I finished up most of my first wood pack and am pretty unhappy with it. Wood is a pain in the ass for me as I have very infrequent access to saws.
So for the remainder of my pack (the gun mount), I’m just going to use styrene/foamcore. This will work as I’ve found I’m pretty good at getting sharp, clean snaps. Should have done the whole thing like this from the start…
Anyway.
As I said, I’m doing the gun mount and the entire gun out of the light material. My question is this: How stable are the load-bearing properties on your gun mounts? Is there some trick for supporting the weight of the gun? Seems like a lot for thin plastic/paper & foam to handle.
Is this a legitimate concern? Also, how did you attach your gun mount to the motherboard? Gorilla Glue?
You will want to make the gun mounting surface as strong as possible both on the pack and the gun base, especially if you plan on pulling it on and off a lot.
The dixie hook is quite strong but if its mounted poorly to either mounting surface it will fail. The gun base is always a stress point so make sure you reinforce it well. You said you made most of your pack from wood, could you post a pic of it or at least of the area you are mounting the gun block?
I would suggest doing a solid block for your gun mount, your pack doesn’t look that bad maybe just do some more filling and sanding and then re-paint and add all the finishing touches. A lot of those detail pieces will cover up some of the areas you are not happy with
As far as the gun box goes, if you use foamcore then glue some wood blocks into the corners to support the baseplate screws. Maybe use a piece of hardboard for the baseplate and a resin cast gun track to mount your V-hook securely.
first off, your pack is really pretty decent, i’ve seen much worse, so dont get too down on it. it takes alot of practice
and plain experience building these things to get them right.
that being said, you probably dont want to hear this, but…
the gun mount is probably the most used and ther for stressed part of the whole pack. i wouldn’t make it out of foamcore. styrene is cool, although i personally haven’t built wit the stuff. what i would do is get yourself a piece of 4x4. two cuts and you’ve got a gun mount. use a bit of putty or modge-podge to conceal the grain and your done. good luck man.
To tell you the truth, when I built my pack (foam board), I didn’t even make a hook for my gun on the pack. The box was there, but I wanted to be safe and something told me that if I tried to do a gun mount with foam board, I would be walking around one night and my gun would just rip the thing off. For the longest time I simply had a clip and a zip tie to hang the gun from my belt as the guys are often seen doing in the films. When I decided to finally go for it and build a working gun mount, I went to radio shack and got a project enclosure that was closest in size to the gun mount block, removed the foam one, attached the radio shack box with screws, atached a dixie holder, dolled it up to look like a gun mount box, closed the whole thing up with gorilla glue and called it a day. It works great and I haven’t had any issues!
I can’t speak for styrene, as I’ve never messed with it.
i would not use foamcore the mount the gun hook to, a few bumps and I could see the hooks coming loose. you’ve gotten this far with wood, i’d finish it with wood imo. and yeah, fill the imperfections, sand and use FLAT paint, not gloss! that cuts down on imperfections being visible, because honestly, you’ll never get rid of them all.
This pack is made from foamboard and the “blocks” are filled with “great stuff” spay foam in a can you can pick p at wal-mart. The gun mount works just fine. I did put a little extra “goop” under the gun hook before I screwed it in.
I was wondering what’s the ‘life expectancy’ of a foam pack? I was talking to a friend who was pretty leery of the durability of using foamcore. I was thinking that it might work if you build up the sides with sturdier pieces and a strong bumper, but honestly the potential ‘cheapness’ of foam core or styrene is appealing…
If you reinforce your foamcore parts with gussets inside it will make it a bit more durable but lets face it it’s foam, it’s not going to stand up as well as wood or fiberglass. The economy of using it is a plus though for those on a budget and there have been some really nice foam packs done in the past that look great.
I’ll tell you right now man, your pack looks good for a wood pack. Im in the process of finishing up rebuilding my wood pack also. Yours looks a lot more authentic than mine. If i can, ill see if I can post of pic of it and you can see how much better yours is.
Well it all depends on what your gonna do while wearing it. I wore it for a whole weekend at the end of October (halloween parties downtown from the 28th-31st), and didn’t get a scratch on it, even with ppl tugging and pulling on it. Then again, I refinforced that puppy with a lot of GOOP glue and GREAT STUFF foam in a can. It all depends on how you construct and enforce it.
Just don’t back into walls really hard or wrestle with your buddies while wearing it lol.
I worked with foam core for a long time, never again, but it is a good learning experience. For the future, I would suggest buying a box of 1/8" thick styrene. I spent about $40 on a box of fifty 8x10" sheets, and despite their size, you can mend them together to make larger surfaces like on the spacer for instance.
There is nothing you can do with foam core that you can’t with styrene, and then some, with the same limited selection of tools.
