Shell and Motherboard Unboxing Pictures

Today I received the package I'd been waiting on for months.

 

Here's what it looked like when I opened it in the garage.  Joshua was super excited about the Styrofoam peanuts.

 

That ain't no trash in that bag.

It's my new Proton Pack shell!  It came pre-mounted to a laser cut aluminum motherboard and it came with a free "bumper."

That's the bumper unwrapped.  The guy that made it cut out the major holes for me, which is a big help.  I was afraid I'd destroy it.

I couldn't stop myself from taking the shell off of the motherboard to see inside.  Even the way the pack is mounted to the motherboard, or "mobo" for short, is screen accurate.  The brackets are riveted to the mobo.  It came with a piece of foam that will go on the top of the mobo to give it an added bit of accuracy.  I'll show what that's for at another time.  The plastic bag had the hardware for mounting the bumper to the shell.

The back of the mobo, you can see the rivets here.  Holes are predrilled for mounting it to the ALICE pack frame, which are the military surplus straps that make it look like a back pack.

That's what the inside of it looks like.  It's thin, but it's quite reinforced and should handle a little abuse, not that I'll be playing football in it or anything.

Here's a quick mock up of where the parts will go when they're mounted to the shell.  I had to order a new beam line and filler tube, as mine were too big, but I'd already known that was a possibility.  I'll just flip the old ones to someone else and recoup the money.

So now the major work can begin.  Since most of my aluminum parts are ready to go, it won't take too long to measure up my drilling points, mount the parts, take them back off, prime and paint, then start putting the parts back on.  I've also got correct labels to add to it.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

-Matt