Proton Pack Build

[petzrick]

It’s November 18, 2021. I just saw Ghostbusters: Afterlife and decided it’s a damn good day to stop stalling and get my proton pack build online!

*Trust me. It’ll get better… *

Technically, I’m working on my third build (after two abandoned/incomplete builds). But for me, this started in 1997 when I saw the DC Planet Hollywood pack in person. Then and there, I had no choice. Vinz Clortho had given me terrible nightmares when I was five, but Ghostbusters was my favorite film. No contest.

Originally, I worked** loosely** from Norm Gagnon’s plans (1998, Revision 3). I also added random garbage that I thought looked cool. The picture above (only recently assembled) is about how far I got before starting over (the first time).

More to follow…

[petzrick]

I ran into some extreme turbulence throughout the following decade and progress was very slow. Around 2011, I shifted from a junk build to a somewhat accurate build. Let’s just say, “more recognizable.”

Here’s my original plywood MB and a few of the wooden pieces I made (without the sillier extras).

I decided to buy a shell (with shock mount) off of eBay. Regrettably, this was before I learned of the GBFans blacklisted seller list. Beyond the ethical issues, this resin shell was in poor shape, not very accurate, and heavy.

I still wanted to use some of my odds and ends with the resin shell, but then I got this and there was no turning back.

After packing up all of my original parts (save some socket head cap screws), I got a thin aluminum MB (1/8" I think). Luckily, I had already been issued an alice-frame in the military.

After a lot of repair work, I spray painted the shell. The paint did not turn out well.

Resin crank knob and ion arm. Painting went a little better on the ion arm.

I got a MMM thrower. Not a kit—it came as shown in the picture.

I mainly just worked in the LEDs, switches, and buttons (Jupiter Electronics).

I did design my own shoddy, rudimentary pop mechanism using a toilet paper roll spindle and 550 cord. It worked about 50% of the time and when it jammed, you had to partially disassemble the thrower to reset it.

N-filter

I cut the booster tube myself. The resin ladder and HGA are from eBay sellers, but the bumper is Exoray! My pack was not worthy.

I made injector tubes from PVC pipes using the hot glue method for welding lines.

PPD, beam line, filler tube, GB1 ribbon, tubing, and legris elbows (two resin and one modern equivalent). I made the injector tubes from PVC pipes I got at Home Depot.

Progress was still proceeding very slowly (more turbulence). In 2014, while I was in grad school, I wanted to use the pack for a video project (mainly as an excuse to goof off and try animating a proton stream). I rushed through what was left and “finished” the pack. By “finished,” I mean that it was good enough for my cheesy video, but not something I really wanted to show other pack builders.

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The typography jokes are not as funny as I remember.

The pack stayed finished until a few months later. After staring in awe at the Spengler pack reference photos from Profiles in History, I decided that my pack needed major improvement. I opened up the shell and started planning an overhaul.

In retrospect, it would have been a much better decision to start over completely…

[petzrick]

My first goal was to improve the thrower. I filled and reshaped several areas on the resin body. The bar graph was just a hole showing the bare LEDs, so I added a bevel with styrene strips and used part of a CD jewel case as a lens. I also started upgrading smaller parts, such as the heatsink.

I repainted the grips and used several weathering techniques to get that worn look. In addition to roughing up areas to show the base coat, I did a few enamel washes. Up until this point, most of my paint work had turned out fairly sloppy. But with the grips, I started focusing more on details.

Stripped down and ready for repainting

New base coat

Repainting complete with some weathering. I was happier with the results (but not satisfied).

The MMM thrower originally had no bottom for the trigger box. I put together this aluminum cover with magnets.

Thrower trigger box bottom

I decided to upgrade the Jupiter Electronics kit with GBFans lights and sounds. First I pulled out the awful mess that was my earlier rush job.

Ugh… The thick resin would require a lot of modification for the GBFans kit to fit, which would require repainting again. Other things continued to nag at me, especially the PVC tubes (too small) and my ■■■■■■ pop mech.

So I decided to scrap the thrower entirely and made a big order from Freeky Geeky.

[petzrick]

While waiting on the new thrower parts, I turned back to the main pack. My blacklisted shell still had really bad areas. The shell’s edge had big cracks, gaps, and an additional resin rim in many areas.

I worked on cleaning these up and modified a new aluminum MB to better fit the odd proportions of my shell.

New base coat. I was using the toothpaste method for weathering.

I also worked on improving the other components, such as the injector tubes. Originally, my fake weld lines (hot glue) were pretty thick. I sanded these down for a cleaner look.

Everything else was also repainted.

Not as embarrassing this time.

I also added awesome stuff from GBFans: bellows shock mount, stickers, metallic labels, dry rub transfers, tubing, cyclotron lenses, etc. This was years ago (2016) so I can’t remember exactly where and when everything came from. But I do remember getting seriously hyped up by that bellows and dry rub.

[petzrick]

After using my pack for a video project earlier, I became concerned about the strength of my alice-frame. From that single use, the heavy resin pack had bent parts of the vertical bar to match the contour of my back. I also read about bars cracking on this post.

Luckily, Mat’s build has a great solution for this. After carefully removing the bent up aluminum bar, I cut a steel bar to the same length, drilled holes, and did my best to match the bend (the one that’s supposed to be there).

After several experiments to match the color and finish, the bar is reattached and riveted back into place. I wish I had known about this when I was still in the military. Proton packs aren’t the only thing that mess these up.

After reading this great post by Julz, I got to work on cutting up a hockey puck, and continuing to train my feet to function as a vise.

For the lower spacers, I cut blocks of wood and surfaced these with aluminum. These were only crooked temporarily.

My previous MB was too thin, so I replaced it with the correct 1/4" thickness. When working on the shell, I trimmed the MB’s edge to match the shell’s quirks more closely. This is easiest to spot at the odd angle on top. I saw numerous posts where builders created templates for speaker holes, so I made my own in Adobe Illustrator. For the pattern, I wanted to keep it simple and uniform.

Holes tapped

Countersunk

Cleaned and sanded

[enderweggen]

Love the Shell it may be a bit off but no one but us ghost heads will ever notice. I had the same trouble with the POP so I just over did it and wound up with a lever action non pop.

I think you’ve earned it :crunch:

[petzrick]

Thank you! I should’ve left the shell as is, and then focused on improving things for my next build. I unfortunately kept messing with it. I’ve got several more posts to get caught up to where I am now.

I got obsessed with trying to make my bad pop mech work, and then was blown away by how well the Freeky Geeky mech worked. At least the frustration taught me true appreciation.

[petzrick]

Next I tackled electronics, and got so into it that I didn’t take any progress pictures. I also finally took the time to learn how to solder correctly. This photo is pre-ziptie wire organization.

Pssdffjay’s build was immensely helpful. His build helped me figure out speakers, the speaker hole template, the ABS shelf, and the cyclotron lens holder. For the power cell LEDs, I cut and bent a 1/4" aluminum panel into a C shaped shelf.

For the cyclotron lens holder, I used a breadboard and the aluminum tray brackets from a project enclosure. This fits over the larger Pyle speaker and a blue brick battery (covered in electric tape and caution tape).

I also made a weird little stand for the N-filter LED so that I wouldn’t need to attach it to the shell.

I partially dismantled the blue brick so that I could install a kill switch and LED on/off indicator on the back of the MB. The LED is obviously not accurate but it was fun. It also ended up being surprisingly helpful. Below the kill switch, I installed a volume pot, but set up the shell so that volume could also be connected to a second pot under the crank knob on the gear box.

I also got a **fantastic **switchcraft charging plate from Nathan Stevic (nstevic01). This was a pack detail that I learned about during this stage of the build and it immediately became one of my favorite details. Nathan’s work on these is amazing.

[petzrick]

I think this was when the project started to graduate from hobby to obsession. Abandoning my manilla envelope stuffed with notes, I got organized.

I still had a good amount of time to wait on my thrower parts. While I waited, I worked on making a replica flash bulb for the thrower tip. I found several different ways to mess up acrylic LED holders. After ordering a couple replacements, I bought an acrylic tube and cut a few myself. I used extremely fine sand paper on the ends.

For the bulb itself, I used a vintage GE AG-1 flash bulb. In order to fit a working LED inside the bulb, I cut it open by following the methods in Gohsttarp’s Build and Canpara’s Build. Quite a few flash bulbs were sacrificed in the process.

I also saw reference pictures in Legend642’s Build that showed the socket really well. This area doesn’t have a lot of visibility, but I wanted something similar. I cut open a Bic ballpoint pen and plugged it with a plastic LED socket, which I painted white. I then glued this to a random plastic piece I found, which was then glued to the flash bulb.

Inside the bulb, I used a white strobe LED from Spongeface. Spongeface’s work is amazing.

Thrower Flash Bulb

Getting a little out of order here with my build: I ran into issues with my flash bulb later. It looked pretty nice, until I used Freeky Geeky’s awesome pop mech a few times. This converted my thrower into a dangerous projectile weapon. When the flash bulb was launched, it also cracked my thrower’s acrylic tube. This would be after I installed most of the electronics, so it was not a quick fix.

I don’t know where the bulb went, but I did hear it shatter. For my second flash bulb (seen in the video above), I also cut the bottom of another GE bulb, and covered both with a small amount of epoxy. Back in safe working order.

[JWils23]

Can’t tell you how many times I launched my flashbulb with RJ’s pop mech. I ended up switching from the spring to bands because that spring was so violent. But the bands he supplies typically don’t last that long and stretch or break. My wife has these elastic hair ties that really stretch but don’t seem to lose their elasticity or break as easy as the little black ones. I swapped mine for these a few months ago and have had no issues, still a nice pop but not nearly as forceful.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y2SKLPP?psc=1&tag=gbfans-discourse-20

Links in this post may be affiliate links. Purchases made through them help support this site at no additional cost to you.

[petzrick]

Thanks, that’s a really good tip. Definitely very violent—a good example of why safety goggles are useful.

I opted for the band version pop mech from the get go. Part of the problem was the glue I had originally used. After using epoxy on the bulb, I also added a dab on the fake socket and acrylic holder, so it’s never coming out again. Umori also recommends putting some padding inside at the impact point, although this does lessen that cool metal sound. I only had to replace the original band once or twice, but eventually switched to a band that I think is similar to your wife’s. They seem like they’ll last years.

[petzrick]

My package from Freeky Geeky finally arrived—incredible work by Umori. Having all the parts on hand got me very motivated.

Particle Thrower Parts List

Freeky Geeky

• Body/rear handle
• Front handle
• Trigger box/instrument bar combo
• Rear cylinder
• Heat sink
• Extension lever
• Pop mech* (rubber bands)*
• Clear tube
• Brass washers
  GBFans
• Front, top, and side knobs
• Gun track
• Trigger tip
• Side discs (smooth)
• GB1 V-hook
• Wand lights kit
• Stickers and metallic labels
• Dry rub transfers
  Spongeface
• Wand tip LED expansion kit
• Flash bulb LED
• Inner core white strobe LED
• Bar graph bezel with lenticular overlay
  Not certain—I’m still playing catch up on my build so this was a few years ago.
• Trigger tip: GBFans or Freeky Geeky
• Thrower grips: GBFans or Nickatron
• Gun track discs
• Green tube: Possibly Jupiter Electronics. I can’t tell if it’s real or a replica.

Main Plan

Test Assembly

After installing components and making some adjustments, I did a temporary test to make sure everything fit and worked correctly.

I got a brighter inner core LED from Spongeface. I had trouble finding a flashlight reflector that looked right and fit well. Ironically, the reflector I ended up using was from a D-cell anglehead flashlight, like in Ghostbusters: The Video Game. I used the one sold on GBFans or this one. Both are similar, but I don’t believe either are authentic GI flashlights. Years ago, I had been issued one of these, but unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find mine. In the marines, we called these moonbeams.

The heat shrink on the ear will need to be added a second time after painting. **The picture below was taken before the bulb was weaponized and launched into orbit.*

The front grip was cleaned up and sanded for a good fit. I made a channel inside for the wires. A small portion of the wires would be visible between the grip and main body. In reference pictures, these were combinations of red, white, and black. The yellow wire looked inaccurate and there were too many wires.

Holes were drilled through the grip into the rear handle. I tapped these for socket head cap screws. These should be replaced with rivets later, but I may stick with the screws. I fixed one of the grip holes that I had messed up. The barbs (Clippard #11752-1) would need to be trimmed later.

Test complete.

Paint/Label

I dread painting. A lot.

For the thrower and its components, I used Rust-Oleum satin black (same as shell).

For the grips, I used Rust-Oleum matte burlap as a base coat (close match to the color of the resin). Then a coat of satin cinnamon and then satin black. I did subtle weathering, by roughing up areas and applying enamel washes.

After a few frustrating, failed attempts, I finally got a decent paint job done.

Electronics and parts were partially assembled. Dry rub transfers, stickers, and metallic labels from GBFans were applied.

I put together the lenticular overlay from Spongeface’s bar graph bezel kit, which makes the animated bar graph LEDs look even more badass. Not easy to assemble but worth it.

I accidentally rubbed off part of the tiny six (the bowl) in this diagram. Hard to notice unless it’s pointed out, and it would look intentional with more consistent weathering. I went ahead and did my best to fix it anyway. This made me realize that all the transfers could be damaged fairly easily.

Time to learn a new skillset. I decided to air paint the entire pack with a clear coat.

Because everything was mostly assembled, I thought this was going to be really difficult, but it wasn’t too bad.

The hardest part was finding a paint I was happy with. I made samples using some aluminum siding and tested protection for the transfers and the overall finish. I.e. the test below has good protection but the finish has some bubbling and blotchy areas.

[placeholder—Add the clear coat that worked and picture if you can find it.]

I made this device using a rotating TV pedestal and a toilet paper holder. It was ridiculously helpful.

Assembly

Most of the front barrel wiring would be hidden by the grip. The ear was heat shrinked again. The front grip would be removable, attached by a diagonal screw through the ear…

…and another through the barrel lock. The five wires in the top left of the picture below would be partially visible and needed to be flexible. For the visible area, I heat shrunk three of the wires together to hide two, including the yellow one. I then put clear heat shrink on all of the wires.

I upgraded the original GBFans wand lights with the expansion kit from Spongeface. I made an LED holder to go in the pop tube, using part of a toilet paper roll holder tube, gaskets and electrical tape.

Zip ties and wire clips were used to organize and make space.

The thrower was just about finished at this point.

Links in this post may be affiliate links. Purchases made through them help support this site at no additional cost to you.

[petzrick]

To finish up the thrower, I trimmed the barbs on the instrument bar and rear cylinder. I then added the green Clippard tube, using a heat gun. Later, the white hat light lenses were replaced with the milky white lenses that GBFans had manufactured. I may do additional weathering but want to keep it subtle, since I’m certain there will be natural weathering in the future. i.e. I’m a klutz.

**Particle Thrower: **

Thrower Core Test

[gerv]

Looking good, you mentioned thats an “mmm” wand? Whos that exactly? ed, oh freeky geeky wand, just noticed that.

[petzrick]

Thank you and sorry for the confusion. This build has gone sideways and backwards.

MMM is Multi Media Mayhem. It sounds like he’s not doing props anymore. Really nice guy. I had bought a thrower from him in 2012, but replaced it with the Freeky Geeky later on.

[JWils23]

That thrower is a thing of beauty! RJ really makes some great stuff, even if it takes a looong time to get. Well worth the wait.

The dry rubs are actually a bit more resilient than you think. They seem to be most delicate right after application, I had the same issue where I smudged one as I put it on. But I’ve handled mine a ton, along with other people trying on the pack and playing with the thrower and all of the dry rubs have held up perfectly.

[petzrick]

Thank you! RJ’s skills are amazing.

I think you’re right about the transfers. I did mess with mine not long after applying, and it was more than a light bump. Also, I was already thinking about a clear coat, so it gave me a good excuse.

[gerard55]

@Petzrick post_id=4962561 time=1638567551 user_id=41297

Thank you and sorry for the confusion. This build has gone sideways and backwards.

MMM is Multi Media Mayhem. It sounds like he’s not doing props anymore. Really nice guy. I had bought a thrower from him in 2012, but replaced it with the Freeky Geeky later on.

Don’t suppose the mmm one is for sale if you still have it? :-o Been looking for a prebuilt one for a while now.

[petzrick]

Sorry, it’s not in a great state. I was in the process of overhauling it when I switched. I’m thinking of going back to finish fixing it up at some point.

[petzrick]

A short tangent…

I’ll get to this later, but it became apparent that I had a lot more work to do on the shell. In the mean time, I had been using this box to hold the thrower.

Hasbro had just announced the Spengler wand. I liked the odds and ends stand. I was at Lowes and passed by a door threshold. This gave me an idea, so I wandered around grabbing random things and sketched this down.

I cut a section from the threshold, removed the foam from the bottom, and tapped holes for carriage bolts. Getting the measurements was tricky and I ended up doing this twice.

I ground down the heads of two carriage bolts and cut each at different heights. This took a long time, because I had limited access to tools then.

I made two holders from plumbing C clamps, gasket plugs, closed cell foam, and assorted washers and spacers.

Test fit. Tapping the holes in the threshold allowed some vertical adjustment to get the thrower positioned straight.

Time to give it style with caution tape, split loom, and zip ties. Getting the caution tape to fit in the grooves was the hardest part of making this stand.

Embossed label

Small rubber feet underneath

Finished