Please excuse my newbieness, but I?m planning to get started on my first pack pretty soon, and I?m hoping to get some advice from people who know what they are doing.
First of all, the plans. I?m leaning towards venkman71?s plans, as they look to be the most newb-friendly. Stefan?s plans look more detailed, but don?t look newb-friendly at all. Norm?s plans look good, but they seem a bit jumbled, and as such more confusing than they need to be. What do those of you who have actually built stuff from the various sets of plans think of them?
The other thing I want to ask about is building materials. I?m thinking about using MDF so I won?t have to worry about hiding the wood grain. Has anyone used this for a proton pack? If so, does the finished product look good?
That?s all for now. I?ll probably bother you all some more once I get started. Thanks
The first pack I built was with norm’s plans. And it seemed to be a little bit too big. :x I later found out that his plans are, GREAT none the less, but not the most accurate…
In my opinion Venkman71’s plans are the most user friendly and from what I hear, stephan’s are the most accurate… I’m currently working on a fiberglass pack using a combination of Venkman71’s and stephan’s plans.
If I were you, I would print out all three sets of plans, choose one that you will use as your main guide and keep the other two on hand for extra referance to fill in any questions. Oh, and print out some referance photos as well.
The last piece of advice I can give you right now, and I think most on this board would agree, cut out your mother board last. Wait until you have all of your pieces built then lay them out in the proper position, then trace around them. That way your mother board will fit perfectly.
Take care and good luck. Looking forward to seeing some pictures. :o
Although MDF is very easy to work with and eliminates the woodgrain look it does require priming/sealing before painting (it will soak paint up like a sponge) if you dont seal it. The other drawback is the weight (very dense)=heavy. There are lots of sources here for resin parts to keep the weight down as well as alot of good ideas on the plans for alternate materials. Remember to wear a dust mask when working with MDF, the dust off that stuff can make you ill ! (formaldyhide,glues,resins, toxic stuff if inhaled)
I would tend to disagree on the motherboard being the last thing as I find it good to have a template to mount everything to but thats my opinion. I started with Stefans motherboard plan and worked from there adjusting as needed.
However you do it, have fun! and remember everyone here is a great source of information and inspiration, to see all the great packs that others have built only makes you want to build the best pack you can!
This site and all its contributors has helped me immensely! Thanks guys!
I’m in the process of building my first pack and I’ve found myself doing exactly what ecto_skywalker suggested: printing all three sets of plans, basically sticking to one but looking at all of them for ideas. I started out using Norm’s but I’ve since decided to use Venkman71’s.
Something else I’ve been doing is checking this site almost daily. You’d be surprised how much your questions will be answered just by scouring the boards.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing some progress pics as well!
I’d be sealing and priming any kind of wood, so that’s not a problem. And I’m not too worried about the weight. I know the MDF is heavier, but I can?t imagine that the weight would be significant enough to cause a problem. According to some figures I found on the internet, (assuming I did my metric conversions right) at a quarter inch thickness, a square foot of MDF weighs about 1.024 pounds per square foot. The material list in Norm?s plans asks for 40 square feet of wood. I assume though that part of that will be scrap. Does anyone know how many square feet will actually go into the pack?
I didn’t wanna spend forever building my pack, so I went with one of JMoore’s packs. I had to fabricate a few extra things, but they were all easy to find except a nutrana wand (That’s why I’m selling some) Anyways, within a week - 10 days, my proton pack was done, gun and all, even a few lights in the gun I did myself. Hey I’m just mechanically inclined, and had alot of time on my hands and some help.
The reason for this is that after you build the respective parts you could run into problems with the fit due to minor imperfections in the building process. The best thing to do is build the pack then lay it down on the material you are going to use as the motherboard and trace out the pack. You’ll get a perfect fit to YOUR pack that way, especially if you are building from a variety of sources.
Don’t underestimate how heavy the pack will be in the end either, mine was made from sytrene which is significantly lighter than MDF and the thing still weighs about 25/30 lbs.
Uh… It’s not a lot, but it is enough to make a difference. When I built mine, norm’s plans were the only ones I had and I just assumed the measurements were accurate. When I was finished with it though, I thought, “Wow, I didn’t know these pack’s were this big.” And I always seem to be knocking it into things… I mean, we’re probably only talking, an inch here and there. But that does add up after a while… I’m not saying all of his measurements are too big, but just compare them to the other plans and you’ll see what I mean.
Don’t worry, I fully intend to do the motherboard last.
I bought the first of my wood today, a 2x4 sheet of quarter inch MDF (I know it’s not enough, I’m gonna buy more as I need it). I’m gonna try to get started tomorrow, but with it being Mother’s day I don’t know that I’ll have time.
It’s gonna end up being really heavy, but the way I see it, if it’s a problem it’ll give me an excuse to build a second pack out of lighter materials.
Im a model maker from the UK and I used Perspex for the main material in my pack. MDF is readily avaliable here but Perspex is lighter, as strong and you dont need to prime it or treat it before painting. It significantly cut down on the weight. You can also glue it together using epoxy glues as well as hot glue or screw it itogether using good old screws (but you have to drill pilot holes or it will shatter!!)
I still used wood for the main board and didnt do it last either and found it to be slightly out and had to make another one to fit so doing it last is good advise.
The one and only problem with Persex is that it is clear so if you are planning in using any lighting in the pack at all then you will have to make sure the inside is painted black as well to mask any light getting out, although if you look close at the first film, Ray’s pack, where the power cells are (blue lights going up and down) you can see some light leeking from that area as well.
Just have fun and at the end of the day, if its not 100% right, not many people will notice and you can always make another correcting the mistakes on the first one.
Oh, and print out some referance photos as well.