Wanting any MOW jet pack building tips/ideas please

[Lynn TXP 0369]

I'm getting my custom MOW jet pack today.
Since his classic jet pack is no longer available I asked him to make me a custom hybrid jet pack using using the Jango arena pack fuselage, 2 side top cones and fuselage detail panels, and using the classic rocket, and thruster ball assembles instead of those Jango parts. I got some Shape ways parts coming for the beacon and stabilizer.

This is my inspiration for the custom jet pack.

I need any and all ideas for building tips on this please.
I want to be able to make the side thruster removable and the main rocket removable as well for ease of transport.
Thanks for any ideas and tips.
Lynn

 

[01Hawk]

I have been building mine. Aside from hours of sanding and filling it is pretty straight forward. I am going to use the bungee cord method to attach my side thrusters and my cone will be removable. With this pack it all comes down to how perfect you want it to be up close. I could easily have put a lot more hours into but I don't think it is worth it.

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

How did you make your rocket removable? I've heard of the bungee cord method for the thrusters, but what does is it entail?

I've seen your jp build and I'm not worried about filling in low spots and valleys etc. that doesn't really bother me. Major pin holes will get filled, but paint and weathering will cover up and blend in the rest, I've built many prop resin items over the years and paint along with careful weathering can hide a lot.

I've found out over the years that if you try and fill every pin hole, void, and low spot you can drive yourself mad.

It is not that I'm lazy in doing it, I just choose what not to get too excited about and not go crazy over trying to fix every little thing. These are props that the end of the day and we what we have done is far better then how the real prop was done.
I've seen your fuselage body work and it looks great, but after seeing it I already decided to just fill in those round dimple holes, hit with them with a bit of red putty, then scuff and shoot it as is.

I will not drive myself crazy on it.
Lynn

 

[BudaFett]

Lynn,

If you take a look at my build page I build a MOW myself. I have no painting experience so it was my 1st dive into Boba painting!

http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/rnbudas-esb-fett-wip-50331/

Good luck!

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

That looks really great!!
I'd like to know more about that thruster attachment method and what you did for the rocket attachment please.
Thanks,
Lynn

 

[Gregory]

I'm not familiar with pre-made jetpacks, so this might not apply. To make my rocket removable, I drilled a long hole into the jetpack part, with a drill bit that was exactly the same size, if not just a tiny bit smaller, than a 1/2" dowel I mounted in the rocket. The dowel slips snugly into the hole in the jetpack. the hole in the jetpack in my case is really just some styrofoam and 2 layers of illustration board it passes through at the top. I tapered the tip of the dowel a bit to help it slip in.



Please disregard the inaccurate look of my jetpack, it was a 2 day build to get ready for trooping at the theater near me for Episode 7.

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

Good looking pack! I like the rocket attaching method.
Lynn

 

[Gregory]

Good looking pack! I like the rocket attaching method.
Lynn

Thanks, it occurred to me while looking at the photo, that it would be hard to permanently mount the rocket in a way that was strong enough not to easily break off, without doing something similar. I think I got the idea from the photos of the pre-pro jetpack in the gallery.

 

[01Hawk]

I will have to find the post ( if it isn't the one above ) with the thruster bungee method. I am pretty sure it was basically screwing an eyelet in each and shoving them in the body and using a short cord going from eyelet to eyelet. Could prob use zip ties if you didn't want to take them out.

I haven't gotten to the rocket ( was looking at it last night). I was thinking maybe long toggle bolt? I guess it depends on how may pieces you want to be removable. I wanted to try and make the fins or whatever the are called moveable on the top.

As far as the body work, yea you def could go nuts and it is totally preference as far as I see it. Unless someone gets right up on it and stares at it I don't know that you will see the flaws to much especially with one that gets weathered.

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

UPS just dropped off my pack and we started to look at it..
OMG I LOVE THIS THING!!!! Sorry to shout.. I'm excited.

A good washing,a few mold lines, some red putty on the "defects" Christian mentioned on his eBay site saying they were the mold starting to deteriorate, a quick scuff and I'm painting this thing!

Yeah, I could see some low spots, and valleys a little Bondo could be used to take care of them. But this isn't going to get a gloss paint job where you would see it, so it is getting shot as is. It is one of those things I'm not going to drive myself nuts over. I'll have no more then an hours work into it to do what is needed, if it is that much.

The resin parts aren't perfect, nothing that a little sanding and some light red glaze putty won't take care of. I've painted up worse parts and they looked pretty sweet when done.
I can't wait to start this thing!

Yeah, after checking things out and seeing how it all goes together I was thinking of doing a rod and a wing nut for the rocket part, that would be very do able to do.
Lynn

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

Here it is, my custom MOW jet pack. Jango arena fuselage with classic pack parts.

Here are the only visible "defects" that I can see from the mold degradation of the arena pack MOW mentions in his add.

Too be honest, I may not even bother filling them in, why bother? It is not bad, no pin holes and no one will notice when the paint is on and it adds "age" to the jet pack.
Pour holes in the back will need to be taken care of.

A little surface texture needs to be sanded down and some red glaze putty will make fast work of this.

Overall I think this in an awesome pack and is a far step ahead of my old Richies Armor fiberglass jetpack that I had BITD.
Lynn

 

[Armydad]

The bungee method for the thrusters, I'd like to lay claim to this method because that's how I figured to attach mine, now I may not have been the first but I figured it out myself lol.
You'll drill holes to insert your thrusters to the jetpack, take 2 screw in hooks (like you'd hang a lamp or plant from the ceiling with) screw one into the end of each thuster insert, then just get a short bungee cord and hook it to each of the thrusters from the inside of the jet pack and viola! Done, thrusters will stay in place and still swivels and makes for easy breakdown when done.
As for the rocket , securely glue a long bolt to the bottom of the rocket, I drilled a small hole in my rocket and seated the bolt in the rocket about 1/2 inch. Drill a hole just big enough for the bolt/threaded rod on top of the jetpack where the rocket seats, use a washer and nut to screw on from the inside of the pack and done. I'll try and find the pics of my build from years back so you can see first hand. Hope it helps.
Here's the pics from my build 4 years ago, i didnt have any for the rocket, if I get the chance Ill take a few, here's the bungee thruster, I was using a big bungee rubber band thing at the time, but I think an actual bungee with the hooks on the ends works best.

 

[GCNgamer128]

To be honest, I'm not sure why MOW hasn't made a new mold for some of those pieces, especially the rocket. I'll live with the pits in the body because those can be easily filled, but I'm fairly unimpressed with the cleanliness of some of his recent casts.

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

Christian told me he was going to be redoing some of those molds at some point in the future.
I can see your point and for a noob person doing this it can be a bit of a daunting task to fill it in. I've built 100's of resin things in the past and this is an easy one to do, 10-15 minutes worth of work sanding, primer, and some red glaze putty per part and it will be fine.
Lynn

 

[WTFett]

I had glued a bolt to my rocket so I could use a big wingnut to hold it in place from the inside of the jetpack. Garrison member knocked into the pack when it was on a table, rocket broke right off the bolt. My quick fix was putting tape around the bottom of the rocket for a friction hold in the top of the tank. It's worked ever since

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

I got my attachments done for the rocket and thrusters.
1/2" threaded rod and accompanying hard ware for rocket.

The thrusters got 1" PVC pipe spacers, 1 1/4" washers and 5/16th hardware all pressure fit only and holds tight. The thrusters can move if needed.

Lynn

 

[thinbluefett]

Looking good! Is he still making these packs? what was your wait time if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

Thanks!
He is not making the classic fuselage shell packs, but as I mentioned, he made me a custom pack using a arena pack fuselage and some classic pack parts.
I ordered my pack Christmas eve '15 and I got it on January 12th.
Lynn

 

[01Hawk]

I just stuck regular eyelets in mine and found out it hit the body of the pack on the pack lol. Your method looks like it will be my next move

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

Yeah, it is a tight fit even with this set up, but I attach it all loose so I can get the wing nut on, push it all together when wing nut is on, and it tightens right up nice and the thrusters can be positioned in needed.
Lynn