[pchrisbosh1]

Again, immaculate work.

Could you share a photo of the inside of your shell? I'd like to see how you've tied together all of the various components.

Shawn

Thanks man! No problem here you go


Nothing fancy inside, it just was extremely complicated trying to replicate the hero shell measurements 1:1 so I had to take different approaches to the boxes because of the wonky angles and curves then I typically would on a more basic build with straight edges. I don't think there is a single straight edge on the screen used shell. I still need to add a couple more reinforcement pieces and I will probably fiberglass some portions of the inside before molding in silicone. Thanks for looking man.

[WShawn]

Thanks for the photo. Up until now I thought this styrene build would be your final pack. I see now that you're going to pull a silicone mold off of it to make castings. If this styrene amalgam was to be the finished pack I was curious as to how you were going to hold together all the parts. After I replaced the plywood and masonite parts of my 1984 build with (crude) fiberglass casts a few years later I ended up with four main modules that I've just bolted to my acrylic motherboard. They're not really attached to each other. This leads to a somewhat annoying squeak happening when I walk at a brisk pace.

[pchrisbosh1]

Oh I understand haha if this was going to be a wearable shell I probably would have built it completely different but yeah my original attention was simply building a master to be molded in silicone similar to my original build years ago.

I hear ya man having separate boxes without attaching would make a lot of noise when moving.

[WShawn]

ICYMI, this was my 1984 build:

https://shawnmarshallmakes.com/1984-proton-packs/

At some point in the next 6 months I want to secure the separate fiberglass modules to each other, replace the acrylic MB with aluminum, and replace my ancient lights and add a sound system with something Arduino-based. Though the perfectionist in me would love to have a hyper-accurate pack like yours I want to preserve the provenance of mine.

[pchrisbosh1]

That's a pretty incredible build especially for the time. I'm the same way with my old builds I've wanted to upgrade and interchange parts but I'd rather leave the integrity of the packs along with the mistakes I made and just start over. Thanks for sharing it was amazing to see such talent during a time of extremely limited resources.

Here is a video update also of my current progress on my YouTube channel if anyone wants to check it out! https://youtu.be/OHE_HtcFF3Q Thanks.

[pchrisbosh1]

Some more progress I wanted to share. I'm still doing clean up and getting the shell imperfections smoothed out a bit before the texturing and roughing up process.





Thanks for looking!

[janderson0719]

Exciting stuff. Looking great.

[pchrisbosh1]

Thanks man much appreciated! I should have more progress soon.

[mburkit]

I can't wait to see this textured.

[pchrisbosh1]

Thanks Burky! I'm starting the texture process as we speak but had to make a few more adjustments to make the shell more accurate. 5 steps forward and 10 steps back but we're on our way! Almost at the finish line.

[pchrisbosh1]

Good news guys the shell is completely finished! This has been a long and difficult journey but it has been well worth it. Without further ado here is the finished product.



















So that's a wrap guys! Next stage is molding the shell and getting some castings out. I appreciate everyone's support...doesn't seem like there is much activity around these parts these days but nevertheless GBfans is where my roots are and I feel with all the great people I've met from here and made great relationships with I feet obliged to post this here even if only a few people are watching.

The shell is built to screen used spec and I tried my absolute best with my skillset to replicate the hero shell as close as possible. Thank you to Matt Burkit for all his help without him this project wouldn't be possible. Any and all comments welcome!

[tobycj]

Fabulous work Chris! Wonderful to see such craftsmanship in the community.

[LT86]

Good Lord! I had to push my laptop forward so my drool wouldn't hit the keyboard. This is craftsmanship at its absolute finest. The pictures alone gives nothing but feelings of inspiration. Everyone should consider this a dream shell. I myself have wanted to own a shell of yours for years and now having an opportunity to do so just blows my mind. Im always thankful when someone offers something that was clearly a labor of love and something personal for others to benefit from. The last few months Ive been collecting all the vintage "real world" parts for my final Pack build, the OMNI Pack. Hopefully I'll make the list. Having this for my final build would be bittersweet.

[gbmichael]

Dang! Amazing as usual! I have also been trying to get one of your shells for years (even 2nd and 3rd hand) with no luck. I even missed out on the last set you sold on here. I would love to get “on the list” to possibly get one of the castings!

[WSNProductions]

Where do I sign up to purchase one?

[janderson0719]

Top notch work. Looking forward to that run!

[pchrisbosh1]

Thank you guys for the kind and overly generous comments! I hope to get this baby molded in the next few weeks. I'll keep everyone posted with the progress. Thank you again for everyone's support! It's a dream come true to be able to finally replicate the hero shell with proper measurements and having physical reference.

Once I get some castings ready I'll probably do a few runs of 4 to 5. I'll start a thread in the for sale section once everything is game and ready to go.

[pchrisbosh1]

I decided to take some pictures with a better camera of mine to help bring out the pictures in better lighting. Hope you guys enjoy! I can't wait to mold this thing....times a ticking.













That's a wrap guys for now! Thanks again for looking.

[JWils23]

Just phenomenal work, Chris! The attention to detail is unparalleled, insert chefs kiss here

[Venkman1984]

Chris abesolutley remarkable work. I miss seeing threads like these. As I mentioned on your YouTube page if you do a run of these I'm 100% in. Brining back the good ol days of progress threads and outstanding results. Can't wait for more. hats off to you Sir.

[pchrisbosh1]

Thank you guys so much for the comments. I really miss the old days of the boards as well, it's definitely more of a ghost town around these parts and I've heard most people have moved over to Facebook but I'm not really much of a Facebook guy. Even though this board is slowly dying i'm still happy to be here! I'm really excited to get this baby molded. We'll be starting the process here in the next couple hours. Was doing a little prep work last night.

[oidoglr]

Amazing work. The GB groups on FB are about the only thing left keeping me on that platform, but I really appreciate you sharing your process here since FB is not a good place as a repository for future people to come back and research topics since churn of new topics to drive engagement is the platform strategy.

I'd love to see this shell compared to a Mack's legacy.

[Michael Scott]

Will this be priced similarly to the shells Mack’s Factory is producing? I understand if you don’t want to make a number public yet, I’m just curious how much I’ll need to have on hand to order one. Just to have an in the ballpark idea.

[ccv66]

I might be a ghost by the time mack factory releases their shell, but their other legacy stuff is in stock and should go great with this.

I'm sure mack factory shells are going to be great too, but they're going to be doing large quantities. Can't beat the quality control of someone doing small batches.

[pchrisbosh1]

Just finished the mold yesterday and it came out great. Here's some progress pics. Best news is that the master was completely preserved and made it out of demolding without a scratch. Hope you guys enjoy!




Last pic is the master in its preserved state after demolding.

I should be offering shells sometime within the next couple months. I plan to do at least 8-10 before the winter comes and it will probably be awhile before I offer more. I don't want to do get too ahead of myself, I still need to do a test cast. Nonetheless just keep an eye out in the for sale section here on the board. All comments welcome.

[pchrisbosh1]

Will this be priced similarly to the shells Mack’s Factory is producing? I understand if you don’t want to make a number public yet, I’m just curious how much I’ll need to have on hand to order one. Just to have an in the ballpark idea.

PM sent. Thank you again guys for the comments and support!

[WSNProductions]

I’m curious as well. Would like to have it in the bank and ready.

[WShawn]

Neat. I'm curious as to your casting technique. Did you thicken the silicone rubber and brush it straight onto your buck? If so, are you then backing that up with a fiberglass mother mold or something like that?

What brand of silicone rubber are you using?

Thanks!

[pchrisbosh1]

Thanks. I use Rebound 25 brushable silicone, lots of Mann's Ease Release mold release for the master. I do a few coats of just silicone that I brush on over everything, then a thickened layer of silicone for the side walls, and then a couple more layers of just silicone. Then clay wall divider for the 2 part fiberglass jacket. Then demold. Stupid simple but works pretty good.

[pchrisbosh1]

First test cast is a success! It's kind of weird and surreal seeing this start from nothing but plastic, to a finished master, and now to a finish fiberglass cast. It's amazing the reward you get if you just stick with it. Thanks guys for all the support....I'm very grateful!