Excited!

Status
Not open for further replies.

C8lyn

Jr Member
Hello everybody!

I'm new here and im looking forward to getting to know you!

I've often thought that having a suit of armour would be fun and for a long time I thought that I would have to buy one. Little did I know, there was this marvelous place with all the information and advice I need to make one of my own without breaking the bank. I've always loved arts and craft too so I think im going to have a lot of fun doing it!

I am very indecisive when it comes to my armour in the games and I change it often, so I decided for my project that I would save myself the headaches and go for the Chief's armour from Halo 4. I can always make more later! The biggest dilemma will be picking colours!

After seeking advice from a friend who has tried a bit of this before, I am starting with the legs and leaving the more complicated pieces for later. Currently cutting out the pieces for a shin and I'll probably have it assembled in a day. Will see how the scale is and go from there!

Any advice is appreciated :D
 
Welcome and get ready for a fun experience. I recently started myself and just finished pepping my helmet. Word of advise, when you get to the helmet, I suggest building from the top down. I learned this the hard way :D. Good luck.
 
As Darthdrow said its really fun to get into, there have been times where I've worked throughout the night, just remember when you tell yourself just one more piece it nearly never works out that way :p

Foam is probably the cheaper option compared to pepakura/resin methods, but it all depends what you want to do. I personally pep/resin helmets and the rest is done in foam.

Good luck and looking forward to see what comes of this! :)
 
As Darthdrow said its really fun to get into, there have been times where I've worked throughout the night, just remember when you tell yourself just one more piece it nearly never works out that way :p

Foam is probably the cheaper option compared to pepakura/resin methods, but it all depends what you want to do. I personally pep/resin helmets and the rest is done in foam.

Good luck and looking forward to see what comes of this! :)

One more piece is never enough. lol. I'm finding it quite relaxing, until i get to the little tiny fiddly bits. Need to find some tweezers for clamping.

Welcome and get ready for a fun experience. I recently started myself and just finished pepping my helmet. Word of advise, when you get to the helmet, I suggest building from the top down. I learned this the hard way :D. Good luck.

Makes sense with the helmet. I can imagine it would be tricky to put the top pieces together and have nothing to grab onto :p
 
My first piece was completely the wrong size. But I've tried another and it's turned out really well.

Gauntlet
20140318_162432.jpg

20140318_162312.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20140318_162432.jpg
    20140318_162432.jpg
    66.3 KB · Views: 281
  • 20140318_162312.jpg
    20140318_162312.jpg
    86.9 KB · Views: 303
That is one nice looking gauntlet you've got there! I can't offer much advice in this area but that sure looks good :)
 
thats some awesome pep work :D very clean, i could probably help find supplies in QLD spent a few years searching for it all myself :p if you have any questions just shoot us a pm
 
Progress so far that I've managed to scale properly.

Gauntlet, thigh, and bicep.

20140330_210301.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20140330_210301.jpg
    20140330_210301.jpg
    71.1 KB · Views: 252
IMO for the cleanest pep I pre-line each page prior to x-acto'ing it out. blue for mountain fold and red for valley. I find using this method the folds are PER-R-R-R-fect and I don't even use a ruler/straight edge for folding unless there are multiple little edges in one location as there often are on high def pieces. Otherwise, I use only my fingers.

Also, another pepping trick I've discovered on my own (possibly well known already) is while you're hot gluing start on the middle tab and make sure the numbers line up perfectly, and with the tabs immediately to it's left and right slipped up on the non-glue side; then glue each progressive tab, fidget around with it quickly and flip the next tab up to the non-glue side so the 'V' between each tab will line up each number perfectly.
That explanation is maybe slightly convoluted...it's hard to explain, but i find doing it that way every fold, corner and edge lines up perfectly.
 
Also, another pepping trick I've discovered on my own (possibly well known already) is while you're hot gluing start on the middle tab and make sure the numbers line up perfectly, and with the tabs immediately to it's left and right slipped up on the non-glue side; then glue each progressive tab, fidget around with it quickly and flip the next tab up to the non-glue side so the 'V' between each tab will line up each number perfectly.
That explanation is maybe slightly convoluted...it's hard to explain, but i find doing it that way every fold, corner and edge lines up perfectly.

I actually use this method when I pep haha. It really does align the edges of the two pieces quite precisely, although I don't use edge IDs.

Your peps look very nice and clean which will help tremendously down the road. Good luck on your build!
 
I haven't been here long and I've been MIA already!

Haven't done too much since my last post. Completed a shoulder plate. I've cut my other bicep and thigh and am folding at the moment.
Been going through a bit of crap, trying to find a job and a damn emotional crisis because im a crazy person.
Will put up a picture soon of all my completed pieces together.

Im also in the middle of making a magikarp cosplay outfit for a birthday party. Har har. I will post a picture of that when it's done too.
 
LOL it happens to all of us. Life gets in the way of fun all the time. Keep it up
 
Im loving your pep job:) Just so you know, the gauntlet you peped is the one from the preview of the game, not the final model. I ran into this problem in my build, and i decided that i was going to start over with the new one. :( Im trying to go for 100% game accurate(not exactly possible because the reference pics are all different:angry. But i wish you luck with your build, ope it goes well:)
 
Some pics of my pepped shin piece (the knee part is sitting inside)
20140414_231919.jpg

20140414_231932.jpg

And all pieces so far
20140414_232005.jpg




....and yes.. those are my ponies on the shelf above.
 

Attachments

  • 20140414_231919.jpg
    20140414_231919.jpg
    57.1 KB · Views: 316
  • 20140414_232005.jpg
    20140414_232005.jpg
    58.1 KB · Views: 310
  • 20140414_231932.jpg
    20140414_231932.jpg
    56.6 KB · Views: 311
Okie Dokie. So I've completed pepping the opposite sides of most of the pieces plus one boot. I have the other boot cut, but not folded yet.
I messed up the scaling on my opposite gauntlet so I have to redo that one.
Really looking forward to getting started on the chest on helmet soon. Just printed the cod piece and butt piece and I'm going shopping today to see what kind of resi, fiberglass and bondo supplies are around here.
There's so many great tutorials on youtube, I just hope it's as simple as it looks!

20140709_110756.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20140709_110756.jpg
    20140709_110756.jpg
    90.1 KB · Views: 275
Another fun trick I learned when pepping my armor:

When using a model that hasn't been pre-smoothed, especially one that's very angular, you can eliminate a lot of the unnecessary folds before you even print!

Open Pep Designer (the option isn't in Viewer), open your model, then go to 'Settings' -> 'Other Settings'. In the 'Line Styles' tab adjust the 'Threshold' to something like 160 - 165 degrees. You can even go a little lower if you have to.

This will get rid of lines that are between that number and 180, making your model instantly smoother! Also keep in mind that any tabs that land on one of these lines, or any tab that continues a flat surface doesn't need to be folded. That sounds like silly advice, but if you put that fold there, it will always end up leaving a small crease, and lead to a lot more work to make it a perfectly smooth surface.

Alternatively, if you don't want to pre-smooth it in Designer, you can always just pay attention to the 3D model and see where those lines are, and just skip folding them.

Trust me, this saves you a lot of headache later when trying to finish you armor. I didn't find this out until I was nearly done with my build. My helmet has a few extra pounds of Bondo on it from getting rid of the extra folds.

Hope this helps! Your pep work already looks really clean, keep it up!
 
Thanks for the tip :)
I probably won't go to the lengths of adjusting the pep files. As I've gone along I've adjusted my folding method so it's a softer edge by just laying lining up the fold line on top of a ruler and apply pressure along the edge with a folding tool so the crease is there but it's still fairly rigid.. if that makes any sense.. Might have to take a picture. Then i just fold it over harder when it needs to be a sharper/deeper edge.

I've left the larger pieces like the torso and helmet until last so I could be better at it by the time I got to them. I'll be pro by that stage ;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top