Home Made Ghostbusters Proton Pack
Intro: Home Made Ghostbusters Proton Pack
*UPDATE* SINCE UPLOADING MY INSTRUCTABLE IVE MADE SOME IMPROVEMENTS TO MY PACK, SEE FINAL STAGE FOR IMAGES AND DESCRIPTION.
Hi , here are the steps to how I created my own ghostbusters proton pack, it's not completely screen accurate but close enough that people wouldn't really notice , some parts I purchased offline but most were items I found around the house, this all depends how accurate you want your pack to be! as a kid I always wanted a proton pack so one day I thought "screw it I'm making one", now it's your turn!
STEP 1: Materials Required!
Hot glue gun and glue sticks (or any kind of glue , this is just the easiest and probably holds best)
Thick cardboard / plywood (I used very thick cardboard that was used to top pallets where I work)
Kingspan wall insulation ( this I acquired from a friend who works on a building site ) I used 2 different thicknesses.
5 mm EVA foam (camping mat from pound shop)
Various length pieces of cable
Plastic tubing ( I used one from an old air bed pump I had in the shed)
Empty berroca tubes
Plastic bottle lids
Spray paint (various colours)
Long plastic tube
As I go along I will tell you where exactly I used each part. It sounds like a lot but you will be suprised what you can find around the house when you look!
STEP 2: Back Board
STEP 3: Cutting Out Main Body of the Pack
STEP 4: Covering Body With EVA Foam
I also added the squares around the bottom of the main body to give the effect shown on the packs in the film.
I then cut various blocks out of the thickest kingspan to use as the electrical boxes, this took time as I had to keep smoothing the edges and making slight adjustments until I was happy with the sizes I had created ,
i didn't need to cover these block as I used the flags in the back garden the sand them smooth,
I then cut strips of the foam and glued them to blocks to create the same look found on the movie packs ,
I used an old poster tube I had as required, see pics for reference !
STEP 5: Adding Details and Cutting Out Back Board.
I used an empty berroca tube for the clipards ( simply take the lid off turn it upside down and glue it in place , you have a clipard ! )
I also used bottle lids as the little buttons on the pack, after glueing everything in place onto the back board I then added the plastic tubing (old foot pump for an air bed) to the front of the pack.
See pics for reference...
STEP 6: First Paint Job.
I then gave the pack its first spray job, this is when the pack really began to come to life , I used car spray paint I found in the pound shop , I bought a few cans just to be sure as they run out pretty quick!
The cylinder shape in the top right corner was an empty vitamins tub I had from Holland and Barrett, this was one of the smaller tubs, the one at the bottom on the cyclotron was also a vitamin tub but one of the larger ones you can get!
STEP 7: Few Little Details.
STEP 8: Adding Alice Frame / Back Pack Straps
I went online and found an army store selling the Alice frame the same as the one used in the movie, it cost me £25, In the past I have simply glued straps from an old backpack onto the main backboard of the pack this worked fine but this time I wanted to get it a bit more screen accurate!
I used strips of strong fabric and glued them on either side of the frame to hold it tight to the backboard.
I then cut out a clear red document folder I found at work into the circular shapes for the cyclotron, this also gave the pack more life!
The bumper I made from the EVA foam and used a hose pipe connector as the shock mount! Remember to seal the foam before painting!
STEP 9: Adding Labels and Wires.
I googled "ghostbusters proton pack warning labels" and a link came up to the GB fans website ,
on there I found a document with all the required labels on, I printed the labels on a colour printer and used thick sellotape on both sides to create a laminated look,
I then cut them out and glued them into the correct places using google images as a reference.
Then added the red wires where necessary , I found the wire in maplins electrical store but found it was too thin so eventually used a thicker wire that I spray painted red and blue.
STEP 10: Making the Thrower.
I used the thick kingspan and cut the correct shape out, I then covered it in the foam as I did with the pack,
I added the plastic tubing to both sides of the thrower for the handles, and added a few little details including the clipard ( berroca tube!),
I then sealed the foam , sprayed it black and labelled it up correctly, I struggled to find hand grips for the thrower so ended up using the handles off a few old tape guns I had at work, they actually looked quite good once cut into shape and glued to the handles ( sorry this is vague but as I said I kind of just made this up as I went along and hoped for the best! )
STEP 11: Connecting the Thrower to the Pack.
After glueing the plastic tubing ( old air bed foot pump tube ) to the handle of the thrower I then cut a hole in the lid of the pop bottle and fed the tube through about half an inch then glued it in place, I could then screw the lid to the funnel end stick out of the pack , this created a sturdy connection , hopefully the images above will make more sence than me trying to explain it !
I then used the clip off the back of a tape measure as the hook and created a base on the pack for it to hook on to.
STEP 12: Touch Ups and Final Details.
STEP 13: Final Images!
STEP 14: Updates and Improvements.
As I stated above I have made several improvements to my pack since I uploaded the tutorial,
Bumper: my old bumper was made from foam but it was too floppy to hold up the shock mount so I made a new one from a plastic ruler, I cut it accordingly and heated it so I could bend It to the correct shape.
Power unit: I never had one before as u can see on the original pics, it was just annoying me that it was missing so a bit of pvc pipe did the trick.
Brass (look) fittings: I looked for these online but they were very expensive so I ended up making my own from plastimate (moldable plastic) they actually add a lot to the pack for such a small touch.
Cyclotron: I actually remade the whole cyclotron, I wasn't happy with how it looked before or how unsteady the led fittings inside it were, I ended up using a plastic chocolates tub and individual sections of an egg carton to hold the leds sturdier, it worked well and looks and feels much better.
Thrower: as I said in the original tutorial I was unhappy with the thrower, I remade it from very thick card board, I also added lights to it, I used Christmas lights and added my own switch to make it easier.
My pack now also has sound, I made the thrower so I could mount an ipod shuffle onto it, I ran an audio jack lead through the thrower down the pipe and into a speaker which is fitted inside the n filter on the pack, it works great and hearing that start up sound never gets old!
Thanks for checking out my updates, I'll keep updating as I make improvements to my pack.
3 Comments
jsomarriva 8 years ago
muchas gracias por tu proyecto¡¡
seamster 8 years ago
This is great! Nice to see how it all came together.
Everyone needs their own proton pack! :)
beesleybob 8 years ago
thank you seamster, it was a lot of fun ? but as always I'm always finding ways to improve it! Thanks for your kind words