DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Seeing Ghostbusters: Afterlife - a worthy sequel to the original 80s classics even if more serious in tone - led me to take a break from my concepts for zip tie track and build my only new road vehicle for this year; one that has been on my itinerary from the start, along with other famous machines like it.



My (current) rendition of the Ecto-1 was originally built for the smoothened cardboard wheels I made earlier, so I could repaint the rims white and make only the hubcaps silver. However, their (still rough) finish caused too much friction at the front and I only kept the rear ones so I could have them on a shorter axle behind the side panels. Unlike the previous chassis designs, which were all-cardboard save for paper roll bearings, this one has the bearings on a wooden skewer to prevent the long chassis from bending. Only the floor and bumpers are still cardboard, and additional wooden supports were made to hold up the sides.



All eight headlight and front indicator casings were made from aluminium tubes and crammed into the small space I "had" to work with. Many corners had to be superglued due to how fragile it is. A round edge from another tealight casing was glued under the headlights. Part of the front bumper was folded up to recess the licence plate. Part of why I wanted to use custom wheelsets was to make the whole thing wider than this and avoid the mistake I made with the Routemaster bus. There will likely be a second, wider version like I wanted this one to be.



Since the Ecto-1 is an emergency vehicle, I have two similar (but differently shaped) PCBs that allow LEDs or other lights to flash or stay solid, which I've kept for the day I might put them on a level crossing. Until now, only three locomotives and a signal have had actual lights in them. I previously dyed these blue LEDs with a blue marker in case I'd build such a vehicle and use the (exposed) lights as the lenses, which looks quite good at this scale. Both PCBs were originally from string lights powered by 2x/3x AA battery packs. The OG terminals have since been removed and replaced with wires for new ones.



Because of the electronic function, I prepared for the possibility of having to remove the roof to access the batteries and/or PCB. I marked four screw holes and drilled them out, but only ended up using two since it went wrong on the other side. What I knew for sure was the light bar would be made by soldering the anodes and cathodes to each other to form a single component. The windscreen and side/rear windows were made with my usual packing plastic technique.



And here's what I currently have yet to decide: there are several mounting options for the PCB and battery pack and they all sound good in theory, so I'm not sure which one will work best. The OG on/off switch will not be removed and should ideally be somewhere on the roof; either under the rack or between the screws. Both the board and the batteries could blend in with all the weird gadgets, though I would like to protect the board from dust, corrosion or other elements. The 3x LR44 pack could look like either a ghost trap or the white box with a fan that actually is on the roof, and the board even has a small ledge where the pack could be glued to it. Another option I have yet to explore is to mount the LR44 pack on the undercarriage and do it up as a ghost trap that could be seen through the windows.



To solder the LEDs to each other, I held them together on a skill stick (wooden sticks with notches) while ensuring their leads were on the right sides for it to work. I then glued a piece of a zip tie between them for insulation, making sure the superglue only touched the tips and not the leads or power cord. Although they flash simultaneously rather than alternating, it still looks cool and really helps bring it to life. I could also make more light bars like this in other colours like red, blue-red and orange/yellow (municipal, construction, etc.) and use JST/other connectors to make them interchangeable, or simply a white/incandescent one with removable lenses in those colours. The rear light bar will be a dummy, but the planned redesign will have both working.