My Budget, totally inaccurate but close enough for now, ECTO

Equipment Ecto Goggles
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Hey guys! So here’s my first ever foray into the world of prop making.

I have to admit, it was a bit daunting at first - with all the spectacular builds out

here on the forum - but since I was committed to dressing up as a Ghostbuster

for Halloween this year I’ve decided to take the leap and share with you the

fruits of my labour. I know they’re not screen accurate, I know they’re not perfect,

but I’m kinda proud of how they turned out considering I had no idea what I was

doing. Credit where credit is due though: I was inspired by the following members

and their goggle builds: Kingpin & Ecto Vader. Thanks dudes, for your posts! I

used what you did to shape what I did.

Please also forgive me if this thread is formatted wonky. I’m using tapatalk on my

iPad to post this so I can include pictures and for some reason, it’s not letting me

see what I’m typing past a certain point so I’ve resorted to hitting return to

complete my sentences. Ugh. Technology has betrayed me.

So anyways, since I was on a budget I opted to go for the welding goggle frames

and PVC connectors. Unfortunately, all I could find were a pair of soft sided

vinyl goggles from Home Depot which cost around $17.

And some pvc connectors:

I removed the welding glass and replaced it with bass wood with holes cut out

to fit the pvc.

I painted the bass wood black:

Then I screwed on two pieces of wood to the sides of the goggles to make them

look more like the night vision goggles that is favoured by most on this site.

I used apoxy sculpy to fill in the gaps:

Then sanded the sides down. Oh, and I painted the connectors too!

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Here they are with the first coating of sculpy:

It was still a bit rough on the sides, so I added more sculpy, then sanded the

bejebus out of them:

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When I was finally satisfied with the smoothness of the “line” I primed them.

Please note, I became painfully aware that the wood blocks did not run

parallel to the bottom of the goggles, which is the “look” of the actual ECTO

goggles, but I didn’t have it in me to straighten them out. I’d never used sculpy

before, and I didn’t reinforce the interior of the googles like I should’ve. I was in

a bit of a hurry to get them done because I was going to be out of town for

almost all of september and I wanted to get ONE prop done before I left.

So like a few members had posted, the primer was still tacky to the touch, but

only on the vinyl part of the goggles, even though I had tried my best to sand them

down. Full disclosure, I didn’t wash them in soapy water, I had already attached

the wood blocks before I realized this and was already committed. The primer

on the sculpy bits was fine, though. Stupidly, I didn’t let the rest of the goggles

dry properly and painted them cammo green. The result was less than desirable.

The paint went on ok at first, but then started to crack and bubble up. What a

gong show! I ended up having to sand the first coat of cammo paint off & lost a

day to cleaning them up. Note to self: don’t be in such a hurry next time!

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Skipping ahead, I was very much impressed by people being able to wire their

goggles to light up. I knew I wanted my goggles to do the same thing, but I’m

as inept at electrical stuff as I was with sculpy. So I came up with a cheap, but

viable (IMHO) alternative. On a visit to the dollar store, I found these finger LED

lights that kids can use on, well, their fingers. 4 for a dollar! I grabbed two packs

and picked out the blue lights (they come in clear, red, green blue) painted them

black and attached them to the frames.

Then I added stickers (printed out from Staples onto label sheets from HBprops)

and hot glued on knobs I picked up at a surplus store for 0.75$ and voila! My

el cheapo, totally inaccurate but good enough in a pinch ECTO goggles!

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All I need to complete them is to refine the straps. I’ve only got the single band

that came with the goggles, but I hope to get a nice 3 point anchoring band

down when I get back home.

These goggles are a bit bulky, and I’m sure they’d shatter like so much fragile

glass if they ever got dropped, but i can see through them when they’re over

my eyes and they’re good enough for now!

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Welcome to the world of building Ghostbusters props, it’s great to see people still starting where many of the big time builders started, and they came out pretty cool! Great job, can’t wait to see your next little project!

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I likey! It’s so cool to see builds like these. Good job! Also, we bought a TON of those finger LEDs from the Dollar Store for my wife’s Maleficent cosplay.

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Dude, that looks frickin’ awesome! I would be totally proud of myself if I made a prop that looked that badass! Outstanding job!

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Looks good. Everybody has to start somewhere.

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Thanks! I can see how addictive this can get! It’s a slippery slope!

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Those LED’s are going to save my bacon! I’m going to use the red ones for my traps!

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Thank you! I’ve been following your uniform & pack build threads with much

interest (and a bit of envy!) Your stuff looks fantastic!

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Thanks for the kind words. I have to admit, while I’m proud of what I’ve built,

all I can see are the mistakes I made. They’re relatively minor, but I know they’re

there. Ugh. I can see how OCD this can make people! It was a constant battle

between wanting to be screen accurate vs. what I was capable of & what I could

afford to do. Added onto that was the time constraint I was under - I’m away from

home until mid October, which severely limited my options. Despite all of this, I

had a really fun time building these. The next set will be even better!

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OCD and slippery slope? Whatever do you mean?..

Those are awesome! Did I miss how you did the lines on the lenses? They’re not on the photo of the PVC but they are there later on.

Is the paint still tacky after the final coat?

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Lol. I had to constantly chastise myself for being too obsessive over detail on my

quick and dirty builds - you’ll see more when I get around to posting my scratch

pack & trap builds!

As for the lines on the lenses, I must’ve posted an old picture of the PVC connectors

I bought. I swear I must’ve gone to Home Despot at least 50 million times to try

and find pieces for my builds! I ended up finding better bases for the “lenses” -

they had a threaded bottom which helped me to secure/screw them into the holes

I cut in the bass wood. They were in the electrical section for PVC tubing. Male

connector/adapters or something like that.

I also was able to find the ribbed washer type dealies there too.

(Christ, I’m PVC tubing illiterate - I think they’re called lock nuts?).

After the final coat of cammo paint, the paint dried up fairly quickly - enough for

me to attach the knobs, stickers and lights. I guess stripping off the previous coats

of primer and paint helped create a barrier between the vinyl and new paint.

To be honest, I kinda rushed the finished product because I was leaving the next

day, so they were slightly, ever so slightly tacky, BUT, I’m confident that by the

time I get home they should be completely dried.

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I love em! Great job man!

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Looks great!

You know they’re not screen accurate because you’ve been staying at photos for ages … to everyone other than the people here they’re clearly the goggle-things from Ghostbusters.

I made some welding goggles too and the paint did eventually dry up fine.

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Thanks, dude! Loved reading about your pack builds!

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True enough! There were times I was wondering why I was obsessing over details

few people would really know or care about - but still, I think it’s a matter of

personal pride. I’ve seen plenty of, how shall I put it gently… craptacular props &

costumes in my time and I didn’t want to fall into that category. So, while my

goggles weren’t screen accurate (a term I’m becoming more and more familiar with)

I believe that they are as you pointed out, "clearly the goggle-things from

Ghostbusters". I also wanted them to look like they could actually work, which

meant I wanted the “hero” look quality to the final product. I think I got pretty

close to achieving that goal. Thanks for the encouragement!

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But seriously, even with me knowing what “screen accurate” should look like, I really like how these turned out! Color me impressed!