[nick-a-tron]

No im not jealous. Not jealous at all.

[Filandrius]

I love this gun already....now i can understand why Filandrius took countless pics from all angles, haha
Now im just waiting for the front handle from Jason to be able to work more on it but it could be here any day.

I knew I wasn't crazy. It's REALLY hard to stop taking pictures of that thing.

No im not jealous. Not jealous at all.

You should!

[nick-a-tron]

Oh who am I kidding im so jealous of that metal thrower. My throwerless #1 pack is just calling out for one.

[madeinsocal6]

I love this gun already....now i can understand why Filandrius took countless pics from all angles, haha

If I wasn't in a rush to finish my pack and gun when I received my metal thrower I would have done the same.

[KagaSakai]

I love this gun already....now i can understand why Filandrius took countless pics from all angles, haha
Now im just waiting for the front handle from Jason to be able to work more on it but it could be here any day.

I knew I wasn't crazy. It's REALLY hard to stop taking pictures of that thing.

I'm fairly certain that I've taken more pictures of my pack this year than I have my children. Should I feel bad?

[bigi71]

Time for another major update....after a lot of trial and error i finally managed to get what youll see in the pictures here

Here are some detail pics of the uncleand shell:

The cyclotron turned out pretty cool too and has a nice texture:


After trimming and washing it in the shower:

A shot from the back:

Not many "needles"in there

I made this one really strong as you can see here:

Good wall thickness for the gunmout box, i dont have to worry about breaking anything
Sure it weighs a bit more if you make it that thick but i dont care, because my own pack is going to a display piece mostly.

There was some warping going on too on this shell but its not that bad i think...heres a pic of the side of the powercell:


All in all its not perfect for someone who wants a super clean shell but im happy with it and im leaving a lot of the rough spots on it like they are. As you guys know the screenused props were not super clean and crisp too, hehe

So all this leads me to this:

...finally

If I wasn't in a rush to finish my pack and gun when I received my metal thrower I would have done the same.

I will probably do the same tomorrow ^.^

[pchrisbosh1]

The shell came out amazing Big great job man!

[Vincenzo330]

Is there anything that you aren't awesome at?


If I could make one recommendation though, and I'm by no means an expert myself, but You might want to try using a layer of black/grey 1630 resin before you glass. It will give it sharper details and make it easier to clean also. It does add some cost but in my personal opinion it would be worth it. A shell that beautiful deserves the best

[kind2311]

its true that a resin detail coat is nicer, but just so you know, the way you have done it is accurate. the screen-used shells did not have a resin detail coat.

[bigi71]

Thanks Chris and Vinny

Is there anything that you aren't awesome at?

Yes...there is something...its called fiberglassing...lol...but ok, im doing this for the first time so i didnt expect super duper awesome results for the first shell i made. Actually this is the third one i made.

If I could make one recommendation though, and I'm by no means an expert myself, but You might want to try using a layer of black/grey 1630 resin before you glass. It will give it sharper details and make it easier to clean also. It does add some cost but in my personal opinion it would be worth it. A shell that beautiful deserves the best

No idea what 1630 resin is but i used two layers of 1304 Gelcoat before glassing on this one to get clean details. But i really didnt want to dye it since i believe they didnt use any tint on the screenused ones too. Please correct me if im wrong tho ^.^

EDIT:

its true that a resin detail coat is nicer, but just so you know, the way you have done it is accurate. the screen-used shells did not have a resin detail coat.

ah, thats good to know, i wasnt completely off then

[Vincenzo330]

One last thing, you should rename this thread... how about "The most amazing shell ever!"

[bigi71]

No way, im a very humble person

[kind2311]

pure sex

i think it looks perfect as is. you did a wonderful job

[69slimer]

Amazing...just amazing.

[gbrob]

[bigi71]

Thanks for the nice comments

After i got the shell done i wanted to make a motherboard for it. So i laid the shell down on a piece of sheet aluminum and drew an outline around it, drew a couple of other lines and was ready to cut it out. It was really easy to do it with the saw you see in the pic, ive got some new sawblades for it so it went thru the metal very nicely.


When it was cut out i had to clean it up a bit with some files and sandpaper of course. Then after a lot of test fitting i carefully riveted the L-brackets to the board, and ended up with this:

I already drilled the holes for the alice frame too but im still missing the three rivets on the back of the powercell area. This will have to wait for a while, because i still need to make some sort of bigger L-bracket to hold the powercell lights in place.

The next thing i wanted to get done was installing the injector tubes, but before i could do that i had to cut and file and grind and sand a little piece of metal which will be between the baseplate of the injectors and the bottom of the powercell. It looks like this:

I had to do this because the bottom of my powercell is tapered and i wanted the injectors to sit parallel to the motherboard. Sure it would have been easier and less work to make this from styrene, but i like metal better for this. So for me it was worth the extra work

Here you can see how much its tapered:

Looks pretty good to me

But before really attaching the injectors another metal piece had to be made too...the L-bracket:

For some extra strengh its attached to both of the tubes, but im not sure if thats accurate. I hope it is ^.^

I had two of the large pop rivets left from the L-bracket kit i got from Colin...perfect ! So i used these to attach the bracket to the shell...I really dont think i will ever have to remove this so im fine with this method.


A picture of everything assembled:


...and two more detail pics, they show the little gap between the injector baseplate and the powercell (which i really like )



Now some pics of the shell on my hand cut motherboard:



I know the screws arent accurate for a GB2 pack, but i had them and i wanted to see what it looks like ^.^
At least the screws for the v-hook are already accurate ones.

A little obscure detail on my motherboard (look at the bottom fin of the powercell) :

Of coure i had to include this, already had it on my old pack too.

Now on to the gun...
I got the front handle and Jason did a really great job making it:

I couldnt be happier

Some more close ups of the gun:


For now I decided to go with the knurled side discs just out of preference ^.^
But its very easy to disassemble everything so it wouldnt be a problem if i want to change them some day.

Another angle:


and finally a shot of the botton:

I still need to change those screws on the v-hook.

You know Ive had a pack before but its really exciting to finally see this one coming together.

More to come....

[Vincenzo330]

I'm at the edge of my seat again man!!!

[Filandrius]

I missed the shell! How did I miss the shell? I have to subscribe to this thread.

You! Yes, you! Stop making perfect things! You're making us look bad.

You've... You're earned it.

[nick-a-tron]

Oh my lord! Its beautiful!

[gbrob]

Oh my lord! Its beautiful!

+1

[kind2311]

the rivets going into the injector tube from the bracket is indeed accurate.

[pchrisbosh1]

Looks awesome Bjorn and yes the rivets are accurate for the injectors you pretty much got it spot on. What size aluminum L-bracket did you use? I used 2x2 .125 thickness but it wasn't long enough to reach both injectors having them seated GB1 style under the powercell, hard to find anything longer then that locally.

I love the hand cut aluminum mobo just adds that even more accurate touch and nice job on the extra edge for the powercell don't think anyone has done that yet. I'll be doing the same thing for my mobo pretty soon.

[Filandrius]

I agree with you guys. That L-bracket is the most accurate I've seen yet. I had the same problem as Chris, my bracket wasn't quite long enough so I had to use only one screw. That, and I've used screws instead of rivets.

Amazing job, Bigi. But I've been saying that for months.

[bigi71]

Thanks, glad you like it so far

What size aluminum L-bracket did you use? I used 2x2 .125 thickness but it wasn't long enough to reach both injectors having them seated GB1 style under the powercell, hard to find anything longer then that locally.

Its all only guessed based on reference pics and its not a piece i bought, i just cut a 1" wide strip from some scrap sheet aluminum i had laying around. Then bent it 90° with a vice and a hammer and after that i test fitted it and cut off what i thought was too long.

[nick-a-tron]

Bigi you are gbfans very own Macgyver! You can make the best stuff from the most basic tools and materials!

[Kant Lavar]

There is only one way I can properly react to this thread.

[wm6929]

I think it is safe for me to say, "I dont want to build a proton pack."
I want to replicate Bigi71's pack

[bigi71]

Dont do that, you better replicate a screenused pack hehe

Only a small update today, but i cut some aluminum tube for the spacers between the motherboard and the alice frame:


Bolted everything together:


I also attached the Ion Arm today, thanks to Jason for this great piece:


Still a huge lot of work to do but im slowly getting closer to what i want

[nick-a-tron]

Did you wear it?

[bigi71]

Of course i did, that was mostly the point of bolting it together, haha =)

Im gonna disassemble it again later tonight, so i can put it on my wood board where i keep it when i work on its parts. But its good to know everything fits and that i got this out of the way