Jorge Armor: WIP

[Dreadnaught]

A few update pics. Not much assembly, but I'm out of stuff to assemble until I get more stuff cut. That pep cutting printer machine is looking like a good investment already, just in time savings, alone...

Well, so far, at least, it's looking like I've been able to compensate for my very poor X-acto trimming skills. I think I need to re-read the way to "un-glue" the tabs without screwing stuff up. I've been lucky, so far. When I have to pull stuff apart, I go as slowly as I can. So far, I have yet to damage anything due to that.

So, here we go...

 

[Dreadnaught]

I guess I told a little white lie. There was more Pepakura goodness to be had before I just couldn't ignore the pillow's call anymore...

The red arrow is pointing to the first serious warp I've gotten. I'm going to think about whether it is worth trying to detach a half dozen flaps to fix, or if I should just go on and clean the warp up in the later stages.

I got another couple of sheets cut, but not folded yet. That'll change tomorrow, since I think I don't have anything planned at all, otherwise.

Dread

 

[0235]

i would say try to fix it now. every min you waste in this stage just gets multiplied throughout. though the rest of the peping seens really really good. i cant see and holes and the creases look nice. keep the good work up

 

[BLACKULA727]

The red arrow is pointing to the first serious warp I've gotten. I'm going to think about whether it is worth trying to detach a half dozen flaps to fix, or if I should just go on and clean the warp up in the later stages.

I would definitely try and fix the warp now. You’re at an early stage right now and this can be easily fixed. You don’t want to get to the face of the helmet and have to force stuff together and cause the model to bow out/in weird anywhere.
Good luck with your build.

 

[Brandon McClain]

Looking good so far. I seem to recognize that unfold... I really wouldn't worry about the warp. It doesn't look too serious and because it is a curved surface you are going to have to spend some time sandin and doing bondo anyway. So that should fix it pretty easy. And you don't know how the stability of the rest of the helmet being pepper will alter the warp, so I would keep it. As far as fixing tabs, if you are using hot glue, run the hot tip of your glue gun over the tab until it starts to delaminate then just pull apart the tab or slide it until it is where you want it.

 

[cory045]

its looking like a good start keep up the good work

 

[hellphoenix36]

when i did my first pep, what I did when cutting out my pieces was grab a cutting board. Then, whenever i made a cut, I pushed the blade all the way through the paper, then made the cut. The resulting cuts were all really clean, and I didn't have any problems with them. You might wanna try that.

 

[ventrue]

when i did my first pep, what I did when cutting out my pieces was grab a cutting board. Then, whenever i made a cut, I pushed the blade all the way through the paper, then made the cut. The resulting cuts were all really clean, and I didn't have any problems with them. You might wanna try that.

That's a good tip, I'm doing it that way as well.

However, try not to push down too hard, because that'll make the cut harder and wear out both your cutting mat and blade really quickly. You have to find the right balance here.

 

[hellphoenix36]

Yes, I totally agree ventrue. I probably should have included that in my previous post as well You want to push through enough to go all the way through the paper, but not so much that you'll damage your cutting board and blade at the same time, which isn't that much force. At first i tried cutting through it like I would cut an orange peel, I guess, not going all the way through, which caused really ugly edges in my peps. Wasn't until later that I realized that was my best bet

 

[Dreadnaught]

Thanks, guys...

I use a self healing cutting mat Gale Force 9. I keep meaning to get a steel ruler to guide my cuts and scoring when I'm in town, but keep forgetting.

Brandon McClain, you said you recongnize the Pep? Did ForgedReclaimer do the graphic or the unfold, or both? His is the only name I see on the file I have on my system. I want to be sure I give credit where it is due.

I'm going to work on the sides a bit tonight, and maybe get around to the chin. I'll think about the warp and whether or not it's bad enough to worry about.

Thanks again,

Dread

 

[hellphoenix36]

you probably should get rid of the warp by fixing it now... pushing it off until later can make the problem worse than it is.

 

[ventrue]

I use a self healing cutting mat Gale Force 9. I keep meaning to get a steel ruler to guide my cuts and scoring when I'm in town, but keep forgetting.

I'm generally a fan of metal rulers because they don't wear out quite as fast, but I wouldn't use one for cutting. It'll damage the blade. Try to keep your wrist still, move your whole arm and pull the blade through the paper parallel to your forearm. That should give you straight cuts.

 

[hellphoenix36]

well... ralphs actually sells aluminum rulers for really cheap, and as long as as you don't literally press the blade against the ruler, and rather use it as a guidline, it should work fine. But dread, it might be better to listen to ventrue over me, he's had more experience

 

[Dreadnaught]

Any and all advice is welcome, Hellphoenix. I admit that I do rank it by experience, but I do take it into account. Besides, who's to say some noob won't come up with a revolutionary meathod to do a process on here? I'm sure stranger things have happened.

As far as using the ruler to cut, there's enough of a taper to the cutting edge of the X-acto blade that it won't hit the ruler if you're doing a straight cut. If your angle is off a bit, then yeah, you'll end up harvesting more blades at your local hobby shop. But, cutting aside, I meant that I wanted to use it for my scoring. I found an old status pencil that has a nice, smooth metal tip that isn't too sharp. It works pretty well for scoring in the lines.

More update pics will be posted tonight. By the way... I don't recommend the Jorge helmet for the faint of heart. The ear pieces have already had me swinging back and forth from cussing like a sailor to crying like hungry, angry baby...

One major piece of advice for the Jorge build Helmet MkII I'm doing... When it comes to the ears of the helmet, do the circular pieces as a unit before you assemble them to the rest of the helmet. The piece that is the pocket just gets in the way if you don't put it in last.

 

[hellphoenix36]

good to know. But, if you wanna see a file that REALLY isn't for the faint of heart, take a look at the HD ODST helmet from Halo 3 some time xD that thing is a monster. Kudos to whoever modeled it, because I can't remember for the life of me. If I remember, it's about 20 pages. Average for a helmet, i guess, but the sheer detail and the small size of most of the pieces makes it intimidating to glue together and fold (at least in my opinion)

 

[rancor1]

Keep up the good work dude. as for the warp fix it now just like the rest said. bondo may not be able to fix it in the future.

 

[Dreadnaught]

Here's tonight's progress. The side of this helmet is a stone pain in the butt. I did learn a couple of very valuable assembly order lessons, though.

Assemble the small parts in a unit and then add the unit to the helmet. While doing that, always leave the ear and cheek boxes till last. They only get in the way of the rest of the side build.

Evil, evil, evil boxes...

 

[hellphoenix36]

this is looking really, really good. Keep up the awesome work

 

[Dreadnaught]

Thanks, man... I'm surprised it looks as good as it does in the pictures. To me, it looks pretty crappy. But then again, I know where all the places are that I've screwed up and not gotten everything aligned just right.

I'll try to get the other side and part of the chin done tonight...

 

[0235]

still on the subject of rules, try to get one like this...

they are far more rigid, and you can sometimes get ones that have rubber grips underneath, specificaly for paper, though metal ones do ruin the blade, but you do eventualy get VERRY good without a rule, the guard can even prtect you from a slipping blade.

ooh. nice shell to prop up the pep
oh and NEVER cut towards you. i still have a scar from cutting towards me from last year!