I would like to start off by saying this is my first pack that i have built. Powercell, crank generator, etc. is made from 1/2" plywood except for the attuentor which was made for styrene plastice. Thanks to Scott for the great vacummed foam spacer and to charles for the resin clippard.
Yes, the gun is a toy conversion. It is a decent one in my mind. I will work on getting a gun down the line. The pack is finally finished after 3 months. it looks great and there is no feeling quite like putting it on for the first time!
As for electronics...the powercell has a "scrolling" sequence but unforteuntly i could only get red LEDs. I soldered the circuit board in a basic electronics class in skol. The cyclotron lights up but does not rotate around. it was actually the head of a flashlight glued down onto the motherboard. And the gun tip lights, another flashlight head and is activated on the gun box. Cost: Powecell lights: $6 Cyclotron lights: $2.95 Gun lights: .99 Seeing it all work!: Priceless. The way the elctronics are designed is actually pretty clever. Instead of hiding the batteries inside the pack and takin apart the pack to change them. i drilled holes into my motherboard and ran the wires to battery packs i keep hidden away in the alice frame at the bottom. so i can change the batteries VERY easily. The powercell lights are hooked up to a switch on the side of the powercell. the cyclotron switch is on the side of the alice frame. the and the gun lights are on a switch which comes out of the gun box.

Total cost of pack, only $150!...