Hi all,
I am building my first pack, and went with a Studio Creations shell. The shell looks great so far.
I was wondering, for anyone that has one, how much excess needs to be cut from the shell? The excess around the base of both parts of the shell, and I’m not sure how much of that needs to be cut off.
Any info would be helpful! Thanks guys!
There isn’t much that has to be cut. but check out this thread
Hello,
I also recently purchased a Studio Creations shell and am currently assembling it. I cut off the portion that extends out beyond the cyclotron (up to where it begins to curve) and did a little trimming of the upper half at the point where the two halves meet. A bit of advice; take a lot of care in positioning it to your motherboard before you cut and mount it. I attached it to a Multimediamayhem aluminum motherboard, which is not designed for this shell, so I had to get a little creative. I will ultimately have to fill in a few gaps on the backside of the pack but since those areas will not be seen I was happy with the results none-the-less.
Best of luck to you.
I always wanted one of these, besides the missing area where the Ion arm is supposed to go, what else is so inaccurate?
The biggest issue IMHO, is the lack of sharp details.
Instead of the pack looking like it is made from a bunch of different parts, it looks almost toyish because of the lost detail. I think you can build a much better home made pack for the same amount of money as these shells. Look at my wip build thread from last year. We did two complete packs, guns, and uniforms for about $350 or so.
Hey I have a shell from studiocreations.com as well and I’m happy with it. You can see pictures of it on my profile… I put fiberglass resin on the inside to make it stronger and it helps. Use a drummel tool to cut off the unnecessary parts of the shell it works real well. I have put a lot of time lately just painting and drilling holes and sanding things down but it’s fun and I’m happy with the way its looking. I have been buying parts left and right and putting a lot of time into the pack cause I need to have it almost done before next thursday when I leave to town to do a show. I’ll be back a day before halloween so I hope it’s done.
It’s a decent shell for a budget pack. I have mine 80% finished and have only put about $100 into it so far. It’s a bit soft around the “box fins” and near the N-filter, but after you paint it up, weather it a bit, and attach all your parts it’s not nearly as noticable…definitely not noticable for the non-GB obsessed “civillians” out there.
As long as you paint it flat and weather it it looks much nicer. Putting a gloss paint coat on it makes it look like cheap plastic.
But honestly, based on the parts they offer, you could build that with $12 worth of insulation foam for in a day or so. But time IS money, and if you don’t have the time, then ponying up the bucks for it is a decent alternative.. definitely much nicer then the inflatable costume pack…LOL!
Great, thanks for the info everyone! You guys are really helpful 
I also have the MMM motherboard, so thanks for the heads up. The shell is a bit longer than the motherboard, but I knew this when I bought it.
How are you planning on filling in the gaps on the backside? And if anyone else has any suggestions on how to fill in a gap between the motherboard and the bottom of the cyclotron spacer (the shell is long, so it hangs over the mobo), feel free to chime in.
Thanks everyone!!
At the time being, I’m not filling any of the gaps around the edges because I still need to access the inside of the shells and remove them for future upgrades.
i just ordered FOUR packs from studiocreations. Not only did i email him asking for him to make the packs within a few days, i asked for them to be done and shipped within a certain time due to constraints. he vacced all 4 shells in a night, shipped them, and i got my shells 2 days after they shipped. hats off to that.
While they may be a bit soft in detail, they are a mere fraction of what a fiberglass shell costs, and they are actually quite durable. The plastic is much more thicker and sturdy than i believed when i ordered them in the first place. I remember scratch-rush building 2 packs last year before Halloween, and this is going to save me a ridiculous amount of time. not to mention having one solid piece as opposed to having it composed of 30-40 different pieces is invaluable, especially if its going to be a long night on all hallows eve; your chances of knocking off and losing parts are much slimmer.
as far as the detail goes, that can easily be worked on, camouflaged, etc. perception is everything, even if its misleading 
thanks a ton, Jeff. appreciate the good business.
i was wondering, rather than use the actual shell as a pack, what if you made a copy of the inside? you know use it as the mold to make your own?
has anyone tried that yet? it might actually get better details that way too…imagine him rather than selling shells, but already made molds.
the inside would have to be modified and cut into detail, (im holding the top piece in my hand at the moment), but i guess it could work. i have no interest or patience in that though, lol. im good with the product.
how so?
So we’re suppose to cut off the bottom lip under the cyclotron? ( http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn432/darkstar2k2003/100_1330.jpg )
Obviosuly that would make it more accurate, but wont that also leave a big gap between the cyclotron and the motherboard?
Hmm I’m wondering if that shell might be better if he took the buck, and removed the smaller detail things, like box fins, cyclotron washers n such. Those could be added afterwards, and would look much better then the sift detailing the current version has.
You could get a much more accurate pack that way, and many parts would be easy to locate/create.
As it is, you are fighting the limitations of the medium.
You can take a narrow strip of thin styrene and glue it along that edge to clean it up. Make it the same width as the band that runs along the base of the shell.
