Hardest Pep Piece? Taking It Slow..

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Xander

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I was just reading and I didn't really see anyone post a thread regarding in which order would a noob consider tackling the pepping of his armor. I.E. Which piece would you start working on starting with the easiest, so your skill would build by the time you got to the hardest.



That being said, by the end of the night I will be done with everything but my chest and helmet. Any suggestions on which one is harder. The helmet or the chest? I was trying to save that for last so I had as much experience as possible before working on them.
 
Xander said:
I was just reading and I didn't really see anyone post a thread regarding in which order would a noob consider tackling the pepping of his armor. I.E. Which piece would you start working on starting with the easiest, so your skill would build by the time you got to the hardest.



That being said, by the end of the night I will be done with everything but my chest and helmet. Any suggestions on which one is harder. The helmet or the chest? I was trying to save that for last so I had as much experience as possible before working on them.



You just have to dive in. The difficulty is just how you handle it. The bigger the number of smaller parts...it normally takes longer. If you take your time and just do it right...nothing will be a problem for you! The helmet is normally the biggest challenge for people, but honestly you should just dive in and have fun with it! The reason you don't see any threads..is because you just have to get your hands dirty with it. Really the only way to get better is to just do more pepakura files. Good Luck!! =]



-Loki
 
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I agree, just jump right in. The first thing I wanted to tackle was the helmet, since it is a symmetrical piece I knew that it would be tough. (I also wanted to do it first because, I didnt want to make armor parts then decide I didnt want to continue the suit and have nothing for display, but I ended up keeping at it) If you don't do it right and you make little mistakes, they can add up and make you helmet look off (i.e. the brim could look shifted to one side lol) I made a tester helmet for sizing, then made df4l's MKVI...then I decided to move up to FS HD MKVI. The first time I made the HD MKVI I messed it up a bit and it ended up being the way I described. So, I went back and made another one. After that I have done pretty well with everthing else I have made. The HD forearms had to be the hardest to me because of the size of the pieces and the size of the part. I would say if you have gotten as far as having the helmet and chest left then do the chest first, and then do the helmet. When you do the helmet, take your time and make sure when you put it together you check the symmetry of the part as your putting it together. Oh, and did I mention take your time, lol. Thats really all there is to it. Each piece is only as difficult as you make it seem really. Im sure others would say the chest is harder than the forearms, or the helmet is harder than the shins. Its all personal preference in my opinion. Hope this helps.



Also, when I was putting together the HD MKVI I did it in sections and went ahead and added the supports for each section so i knew they wouldnt be warped when I attached them all together (i.e. I made each side of the helmet in the chin area, then made the chin, then attached them together). Doing it that way helped me out alot, but if you do it this way, make sure you have the scaling right because you wont be able to try it on.
 
from my experiance i found the chest piece and helmet the hardest and most expersive in paper terms so i would save them for last once youve gotten a good feel for the process its much easier to redo a boot or a shoulder if you mess up than it would be to redo a chest or helmet. personaly my chest pep took four days compared to a fore arm that took eight hours. so theres my opinion take it or leave it.
 
the HD chest was brutal. It probably took me about 60 hours of total working time. It wasn't that hard mind you, just really time consuming. I think the bicep was probably my favorite easy piece. Its not that hard to assemble and it comes out looking pretty good. Either that or the lower leg.
 
Tikigod002 said:
the HD chest was brutal. It probably took me about 60 hours of total working time. It wasn't that hard mind you, just really time consuming. I think the bicep was probably my favorite easy piece. Its not that hard to assemble and it comes out looking pretty good. Either that or the lower leg.



i agree my chest piece took me 3 days to just build then 1 day of resin 2 days of fiberglassing and it still in stage of bondo

and it still isnt done but the helmet and chest pieces are the worst if there hi def models and the reason why no one has posted a thread about this its because it all about you guys takling it yourselfs and giving you find it how hard it is do great work just looks at the mods , elites , and veterans about most of us have used pepakura and we love it and are still using it and the guys that make these models are getting more and more awesome with there work so without them this site would be about either sculpting with clay or scratch building so and again just go with what you would think is best and WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!! :D
 
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im more worried about doing the Chest Piece, I did just dive right in and try the helmet. I got a feel for what it was like cutting, pepping, using resin, rondo, bondo and for being my first armor piece I knew it wouldnt turn out great. But now I wanna start working on some HD armor such as biceps and shins since I know have an understanding of the time needed and whatnot. I would say rather than making a helmet first though probably starting easy with other parts of armor would be a solid idea. Good luck though on whatever you decide to start out on!
 
Hm...Hardest pep piece for ODST goes in order of(3):



1.Helmet(Dutch and rookie)

2.Shins



And



3.Backpack.
 
Easiest piece has to be the belt buckle. Still want to know how people pep so quickly though, it takes me ages to cut a piece out!
 
@ doubler24 : i would actually go hard first then go easy and wow you should see my first helmet thats an epic fail



@ benclark : depeneds on what your are pepping and how good you skills are it took 3 and a bit day to make my mk 6 helmet from pep and only 1 day for the dutch helm and depends on the tools you are using also see i use an "exacto" knife to cut my piece then i hot glue them thats y it is so quick and effiecient
 
I think I would have to disagree with most of the posts I just read in this thread. I teach youth at my church, have been an employee trainer at numerous jobs, and am a hands on learner like the majority of males are. So from the standpoint of learning a skill like pepakura, its best to start with the simpler pieces and develop the skill by moving up to harder pieces in stages. I took the approach, for my low detail MkVI suit, of starting with the handplates.

Its a simple piece, prints on a single page most times, and really gets your feet wet on all the basics of pep. You learn about scale. You get practice cutting those tiny angles. You learn what method of glue works best for you (I opted for the super glue method, slightly messy on the fingers, but you really cant beat a 2 second bonding time.) By the time you finish both hand plates, you have the practice and confidence to tackle the next step up. Personally I just moved my way up the arms before starting the legs and working to the core, but if you still don't feel confident the feet would be a good second step.

My point being sometimes jumping headlong into (in my opinion) the hardest piece to put together first and then working your way down from head to toe leaves you with lower quality work where everyone will be looking. The helmet is literally the icon of halo, the most distinguishing feature of the armor. I would suggest to anyone starting out to save this for the end, so that all your skill building can culminate for this piece, instead of having your first experience be a trial by fire, or in other words, a sink or swim situation.
 
see the problem there is most of the "noobs" rush to far ahead instead of taking it slow with there pieces thats why it turns into "low quality" if you satisfyed then its finished , if your a perfectionist then your never done until your are 100% satisfyed with your item
 
Very true, which is why I am now working on the high detail versions, but to be honest I think I would have quit if the very first piece I tried to build was a 26 page helmet, or a 34 page chest piece (just guessing, not real page numbers), because I wouldnt have been prepared for such complicated pieces without my basic knowledge from the previous work.
 
ArmouredApostle said:
Very true, which is why I am now working on the high detail versions, but to be honest I think I would have quit if the very first piece I tried to build was a 26 page helmet, or a 34 page chest piece (just guessing, not real page numbers), because I wouldnt have been prepared for such complicated pieces without my basic knowledge from the previous work.



i do very much agree with you there the hi def parts are very time consuming and most people would have just gone off of making it for example i think the flying squirls chest piece is 40 pages right? but i was lucky enough to be a yound worker with shift only on the weekend so i was pumping out hi def pieces every 2 days (1 day cutting) (1 day glueing) although i have had a somewhat small amount of experience and alot of knowledge from the stickies thanks to this forum
 
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I appreciate the info. Apostle I have to agree with you on working your way up to the hard pieces, and your point about the helmet being an icon was a good one. I think I will save that to last and start working on the chest piece today. Luckly for me im just doing the basic mark iv (or is it v) armor so its pretty simple.
 
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