Well, after working like a madman on my jet pack for part of the spring, and then almost throwing it away, I decided to get into high gear last week. I've spent close to 12 hours a day (confirm that with my wife!) on this pack over the last 9 days. Lots of Bondo, sanding, spot putty, sanding, then repeating.
This pack looked like utter CRAP when I bought it. The original owner sprayed about 12 coats of silver paint on it and *tried* to assemble some of it. I had to strip the paint off. Unfortunately, the stripper removed some gelcoat that had to be replaced.
The original rocket was SOLID RESIN and seemed too large to me. I bought a MLC rocket from Seeker to replace it with.
The upper and lower tank caps were poorly cast in heavy resin, so I fixed one of each, molded them, then made casts in low-density Urethane resin.
The pack is NOW a hybrid:
<UL>
<LI> Jet Pack body: MandalorianCostuming fiberglass
<LI> Rocket: MLC
<LI> Resin tank pieces: Fetthunter Designs
<LI> Resin piano keys: RuffkinToys
<LI> Resin beacon: bought from Seeker (origin unknown)
[/list]
Onto the pics:
After it arrived, I stripped about 12 coats of silver paint off of it, sanded, fixed the gelcoat, and drew lines on it with a Sharpie where edges SHOULD be on a "normal" jet pack.
After much Bondoing, sanding, and filling with spot putty, I ended up with this (rocket placed on pack for reference use only):
More sanding, prepping, and Bondoing the gaps between the resin parts and the pack itself, and you get:
A day spent weathering and detailing, and finally I arrived at:
Don't ask about the "stabilizer"!
The pack is actually not as bright as the photos show. My camera just has a REALLY strong flash on it. :facepalm
Anyway, it's DONE. WHEW! Next time, I'll probably buy one a little closer to being "ready to wear"!
It's not the MOST accurate jet pack I've seen, but I've seen worse. And the important thing is the whole thing *only* cost me $150 & 6 months of my LIFE!!!
The kids enjoyed it on Saturday though, so I guess it was all worth it.