User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4932390
Will do as soon as I take it off again.
I didn't think to take any pics of it earlier.

It's basically just like the half moon shaped plate on the Hero's that you can see attached to the shell in the reference pics of the Ramis hero pack.
The only real difference is I've bolted it onto the shell instead of using rivets.
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4932417
I finished the brackets today after a bit of a screw up yesterday when I stupidly mismeasured the top tier of the cyclotron bracket, which left me with the choice of either having to remake the entire thing or make lemons into lemonade so it may not be pretty but it'll do the job.

It's slightly shorter than the screen used bracket in order to save weight and simply because I don't need anywhere near the amount of room for electrical components with the modern setup.
Just enough for a speaker and space to mount the cyclotron LED's.
The top teir is also riveted on instead of glued as the speaker mounting bolts connect to them and I wanted them to be a bit more secure for that reason.

I also finished the powecell bracket, no mishaps with that thankfully but I ran out of time to install them today so it'll have to wait.
(I'll take a pic of the nfilter plate when I'm doing that)

The powecell bracket is based on the screen used bracket with a few tweaks for mounting the LED's, allowing room for the injector bolts and some lateral adjustment so that I can align the lights behind the lens. ImageImage






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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4932475
I didn't have much project time today, so I decided just to make a few modifications to the powercell bracket.

I hadn't taken the ribbon cable connectors into account on the Gbfans powercell light board, so I shortened the base by 13mm and cut a slot into the top plate in order to run the wiring through it.

Once the spacers are added and the circuit board is bolted on, this will make sure everything is sitting at just the right height behind the powecell lens :)Image
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4932695
Forgot to mention.
I installed the brackets today, just waiting for some epoxy to cure on the LED holders which I've attached to the crossover board and I'll be able to throw some pics up :)
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4932723
All internal brackets installed.

The cyclotron bracket has been riveted in place with m6 spacers epoxied onto the crossover board to house the cyclotron LED's.

The top bracket is another peice of crossover board, attached to hex standoffs which are riveted on to the motherboard.
This will house the main control board.

The powecell bracket has also been riveted to the motherboard and adjusted to make sure the LED's will be central behind the lense.

I've also drilled holes for attaching the charging plate and running the switch and ports to it.

I also added a threaded spacer between the cyclotron and the bumper.

With that, the motherboard is ready for painting.
The shell and components will be ready to paint once I've made the ion arm and added texture to the shell.ImageImageImageImageImage
JWils23, Alex Venkman liked this
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933247
The Ion arm is getting there.
The parts have been shaped, I just need to refine them a bit, drill and tap the various mounting holes then take care of some surface marks and it'll be on to welding them together.

To form the main part I placed it at the edge of a board, clamped a scrap peice of aluminium with a nice straight edge up to the lines that I had marked where the part was to be bent, then clamped everything in place and gently tapped the part into shape with a rubber mallet one section at a time.

The second part which caps off the outside of the ion arm was made in a similar way, just held in a vice rather than sandwiching it between two peices of material.

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JWils23 liked this
User avatar
By OCP_Model-001
#4933272
Not been on here in ages, and going though this thread brings back all the memories from when i made all my own alu parts a few years ago now. I made my ion arm in the same way, such a great material to work with. Nice work fella ;)
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933276
Thanks for the kind words :)
I've just had a look at your thread.
Holy crap!
Your aluminium shell and components are nothing short of mind blowing, and a little insane [emoji23]
It's absolutely beautiful!

I can't even begin to imagine what was involved in such a task.

I'm more versed in sculpting, model making, mould making and casting etc, myself so metal fabrication is pretty new to me for the most part, although it's been a great learning experience.

I love how easy it is to cut and shape the aluminium.
Brazing it together has been a challenge at times but I think I'll invest in some proper welding equipment at some point in the future as it's been really satisfying to see these parts come together, despite the discrepancies from my lack of experience and reliance on brazing.
User avatar
By OCP_Model-001
#4933324
Thanks man yeah I had a blast making that pack, 2 years on and off. I never 100% finished it though. Will check in and see how your doing in the weeks to come. :)
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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933544
The project was held up due to one small peice of metal that I was in need of, but now that it's arrived I've been able to throw together a new ion arm cap as the one from my previous pack was way too short.
With that, the Ion arm itself can now be welded together when I find the time.

(I still have to get around to making the top rod.)

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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933580
Today I tackled welding the ion arm, which was nerve wracking to put it lightly.

Thankfully, it all worked out :)

Needs a, little clean up and I'll have to replace a couple of resistors with more accurate versions and once again, the SMC elbow is just a placeholder but the Ion arm is good to go.
Since I decided to use the long vertical ridged Sage Silicohm M50W resistor as seen on the Ramis Hero, I decided to mount it the same way as it is on that pack which means mounting it further forward and slightly higher up.
I also added the Murray Hero Pack style vintage yellow tubing with the visible Nycoil logo and stars just because.

All that's needed as far as this part goes is to attach it to the booster tube, bridged by a little slug of aluminium and make the top rod at some point.
But neither of those things stop me from moving forward so the next step will be a texture test, then texture, primer and paint for the shell and primer and paint for the aluminium components.

Now it's getting exiting :)
Can't wait to get it all painted and move on to the fun stuff.
The weathering :DImageImageImage

User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933704
Yesterday I started the process of adding texture to the shell.
I'm using this new spray as Homax is prohibited in my country.
Thanks to Paul and Scott from the North East Ghostbusters for the heads up.

It's a spray on plastic texture, used to repair car bumpers and interior panels.
It's very similar to homax in that it is orange peel textured and comes with two nozzles for coarse or fine applications.

Where it differs though is that it doesn't need to be sealed, so you just build it up to your desired texture, it bonds with the gel coat becoming a very tough plastic coating which can then be primed and painted.

I took a few pics to show the texture although it dulls out quite a bit once it's sprayed so it can be difficult to show the texture on camera.
(I've punched the detail up a bit on some of the pictures to make the texture more apparent)

As you can see I've very roughly masked things off.
This is because I want some over spray and imperfections on certain parts.

I'll have a breakdown of exactly why I've done that and what I was going for, texture wise once it's been painted but for now here's a little tease.

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mburkit, JWils23 liked this
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933828
Mmmm, Painted pack parts .

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I used Halfords satin Black.

As I've mentioned before, I didn't completely smooth out the shell so that some of its inherent imperfections would show through the paint as i want it to have a similar cobbled together feel like the original packs have.
I'll take some detailed shots of everything once the paint has had a chance to dry and reach its final finish in a couple of days or so while I'm reassembling it.

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Annoyingly I'm one spray away from being able to call the bumper painted but I cant get any more paint due to lockdown so I'll need to revisit it.
Its not bad, just a tiny patchy looking section on the top edge but i know its there so it has to be dealt with.
Last edited by RedSpecial on April 20th, 2020, 10:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
Dr. Stantz 24, Q-man liked this
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933829
This next detail is going to prove to be divisive.
And I understand that a lot of people probably won't like it.

I know that brush strokes are considered to be a sign of a poor paint job.,
but at the end of the day, I'm not going for a perfectly clean paint job.
I'm replicating the nuances of a fairly hastily assembled and painted prop.
And its my pack so I can do whatever the hell I want with it and add as many dodgy details as I see fit :P

the first pics are reference of the brush strokes on the screen used packs around the edge of the sync gen and at the face of top section of the crank gen
I took pics of them when the paint was still wet to make sure they can be seen.
They'll be more subtle once the paint is dry and at its actual finish.

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Once again, I'll do a full breakdown of all the texture stuff I was going for once the pack is nearing completion.
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933857
Thanks for the kind words! :)

I have to leave the paint for another 24hrs then I'll be able to reassemble everything and apply decals before the almost two week wait for the paint to fully harden before I can weather everything.

In the mean time the new Todd Cook Designs uber accurate noghost patch arrived today and its a thing of beauty!

We haven't seen how accurate the patch on the magnoli suit is going to be but if it falls short in any way it'll be replaced by this one.
It really is top notch in every way.

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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933867
I'm at a bit of a loose end today, while I wait for the paint to be cured enough to reassemble some of the pack so I decided to do a little bit of the detailing on the HGA.

I had a really nice Bobamatt foil from years ago so I thickened it up by cutting a styrene disk to fit and glued the sucker to it, then onto the HGA.

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Last edited by RedSpecial on April 21st, 2020, 2:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4933921
It feels like this is the first substantial upadate I've had for ages but anyway.
Im too knackered to dig out the dslr camera, so more crappy phone pics will have to do for now :P

Here's the results of a marathon assembly day.
Lots still to do, parts to make, upgrades to sort out and weathering ASAP.

As I had run out of paint before I could fully finish the bumper, there's a couple of spots that need a touch of paint once I can get some.
Frustratingly that means I can't attach the ribbon cable or do the weathering until I've done so.
And the supplier of my prefered paint doesn't deliver so who knows when I'll be able to get some.
In the meantime, it'll be sitting there taunting me and looking way too new and clean for my liking.

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I've decided to just strip down and modify the SMC elbows ( which is why one is stripped back to white) until I can either justify the cost of a better option and new ion arm resistor, or be bothered making replica Legris elbows from scratch.

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Unpainted Powercell rivets
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Neoprene foam padding, head protectory thing
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Texture behind the HGA
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Texture on the right side of the sink gen with some overspray onto the right hand side of the clippard and vac tube mounts
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Texture and wood grain on the gunmount
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This dry rub was pretty old and didn't completely adhere but I decided to just go with it as i was planning to weather it anyway.
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Installed the charging plate
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These next pics show how the cyclotron texture can go from looking all but non existent to very apparent depending on the angle and lighting.

I'll try to take some half decent pics soon.

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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4934345
Progress at last!

Today I installed the lenses and started weathering.

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I'm going relatively subtle with the weathering on this as I'm going for a look that's closer to what they looked like during production or just after.
Similar to the level of weathering on the Ramis hero in the Marshall Arts reference images from 1984 although without the shaving cream residue ;)
Instead of the relatively heavy weathering we see on some of the packs today.

Although, that being said the weathering on the packs is still quite light in terms of scratches on most of the packs we have reference for, other than the Super Hero pack.

I've only removed paint in places where there is direct reference for it on the screen used packs, then hit it all with a coating of fullers earth and wiped most of it away.
I'm sure I'll tweak this over time but it's a good starting point for the pack to naturally weather from through wear.

The one area where I did go a little heavier was the bottom left hand corner of the powercell as all of the packs show reference for this kind of marking not only now but also in the movie itself.

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I've also left the gunmount without any scuff weathering for now as I want that to happen naturally due to the thrower going on and off of the V-hook.
And the EDA as I prefer the look of it without scuff weathering such as on the Ramis hero pack.

Some of these images were taken using a flash to highlight the detail.
This also has the effect of making the application of fullers earth look much heavier than it actually is.

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I'm waiting to receive a new camera battery so as so as I have it, I'll try to take some decent images finally instead of these rubbish phone pics.
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