Has anyone replicated the GB1 fabric bellows for their pack? It looks like they were originally wrapped in some sort of white or light gray material, but I can’t find much information about it. The material seems to have deteriorated over time, so it’s not really visible in more recent reference photos. Is the material paper, a natural-fiber textile, some sort of synthetic material, or something else? Does anyone know?
I’d like to get my bellows looking like they do in the first film if possible, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
My understanding is that the metal bellows originally had some kind of fabric or paper wrap. To quote kind2311 from another thread:
The material, whatever it is, seems to have deteriorated over time, so it’s not really visible in most reference pics, but if you look at GB1 stills or older reference pics, the bellows are clearly either white or light gray.
You’ve got me intrigued enough to take a look through what digital copies of historic reference I’ve managed to acquire over the years, though I’m also a tad reluctant to take the idea as gospel… As the famous discussion about what colour the grey suits in Ghostbusters II were, the historic reference material can sometimes mislead us.
Shawn Marshall’s pack pictures from Sept, 1984 didn’t have any fabric on it. I doubt the hero packs had fabric, but it be cool if someone could find a picture of it
In the Marshall pics the bellows look white/light gray to me in some shots, and silverish in others, but in the pic of the actual found part, the bellows are a dark tarnished brass color. I haven’t found an explanation for this.
(Credit, left image: Shawn Marshall. Credit, right image: Agent J)
I’ve considered that it may be a trick of the light, some sort or white tarnish, or even some white goo stuck on there from the Stay Puft scene, but then I came across some information that the bellows were covered in a white/gray material of some kind, which seems like the best explanation.
I’ll continue to go through these screenshots, and I’ll try look at my digital reference copies this weekend, but these are a couple of reasonably-decent shots of the bellows and they don’t seem to show anything other the metal we’re all familiar with:
I think in a few shots you can see the brass colouring, although the colour grading has made it fainter than it would actually appear if we were looking at them with our own eyes.
I’m pretty certain there is no fabric between the flanges of the bellows, never was. It’s possible that in some end scenes there’s marshmallow stuck in there, and also in some scenes they would be molded versions on the stunt packs. Or it could be low resolution matrixing, or due to set lighting and and so forth. The shots from the Sony lobby, we don’t know the lighting conditions, but at least most of those photos were taken through glass which would add more shine and reflective artifacts in.
But if you want accurate bellows, Mack’s Factory makes the closest-to-screen accurate ones out there, where the caps are actually welded in place, and there’s a stablization spring inside, with all the spacing matched to a screen used bellows.
It appears even the stunt packs had the normal bellows. However I could believe one pack could have a bellow taped in a scene. I don’t think they ever imagined they were going to get scrutinized to this depth. Considering there’s only a few minutes of actually proton pack scenes. I’m sure kingpin doesn’t claim to be an expert, but he must have read a ton of posts. Id take it as a red flag if he’s unfamiliar with it. End of the day , it’s your pack, make it the way you like and don’t worry about it
There was never any fabric or anything wrapped around the bellows. What you see is nothing more than the result of lighting. I own a real bellow and sometimes it appears completely white in photographs.
Here’s the same shots from the same website hosting the earlier screenshots I’d posted:
I’m just not seeing anything that looks like fabric. I appreciate what Ajent J said, but I believe he may have been wrong about the particular bellows used on the Packs… Especially as what purpose could the fabric serve?
Now I’m not sure what the bellows were actually used for but my best guess is some form of vibration dampener for electronic components. We have something very similar on the aircraft I work on. There would be no reason for these to be coated in cloth as it would wear out to fast.
If anyone knows what this part actually came from please let me know.
We have. As best as my understanding is, they’re designed to be able to compress and elongate, with only the end cap/s being 100% solid metal. Because they’re flexible they have the ability to be bent like it appears in that scene.
These are jackdoud’s photos of a Bishop & Babcock thermostat which is quite similar to the bellows that appears to have been used on the Proton Pack props in the first film.
