Newbie builds a N-a-T pack

[Ecto-won-ton]

Okay so here we go, a GB1 style Proton Pack build with mostly Nick-a-Tron parts (thanks a lot, man). This is my first time at doing this but I am pulling techniques and ideas from all of you brilliant people to make the best pack possible. So let’s start!

First we have Nick’s kit. A very beautifully crafted Hero Shell.

Resin parts look amazing, love the details. Very clean.

First job is drilling out the Cyclotron windows and the Powercell. Piece of cake!

Next i drilled out the vents for the N-Filter and added pilot holes before attempting to fix the imperfections found on the shell.

So far so good, im having a blast working on this thing and I will update as soon as i can.

[pyhasanon]

Looks like a great start! Looking forward to seeing this develop! Was my first time too, lots of good info on this board!

[nick-a-tron]

looks good so far! Glad you are enjoying the parts

[Ecto-won-ton]

Alright i’m back with an update and take a look at this bumper. those litle tiny holes need to go and so does that seam!

Looks like i will have to break out the wet&dry!

i also noticed that my blue acrylic powercell strip wouldn’t sit straight and flush with the window so I made a bed for it with some Epoxy putty.

Jobs a goodun’

More prep work. This time i’m filling ‘n’ fixing and marking the position of the N-Filter and the bumper. (Very tricky stuff and most of it you just have to eyeball with the Sony Lobby reference pics nearby).

More marking and drilling, mistaking and fixing lol. :sigh:

now just when i thought it couldn’t get any more frightening, I have to make some fake weld lines… wish me luck!

[csullivan1980]

Making a bed of epoxy putty for the power cell lens is exactly what I did when I built my pack. It really works great

[nick-a-tron]

You’re doing a great job here. Very excited to see more.

[Ecto-won-ton]

When last we left off, I was making holes in my shell for all the subsequent parts to be bolted on to – Mission accomplished! Next we tackle the dreaded weld lines of the Ion Arm and the N-Filter….

First off, I thought I would use CPU64’s neat welding tool. And then it’s off to the races with some epoxy putty, a hope and a prayer.

And here it is….

I’ll be frank, its not exactly how I’d hoped it would look. Any criticisms are welcome, I really cant work with Epoxy putty very well but onwards and upwards; next I’ll try the ion arm…

A little better. I am much happier with this one than the last although I went a bit crazy and added a weld where there wasn’t one but I removed it easily enough (phew!)

“So whats next,” I hear you ask. Well for now, I figured I would turn my attention to the motherboard and give it a lick of paint and get those mounting brackets on.

After a little light sanding, I gave it a dose of primer – really worked well.

Marking.

Riveting and next, tapping.

The Brackets and fixings, I acquired from Ejgunth87 who is a master of aluminium!

Now I’m not a craftsman in any way, in fact, I’m pretty much a layman when it comes to this stuff but even I love my dremel and it has proved to be an invaluable tool in this project. Here it is about to make my square cyclotron lenses into round ones.

And here, I used it to carve out a rather neat hole for my N-Filter.

Fits like a glove.

[pyhasanon]

Loving this! You’re doing great!

[propcicle]

How did you cut the cyclotron lenses with poking a center hole? I’m very interested in knowing this. Great work so far.

[Ecto-won-ton]

Thanks for the support, people. It’s much appreciated.

@propcicle

How did you cut the cyclotron lenses with poking a center hole? I’m very interested in knowing this. Great work so far.

.

Hey Propcicle, the answer is simply lots and lots of masking tape for the spike to grip but not scratch the Perspex. It was a very scary job too because the blade kept wanting to kick out. I would not really recommend this method at all as it’s very easy to go wrong but if, like me, it’s your only means, then you can do a lot worse.

I’m not sure what others use but a good circle cutter or a routing tool might be a good way to go.

Hope this helps.

[Ecto-won-ton]

The order of today – Texturing.

I followed the advice of pchrisbosh1 and used a water based texture spray followed by a lacquer to help harden it. Masking the areas I wanted clean, I sprayed a hefty coat very finely all over the shell.

Whats great about texturing is that any little blemishes found on the shell can be easily hidden from sight which is extremely useful and saves a lot of time.

After 20minutes or so, I remove the masking and lay down the first coat of lacquer. Giving each coat a good 30minutes to dry before applying another.

And Ouala!

While I’m here, I’ll show you my ALICE frame, painted in satin black and ready to be mounted to the motherboard.

Now a lot of people seem to have varying opinions on what looks best in the N-Filter holes. For me? I like the look of this fine, aluminium mesh that I had left over. After a little playing around, I found that two layers looked the best..

And as luck would have it, I had enough for the N-Filter and the speaker grate (more on that later!) Anyway, here’s the end result…

So what’s next?… Well now that the texture is applied, I should probably begin painting. I’ll keep everyone posted.

[nickoray]

Looking good. Subbing.

[Ecto-won-ton]

Update no. 5

I have given up on trying to create a decent weld on my N-filter and decided to just buy a genuine aluminum one from, who else but, Ejgunth87. It had since arrived and i am in the process of painting it - it really is nice, i’ll show it to you later.

But what I’m really excited to talk about today is this..

dousing everything in aluminium paint.

And I couldn’t resist putting it together after it was dry.

(I love the look of a completely metal-painted pack. It reminds me of Iron Man’s Mk.2 Armour, all cold and primitive. Very bad ass.

And I love how these came out…

I really liked Nick’s weathering techniques and thought I’d try something similar so I dabbed on a little acrylic paint with a dry brush and finished it with dullcote. This is the part I really enjoy!

Clippard is now painted ready to be weathered a little.

And one last thing for now. I was always intending to make a GB1 style pack but the possibility of making it “changeable” to a GB2 pack was a very intriguing and fun idea to try.

So what would that entail? Well the Ribbon Cable needs to be changeable, as will the crank knob, ion arm and some of the mounting screws. So first and foremost, I bought a bag of 1/4 pan head Phillips screws, a ribbon cable of each design and an additional resin crank knob courtesy of KCGhostbuster.

So Nickatron’s is the grey one, completely unchanged from how it came to me, while Eric’s has been painted to match the GB2 style black one. I think they both look really good and am very happy with them. Great work Gentlemen.

I have no idea yet how i’m going to make my ion arm modular to address the different placings of the brass elbows but right now I have bigger fish to fry: I’m going to take all of my parts, make like a rolling stone and “Paint it Black!”

[nick-a-tron]

Looking great! You’re skilled with a spray can!

[Ecto-won-ton]

Thanks Nick, I don’t claim to be a skilled anything but I got some good results with the old aerosols.

Huge update this week as I’ve done a whole lot of stuff. Everything’s been painted and bolted, screwed and glued to the shell.

Ive also installed a booster tube from GBFans as well as Eric’s aluminium N-Filter.

After Painting the shell, I Epoxied the lenses into place and then added reflector cups over them.

And here’s a look at the lenses as well as the N-Filter finally in place.

Btw, the paint chips were done with masking fluid and/or scraping off the black with a sharp knife.

Gaps were minimal. Even the GBFans Booster Tube was a real close fit!

And now the finishing touches and a third attempt at making a reasonable weld…

Heres something interesting to note. The spacer beneath the bumper. I found this really nice aluminium piece that I thought would look perfect. Problem was, it was a few millimetres too tall. So heres what I did…

Result!

And now here’s some weathering that I did on various parts.

I like the dirty, grungy look. It looks like my pack has been through some ■■■■ – maybe even a fire or two.

So now there’s just a few things left to do and then it’s on to the electronics… I have a few ideas on that, I’ll keep you all posted.

[Ecto-won-ton]

Big Update here. The pack is all done and i’m about to turn my attention to the electronics now.

Here’s some pics.

So thank you all or your help and knowledge in helping me get this done, couldn’t have done it without your input.

[Lowberg]

Looks fantastic! Congrats!

[Venkmans_Swagger]

Nice work

[ocp_model-001]

That turned out great, congrats on a really solid build

[Ecto-won-ton]

thanks everyone, appreciate it.