and sanded for weathering
I have been drilling my shell as needed as I complete each piece and get it mounted for the first time…so far all I have left to drill is the holes for the hosebarb on the injector lines, v hook mount points, and the small screw points on the clippard valve…once that is done I will be ready to texture and paint the shell and re assemble everything
After having perused a build thread or two that started using the hammered paint for texture (specifically thebyron’s thread…thank you sir…your pain, I believe is going to save me some time) I decided that the the wall texture method is probably going to be my best and easiest route for pack texture.
I have never worked with spray on texture before so I am nervous that I may have laid it on a little too thick…however..it is water soluable so if it doesnt look like I want it too once its dry I believe I can tone it done by running a wet rag across the surface lightly. Of course any area I oversprayed, im not happy with I can easily clean up before sealing the texture layer…
tommorow I will hopefully get it cleaned up…sealed and re primed and then have it in some color later this week. Im starting to get anxious and excited at the same time too…as soon as I get this thing in color, weathered and re assembled I get to start on my TCV3 thrower kit ..o.O cant wait =)
It does look a little thick, but I noticed that on my pack some of the thicker areas look pretty good anyway. In fact, there is one or two areas that I wish now that I had sprayed it a little heavier.
About the hammered paint, I have seen some builds where it came out looking pretty sweet, which is why I tried it. But looking back, I’m really happy that it didn’t work, because after seeing TheRockman’s pack and how well his texture turned out, I would have been second guessing not using the texture anyway.
Dude you textured your pack like a boss…it really does look good. As thick as it is on mine though I think once it drys I should still be able to tone it down a touch if it looks bad. I had some failings with my masking tape too so I am going to have to clean up some edges and corners before im going to be happy with mine. The tape I had on hand was old and the adhesive wasnt holding on to the fine detail in a couple of spots, but I used it anyway instead of just taking my ass down to home depot and getting another roll.
I have looked at some of the builds using the hammered paint too and it can yield some great results however being that this is my first pack build, I got nervous about it after seeing what happend to you and just didnt want to risk it. My professional life is killer busy at the moment and having to sand it all down again saps precious time I have left before Dragon Con.
This is a good time to throw this little mod up too now that im thinking about soem other details… I did this a couple of weeks ago but you can see it on the completed ion arm above… The legris elbows used on the GB1 packs I just couldnt bring myself to spend the money some folks were asking for them so I went with the SMC elbows the Gbfans shop sells… slightly modified… here they are fresh out of the package…
a dremel, a sanding wheel and 10 minutes later
and then add a little acyrlic dark grey paint
I am going to try and run down some copper ish looking paint to use on the ends for the tubing…I believe games workshop sells a shade that would be perfect that I have used on some of my chaos space marine models in the past…as fate would have it though it is one of 2 shades games workshop paints that I am currently out of… damn you Khorne Beserkers…damn you all to hell…
with the hectic schedule of work lately I haven’t been to jump on my pack build as much as I would like but I did get some time this weekend to take care of a few things. Obviously after the texture coat I laid down about 3 coats of lacquer to seal the wall texture and then put on a coat of primer, and a coat of metallic nickel. I was worried that I may have put the wall texture on too thick but after getting the nickel paint on…I actually liked it better then then thin layers some folks have been using…
with primer…
close up of the texture
You can see in the photo that I had a misstep or two with some of my part mounting points…thankfully none of that will be visible when its all assembled. I did get a little ahead of myself though and didn’t drill out the 3/4" hole for the other end of the ribbon cable…an error I’m sure I’m going to be kicking myself later for. After the nickel paint was dry I proceeded to lay down the satin black without the mustard weathering…I want something a little more subtle for the pack body then what I used on the parts. having so much of the pack in paint I couldn’t resist throwing it all together one time just too see how it would look…and I have to say I’m pretty pleased
this shot with the flash on kinda makes the texture look a little obnoxious to me…its really not that pronounced in person
even without the HGA and its associated fittings, legris straights and tubing…I think she’s looking good.
I even got some time this weekend to cut some aluminum tube, clean up and mock the thrower up…One of Throwing Chickens incredible V3 kits…if your going do a resin thrower TCs is absolutely the best out there.
Constructive criticism is welcome here guys. I am not trying to reproduce a specific pack more so something that is a good representation of a GB1 Hero pack using mostly resin parts.
I decided on a whim today that the HGA I am using needed some attention… I picked up a resin HGA from jackdoud a couple of months back and while it is a great cast, after primer and paint the details just weren’t popping like I wanted.
I noticed that a 5/16 fender washer was the exact same outer diameter as the HGA Label I have so I traced that washer onto a piece of styrene and cut it out to use as the center raised section on the top of the HGA.
I used a #7 drill bit (size of the bit for 1/4 x 20 cap heads) and drilled the center of the cast detail cap heads out and deep enough for the real cap heads to sink, then sanded the cast detail off with a dremel sanding wheel. after that I tapped the holes and set the new cap heads in place… a note about tapping resin… I have had some pitfalls with tapping resin part that have been really annoying…so much so that I’ve come damn close to chucking one or parts across the room. The answer to this conundrum is petroleum jelly…put a little bit on your tap and 9 out of 10 times you will get a clean set of threads tapped into yours resin parts.
Next I used some lock tite super glue to secure the center disk in place, drilled and tapped the holes for the legris and clippard elbows and put it together for a test fit.
This mod took maybe 45 minutes… and honestly I’m glad I did it because the end product is so much more detailed then the resin cast as it was.
I got the HGA painted, weathered and mounted, added the tubing except the vac line and twisted the rubbon cable and mounted it in place. Right now all that’s left on the pack itself is adding the labels, installing the vac line loom adding a piece of 1/4" loom over the tubing from the beam line to the HGA clippard. here she is in all her glory…sorry for the blurry photo Ill try to get a clearer one up later…camera just wasn’t being agreeable.
It hurt to have to twist that ribbon cable up…Blkmesahero does some fine work…
Coming soon…TCV3 thrower build!
Looking good!!!
Its been a couple of months since I have updated anything concerning my pack build and although progress has been at a stand still for many reasons, the portion I have been dreading since Zombierepellent shipped my shell is closing in…Electronics. Electronics have been my biggest weakness in every prop build I have done so far and this proton pack is probably the most complicated I have attempted to date. Instead of attempting to build these circuits myself, for my first pack I have opted to go with a Full bundle Crix light and sound kit…but with some minor changes from the stock kit.
The gear:
Crix light and sound kit
Lepai 20w Amp
Spongeface battery eliminator and pre amp board (thank you thebyron for cluing me in to its existence)
12V lipo battery (the system had to be rechargeable, operate from one battery and have decent battery life, I’m too OCD to be pulling my pack apart to change batteries after every event I attend)
Pair of 6.5" 3 way speakers
Thanks to a couple of members here are in order for answering my questions in regards to basic layout of the system I am trying to install. I wont throw out names so they aren’t bombarded with PMs…they know who they are.
Thrower progress and electronics COMING SOON.
I got a package in today from Mr. Crix and laid the, soon to be innards, of my pack out to have a look.
After recovering from the mild stroke I had and finding a clean pair of shorts from where I soiled myself I realized just how over my head I am at this moment. This is going to be interesting =)
The part of this build I have been dreading since I received my shell and mobo in the mail nearly 9 months ago is here.
I have spoken with thebyron on a few occasions during his pack build and he sent me a rough diagram of what was working for him…using what I picked up I made up my own little diagram I wanted to throw up here so folks could nitpick it a little bit and point out anything that possibly looks blatantly wrong. hopefully it is legible once photobucket has its way with it…
I had the same set up, what I did was to set up each set one at a time, start with pack lights since that’s the easiest, set up the gun and then do the sound last. Each system works independently. I used a 9v battery with a clip to test my set up, just keep in mind that the spongeface board is going to power most of it when you are done.
I can’t read the text, even when I right-click and open in a new window.
However, I wish I had thought to put my HGA sticker onto some styrene like you did. My HGA itself is aluminum, had it welded by a student at the high school, but my sticker looks too flat against it.
Alex
ill try to throw up a more legible photo when I get in from work this evening
there is a direct link to where I have it uploaded on photobucket… I don’t know if that will help though since photobucket resizes photos by default
@Alan - I am going to try and set it up on my work bench this weekend… the amp seems to be the biggest issue right now as not many have actually used it…at least not many that are talking about it… the battery I picked up wont power the amp up when I jack it directly into it…a couple of folks have suggested that it could be a short but since I haven’t altered anything I have no clue how to go about checking for that. As of this moment though I haven’t tried to power up anything else with the battery…so it could be the battery itself…
@Alex - If you are using an aluminum HGA you can pick up a 5/16" fender washer, paint one side the same black as your pack and epoxy it to the front of the your HGA and put the label on top of that. They are the same size in diameter if I’m not mistaken. You might want to sand the black off the HGA to do that though so you are epoxying metal to metal. It would be an easy fix for you if you are not digging the HGA label look on your pack though…
From day 1 I figured the most difficult part of this would be the electronics portion…but so far the hardest bit has been just getting everything to fit. I have seen a couple of packs here with similar setups but no matter how I positioned the speakers and battery I seem to keep hitting corners inside the shell… so for speaker 2 I went out and picked up a 5 1/2" 3 way speaker to replace teh 2nd 6 1/2" and mounted the battery on the back of the mobo with the amp. Unfortunately I now have a couple of holes in the mobo I want to fill in and Ill probably re paint it as well. I don’t like the blue brick being visible but it does allow easy access to the switch on it for when the pack isn’t in use…here are a couple of photos of how I situated everything…finally… I took a strip of leather I had lying around and installed a set of snaps then bolted it to the mobo to hold the battery in place. the base of the battery just sits on the crossbar of the ALICE frame… its pretty solid it seems.
I got all my light and sound components in and immediately went to work on getting things squared away internally with the pack itself…After I got a portion of things wired up I started having issues with the sound right out of the gate. I wont summarize it all here but for those interested you can check out this thread:
---->Sound issue.... - Proton Packs - GBFans.com
Thankfully the community here is very giving with their infinite wisdom of such things…and a solution is inbound as we speak…at least I hope it is a solution…
Thrower progress!
Throwing chickens introduction to putting together his gun kit was my guide here with some minor changes. First and foremost I wanted aluminum gun knobs and heat sink…so I sanded the cast side knobs and heat sink off until it was nice and smooth, then proceeded to align and mount those new additions. After that it was pretty much follow TC’s directions… This is where I stand so far…
Every thing is mounted with the hardware used from Gekx’s bomb ass hardware kit I picked up a few months back.A great deal of drilling and tapping resin got me here… There are still a few holes to fill with putty, fake welds to be added and the gun ears still need to be permanently fixed to the end of the aluminum tube I’m using for the front handle. All in all though im really pleased so far…once it started coming together I couldn’t resist getting a shot with the thrower hanging from the side of the pack…
Ain’t she purdy?