Oops

I'm just about finished with assembling my pack and making sure everything is drilled out and all the parts fit, or almost fit.  Next it will be time to take it all apart and prepare it for painting.  I added some hoses and labels in the picture below to give a preview of what the end product will look like, minus the thrower (or wand, or gun, whatever you call it).

However this success did not come without a couple of mistakes.  While drilling out the large hole in the lower right side of the pack were the hose to the thrower comes out, some fiberglass chipped off along the edge on the bumper side of the hole.  The hole is supposed to look like a cartoon mouse hole.  I tried sanding it a little to make it look better, but it is still going to have a gap.  So either I can fix it later on (I have a few ideas), or I can leave it as is and call it "weathering," which a lot of builders do to their pack to simulate age and usage.  It's not in a very obvious spot, and the large hose will mask it some, but I'm still bummed about it.

The labels and cables (cute, I know) really add color and make the details pop.  It will also look better when I have the lenses in the four cyclotron holes and the long blue one in the power cell window.  I have lights that will work for those as well, but no sound as of yet.  Maybe next year.

Before I quit for the night I decided to attach my A.L.I.C.E. pack frame to the aluminum motherboard.  The frame is military surplus like those used in the movies.  There were different types used in the two movies, and mine is more like the one from Ghostbusters II.

 

I had to do a little drilling to get this part together.  The motherboard had holes already mapped out for attaching the ALICE frame, but the two lower ones were too small for the hardware I already bought and knew was pretty close to screen accurate.  So I drilled out the holes big enough for the large carriage bolts to fit through.  There are also spacers between the motherboard and frame, and a couple of washers involved in each spot too.

 

The movie packs had a hole drilled through the upper part of the frame in the middle, above the cross bar, but the frames are solid there, so I had to drill my own hole.  In previous packs, I'd just had a couple of zip ties looped around that part, because I was afraid to weaken my frame.  However this time I decided to go for it.  So I had the two lower bolts in and tightened, then marked off where the screw needed to go and where to drill the top hole, then drilled.  Then when I went to put it back in, it was off by 1/8-1/4 of an inch, so I had to drill a second hole a bit lower.  Hopefully this doesn't weaken my frame too much.  The screw I used was much smaller for that hole, and the two holes I drilled are one above the other, so that's better than drilling side to side and really taking a lot of metal out horizontally. 

Anyway, I got it all bolted down, took some pictures, then couldn't help putting it on my back and looking at my reflection in the SUV windows in the garage.  The pack wasn't attached, just the motherboard, but it was still fun to get to see what it'll feel like and where it will sit on my back.

So now the task is to take it all apart and hope for a day cool enough to prime and paint the shell, motherboard, and a few parts that need it.

"We're close on this one, I can feel it." - Ray Stantz

-Matt