I am a Ghostbuster!

Here's me in my home in the Hollywood Hills. Not really. I'm in the Chemosphere set at Current TV.

So here's where it all started. A bucket of junk, used laser-printer parts, some sort of pie tin (with removal base!) and some little chalk board thingies that are pretty sturdy particle board.

2 layers of those chalk board things proved to be a nice backboard that I could shape by sawing.

The siding of this part is just cardboard. It's pretty sturdy but I'm afraid of it ever getting wet.

Misc stuff. Part of packing egg-crate type stuff, bits of broom handle, an index card box. I made that black piece in the upper left out of plastic from a silverware tray thingy.

That blue area was cut from a plastic serving tray, and it has washers and reflectors on it. I've added some cans.

This is the inside of the "cyclotron". I lined it with foil so the LEDs would light up well and shine through the red reflectors evenly.

Here's the batteries. It's a lot of power for a handfull of LEDs but it was an easy way to get 12 volts ready to go. I made brackets so that you could easily pop the batteries in and out but still be secure while attached.

Misc part. That's all.

I was happy with how I was able to modify this file card box. Those gray strips are window insulation. I thought it was clever until I realized that the foam didn't react well with the spray paint later. They are still sticky to this day.

This tomato sauce can was great! I tried to make every part very secure, like on this one you can see there is a giant bolt going through the can and that elbow is screwed onto it. And this can (and all parts) and bolted to the backboard. I only used glue when I had no other way.

This is where the "cyclotron" will sit. You can see the bundle of 8 LEDs in the center. (I cut that rectangular hole much earlier when I had no idea what sort of lights would be going in.

Here's my work area. I basically sat in this position for weeks on end. It was getting quite uncomfortable. If only I had a garage...

This was tricky. I ended up making this out of wires I stripped out of a much smaller ribbon cable, and a few phone wires. I was trying to match it to a photo taken of the actual movie prop (like everything else, but I was especially particular about this part.)

I used vinyl tubing and just painted them the correct colors. This works but I would've loved to find a place that sold the colored tubing.

Then I moved on to the gun/wand. I was running out of time until my first Halloween party so I was much less exact with the design of this.

And I mean non-stop.

Radioshack was out of white LEDs so I had to go with those incandescent bulbs. These all run of the same batteries as the pack, and have a separate on/off switch.

And here it is! Well almost, this is even before a few more tiny additions.

I made all of the stickers and warning labels from scratch, based off of accurate images of the real ones.

I'm ready to bust ghosts! I found the exact flight suit and arm pack/frame at a surplus store online. And I was even able to get my name badge custom embroidered! I dyed the elbow pads and pistol belt gray. And those are $1 rubber chemical gloves.

I think I'll be wearing this costume for many Halloweens to come. And maybe sometimes just out and about for fun.

Ghostbustin' Dustin hit the hottest parties in tinsel town! Everyone was there! Even this jackass----->

In my experience, a quick raid of my favorite science surplus store nicely augments crafts like these.

Gorgeous proton pack!