Haslab Proton Pack Add-Ons, Upgrades and Modifications! Tips, Tricks and What You Need!

Video of a few modifications I did to the pack to "look" better
You guys can do whatever you want to fit your personal tastes and designs.
Things you will need
#1 STEADY HANDS hahaha
-Fine tip acrylic paint pens
-Gold, silver and matte black acrylic paint
-Various tip paint brushes
-Matte clear coat spray paint
-Matte black spray paint
-Scissors
-Lighter
-Colored wires
-Heat shrink (Ones with adhesive is nice)
-Small rainbow wire ribbon
www.amazon.ca/...
- Hockey grip tape
-Various color electrical tape
-Hot glue gun or crazy glue (Depends how permanent you want it or reversible)
-7mm worm gear hose clamps
-1" or 1.25" P clamp
-Black hex head screws (8-32)
-Drill and drill bits
-Exacto knife/blade
-Flathead and phillips screwdrivers
-Allen/hex keys
Optional:
-Screw hole tap

[@Spacejockey426]

Honestly, from a fellow modeller, the dry brushed areas on your pack seem to have too much paint on them to get the effect you wanted. When dry brushing, take the majority of the paint off the brush by swishing it on a piece of scrap paper, cloth or cardboard. Next, slap/swipe the paint on the subject piece with quick, deliberate strokes. Build the paint application slowly in this manner, until you achieve the desired weathering look. The effect is really astonishing, giving the effect of three dimensional depth. In the case of metal surfaces especially, each "slap" of the dry brush adds a little more color, making the painted 'metal' surface appear "newer." By the way, excellent call on the ribbon cable. Adam Savage totally replaced it with an expensive actual ribbon cable, which necessitated taking the pack completely apart. CLeaning it off as you did is the simpler and better way, by far. I can't believe how heavy handed they were with the black weathering paint on it, especially when they had reference shots of the production pack. The way it came stock, it doesn't much look like a multicolored ribbon cable at all! The same also goes for the braided sleeve they used - theirs is too light, and too long (by about 4.5 inches). The correct color is neon yellow with a black tracer, with no frayed ends . . .

[@paulortaglia1852]

Love the look

[@PlainZ3r0]

You can use black tape to secure the loose ends of the straps from coming undone. It's an old trick I learned from the military. Just make sure they are adjusted according to your comfort before you fold the loose ends and tape it up a coupla of rounds.

[@SquadCollector]

Thank you so much for this! I'm going to do that right now. I was a little worried about putting a staple through it... Yours is the better alternative hahaha!

[@PlainZ3r0]

@@SquadCollector Glad to help out a fellow 'Buster!

[@RynMyers]

Looks killer man. Nice paint up in the cyclotron! Looks fantastic!

[@murph6253]

Very nice, appreciate ya showing what you used. Looks really good 👍

[@rodristrongest]

You did an amazing work with the dry brush. to make the tracks more natural and less intentional you can use your finger with a teeth brush to spread it over your previous work and it will reach another level. it works almost like an air brush. Trust me.

[@SquadCollector]

That is a really good tip! I will use that technique as I continue to work on this beauty. Thank you so much!

[@rodristrongest]

The amount of details is insane

[@mistersharkfilms]

Nice work.

[@danielalvarez7100]

Wow. Same EXACT THING happened to Me with the rothco. Taking the pack off, the right arm strap just came undone and I’ll had to fumble with the pack to keep it from falling. What I did was when I put the strap back in, I pulled it really really tight. Now it’s locked in. You have to like lock it in with counter tension.

[@SquadCollector]

Heart attack right?! Someone posted on the Haslab Proton Pack Modders Facebook group how to strap it in a different way and it's rock solid and won't budge. Try to look it up if you can.

[@danielalvarez7100]

@@SquadCollector gonna check that out. Yea that was a close call. Had I not been careful it would’ve fallen

[@ready-to-believe]

Replacement of the ribbon cable clamp will not affect the proton pack. When you take the cable clamp off, you will notice a small button. Once you remove the clamp, the button pushes out. This is how the shutdown sequence starts! Once the button is pushed in by the ribbon cable clamp, it works like normal. So if you decide to put on a new ribbon cable clamp, it will work given it is flat against the pack and pushes in the button.

[@SquadCollector]

Yeah I figured that out after toying around with it more. I've already replaced it with a full metal piece. Thank you though for the tip (Incase anyone else is looking through the comment section)

[@NewMessage]

My only major criticism is one you can be forgiven, because everyone does it (for some reason). The original raytheon knob is a plastic piece, not metal. So brushing metal on to 'weather it' doesn't make sense. I just scuffed mine up with sandpaper, and painted the whole thing a semigloss black, then drybrushed some matt black over the scuffed bits. looks very realisitic.

[@SquadCollector]

Your criticism is absolutely welcome! Going to paint it black today. That's what's so great about the Buster community isn't it? Thanks for the direction!

[@InsidetheBoothTV]

great job!!

[@samhain8220]

You should be very proud of that pack, you did an awesome job. Did you remove the ribbon cable to clean it?

[@SquadCollector]

Thank you so much! I'm quite pleased with how it came out. I cleaned the ribbon cable while it was on the pack. Just a few drops of 70% rubbing alcohol and a green scouring pad. Did a section at a time. Rinse and repeat. Took about 5 mins to get it all clean.

[@garydawson6346]

you said you found some reference images for the inside of the cyclotron? I've been looking for some, but even screen grabs show little more that the stock haslab. If you have a link that would be great.

[@SquadCollector]

HOpe this link works and helps... Scan from the Afterlife Movie Book scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/329382146_1992740114451090_7179342729604393765_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=McvRLo3YUpMAX_ru5GG&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&oh=00_AfB2vtrdemm4azwD3GKjYMuJY9Kv4a7zzZ0yax5fbZTihQ&oe=63E718F9

[@mgdiccion]

Nice work, actually mine are still in tansit. Probably getting them by mid April. Very informative on the matte spray paint to get rid of that plasticy, toyish texture. How did you applied it? Did you took everything apart, clear the wires, masked aome areas, etc., or did you just get on with it like what Adam Savage did?Anywat, I'm planning to use MTN Shadow Black transparent matte spray paint just to lessen the glossy look of it. But I'm just worried on the result because last time I used a clear matte spray paint on 1 of my scale modeled hellicopter, it left a snowy, dusty texture look.

[@ct0760]

Do you have info on the other items you used Like which heat shrink adhesive?

[@SquadCollector]

Any generic heat shrink with adhesive should work. I used a 0.75" diameter so it could fit over the end nut that pushes into the cyclotron. If your heat shrink doesn't "Shrink" down enough just use some electrical tape to give it more thickness.

[@ghostbusterspluscollector9624]

Nice job! What size gauge did you use for the electric wires?

[@SquadCollector]

THank you for the kind words! I used 18 and 20 gauge wires. You can mix and match.. I would have also used 1 or 2 14/16 GA if I had it on hand.

[@ghostbusterspluscollector9624]

Thank you!

[@Morrisfamilyfivelove]

What is the size of the black pan head screws for the bottom of the proton pack?

[@SquadCollector]

Honestly i have no idea. I had some black pan head screws laying around that were the same size as the stock silver screws. I just swapped them out.

[@Morrisfamilyfivelove]

@@SquadCollector well I put hex bots on the shock mount bracket and replaced the silver screws on the bottom with hex bots