Things I wish I knew before starting

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Loggymonster

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Hey everyone. Been skulking around here for a long time stealing everyone else's great ideas and making some great armor and props from what I have learned.
I figure it is about time I start giving back to the community that got me going on this road that has become a huge passion of mine and go through some quick noob tips that would have saved me a lot of trouble If i had known them long long ago when I did my first HD Mk VI build... as my first ever prop... and then had to do it twice more because it was so bad. So here goes!

First thing I ever learned that you NEED to understand before you start is that this is going to be EXPENSIVE. I know, for myself anyway, this came as a huge shock. I thought I would be saving money doing this all myself. I saw a video on Youtube talking about how a full suit would only cost around $100. This, unless you are VERY crafty, is a lie. Especially if you don't do everything perfectly on your first try which is unlikely (It's ok to make mistakes!) Once you buy all the cardstock you need for peping, the brushes, the glue, the misc supplies, the resin, bondo, filler, extra hardener, fiberglass and paint, you could be spending a chunk of change you never expected to, just spread out over a build.

Secondly, your first suit is going to take a lot of time. Along with the monetary cost of building a full suit of armor from nothing is the price of your time. It could very easily take over a year to build and paint your first full suit of armor so deciding in October that you wanna be Master Chief by Halloween is going to be nearly impossible. Do NOT get discouraged! The time is worthwhile to spend on something you can be proud of and will most likely last a LONG time if done right!

These next tips are some things that would have saved me a lot of time if I had known them starting instead of having to figure them out on my own or search for the best ways to do things. These are not conclusive BEST OF THE BEST methods, but they are the little things that have significantly saved me time and energy!

Build something small/simple first. I made the grave mistake of choosing an HD model of a helmet as my first ever pep project and it ended abysmally. I was learning as I went on one of the most complicated and crucial parts of the entire build. I wish I would have started on a Forearm or something like that first, without all the crazy angles and difficult symmetry.

Use low deff, add detail later This is probably one of the most personal tips for me. I know many people would rather put the work into getting the pep just perfect and hardening that with all the detail they could want built in. I, however, have learned that dealing with less paper is sooooo much easier. My base, low definition pep becomes the base of the model to build upon. I find it is much easier to use small crafting tools and a dremel to carve out intricate detail into BONDO than it is to try to cut, fold , and glue carstock into tiny shapes. Any small circular divots in a piece like the lights of the helmets or divots in the MK VI's boots I simply leave flat and drill out later with a flat bit. It makes the pieces more to my likeing and in a way makes them feel more mine.

As pepping up a piece is still one of the most important parts of a build, I will leave for now with some pep tips that I wish someone had told me before I started.

Everyone should be aware of how to size their pieces properly. There are already a million guides so I wont go into detail, but one thing i will point out is that even (and sometimes especially) perfectly sized pieces wont fit. If a helmet is perfectly sized for your head, the hole meant for your neck will not fit your entire head through. In the same way a greave or forearm piece may have holes too small for your larger, bonier wrists and ankles to fit through. This is FINE! Pay attention primarily to the length of a piece and dimensions relative to your body. Most video game models are not human proportion so arms and legs might be a little wonky in length. You need to find strategic places to cut into your model so you can fit it on and look at the size in a mirror. Does it look cartoonishly huge? Try again now before you waste any more paper! Speaking of paper...

Use the thickest card stock you can get your printer to handle. 110lb+ paper is a must to hold shape and take hardening. Do not use the regular 25lb paper you stole from the office or the cheap 60lb "card stock" you can get at staples (They sell the 110lb stuff too, just not in pretty colors). Go heavy, and your life will be easier every step hereafter.

Label your pep pieces before printing! I can't tell you the accumulated HOURS I have lost playing "Match the numbers" searching around on pieces to find what tab goes to what line. Simply labeling the pieces keeps them organized, is a MUST for multi-part peps (3 piece boots) and the pieces usually have a sort of order to them so you end up flowing through your build. This means you are usually glueing smaller pieces together which is much easier than building multiple large chunks and then struggling to get your fingers around the pieces to glue.
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Change your fold lines to be consistent build to build and unique from eachother Some pep files have the same line pattern between mountain and valley folds or the lines will change from piece to piece. This makes it impossible to tell what folds go where easily in a build. Simply change your lines in Pep as you go through and re-size pieces for a build and save yourself hours of headache later. I use an alternating pattern for my mountains (2.0:0.5:1.0:0.5) and a repeating pattern for my valleys (0.5:0.5).
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Not all cuts are crucial When I started pepping I was painstakingly accurate on every single piece I cut out. Now i know there are some lines that need to be perfect, and some you can just hurry through. It doesn't matter if you are using scissors or an exacto, If the line you are cutting is going to be a glue tab, just blaze through it. If the line is a solid, numbered face that has to smoothly match something else, take your time and make it perfect. Shaving off this few seconds actually adds up to HOURS over the course of a full build and can keep you from getting burned out. (You can see in the pic below my tab cuts are not perfect on the line because they will be glued and hidden)
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Spend the time scoring, save the time folding/glueing I use some pieces of scrap box board (cereal box-like material) as a semi-soft surface to score lines into my folds. I use a blue and a black pen to separate my mountains and valley folds, a ruler to make sure the lines are absolutely straight, and press hard (just make sure you don't go THROUGH the paper). The result is a piece that easily folds perfectly along even the smallest or longest lines when I need to glue. I have tried a LOT of other methods of scoring (butter knife, folding on a straight edge, etc) and this is by far the best method I have found.
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Lastly for now, I will cover what I have learned about glue. All the different types of glueing I have tried have had pros and cons. I will go through them here, you can decide for yourself and I will give my personal opinions. The only big, universal thing I can say is put it on THIN. Any glue, you want as little as possible to fully cover your contact points.
Hot glue: By far my least favorite. It is hard to get a thin bead, burning your fingers over and over for an hour or more is never fun, and the stringy trailings get everywhere. A GOOD point about hot glue though is that it is extremely forgiving. Glue something a little off-kilter but didn't realize till the end? Melt the spot with the tip of the gun and re-position, no fuss. This was the method I used on the first helmet I went to full completion on.
Super Glue: Super, krazy, gorilla, whatever. This stuff is nice when you know what you are doing or are working with extremely small, finicky glue spots. For good and bad it is an INSTANT set. When brushed on it works best and you can get a nice clean line the first time and not have to hold pieces together till they set. Only problem is if you accidentally aren't perfect... you are screwed. It instantly adheres in the wrong position, or you end up ripping your piece apart as you prize your fingers off it.
Glue stick They set too slowly, and it is sometimes overly hard to get it on the paper without glueing half your finger along with it. I don't like glue sticka and have only used them half way through one pep.
Elmers Good old fashioned glue-all, white school glue. By far my favorite. Cheap and easy. You can usually slide your point of contact around to line it up perfectly before the glue sets to give you a little more wiggle room than super and a chance to pull apart and try again like hot glue. Only downside is sometimes it is hard to reach certain areas to keep pressure on a contact point until the glue sets so make sure, again, that it is on THIN so it sets fast. I use those cheapo little kids brushes. You can get a million for a nickel in any craft store or big chain store and the glue washes off to re-use them.

I was going to move on to later stages like resin and painting but I don't want this post to get too long winded. Maybe Part#2 and Part#3? Lets see if anyone finds this useful

Again thanks to the community!

Loggymonster
 

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Good post! I was wondering what guides (if any) you used that you recommend? If you have the time, can you post the link(s) here? I know guides are out there, but I am having trouble finding them. Thanks!
 
Yeah good info ill have to remember to label it in the pep files when I first printed it was easy to find the big parts then once you guys to the smaller parts or "lining" part they start looking all the same. I will say I do like Hot Glue the best granted burning yourself isn't fun and the mess isn't horrible. As you said with hot glue always melt the spot and reapply or shift it. The thing about the glue gun is getting a good one. I went to hobby lobby and they manage to have a precession glue gun " a smaller exit" which I was so happy I found because having a glue gun that spits out to much is a pain in the ass.
 
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