Another Blasted New Guy?!?!

[Sean Anwalt]

I am a new guy to pepakura. I have made projects similar to this a plethora of times before, but have limited, if any, expertise on these particular files and what not. Intend to make a marine suit, Mk V, and a MK VI, So here's my sad long list of questions, most all of which are probably answered somewhere else, but for 2 months, I still can't figure some things out. So while those of you who are experienced slap your foreheads and cry, here we go:



Question 1) Got Pepakura designer 3 and all that crap. All the examples are given in designer 2, which varies slightly. made a Mk V chest piece to test this out, and it was WAY small, without re-sizing. How do I make the pieces real-size, so I can shrink them?



Question 2) How do I shrink them. (Found a handy formula a while ago I think from Frizzlefry or someone, will work with that unless instructed otherwise.)



Question 3) Is there any possible way to not have to use aqua resin? If so, what, and where can I get it? If not, where can I get aqua resin that's not online?



Question # next) Making an MA5 while waiting to further the suit-age, how can I reinforce the thing so it will withstand my stresses? (going to be installing paintball/airsoft equipment inside, just for neighborhood bragging rights.)





Thank you ahead of time for your corroboration in this madness. Like I say, Most of these things are already answered somewhere, I'm just to stupid to find the blasted things. Also, if anyone anywhere has any crazy cool ways of getting some sweet fx into an MA5, like ammo counter, exchangeable magazine, operable bolt, etc... that info would be awesomesweetcool as well.

Thanks much!

 

[MW Immortalking]

When you have the model open in Pepakura designer go to the 2D Menu and press the change scale button. Then you can change one of the numbers to whatever measure you're using. It does everything in scale aspect so you cant change only one dimension.



All I can say as to how to scale them is read the stickies and try it for yourself. I ended up rebuilding one of my shoulders because the first one was too small.



If you really cant use normal resin then yes there is aqua resin but as to where you can get it that isn't online that's up to you to find. Unless someone happens to live near you on these forums and know where to get aqua resin which I think is unlikely. The aquaresin site has a list of distributors by state http://www.aquaresin.com/distributors.html so you can try that. But like most people will tell you, If you really want aqua resin you're most likely going to have to order online.

Other than Aqua resin there's Normal resin, Hot glue method, and cardboard.





As for paintball I think there're rules against doing paintball stuff on these forums as it's commonly agreed that fiberglass + Paintball = injuries. The same can be true for Airsofting as well. But as for reinforcing it, Because you're trying to put things inside it I'd say you need to look at casting resin, but that stuff is expensive. You can make weapon props from cardboard but they tend to have less interior space if any.



My advice just read around especially the stickies.

Good luck

 

[Apocalypse]

Hey man, welcome to the forums!



I'm going to try my best to answer your questions, although someone will probably fill in the holes tomorrow. Here goes:



1A. If you go into the "2D Menu" up at the top of Pep Designer 3, you will see a menu option called "Scale Factor" and when you mouse over you have the option to enter the scale in manually. So far the pieces I've scaled are 2 helmets and a glove, but I just took a ruler, and measure out each dimension of my body, instead of using the formula. I also did a little eyeballing. Had I just stuck with the ruler measurements I would have been perfect, but as is they are both a little tight. You really only need the largest of the Width/Height/Depth dimensions, and just enter it in to the right field, and it will figure the rest out for you.



2A. It took me a bit to realize that the scaling is in mm(Millimeters) and dividing by 10 gives you cm for the numbers, which are on rulers and meter tapes/sticks, etc. I also think that the formula is limited to certain pieces, as not all the files are made by one person. I am not positive, I havent been to the thread in a while, it could just be miss-remembering. But I would recommend measuring the area your pepping for just to get a rough sense of how big it should be.



3A. Like MW Immortalking said, making >Armor< for paintball/airsoft is against the rules, as long as its just for bragging rights, I dont think a functional Airsoft MA5 is against the rules, although probably discouraged(Correct me if I'm wrong on this please!). I believe that the steps for making weapons are to first pep the model(or create a wood/clay version, or use a 3D printer). Assuming that you will pep it, you will need to then resin the outside a couple of times. Then a method for plain weapon molds I believe Ben Streeper mentioned, is to find a perfectly flat surface on the gun, cut a 2in or so hole in it, and use a method called Mud Glassing with Rondo(fiberglass resin + bondo). He mentions it here(http://405th.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24413), near page 3-4 in his series with Lee Kegan I believe. After you could probably put a thin layer of bondo and do detailing, and then at some point cast it maybe, and use a casted version with a clean interior, and load in whatever you can SAFELY. Although, now that I think about it, a cast probably wouldnt be strong enough to endure much. Anyways, I could honestly talk theory craft about this for a couple pages, if you want to know more of my thoughts on this, I'd be happy to share them in a PM, long story short, it wont be as easy as you probably hoped



Looking forward to hearing from ya!



Hope this helps,

-Apoc

 

[Michalanthropos]

Great, just what we needed. Another one>>. Nah, just kidding! Welcome.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

So am I correct in assuming that the final project outside will be paper covered with resin and painted? Or is there more to it than that?

 

[Boba Fett]

resin, then bondo can be used to smooth out the surface (resin can dry with slight waves and lumps. Plus, crap can get in it, and make it weird. Bondo takes care of it, just apply and sand away.)

 

[Apocalypse]

I dont know how well paint sticks to resin, but really I think you can stop and paint at any point. Generally what is done is:



Cardstock -> Fiberglass Resin -> Fiberglass Resin + Fiberglass Matte/Cloth(This is to strengthen from the inside) -> Bondo (This is to smooth the outside, further reinforce, and allow you to detail and give the paint something to stick to) -> Paint



Alternatively you can choose to use the Mudglassing method with Rondo that I mentioned instead of the Fiberglass Resin + Fiberglass Matte/Cloth.



I would recommend that you do more than just resin and paint though, just by itself resined paper isnt very strong and we wouldnt want it to break on your head, or elsewhere.



You may also get yelled at for double posting



Hope this helped!

-Apoc