Your pack looks amazing! I’m smack in the middle of overhauling my own spirit pack. I’ve attached some pics of a rough dry fit of some of the parts. I have all the fittings and hoses necessary as well as some 3D printed motherboard attach blocks on the inside.
A few things different about mine:
- My HGA, Booster tube, and injectors are all aluminum parts bought off here. Also got a machined aluminum bellows that will need some work to be more accurate.
- I bought sheets of 1/8” black ABS plastic that have allowed me to significantly alter the shape of the pack to be more screen accurate. Super easy to work with and so far happy with the result!
- I fabricated a new ion arm by just cutting, bending with heat and gluing the ABS sheets over the original spirit one. I faked welds on this part with hot glue. See the pics below.
- a friend of mine took the basic model of the cyclotron by Tacobelli and made it a removable one like the haslab pack. He did some ingenious stuff with it like giving it a piece that fits inside the pack that screws into the outer ring using brass inserts he installed. So happy with his design and his print quality is amazing!
- A big one for me for the finish- after applying the BBQ black, rub it down with stove polish w/ graphite in it. Gives it a very cool weathered black metal look! Also, before I put on the BBQ black, I painted everything with brushed aluminum color paint. After the BBQ black goes on, I rub the edges with 0000 steel wool to wear down to the aluminum color. The stove polish then makes it look darker almost like steel. So far I’ve only painted the aluminum parts and the new ion arm in this way.
I have an old Alice frame I got on eBay. Waiting on an aluminum motherboard from BenofKent, but might have to just make one myself as he’s pretty flaky with shipping larger things.
I still have a lot of work to do on the main body as far as reshaping next to the injectors and removing old stickers. I got all new sticker with some aluminum ones off Etsy. Also have a lot of filling and sanding ahead of me.
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A few things different about mine:
- My HGA, Booster tube, and injectors are all aluminum parts bought off here. Also got a machined aluminum bellows that will need some work to be more accurate.
- I bought sheets of 1/8” black ABS plastic that have allowed me to significantly alter the shape of the pack to be more screen accurate. Super easy to work with and so far happy with the result!
- I fabricated a new ion arm by just cutting, bending with heat and gluing the ABS sheets over the original spirit one. I faked welds on this part with hot glue. See the pics below.
- a friend of mine took the basic model of the cyclotron by Tacobelli and made it a removable one like the haslab pack. He did some ingenious stuff with it like giving it a piece that fits inside the pack that screws into the outer ring using brass inserts he installed. So happy with his design and his print quality is amazing!
- A big one for me for the finish- after applying the BBQ black, rub it down with stove polish w/ graphite in it. Gives it a very cool weathered black metal look! Also, before I put on the BBQ black, I painted everything with brushed aluminum color paint. After the BBQ black goes on, I rub the edges with 0000 steel wool to wear down to the aluminum color. The stove polish then makes it look darker almost like steel. So far I’ve only painted the aluminum parts and the new ion arm in this way.
I have an old Alice frame I got on eBay. Waiting on an aluminum motherboard from BenofKent, but might have to just make one myself as he’s pretty flaky with shipping larger things.
I still have a lot of work to do on the main body as far as reshaping next to the injectors and removing old stickers. I got all new sticker with some aluminum ones off Etsy. Also have a lot of filling and sanding ahead of me.
Statistics: Posted by Chris Ellis — December 31st, 2024, 1:54 am