By tobycj
#4944363
If you want real arcoelectric lights for the wand (red slo-blo and clear on top next to the hat light) then Farnell are the cheapest place in the UK, I think they're about £3-4 each from memory.
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By l3w1sb159
#4944365
Not sure if I want the proper incandescent bulbs as they pull a lot of power so might just stay with LEDs under the cliplites.

I've had a look at Radwell and they've got a few piece's that will come in handy, just bummed trying to find nycoil tubing on there that isn't in 100 meter spools for over £100

I only need like 3 feet!
By tobycj
#4944383
You just gut the bulb from them and put an led in, so they just act like a cover is all. It's just a nice little more accurate touch.

If you manage to find any nycoil tubing let me know, would love to get some too!
User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4944384
Ah right, I assume the real covers are more accurate than the gbfans led cliplites.
It's like finding the holy grail of tubing...
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By l3w1sb159
#4944389
So I got to work attaching the bracket to the injectors and where it will attach to the shell.
I used a drill bit to keep the injectors in place while I marked the hole locations on the shell and injectors.

So two 5mm holes for the rivets to fit through the shell, and two 3.2mm holes tapped for m4 cap head bolts into the side of the injectors.

Bosh.

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User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4944399
I was a bit worried of the rivets bursting the resin so I decided to do it that way round, plus it seems pretty sturdy as it is now.

I'll be putting the rivets through from the other side when I assemble it all properly as I know theres a picture of a screen used pack with rivet heads visible on the inside of the shell like so...

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By Darth_Egon
#4944400
What I did is pop the stem from the rivets just hold them with pliers and hit it . I epoxied them in place so that way they wouldn’t crack the tubes. Looks like it’s riveted but not lol
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By JWils23
#4944403
l3w1sb159 wrote: January 16th, 2021, 12:54 pm I was a bit worried of the rivets bursting the resin so I decided to do it that way round, plus it seems pretty sturdy as it is now.

I'll be putting the rivets through from the other side when I assemble it all properly as I know theres a picture of a screen used pack with rivet heads visible on the inside of the shell like so...

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I tried to mimic this detail without actually using rivets since I wanted to be able to easily remove the injectors and bracket should anything need repair. I used some smaller socket cap screws to imitate the little stem nubs on the back of a pulled rivet. Once it’s all painted black I think it came out looking close. Love the obscure details!
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By l3w1sb159
#4944867
After a long wait I got the last of my parts from BenofKent, and they did not disappoint!
All aluminium, shock mount, v-hook male & female, ribbon cable clamp, ion arm cap with copper rods. Plus a GB2 ribbon cable, brass straights replicas and legris elbow replicas.

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So first off I set about finishing off the ion arm, I had already marked and drilled pilot holes for the elbows and resistors so it was just a matter of drilling and tapping the holes for each.
Once they were attached I cut the tube to size.
Attaching the ion arm cap, I simply lined it up on the front face and marked the holes. Unfortunately once the holes were drilled and tapped it turned out they were slightly off so the cap is on the piss a bit.... somewhat annoying. But it can be a little quirky flaw to my pack.

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Next I finished off the HGA by attaching the last elbow with a 4mm hole and an m5 tap. I had already marked out drilled and screwed in the 4 m6 bolts and clippard elbow, aswell as drilling and counter sinking the hole for the central bolt to attach it to the shell using stefans plans and reference pics to find the location. I've put the clippard elbow slightly higher on mine to mirror the spengler pack look.

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And finally the last elbow in the cyclotron, I eyeballed the position from stefans plans and other reference pics.

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Then I moved onto sorting out the ribbon cable and its clamp. Again using stefans plans I eyeballed the location of the clamp in relation to the filler plug and cyclotron side plates. You know the drill - pilot/4mm hole/m5 tap
I also used the clamp to cut the cable to match the curve of the cyclotron.

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After that I threaded my shiny new shock mount onto the m6 coach bolt ready from installing the bumper, although I did have to chop the rest of the bolt down to about 12mm past the bumper to thread it on properly as only half of the shaft inside the shock mount was tapped which made it stop halfway down the original length of the bolt.

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And last but not least, the v-hook.
Again, I used stefans plans and reference pics to eyeball the location... as accuracy is my top priority...
Once I had marked the holes I drilled 4.5mm clearance holes and it fit just right.

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Then came sorting out the inside of the shell, as I had planned to use some leftover 3mm aluminium plate for some extra support for the hook. But in order to get the plate to sit flat I had to dremel down the mountain range where it needed to go. Once it sat fairly flat I marked the holes and drilled for clearance. Should be a fairly sturdy mount for when I get my Throwing Chicken thrower kit.

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The straights need a 9mm hole once I get a drillbit big enough, as they dont have a thread I'll just push them in and epoxy them from the inside so they dont fall out.

And as far as I know, that is everything to be dry fit before painting...

As it's going to be a few months before its warm enough here to even think about starting painting I'll leave this here..
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:sigh:
Last edited by l3w1sb159 on February 18th, 2021, 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4945912
Just a quick little update.
While I'm waiting for various orders to arrive I thought I'd give my alice frame a lick of black paint and once it was dry, I sorted out the foam on top of the frame that I got from the gbfans shop. Wrapped in some black gaffer tape, it looks fairly screen accurate and yes I like the little bit of white showing through....

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User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4946297
Okay guys, seeing as it's starting to get warmer here I want to be prepared to get on painting as soon as.

So as I've never "properly" painted anything before I could do with a fool proof plan of attack for prepping the shell, resin parts and aluminium parts, laying down the Proxl Protex texture spray (before or after primer?), primer and black top coat. I also want to do an under layer of metallic silver on the resin parts to mimic the proper aluminium ones for when I come to weathering.
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4946299
I've touched on painting the shell here on this ProXL tutorial.
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=46475

The basic steps are:

Thoroughly wash the parts with soapy water, then rinse really well to get rid of any soap or other residue.
Dry as best you can then leave them to fully dry out for at least a few hours.

Mask off the various areas of the pack where you don't want texture.
Spray the texture, using the two nozzle sizes for the various levels of texture across the shell.
Let it dry for 24hrs.

unmask the shell, then spray with primer.
Use light mist coats and build it up to an even finish in intervals that are usually referenced on the product ( often 15mins between coats)
Let that dry for 24hrs.

Spray your black top coat, once again using mist coats to build up to an even finish.
I usually let the paint fully cure out and harden for a week or two depending on how warm the climate is before any scuff weathering where you sand or scratch the paint.
I find this gives me the best results.

As for the other parts, Its the same process with the addition of your metalic layer.
Clean and dry the parts.
build up your primer
build up your metalic layer
build up your black top coat

letting each one dry for at least a day
This gives you better separation of the layers during weathering.
You can spray one after the other giving each an hour or so between adding the next but they'll tend to bond to eachother and won't separate in the way you might want when you're weathering later.

I'd recommend using a chrome silver paint instead of a basic silver.
while it still wont read as well as real metal would, it'll look much closer to the real thing through scratches, etc than silver paint does.
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By JWils23
#4946315
Agree with Red on letting things really dry. I’m the worst when it comes to patient painting, I want to coat and reassemble ASAP. For the build I’m doing now I did the initial coats and then let everything dry for serval days (if not a week in some cases) before adding anything else. This really does make a difference in the paints durability and I’m glad I did it.
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By l3w1sb159
#4946316
Thanks guys, that's cleared up the exact process and order as I'm wanting to make sure I dont screw the paint up too badly. And Red I've been going over your tutorial for more detail on that stage, it's super helpful, thanks!
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By l3w1sb159
#4946542
A quick little question...
I assume the protex spray can only be applied at minimum temperature of 10°c the same as the primer and paint?
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4946548
I haven't tested that personally but I'd assume so.
I wouldn't want to risk it as its pretty tenacious stuff and would be really difficult to remove if it went wrong due to low temperatures
User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4946554
Probably best to be safe, I'm just very impatient as I've hit a rut with my build at the painting stage thanks to the wonderful British weather.
I'm hoping my Throwingchicken thrower kit will be sent soon so I have something to tinker on; as he has reworked his front handle to have the grip separate now, which is perfect as I'm aiming to have a pop mech so the wires can be ran up the underside of the grip a lot easier now.
Plus my GBfans orders for the electronics arent going to be seen for a while until the VAT customs thing can be cleared up... :sigh:
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By JWils23
#4946557
I feel your pain, waiting for weather to paint is frustrating. But better to wait than try to paint and have to redo it because it didn’t take. Enjoy the TC kit, I have one and it’s a great kit. I had a lot of fun putting it together!
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By RedSpecial
#4946561
Im in the same boat.
Ive been trying to take my time with things in the hopes that the temperature will be high enough to paint by the time I'm ready but I'm running out of things to do and we've just been hit with a cold snap in Scotland.
Hopefully it'll warm up enough in the next couple of weeks and you'll be able to crack on with it.
User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4947610
Finally an update on painting!

It's been a month or so of waiting but I finally got there. I pushed my luck on one of the slightly warmer weekends in February but was still a bit too cold which I found out the hard way...
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After sanding and washing down the parts and leaving them to dry, I managed to lay down the primer and silver undercoat without any problems, as well as spraying the aluminium parts straight to black. However the bumper and booster frame had some orange peel to the finish so I had to sand down the funky bits and wait about a month til it was warm enough to try again properly.

The second attempt went much better, a little bit of orange peeling still but nothing a quick sand and respray couldn't fix. Once the parts were dry I glued the booster cap into the tube.
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I also had left the external bolts in a tub outside to get some natural rust on them for the past few months. Wire brushed the rust back to a subtle patina and I also gave my brass parts an aged look by popping them in the oven (200°c for 20 mins)
I started to reassemble the bits I could on the HGA, Beam line and Injectors.
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I also sorted out the inside of the N filter, laying some aluminium foil tape on the inside as well as the wire mesh. I scratched some marks into the bottom side of the filter before painting to give it some wear and tear.
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By RedSpecial
#4947611
That's looking great :D
Looking forward to seeing at all in place on the shell.
The woven mesh you've used in the N-Filter looks spot on.

One small tip.
There's no bolt in the centre of the HGA.
This is a common misinterpretation of the Minesota planet hollywood reference of the Murray hero pack, that keeps cropping up these days.
It was once thought that there was a countersunk bolt there but in reality what's actually there is just an indentation from a centre punch left over from construction of the plate that caps the end of the part , surrounded by the accumulation of decades worth of detritus from their time on set and gathering dust on display in the years since.
Last edited by RedSpecial on April 4th, 2021, 2:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4947612
Painting part 2!

After getting the parts painted the main hurdle was getting the shell done.
As soon as the 20° weather hit I jumped on it, using RedSpecials' guide I masked off the shell ready for the proxl protex texture spray which admittedly being my first time using probably didnt go on quite as it was meant to which I didnt realise until I had but the black top coat on. But either way after leaving it a full day between I layed down the primer and very gingerly put the top coat of satin black on in about 5 light coats, as I didnt want any orange peel funky paint if I could avoid it.
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It may be hard to see in the pics because of the crappy quality but in some areas like behind the booster tube and in the central valley where the ribbon cable hole is, there is a weird sandpaper like gritty finish from.where the texture hadn't gone on properly. Keep in mind I had to do all the spraying outside with very uncooperative wind which definitely didnt help. But on the whole seeing as this was my very first attempt of spraying anything, let alone using the texture spray, I think it came out fairly well. Plus I find the soot like areas under the vac tube and down by te beam line will add to the weathered look I'll be going for. If it looks a bit rough around the edges that will just be another quirk of my pack. Things to consider and improve upon if and when I come to build another pack :cool:
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User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4947613
RedSpecial wrote: April 4th, 2021, 2:16 pm That's looking great :D
Looking forward to seeing at all in place on the shell.
The woven mesh you've used in the N-Filter looks spot on.

One small tip.
There's no bolt in the centre of the HGA.
This is a common misinterpretation of the reference that keeps cropping up these days.
It was once thought that there was a countersunk bolt there but in reality what's actually there is just an indentation from a centre punch left over from construction of the plate that caps the end of the part , surrounded by the accumulation of decades worth of detritus from their time on set and gathering dust on display in the years since.
Thanks Red,
Couldn't have done it without your advice!

Plus because it's a BenofKent kit his resin HGA is mounted with a single countersunk 70mm bolt through the centre as it is hollow.
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User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4947784
Now the shell has been sorted I can start to bolt everything back on, starting with the parts that will need fake welds. First up was the booster tube, as I had already drilled and tapped the holes to mount it to the shell it made it a lot easier to bolt it in place while I applied the epoxy putty.
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Next I decided to mount the ion arm so I could get the ugly weld done too. Unfortunately when I came to drill in the self tapping roof screws that Ben provided they only went in so far before they just stopped and span which knackered up the thread, even though i had pre drilled each part that used them to about 30mm deep. After venting some frustration I decided to redrill and tap the holes for an M6 size bolt and used some spare 55mm button head bolts on all of them instead.
Second time round went much better, plus I roughed up the area under the ion arm and spread a little Gorilla glue just to make sure it wasnt going to be coming off any time soon.
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Once the ion arm was sorted I moved onto the ugly weld, which I wanted the spengler version. I had a scrap piece of 3mm thick aluminium that I cut to roughly the right size and sprayed black when I did the rest of the painting. Just a simple little strip each side and shaped as best I could.
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And finally, after sorting out some lighting mounts, I attached the N filter. I traced the outline of the shell onto the Nfilter to see where I would need to sand before, and used my good friend Goriila glue again before laying the epoxy putty along the seam between the filter and shell.
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More to come...
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User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4947790
I've also been sorting out the mounts for the lights in the motherboard. I got the 3d printed bracket for the powercell lights and shelf for the cyclotron lights from Ben. I had to give the powercell bracket a trim to get it to fit inside the shell while keeping the centre of where the lights will be in line with the powercell window using a template of the dimensions of the gbfans powercell lights board. Lots of back and forth adjusting the placement, putting the shell on, seeing if it needs more adjusting etc.
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I made a very low tech way to mount the vent light under the N filter, using a piece of pvc pipe that the reflector cups I will be using can sit on top of. I had to cut out a notch on the bottom to clear the mounting bracket, and also cut out a gap big enough to feed the led through to the reflector cup and attach that once I get my GBfans light kit.
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The cyclotron shelf was very simple thanks to the guidance from Ben on the measurements of where to place the shelf on the motherboard as well as the locations for the 4 holes for the lights. I'll be using 40mm wide reflector cups to mount the leds into for both the cyclotron and N filter vent lights. Once I get my speaker I can see if the shelf needs to be raised or not to clear the speaker, and therefore how big the holes will need to be drilled so the reflector cups can be sunk in as deep as they need to be just the right distance from the shell.
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Everything seems to line up pretty well with the shell.
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User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4947968
So while I wait for the weather to improve again to paint over the epoxy welds, I wanted to ask if there was a template that could be used for drilling a speaker grill for the GBfans shop speaker?

Trying to think of anything I can do while I'm waiting for various things to ship/arrive.
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User avatar
By JWils23
#4947989
Great job on that Spengler weld on the booster tube! Not sure what size speaker you have but I found this template on an old build thread, Alan Hawkins had shared the file during his build. I wish I could find which thread it was, if I can find it I'll update this and link to it. **Found it, here is the thread viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33225&start=30**
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