basic foam tutorial

[DBmike]

Your tutorials, both yours and Dracks are amazing!

I've been avoiding the Halo costuming community with a knife in my heart because I will never go near the pep/fiberglass/rhondo/bondo method again! It created a beautiful set of armour, but one I am glad is finished. I didn't care for the "journey" at all. Now, I can finally start on Halo armour thanks to you guys!

I have one question for you specifically, that I felt the whole community could maybe benefit from. I saw your foam helmets and after looking at models for foam they're obviously "simpler" than pepakura models made for the traditional method. Do you just adjust the models as you go or did you find specific files?

I ask because sometimes having too much information can be as bad as having not enough. My ODST helmet files are pre-foam revolution. Just wondering how you would go about it because you have some of the best foam helmets.

Keep up the awesome work

MSgt

Thanks buddy, after doing a fair bit of searching there isn't really a lot of foam templates for halo gear but theres a ton of it for Ironman! so all my stuff that i've used templates for i've had to modify the file myself to work for foam.
It takes some patience to sit in pep designer and go through the entire file, loosing all the small fiddly bits that are irrelevant to foam work and there is the aspect of "will i need that or should I just loose it?" over time as you get better with foam you'll notice an ability to just look at a model and think yep I know what needs doing; but if you don't feel confident just scale the file to the right size print everything and start building you'll soon realise what you don't need. That way when yu come back to doing another build from pep files you'll know what your looking for in terms of usable parts for foam.

one other thing I do is just keep the files for one side e.g. a helmet is symmetrical (same on both sides) so draw a line down the middle and loose all the templates for the right half say and thn just work with what you have left for the left side. Its another trick to help cut down on ink and paper use. But also make what your looking at a lot easier.
If I had the patience I'd start a halo foam database but it just takes so long to do.

Hope that answers the question for you.
mike

 

[drack]

Your tutorials, both yours and Dracks are amazing!

I've been avoiding the Halo costuming community with a knife in my heart because I will never go near the pep/fiberglass/rhondo/bondo method again! It created a beautiful set of armour, but one I am glad is finished. I didn't care for the "journey" at all. Now, I can finally start on Halo armour thanks to you guys!

I have one question for you specifically, that I felt the whole community could maybe benefit from. I saw your foam helmets and after looking at models for foam they're obviously "simpler" than pepakura models made for the traditional method. Do you just adjust the models as you go or did you find specific files?

I ask because sometimes having too much information can be as bad as having not enough. My ODST helmet files are pre-foam revolution. Just wondering how you would go about it because you have some of the best foam helmets.

Keep up the awesome work

MSgt

I think I can say for both of us that we modified the pep to suit for foam. It's not that complicated really, turn off tabs and a bit of customisation on some of the templates for rounded pieces but as there aren't many on the helmet so it's fairly straight forward. That's a link to a nice tutorial at the start of my Ironman build by Xrobots on how to mod pep templates for foam for those rounded pieces.

 

[Ghost01]

One of the major advantages I've found when working with foam is that you can bypass a lot of extra cuts to accomplish your pieces. Take a look at my first attempt at the thigh:

You can see that the pep file (modified for foam) has several pieces which comprise the bulk of the piece. Honestly, you just don't need all those pieces here. What I ended up doing was taking that entire taped together mess and tracing the outline onto a new piece of foam and using the heat gun to form the curves. In the end it makes a smoother piece with fewer seams and less glue. As you get more familiar and comfortable with foam, you will learn where you can skip several pieces in lieu of one large piece.

Awesome video tutorials DBmike! I wish I knew about avoiding the spray version of Plasti Dip before I painted the chest. Though, honestly, I'm seriously considering a major overhaul of the chest since I've learned so much about foam.

 

[MSgt N161]

Wow,

I received help by DBMike, Drack and Ghost01! Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate it. I saw XRobot's tutorials, I'm actually thinking of doing his glue primer for shiny hard plastic http://www.xrobots.co.uk/coating/ for the helmet, chestpiece, shoulders, gaunts, knees and vambraces on my ODST to further separate "hardplate" from "soft flak armour."

For working on the pep files :$ umm...
I know zip about tech based art and programming. I downloaded the viewer and even that took a bit to get used to. So I'll just work on them the old fashioned way. Ghost01, I had a funny feeling experience was the key. Unfortunately I can't get started on my own kit yet, real life being in the way for just one week longer! I've been chomping at the bit so to speak since I first saw Ghost01's build a month ago.

Also, I've been lurking ALOT. Gotta say, these tutorials (Dracks and DBMikes) have been the best thing I've seen for foam. I vote they're both stickied. I was just lucky to find them in your signatures, on Ghost01's WIP.

 

[babylonstew]

Not sure if has been answered allready, but can you sand the plasti dip?, to help get rid of brush marks?
and, nice vids, all your work has been very helpfull and made me decide my first suit willbe foam :d

 

[DBmike]

Also, I've been lurking ALOT. Gotta say, these tutorials (Dracks and DBMikes) have been the best thing I've seen for foam. I vote they're both stickied. I was just lucky to find them in your signatures, on Ghost01's WIP.

Thanks, always happy to help out

 

[DBmike]

Not sure if has been answered allready, but can you sand the plasti dip?, to help get rid of brush marks?
and, nice vids, all your work has been very helpfull and made me decide my first suit willbe foam :d

Glad you found them useful. To answer your question, no you can't sand it as its a rubber type paintable substance.
To avoid brush marks the best solution is to use two coats of spray paint. The first to fill the micro dips from the bristles on the brush and the second for a nice finish. Just be sure to use a lacour afterwards.
Sadly if you paint with acrylic then your going to inevitably end up with some brush marks unless you maybe use some super soft artists brushes maybe.

 

[socom]

Hi guys. Quick question on the foam building. I have already started a pepakura Master Chief...which I'm hapy with. Was thinking about doing some other armor pieces in foam. My question is this...are the pep files I have totally different for a foam build, is there alot of work to use them. Sorry two questions. Thanks for your help, Andrew.

 

[DemoDiver79]

Cheers, mate! I appreciate those videos - got me off to a good start!

 

[GREENSAPPH1RE]

Thank you so much for these videos!!!