Particle Thrower Reassembly

Sorry again for not taking enough pictures of the particle thrower, or proton gun, in it's previous condition, or during the tear down process.  I tried to make up for it tonight by taking a lot of pictures of the reassembly process.

In this first picture below are all the parts that I painted black to match the proton pack, as well as four resin knobs that I painted a more accurate aluminum color rather than the silver they had been previously.  The larger rectangle piece with the knobs on it is the aluminum bottom of the gun body.  The large piece next to it is a resin part called the rear instrument bar and the trigger box is connected to it.  The small rectangle piece is the back of the trigger box, which screws on to the other side so switches can be installed inside.

Below you can see how the reassembly process has begun.  I started by adding a couple of knobs back on to the gun block, which you can sort of see at the top of this picture.  I also put the switches inside the trigger box and closed it up, added the hose barbs and green hose to the rear instrument bar, as well as the small red light cap, which doesn't actually house any lights at this time.
 

I got on a roll and added a lot more parts before taking more pictures.  This is the thrower at near completion.  Sitting below the thrower in the picture are the wavy fin heat sink and two resin knobs which go on the opposite side of the thrower.  I haven't put those on yet because I need to double check where the knobs go, as I think I had them placed wrong last time, and this aluminum heat sink is new to the thrower, and the screw holes don't line up with the holes from the resin heat sink that was on the thrower previously, so I'll have to drill those out to attach it.  Also below the thrower is the same aluminum bottom plate, as well as the gun track which attaches to the bottom plate and holds the v-hook that holds the gun on the pack, and a bent s-hook, which is how the Ghostbusters hung the throwers from their belts after firing them in the movies. 

 

(Fun fact:  At no point in either movie do any of the Ghostbusters ever put their thrower back on the pack, as it's almost impossible to line it up and re-holster it without help.)

 

Anyway, back to the picture.  On the thrower itself I put the rear instrument bar and trigger box on, a few more caps to simulate light locations, the Clippard pneumatics valve, which is a real life industrial part, and finished off the tip of the thrower by adding the banjos and red wiring and aluminum trigger tip.  The red wiring is upside down here, but if left the more accurate way it rubs on the ground when it's sitting like this, so I just angled the wire the other direction for convenience and so I don't knock it off.

 

These last three pictures are of the same step, just different angles.  Here I've put the gun track and bottom plate on the thrower, only to discover that I need to go back and paint the side that is facing up here in the picture.  I had forgotten that this part is exposed.  I also noticed a couple other places where I didn't get 100% coverage with the black paint, so I'll have some touch ups to do.

So to complete the thrower I need to add the two knobs, drill out holes for the heat sink and attach it, touch up paint on a few spots, prime and paint the gun track, put the switch back in that controls the lights in the proton pack, and put the labels on in the right places.  I'll also put the wiring loom back in the end of the back handle that will connect it to the proton pack.

I still cringe a bit at the inaccuracies with this thrower, but I've fixed a few issues it had coming in to this phase of the project and it's better now that it was a week ago.  The new paint job makes it ten times better already.  I think it will look adequate once everything is finalized.  Thanks again for checking out my update, feel free to leave comments here on the blog.

-Matt