First Foam Armor - Scale Armor?

[Phasferous]

So I am having trouble finding out if I need to scale the print outs or not before using them. I am following the information on this thread:
[FOAM] [GUIDE] List of Options for Supplies, Tools, and Methods Used for Foam Builds

But there's so much information that I am having a hard time seeing if I can find anything about needing to scale the designs in Pepakura or not prior to printing them off. I am about 6'2", which is probably pretty tall compared to the average height of a cosplayer who has made a Halo foam armor set.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Cadet]

One thing I always did when getting ready to print a pep file is to look at the measurements displayed in Pep and compare that to what I need it to be in real life. When you go into the "2-D Menu" to "Change Scale" to "Set Scale" you will see the measurements of the file displayed for the height, the width, and the depth. It should default to millimeters. If I was doing, say, a forearm, I would look at the "Height" measurement since in reality as the longest measurement, that will be the total length of the forearm. I would then look at my forearm and see about how long both my forearm is, and how much I would want that piece covering it, then I would compare the two and adjust the measurement in Pep accordingly. When you do this, Pep does give you a "Scale Factor" and theoretically if all the files were made by the same person with the same default parameters, you should be able to just go and plug that scale factor into all the parts for that set. I was extra cautious, so I would manually check and compare the measurements for each and every piece.

 

[Phasferous]

One thing I always did when getting ready to print a pep file is to look at the measurements displayed in Pep and compare that to what I need it to be in real life. When you go into the "2-D Menu" to "Change Scale" to "Set Scale" you will see the measurements of the file displayed for the height, the width, and the depth. It should default to millimeters. If I was doing, say, a forearm, I would look at the "Height" measurement since in reality as the longest measurement, that will be the total length of the forearm. I would then look at my forearm and see about how long both my forearm is, and how much I would want that piece covering it, then I would compare the two and adjust the measurement in Pep accordingly. When you do this, Pep does give you a "Scale Factor" and theoretically if all the files were made by the same person with the same default parameters, you should be able to just go and plug that scale factor into all the parts for that set. I was extra cautious, so I would manually check and compare the measurements for each and every piece.

View attachment 266942

Thanks for the great info!

Best way you can commend figuring out those measurements?

 

[Cadet]

For the actual measuring on my body I just used a ruler/yard stick or cloth tape measure.

For which measurement of the armor part kind of took priority and was the one I looked at and adjusted, It honestly varies from piece to piece. The Height of a piece was typically the measurement that I went with the most. It often times tended to be that the width or even the depth of the piece could be adjust by adding or removing some material after the part was assembled, without losing detail or the look of the piece, or adding padding to the inside of the piece, but if a piece was too short or too tall, it immediately stood out and was harder to adjust/hide once the part was finished.

As for which of the measurements in the Pepakura menu correlated to Height, Width, and Depth? Once again, it varied from piece to piece, and honestly, I would always just kind of look at the part, compare the measurements and see what made sense I would find the biggest measurement listed in the Pep menu and then just see look at the model and be like "Oh, this piece of the model is the longest, so, the biggest measurement in the Pep menu must correspond to that."

 

[Phasferous]

Thanks for the great advise. I do appreciate it. This is my first foam armor build and because there's only one single place in my city that sells EVA foam, it's been a nightmare to find a local supplier in hopes to remove shipping costs.

I am going for the Halo 3 ODST armor set. Since I dunno but Spartan are overdone and more atypical soldiers seem more respectable to me. Might to a Marine armor set later on. Biggest issue with the ODST suit is the more complext visor piece, since it's just not a flat piece like the Mark 5/6 Spartan Armor.

 

[Cadet]

Thanks for the great advise. I do appreciate it. This is my first foam armor build and because there's only one single place in my city that sells EVA foam, it's been a nightmare to find a local supplier in hopes to remove shipping costs.

I am going for the Halo 3 ODST armor set. Since I dunno but Spartan are overdone and more atypical soldiers seem more respectable to me. Might to a Marine armor set later on. Biggest issue with the ODST suit is the more complext visor piece, since it's just not a flat piece like the Mark 5/6 Spartan Armor.

There are several vendors that sell just the ODST visor by itself and we can recommend some reputable ones if you are interested in that route.

 

[Phasferous]

There are several vendors that sell just the ODST visor by itself and we can recommend some reputable ones if you are interested in that route.

Sure! That would be helpful for sure. Since I don't have the know how or correct ways to create one myself.

 

[he4thbar]

Sure! That would be helpful for sure. Since I don't have the know how or correct ways to create one myself.

If you want to make your own visor for cheap this is usually the suggestion($20-$25): Flexible Metallic Visor material
you can cut out a template with that metallic sheets and it can still look decent from what i've seen on here. There's also a hex pattern available if you search for it.

otherwise if you search odst visor on etsy there are really only 2 options for vacformed visors, about the same price( $45-$65 for vacformed bought)

 

[Phasferous]

If you want to make your own visor for cheap this is usually the suggestion($20-$25): Flexible Metallic Visor material
you can cut out a template with that metallic sheets and it can still look decent from what i've seen on here. There's also a hex pattern available if you search for it.

otherwise if you search odst visor on etsy there are really only 2 options for vacformed visors, about the same price( $45-$65 for vacformed bought)

I'd have to own a toaster over that I don't plan on using ever again, which i don't. Or at least that's what this thread said about making your own visor:
Complex Form Visors Done Cheap

 

[TurboCharizard]

I'd have to own a toaster over that I don't plan on using ever again, which i don't. Or at least that's what this thread said about making your own visor:
Complex Form Visors Done Cheap

You can get by without an oven, it just makes heating more even and consistent. If you have a lot of patience you can do it with a heatgun but warping and distortion will be a problem.

My first ODST visor was a sheet of acrylic that I shaped using household objects and a heatgun, it wasn't safe or very fun but it worked well enough.

 

[PaiganBoi]

If you want to make your own visor for cheap this is usually the suggestion($20-$25): Flexible Metallic Visor material
you can cut out a template with that metallic sheets and it can still look decent from what i've seen on here.QUOTE]

This is the material I used to make my ODST Visor.
I made my own template.

I think it turned out okay.

 

[Phasferous]

Think you quoted that a bit wrong, but I think I can see what you did in the images you added.

 

[PaiganBoi]

Think you quoted that a bit wrong, but I think I can see what you did in the images you added.

Yeah.... That was an oopsie... I blame my phone.

 

[Phasferous]

Is there a recommended place to get foam pep files? I am using the ones found here: Halo 3: ODST - UNSC ODST

But there seem to be a lot of small pieces that are going to be a pain to cut out into Foam. Any alternatives that can be suggested? I've already cut out most of the templates for the forearm armor piece. I am linking to a image showing just how small the pieces seem to be setup as. So hoping there's a batter alternative to the files I linked to.
20190306_220313_HDR.jpg

 

[PaiganBoi]

Is there a recommended place to get foam pep files? I am using the ones found here: Halo 3: ODST - UNSC ODST

But there seem to be a lot of small pieces that are going to be a pain to cut out into Foam. Any alternatives that can be suggested? I've already cut out most of the templates for the forearm armor piece. I am linking to a image showing just how small the pieces seem to be setup as. So hoping there's a batter alternative to the files I linked to.
20190306_220313_HDR.jpg

These are the same files I used for my build. For the tiny bits I ended up using 6mm foam. Especially on the helmet. Small bits and 10mm foam is not a good combo.

 

[Sean Anwalt]

I use foamies that come in paper- size sheets and are very very thin. They're like, pennies on the dollar, so you can get a lot quite cheap. Check out the craft section of walmart.