New to creating armor and could use tips

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lariveem12

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Heyo, so I've never created halo armor before and I'm planning on making it with pepakura. I've never used pepakura before and I’m going to try and make some armor for an rvb cosplay I plan on doing, but nobody close to me has done it before so I don't really have a clue on how to start. I've completely scoured the internet and this site for videos and tutorials and tips etc. But none of them are helpful enough, and/or don't cover everything such as if you have a low budget or where to find materials etc. If anybody has any tips or wouldn't mind creating a survival guide of sorts that would be extremely helpful. Heck I don't even mind skyping. I can use all the help I can get. Like for example, I've downloaded the viewer and several blueprints to print out, but I don't have a clue on where to start converting the dimensions to my way smaller frame? Same goes for putting it all together and painting and how I should attach to my body and so on and so forth. I'm sorry if I'm being a nuisance or an incompetent newbie or anything but I'm completely clueless on this subject and could really use some help.
 
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But none of them are helpful enough, and/or don't cover everything such as if you have a low budget
I'll warn you that this sort of project is not suited for 'low' budgets. Most suits start at the $200 area for all the materials alone, before considering other expenses such as paint. Foam builds are viable, and can be produced to a reasonably high quality. Naturally, higher-quality 'solid' builds will cost you more - it all depends on how much you're willing to spend to get the results you want.
or where to find materials etc.
This is something people can only vaguely help with. Without knowing your local area and how your opportunities for travelling are, the help people can give you is fairly limited and generally will be along the lines of either 'Walmart/Home Depot/Jo-Ann' without suggesting online dealers for common costuming materials.
I don't have a clue on where to start converting the dimensions to my way smaller frame?
Pepakura Viewer is a poor tool for scaling costume pieces and lacks some features that have become essential to people using it as a tool to develop their costumes. It's a decent stopgap, but I would highly recommend purchasing Pepakura Designer 3.0 or finding somebody willing to help you out in that regard, so that you can take advantage of Pepakura Designer 3's 'Measure Distance Between Two Points' tool to help you more accurately scale pieces without wastage.

Regardless, the basic advice would always be as follows: select a common point on your model and scale accordingly - for something like a handplate, it's as simple as measuring across your hand and then inputting that value into Pepakura. For something a little more complex, such as a torso piece, I'd suggest an estimation based on measurements taken from your body. There's a degree of trial and error involved, certainly, but taking measurements and referencing these to your model will help reduce the number of 'failed' sizing attempts.
Same goes for putting it all together and painting and how I should attach to my body and so on and so forth.
There are as many different ways to mount and paint your armour as there are opinions on the subject. Some people prefer to create their own rigging system, others mount their pieces to existing systems such as military webbing. Some prefer to hand-paint their work, others use an airbrush. Do some browsing, there are some decent threads out there that might help - otherwise, I would refer you to Google for generic tutorials from other costuming sites (The RPF/501st/Obscurus Crusade). There's a wealth of information out there.
I'm sorry if I'm being a nuisance or an incompetent newbie or anything but I'm completely clueless on this subject and could really use some help.

Relax. We all start somewhere, don't be embarrassed about asking. Get your knowledge before starting, then measure twice, cut once, as they say.
 
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Chernobyl, this was really helpful and I don't really exactly know how to say thank you. Like your suggestion, I just downloaded the pepakura designer and when I have the time I'm going to measure and do all that assumed complicated converting process. As for everything else, those will come sooner or later along the lines as the process of planning and putting this thing together happen. Once again, I can't even begin to say how much this helped and thank you so I'm just going to keep it short and sweet like me. Thank You!!!
 
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The very first thing you need to do is learn the Pepakura program. Get Pepakura Desingner V.3. "free version" to start. The benefit of purchasing Designer for $35 is you get to save your files after you modify them. I wasted countless hours by having to continuously modify files after I closed the program because I wasn't able to save. But that is a small investment for the future. After you get used to the program find a small file like a knee guard, hand plate or a small attachment to build.


Items you will need to start:

CARDSTOCK PAPER.

you can pick this up at Walmart for $5 for 150 sheets. Its 110lbs paper and the package is yellow.

COMPUTER AND PRINTER.

You probably have this already.

ANY TYPE OF GLUE, (HOT GLUE GUN RECOMMANDED)

$10 For the glue gun and glue sticks

EXACTO KNIFE & CUTTING BOARD

$15 MAX

Getting used to the process is the most costly lesson you learn with this kind of project. For now you will just learn the program and work on small simple stuff to get used to cutting out, folding gluing together the pieces.
 
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