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Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 7th, 2022, 11:47 am
by csullivan1980
Hello GBFans it’s been a few years. Sorry to have ghosted you but lots have happened since my noobie days on the forum.
Anyway, I’m starting a second full pack build, Benofkent, for someone the next state over from me. No idea what generation pack it is but my question isn’t so much how to build it.
I want to know, as I’ve been away for a while, how much harder it is to find genuine or accurate looking parts for full-pack, non-Spirit, builds.
To give an example: small brass washers for thrower front handle and individual aluminum makers outside of GBFans.
I’m one of those accuracy builders
who tries to avoid 3D printed parts for externals as they are not my cup of tea.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 8th, 2022, 3:04 am
by csullivan1980
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 8th, 2022, 5:19 am
by tobycj
I've had a couple of friends who've straightened out a BoK shell using the same method, so you should be fine.
There's a bit of a dearth of makers of aluminium parts these days unfortunately. Freekygeeky seems to be on a break, but you can try contact him through his website. Forum user CPU64 (Chris Bryan) makes them, but it might be a bit of a wait. Heavy Props does too, and sells fully aluminium part kits on eBay. I think he's who supplies the GBFans webstore. Other than that, I'm not sure there is anyone else doing them at the moment.
Couple of things to note on the BoK kit, his n-filter and booster tube are too small, and his PPD is too large. His supplied resin parts all fit his shell, but if you're going to replace them with aluminium, you'll have some work to do to the shell. If you look up my build thread, I covered all the changes required, plus a few other cosmetic changes to improve the accuracy of the shell.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 8th, 2022, 5:52 am
by csullivan1980
Thanks! Also thanks for confirming what I feared about former suppliers of things leaving or going on break. At times I wasn’t sure when I first started on here I was at the peak of the fandom. A lot of people I’ve been meeting in my local area are opting for Spirit packs which isn’t bad but it’s a little bit sad as I love the art of prop building and feel it’s a huge learning tool. Plus there is nothing like building your own full size Proton Pack.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 10th, 2022, 3:23 pm
by csullivan1980
Today I was planning on starting on dry fitting more parts on the shell but instead I decided to start putting together the wand.
I feel I made a lot of progress in a few hours considering two of them I had to run a non-related errand.
My experience with wands has mostly been with resin body kits. What I mostly remember it that unlike metal resin has a pull when drilling. Sometimes it still surprises me but in the end everything turns out good. However with BOK gun body kit it does come with some challenges and more work than others I've used.
THIS kit comes with no pre-drilled holes or indentations on where holes should go. The building pretty much had to do it all by sight. It's not terribly difficult but trying to keep things straight is not easy. I managed to get off and back on some of the heavily glued pieces to opt for real screws. For example like in the heat sink.
A little time with a heat gun and it popped off with hardly and issue. Some sanding later and I drilled four holes then tapped them into the gun body for a more secure fit. While some will argue that glue works, I have seen first hand more than once glue on resin kits come undone.
Throughout the rest of the afternoon it was spent lining up parts, drilling and tapping holes for screws. While the screws in the picture are there they are not the final ones I plan to use for the build. These are merely to just hold the parts in place until I can get an assortment of the right size and length at my local hardware store.
Creating and cleaning up holes can be a pain. One of the biggest issues I have with BOK's trigger and gun box as I did with TC kit was that the trigger box needs to be screwed on. Get ready for a lot of turning of a hex screw. I still have PTSD from the last time I was doing the final install after painting.
Mounting the trigger box, etc, to the actually gun box wasn't hard but trying to keep things in line can be tricky. After I got mine on it was hard to tell if it's a little crooked on if it's the box itself that was molded off.
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Overall not too bad, I still got a ways to go.
Next big challenge is dremeling the inside of the gun box. As you can see currently the aluminum tubing is very, VERY off.
Compared to a 3D printed gun box of my friends I can see where I need to get it.
Tomorrow I hope to do some more clean up and get the aluminum tubing straight. Biggest issue I have with BOK is there doesn't seem to be a way to make it more secure to the gun box. TC's kit has an added molded piece where you can add a hex screw. With BOK I am not sure I want to secure it with epoxy alone.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 10th, 2022, 5:48 pm
by tobycj
My handle is epoxied in, and then a load of car body filler over it too to help hold it in place, and it seems pretty rock solid to date. If I dropped it from height I might have problems, but it's survived over a year of regular use so far.
Be aware you'll need to do a lot of dremel work to fit the switches and bargraph, as the body walls are really thick. I did a bit of dremel work to under the vent on top, so it doesn't look so thick from the outside too.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 11th, 2022, 7:45 pm
by csullivan1980
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 13th, 2022, 6:36 am
by csullivan1980
Nearly completed the dry fit of the wand after finally finding a local hardware that has stock of the bolts that I use for my builds.
I commonly use #6-23 NC for the front/ rear grips, heat sink, front and side knobs, fuse box, trigger box, top knob (depending) and bottom aluminum plate (highly recommend using brass or wood inserts for a more secure fit). Anyway, the last hurdle I have is finding a way to install the front aluminum tube into the gun box securely without relying on glue or epoxy alone.
I’m not confident that I’ll be able to get the tube straight without some internal support. I’m thinking of 3D printing something I can mount in the inside to keep the tube stable. Something like a vacuum tube shape where I can screw the tube…it will take some thought.
I am told this is an earlier BOK and I’m hoping current buyers are getting a better designed gun box. This one really needs a lot of modifications to make it easier to put together. A lot if grinding and reshaping was needed.
If only some kind of front tube was molded into the front of the gun box like Throwing Chicken’s kit it would make the job easier and look more screen accurate.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 13th, 2022, 12:40 pm
by kevinj319
Welcome back! Great progress, keep it up.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 19th, 2022, 10:54 am
by csullivan1980
Progress is moving along very nicely; however I feel the hold up is going to be the front grip ears as they are a pretty funky design. Biggest challenge is figure out how to keep the aluminum tube of BOK straight, level and secure. This kit in no way seem to have thought that out. Any tips are welcome.
I will have access to a 3D printer soon so I’m thinking of designing some kind of stable support.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: December 25th, 2022, 2:10 pm
by WShawn
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: January 17th, 2023, 2:03 pm
by Josh Foote
Welcome back! Love to see the progress of the pack.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: January 20th, 2023, 6:43 pm
by csullivan1980
What did you use for a collar for the front grip to the gun body?
Looks 3D printed, I had the same idea.
How old is your kit?
I'll be doing a second commission build soon and want to know if BOK has improved the design of his gun body.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: January 20th, 2023, 7:27 pm
by WShawn
csullivan1980 wrote: ↑January 20th, 2023, 6:43 pm What did you use for a collar for the front grip to the gun body?
Looks 3D printed, I had the same idea.
How old is your kit?
I'll be doing a second commission build soon and want to know if BOK has improved the design of his gun body.
I assume you're asking me about the gun collar thing?
As shown in my build thread, I cut that off of an old plumbing part, an ABS tailpipe for a sink:
https://www.gbfans.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 0#p4971660 Not perfect but sufficient for this low-budget build.
As I note at the start of the thread, the guy for whom I built this bought his BoK kit around 2015.
Good luck!
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: January 21st, 2023, 3:27 am
by csullivan1980
Thank you @WShawn
Okay so when it comes to electronics kits I personally love Spongeface. I’ve had a very good experience with him and all his parts are plug n play that play nice with one other. However it appears not all his parts are available and unknown if they'll be available again.
I’ve heard of ninjatunes, heavy props and rabid prototypes but never used them. What are some full kits people like to work with?
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: January 29th, 2023, 7:27 pm
by csullivan1980
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: February 10th, 2023, 3:23 pm
by csullivan1980
Finally got the front grip assembled. I will say that keeping each piece straight as possible is not easy with a BOK kit. For the left ear there really is no way to bolt it on; So, I had to opt for what I fear the most...glue. But I'm more confident that it will be a strong hold has the layer to put it in place was Gorilla super glue, then a layer of Loctite Epoxy for the edge and I'll soon be adding a fake weld look with Aves Apoxie Sculpt.
Only issue I have with the front grip is that the acrylic tip, trigger time and what holds it in place is not strong. The weight of the front straight banjo weight the acrylic tip down.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: February 11th, 2023, 4:00 am
by csullivan1980
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: February 11th, 2023, 2:35 pm
by csullivan1980
Early this morning I started up the 3D printer to print some back plates for the trigger box and BOK's kits did not include them. Overall it was a slight modification of my Fuse Box plate but getting the screw hole lined up only took a small adjustment.
I plan to finish them with Bondo Level 2 Glazing Putty, sanding them down and hitting them with Rustoleum Grey Primer and Paint.
My personal go-to paint is Rustoleum 2x Satin Canyon Black. I like the shade as it's a bit matte but not too glossy.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: February 12th, 2023, 7:38 pm
by csullivan1980
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: February 13th, 2023, 5:21 pm
by csullivan1980
Not much to documents tonight as more priming before we move to the first and last few coats of black.
Last night after all the stripped knobs were dried I hit them with a very light coat of primer.
Unlike the rest of the pack I am not going to use spray paint for the knobs that are "metal".
I bought some acrylic paint and going to use an airbrush gun to apply it.
Keeping my fingers cross it comes out good as I've never used an airbrush gun before.
I finished giving the inner/outer shell the last coat of primer before we repaint the whole shell.
Lastly hung up the Alice frame for its first coat of primer paint too.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: February 19th, 2023, 8:26 am
by cawensel
Welcome back. Good work!
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: February 20th, 2023, 2:20 pm
by csullivan1980
The last few days I've been hitting all the remaining pieces with their final coats of paint.
I dry fitted the bumper onto the shell and it looks great!
Since the BOK Vac Tube does not come with anything to help secure the loom in place I made a 3D printed "thing" (for lack of better word) to hold it in place. I made another one for the top part of the split loom but the way the shell was case it is pretty difficult to drill a hole at the angle I want to mount it in. I'll figure it out.
I am expecting by next weekend the thrower and pack will be fully assembled with the parts that were provided to me.
Then it will be just a matter of time before electronics come in a couple months via Ninjatunes.
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: April 6th, 2023, 3:29 am
by csullivan1980
Re: Back on GBFans after a few years.
Posted: June 30th, 2023, 7:36 am
by csullivan1980