Awesome man!!
Love looking at wood builds.
Amazing work, a true inspiration for my pack build. How did you attach the injector tubes?
The total thickness of the MDF is 1/2" where the tubes meet the power cell. I cut holes with a large drill bit that was almost the same size as the PVC tubes. Since they didn’t quite fit, I used my dremel tool to make the holes a little bigger until the tubes fit snugly in the holes. I then sanded the PVC slightly to rough up the surface so it would accept glue and then used gorilla glue to attach them permanently. It worked great. The power cell would fall apart at its seams before the tubes came out of their respective holes.
More progress… I’ve got it all bondo’d and sanded. I also added a layer of silver followed by a couple layers of flat black. The pics are awful quality because of the lighting, but they’ll suffice for now.
Something worth noting though… I decided NOT to try and sand/shave off peices of black to get to the silver. I tried a couple times and didn’t like the results at all. However, I did bump the pack and do other things that made the paint chip naturally and it looks great in those spots. So, I decided I’ll just let the black paint chip naturally and it it ever goes deep enough where the primer or wood shows, I’ll touch up with a silver paint pen.
Thanks to Exoray for the N-Filter. Looks awesome!
wow that looks fantastic! i never get tired of seeing proton packs take shape, esp ones as nice as this 
also loving that black, just the right balance of gloss and flat. really can’t wait to see more!
Amazing work so far,can’t wait to see it finished.
Almost finished with the pack itself… It needs some touch up paint in some spots where the chipping doesnt look natural (around the base of the clippard and the base of the filler tube). I also need to add the ribbon cable I have but the clamps I bought for some reason don’t match the curve of the cyclotron. The curve is way off and needs to be fixed before I’m willing to mount it. Not sure why its so far off.
Its still missing the bumper and ion knob, obviously. The ion knob should be coming from exoray any day now, and I’m still crossing my fingers that I can get a bumper from Irri sometime soon. I’m on the list.
As I got closer and closer to the finish line, I felt like I found myself saying “that’s good enough” a lot more than I expected I would. When I first started, I wanted this to be as movie accurate as possible, but by the end, I was eyeballing positions instead of measuring based off of plans, like I should have. Instead of being 95% accurate like I had originally aimed for, I’m probably closer to 80%.
But ya know what? It looks awesome and I couldn’t be much more happy. I’m very proud of myself, especially for my first (and probably only) pack. Lets see if I get sucked in and build another.
Very nice. You should be justifiably proud.
Really enjoyed following this build, i’ve borrowed a few ideas of yours for my pack, such as the the dowel for the hose to sit on. I can only hope mine turns out as good as this, really great work wudden :crunch: and i’ve also found myself eyeballing things whilst building too, so long as things are in the right area its good enough for me. Who cares if the crank knob isn’t at a postion of 67.5834838483 degrees?
Aye, that looks good! As for the accuracy issues, there have been threads on the 100% accuracy insanity, None of the original packs have survived in the GB 1 state. That combined with the fact that most packs differ from each other even in the movies, your ‘eye-balling’ seems justified. And the results speak for them self… Great work man!
I just realized I’ve never thanked you guys for your kind words and assistance along the way. It sounds cliche, but I honestly couldn’t (and wouldn’t) have done this without you. This site as a whole, as well as the community in general, is a remarkable resource. So, thanks.
I also couldn’t have done this without the parts from AJ Quick, irricanian, Proptronix and Exoray. The quality from these sellers is remarkable.
that looks great man
as far as the weight I’m using 1/8" mdf for mine and its very light, I suspect the use of thicker mdf and it looks like you stacked sheets of it to make the cyclotron housing are the causes of yours being heavy
but you can rest assured it will be super sturdy and the weight just makes it feel more real…my last pack was made from mostly solid blocks of wood! it weighed around 40lbs or more
Yeah, the weight issue doesn’t bother me at all. It probably weighs about 30 lbs and weighs what a proton pack should. If this thing was feather weight, it just wouldn’t seem natural. After all, its supposed to be an “unlicensed nuclear accelerator”, and that couldn’t be light. :vinzclortho:
Plus, you’re right. This thing is a beast and very sturdy. I feel like I will end up abusing this thing, so the more of a beating it can take, the better.
Given the state of currently available bumpers, I decided to just make my own. Took me about an hour to cut the pieces, and another 2 hours to bondo it/sand it. It needs another 30 minutes of sanding, and then paint… So not too shabby for around 3 hours of work (and no extra $ spent). But I seriously would have just rather bought a resin one for $50. My time is more valuable to me than $16/hr. Oh, well. At least the gun will be all resin when I get around to it.
I’ll post more pics when its finished.
Awesome bumper.
love that bumper!! gunna look fantastic on your pack.
that is a sweet pack. great job
From a distance the bumper looks pretty good. But since the mounting holes i drilled were just slightly smaller than the screws, the wood split when I tried to mount it. Argh… I filled the gaps with bondo but I think I may have to pull the whole thing off and fix it right. As it is, I’m still not happy wih it, and will buy a resin one to replace it when I can come across one.
you’re not happy with it!!?? it looks great mate!
but yes i know what you mean, the minute you notice a tiny imperfection you cant forget about it until its put right. Fix the bumper right, get it reattached and then be proud of the fantastic pack you have created