welshchris77

Great Idea Urs, I love it. very nice work re-sculpting the second doll

All your hard work has paid off, well done on your clearance [emoji106] Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

Well done folks and good luck for your relative positions [emoji4] Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

Wow, what an amazing looking pack Urs, you really have outdone yourself on this one, well done! [emoji6][emoji106] Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

Wow Bryan, amazing work there! Well done and thanks for sharing

Excellent information and reference pictures as always Roger [emoji4][emoji106][emoji106][emoji106] Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

Thanks you Roger. Do you mean the position of the bottle in relation to where it attaches to the 'bellows' part of the syhon?, ie not centralised?

Thanks Urs Yes the zip ties are really strong. I will add more pic of the hose clamp soon, the exhaust pipe doesn't look as long with it attached

Pics added[emoji4] I have been busy lately but when I get time I will take better pics outside under natural light with a decent camera, my phone camera is somewhat distorting the perspective and the lighting in very bright in my shed. Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

So my pack is pretty much finished now and I am happy with how it turned out[emoji4] Here is an update of what I did since I last posted:- I shortened the bottles by cutting with a dremel and riveting back together. I fabricated new panels for the frame from canvas using the one original I had as a template, painted them with Daler Rowney system 3 cadmium red acrylic, then oversprayed with auto satin black, finished by copying the internal metal brace pieces in aluminium. Cut off the dial flush element of the Syphon and fabricated a bolt for attaching the bottle by threading a length of brass rod and silver soldering a flat brass disc to the end, I then used bolts and wing bolts to hold the various parts, I decided to keep part of the internal syphon mechanism as it looks cool[emoji4], I had to back it with a black piece of plasticard to keep it steady. Sprayed the original straps with satin black and re-attached. I assembled everything using tiewraps, it was quite fidley feeding them through the holes, I started from the back strapping the radio, syphon and brexton to the top trays, for the exhausted I used copper wire as it was just easier to thread through, I then strapped these to the bottom trays, in some places i superglued patches as there was no anchor point for the tiewraps, finally strapped the bottom seed boxes to the material panels. The mortor tube is screwed to the frame at the top, the bottom was a bit trickier, can't really see fron reference pics how it is attached there so I improvised by drilling two holes close together and tiewraping it losely to the frame to slow it to hang in the correct position. For the radar dish I used a 5" sanding backing disc, took off the metal components and fabricated a plasticard disc to use as a reducer for the hole to keep it all on place. Have since added a hose clamp to the exhaust part The pack weighs in at around 4kg, not too heavy [emoji4]

Thanks John

Tried out a few different things for the shoot gun shells including various sizes of plumbing pipe but nothing looked like the right diameter, eventually I came across some metal pipe in my shed that looked like it might work. From the pictures I have seen of the originals they look to me to be some kind of electrical components, fuses or capacitors maybe. To achieve this look I wrapped electrical tape around each end of the pipe then filled with car body filler and sanded the ends smooth . After that I constructed a bracket from some scraps of abs plastic and build a box to make a silicone mould. When the silicone mould was cured I started to cast copies in black polyurethane resin, I also made a jig to hold a machine screw in place while the resin cured. I cut a support plate from 2mm black plasticard and bolted the shells throught the plate and seed trays adding an interior brace also, everything is very strong and sturdy and the shells do not move once the bolts are tightened. I latter drilled a hole in each shell and glued in small pieces of wire then painted the wire black. They may not be completely accurate but I think they look ok for now. Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

I like this idea, it is an interesting concept. I may try a few different ideas with this before committing to anything permanent, thanks for you input Roger

Thanks Urs, I might try it without the bars and see how it holds up

Testing out the position of the material braces and the support bars, have others positioned them in a similar way?. I am starting to wonder if the original packs even had support bars?, they are useful to stabilize the pack and keep the seed trays in place for trooping but would the art department have gone to the trouble of fitting the bars or just found a way to attach the trays to the fabric braces[emoji848] Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk