Not sure if this has been talked about or not, but planning on working on a new pack for Archon later this year. Last pack I made was about two years ago, and it looked fairly decent, but heavy as I made it completely out of wood. I’d like to get a new shell and would like input on the kind of shell that would be good for it?
I know I’ve seen Vacuum Formed shells, resin shells, and fiberglass shells.
I know the Vacuum Formed shells are probably the lightest, but I’m questioning the durability after everything’s attached to it, and Fiberglass shells are the most durable but are expensive I’d like input on other builders before I start on this new pack.
If it’s in your budget and you want a solid one-piece shell, fiberglass is the way to go. However vacformed shells can be altered to be very sturdy and look pretty good if you put the time into them. Avoid resin shells, as they usually lack the strength of fiberglass and can be heavy as hell since they need to be cast thicker.
Well. As said, my first pack was made out of wood. It looked pretty good, not highly accurate, but it was still at least presentable and I’d like to re-work it. That much wood is heavy of course and I think it would be good for a vacuum forming mold. Here’s the pics of my very first build that I did. Didn’t turn out too terrible and most of the parts I’d like to replace or repair.
Turns out I was a little bit wrong. It wasn’t a resin-cast shell that I had seen, it was a styrene shell that I saw. Any pros/cons about the styrene I should know?
And as far as the Vaccum Form shell, if I get that, I was thinking of reinforcing the interior with fibercloth and fiberglass resin.
Your main problem with shells isn’t going to be structural integrity, it’s going to be accuracy. Pick the type of shell you’re most comfortable working with and then ask for advice on the most accurate version if you can’t tell on your own.
Well… so far from what I’m seeing, the polystyrene shell is 0.080, and the other shell is ABS plastic and is 0.093. As it stands I’m leaning towards the ABS (writing this while looking up various things of Polystyrene vs ABS) due to if I’m reading this correctly, the ABS has better overall strength, but there’s a few areas that need to be cut off and cleaned up and is supposed to be all around a nice plastic. But on the other hand the styrene took a better shape it looks like. Here’s two pictures of what I’m looking at. The white one is the Polystyrene shell, and the black is the ABS.
The black ABS shell is made by Studio Creations. I had one last year (I have since gave it to a friend). It’s a good shell, but I absolutely hate how they redesigned where the two halves meet. I would personally go with a vacformed shell from D-42, you’ll find his thread in the FS section. Same material as the SC, but the way his join together is much better.
Yea. I think I found one of his pack shells on ebay. Leaning towards his as it’s got a cleaner look and has some of the extra detail in it as well.
I HAVE THE SAME SHELL HOW DO YOU KEEP THE TWO HALVES TOGETHER? SO THAT I MAY PUT PARTS ON
with the power of your mind??
Fibreglass is the way to go if you want it to look good. If you don’t want to scratchbuild then go for a fibreglass shell. The problem with vac formed shells isn’t the shell strength, it’s the fact that most of them are ugly as hell.
Lawrence
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