Polar Lights Ghostbusters Ecto-1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Yeah I know... I'm getting older then dirt. What a great day today... at 1:30am last night the power went out and fried my computer. I've been scrambling all day to get it working again and after tracing it down to either the power supply or the motherboard... I was hoping it wasn't the latter. So, choosing the 50/50 shot, I took the power supply out, and ran all the way into town and got a new one hoping that it would work. And whaddya know... my power supply got fried while it was on a UPS and a surge protector. Guess it just goes to show ya that no matter how much protection that you think you got on your computer, it's never good enough! But at least it was only a $40 fix instead of a $250 motherboard fix! So at least now all the pics will be showing again!
 
Happy b-day... and as strange as it sounds, congrats on frying your power supply (as the mother board would have been a bigger bummer); there is a silver lining! :)
 
Yeah me too! LOL... As I've been getting things back to normal on the pc, it also looks like my sound is out, but I'm not sure if it's the speakers or the sound card. Guess I'll know soon enough!
 
Alright... I'm finally able to get to this puppy (yeah I know, late to the game and so many have started already). The first thing I did was clean off my desk and then took all the piece sprues out of the box and gave them a good inspection to see what I am going to be dealing with.

ecto1-firstpic.jpg


And unfortunately it looks as if I am missing a piece already. I checked the box, all the baggies and it is no where to be found.

ecto1-missingpart.jpg


It appears to be part #27 which according to the instructions is a Spot Light so it looks like I'm gonna have to scratch build that or come up with another solution.

ecto1-part27.jpg


The next thing I looked at was the back door... I'm thinking of having it open so you can see inside. As well as having the driver side window down. There's a site online that has some nice photoetched parts for this I'm thinking of getting if I can get the money together.

ecto1-backdoor.jpg


As I looked at the interior, it looks like it's missing an entire section where the computer should go. I don't know if that is the way the back should have looked in the first movie or not. But I may end up scratch building something there as well.

ecto1-interior.jpg


This is a snap together model so most of the hard work is done for ya. But with a little love and some finer details I'm sure I can make this look good! More to come!
 
Catching up with this one.
Nice choice for a kit, and up to a good start!
As for the missing part - You might want to look for some early WWII tank or armor kit as a donor - there're lots of variations on the proper-looking spot lights in them.
 
Grendels said:
Too bad about the missing part, but I know you can fix it up right nice.

Yeah... dontcha hate when you pull a new model out and discover that a piece is missing. I bought a Pro-shop X-Wing awhile back that was missing one of the brackets that hold the wing pivoting pin down. Really a bummer when you have to scratch build or glue something down like that. But it happens.
 
Solander said:
Catching up with this one.
Nice choice for a kit, and up to a good start!
As for the missing part - You might want to look for some early WWII tank or armor kit as a donor - there're lots of variations on the proper-looking spot lights in them.

Yeah... That would work. But I'll probably just end up scratch building something that looks a bit closer to the movie. Its amazing what you can do with epoxy putty! :) Have I mentioned how much I love that stuff?? Which reminds me... I'm gonna have to get some more!
 
Spent the last couple of days going over what all I will need to do to get this looking the way I wanted to. Alot of people think you have to strip the chrome off the bumpers of cars in order to make them look right. But I just don't believe that and I'll show you why. First... the chrome is gonna shine at any scale. Second, if you just tone down the details it really brings out the reality of the part. Here's what I mean... I took a sharpie and began filling in all the little back details of the grill. It really starts to shine.


e1-grill1.jpg



Then after taking the sharpie, I went back and did a flat black wash over the details and now this looks really good.


e1-grill2.jpg



Who needs to strip the chrome?? Not me! :) Why waste a perfectly good chrome job? Sure you can tone dow nthe rest with thinner to dull the finish a bit, but I always feel less is more. Moving on... One thing I'm disappointed in is the sniffer dish. This part is suppose to be clear plastic. But I believe I may be able to scratch or scavenge one from the 1A.


e1-dish.jpg



I remember I built a Ecto-1A and all I had to go by was the movie captures at the time. But I am so thankful to all the guys over at GBFANS.COM. The original Ectomobile has been sitting in a studio backlot all these years rotting away, but a couple of die hard fans have been able to grab some awesome detailed photos of not only the exterior but never before seen interior shots as well. And it really makes you think about how hollywood is able to give you so little and yet, your mind fills in all the blanks with grandure. There really wasn't much to the inside back. A couple of switch boards, some computer cases, etc, not really alot. So I poured over my reference pics from GBFANS and came up with a game plan.


e1-ref1.jpg

e1-ref2.jpg

e1-ref3.jpg



Ref #1 shows a really good shot not only of the back of the front seats detail but the component box that resides there. It appears as if two component boxes (maybe an oscilliscope and an amplifier) are stacked on top of each other and a switch board was more or less propped atop the whole mess with wires everywhere. Ref #2 shows that behind the rear seat (yes there are two facing each other, they got that right in the model), there are actually 3 boxes. The first one is brass colored and looks like an old CPU tower. The second is larger and looks like it takes up the rest of the room along the passenger side and has switches on the side of what I can only describe as a plywood case. And ontop of that is what almost looks like a cardboard box that looks like it's laying on its side with all kinds of spare electronics and wires coming out of the top/side of it. Ref #3 shows that there is actually an old phone sitting beside the seat and the door. It appears to be hooked up to a panel connected to the CPU tower. Also of course the seats themselves are padded. So with all that mind I started to build a gameplan to attack the back with as much detail as I could.


e1-backplan1.jpg

e1-backplan2.jpg



Now if you keep in mind the yellow dotted sections I'll have to remove. The red solid sections I'll have to scratch build somehow. Taht whole comptuer console section along the back passenger side is gonna have to come out as well as a section beside the seat near the door. Yes I will have to scratch the phone too (not gonna mention the pack rack yet)! :) Now moving onto the roof rack, there is only a couple of major changes I'll have to make...


e1-ref4.jpg



The large box in front is actually an industrial fan. That'll be fun to build.


e1-rackplan1.jpg



The fan will be fun to build. Of course I'll have to scratch build the missing red spot light... no biggy, but there's also what appears to be a piece of I-beam with fins in it (or a heat sink) stuck to the back near the dish. I'll have to build that as well. But all in all, this should come together nicely.
 
Well today I cut the back door off and it came off nice and clean. The only problem is at the bottom of the door itself is where the screws go to hold the frame on. But since I'll probably be gluing this thing together I'm not to worried about it and I can putty it in.


e1-dooroff.jpg



I also cut the back section off the main interior. This I'll put on the back of the door to match it up to the interior. However there's a noticeable gap between the floor and the outside of the door. I'm sure I'll be able to fill that in or use some styrene to bridge the gap.


e1-backoff.jpg



Back when I first worked on the Ecto-1A year ago, I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to "tint" the glass the way that they had it in the movies. For the life of me no matter what I tried wouldn't work. So I ended up just painting the inside of the glass black and said the hell with it. Well... now I've been thinking about it and started playing around with a few solutions. First up, I noticed that a couple of my older paint jars of silver had separated leaving a very clear liquid behind. So, my first attempt was draining off some of that clear "paint" and then tinting it with a drop or two of blue (for the light bars). I tested it out on a clear box I had and it works but is a bit cloudy... I think it has some kind of property to interact with the silver paint because it came out kinda blue/grey. So, next attempt. I thought about it a little more and got out some of my Future floor wax and added a few drops of blue from a printer ink refill kit I had. And whaddya know... it works! It starts out being very faded but as you coat it, it gets darker and darker. And when it dries compleely is completely transluscent.


e1-transtest.jpg



You can see the difference in the paints, but each one is translucent! YUREKA! Another problem solved!


e1-lbpaint.jpg



I still have to add a couple more coats to the light bars but they are gonna look sweeeeeeeeeeeet! :) More to come!
 
Nice bit of planning on this. I am sure you will manage to get it all done up right.
 
Grendels said:
Nice bit of planning on this. I am sure you will manage to get it all done up right.
I always like to make a game plan before I tackle a new project. Helps things go alot faster.
Quaralane said:
Nice work with the tinting there
Thanks guy... it'll come in handy for alot of different projects I've had in mind to use this new technique!
 
Really like what you did with the chrome, the light bars look good too. You are really going to town on this one, nice work.
 
Bummer about the light. :(

The chrome is looking nice; and the printer ink/future is an awesome idea! That is what I love about these threads, so many good ideas... thank you for sharing! :)
 
rookie said:
Really like what you did with the chrome, the light bars look good too. You are really going to town on this one, nice work.

Thanks guy... am getting there!

Les said:
Bummer about the light. :(

The chrome is looking nice; and the printer ink/future is an awesome idea! That is what I love about these threads, so many good ideas... thank you for sharing! :)

It happens... I can probably scratch build the light. It's an old trick I learned back in the day. Give chrome a black wash and everything is right in the world! LOL Hey you're welcome for the ink/future tip... I'm just glad I was able to come up with it... been racking my brain for years trying to figure it out and am so glad it worked. Will save a buttload on buying fancy transparent paints! :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top