"Help!" for: Papercraft or Pepakura

[Dorvack]

So, I'm plugging away at my Iron man helmet and unfortunately have managed to glue a piece about a millimeter away from where it should be.

I can't unpick it and, as I'm about a 3rd of the way through the pep stage, I don't want to start again... again, so I'm wondering: Is 1 millimeter going to cause a problem?

It's a really simple build, but the piece connects to about 10 other pieces, so I'm just wondering...

 

[Sal86]

Did you superglue it or hotglue it? I am very picky at how the numbers should line up since a slight deviation can throw off the whole structure. My best bet is to fix any slight warps when resining and bondoing later on.

 

[Carpathia]

You could always cut the part away and use the remaining 1mm of the tab to reglue. Either that, or cut it and temporarily tape it into place, then run a bead of glue on the inside to marry the two pieces together. Just remember to remove the tape before you resin. A small gap like that could go unnoticed later on, or it could cause a dramatic warp; it all depends on how crucial the piece is.

 

[Dorvack]

Did you superglue it or hotglue it? I am very picky at how the numbers should line up since a slight deviation can throw off the whole structure.

Fast cure white glue and no numbers...

I'm thinking it should be okay, but I'm pedantic at best so it's slightly bugging me.

 

[Sal86]

The problem is that valley folds are exactly like mountain folds, only smaller. I managed to figure it out anyway after getting nervous how I might screw up the folding. So basically the larger dashed lines are mountains, no matter what.

Thanks for the help, guys.

I think I might have done the folds backward now. The torso armor wasn't looking right to me as I folded, then I realized the side with no numbers and with the tabs showing is the correct side that is facing outward and the side with the numbers and fold lines are on the inside of the armor.

Is this a normal occurring for the exterior of the torso to be completely blank from numbers and have tabs on the outside? Or did I accidentally inverted the fold lines? Everything looks fine so far, I am just really concerned about the tabs being shown on the exterior of the armor rather than hidden from view in the interior.

 

[Carpathia]

No. The numbers are supposed to go on the outside, unless the 3D model itself is inside out. Do you have a link tot the model you're working on?

 

[Sal86]

No. The numbers are supposed to go on the outside, unless the 3D model itself is inside out. Do you have a link tot the model you're working on?

It is this one : http://www.4shared.com/file/4ybl39ry/Mark_VI_Chest_Piece_by_Robogen.html

 

[Katsu]

If you are having numbers on the outside of the pieces (If I am reading this correctly...) There is a setting in pepakura designer under "Settings -> Other Settings -> Others -> Place edge ID inside of face" Try toggling that to the opposite of what it is (checked or unchecked) for some reason with me, unchecked makes the ID be inside the piece, and checked makes it float outside.

 

[Sal86]

If you are having numbers on the outside of the pieces (If I am reading this correctly...) There is a setting in pepakura designer under "Settings -> Other Settings -> Others -> Place edge ID inside of face" Try toggling that to the opposite of what it is (checked or unchecked) for some reason with me, unchecked makes the ID be inside the piece, and checked makes it float outside.

It's not just the number, but the tabs are also on the exterior of the torso armor. I am concerned it will affect the details later on.

 

[Dorvack]

Wow, so you built the torso piece inside out.

To be honest, depending on the thickness of the bondo layer you are planning to put on the outside of the armor, this shouldn't affect the details too much, but you may find that you hit paper more often than you normally would have when sanding.

 

[Katsu]

Ohh... the numbers are SUPPOSED to be on the outside, I see what you mean now.. I thought you meant on the paper they were floating in the space between pieces.

The tabs are meant to be glued on the inside. Can you post a picture of what the problem is so we can avoid further miscommunication?

If the tabs are physically on the outer surface of the piece, it may or may not be a problem. It may not be if the bondo ends up covering everything. It may be a problem if you sand down too far and hit the tabs and cause them to fray out.

 

[Artifice]

Hey all Artifice here, I haven't found a place that already has this, but if I have over looked it I apologize if it is in another thread but here's the question.

I have bin building armor for about a year now but I haven't had this problem.
My edge ID numbers are not printed out with the image when I print the pages off.

In my 2D menu the edge ID's are ON but then don't seem to print? Any help?

PS haven't posted in a wile so sorry if I have forgotten to do anything

 

[Katsu]

Asking questions in the stickies is fine. There are 200+ pages in many of them, no way anyone could be expected to read that.

As for the number problem, it seems to happen often. To fix it you really need to fiddle with the settings as it seems like it varies from person to person.

I'd first look at the print preview and see if it shows the numbers in there also. If you see numbers in the print preview it can be an issue with the vector settings. For ME what seems to work under "File -> Print and Paper Settings" is to have lineweight 2, Vector Print, I check print page number and alignment marks too, have bitmap resolution on very high and then mess around with the transparency slider. I don't know if any of those are affecting it, but it can't hurt to try someone else's "works for me" settings.

It can also help to use the "other" pepakura program than your main. If Designer isn't working, try printing with Viewer, if that works, see if there are settings different between the two.

 

[RangedAssassin]

Quick question.

When making armour is it better to pick pep files made by the same person for all your pieces or can you combine different ppls files?

 

[Cereal Killl3r]

You can mix and match any pieces you want. Pepakura is a template for you to finish off. As long as the pieces are all HD or LD then you're fine. Just make sure to check you're scaling.

 

[RangedAssassin]

Thanks Cereal,

That's the answer I was hoping for! Btw I'm a subscriber to your YouTube channel. Big fan. Keep up the good work!

 

[Renton117]

Hay guys I don't know if I should post this here or in the fiberglass, bondo and resin sticky, but here it goes I'm hardening the out side of my armour with resin as it is recommended, but what do I use to harden the inside?

Now that I've typed this it seems it is probably more appropriate in the bondo resin sticky, sorry.

 

[JayOneSeven]

On the inside you do the same, layer it with Resin. The big difference is that while the resin is still wet you lay fiberglass cloth (or mat) in over the top of it, and dab it in with a paint brush. This will allow the resin to kinda grab the fiberglass cloth, and give it even more structural support.

There is, also, a second method called Rondo.
Rondo is a combination of Resin and Bondo, mixed about 70-30 (or however you want it) and then it is sloshed around the inside of your piece. This is obviously better for certain pieces and not so good for others. It also adds a bit more weight than just straight glassing (glassing is what we call the fiberglass cloth method) but it gets tiny crevices better.

 

[Renton117]

On the inside you do the same, layer it with Resin. The big difference is that while the resin is still wet you lay fiberglass cloth (or mat) in over the top of it, and dab it in with a paint brush. This will allow the resin to kinda grab the fiberglass cloth, and give it even more structural support.

There is, also, a second method called Rondo.
Rondo is a combination of Resin and Bondo, mixed about 70-30 (or however you want it) and then it is sloshed around the inside of your piece. This is obviously better for certain pieces and not so good for others. It also adds a bit more weight than just straight glassing (glassing is what we call the fiberglass cloth method) but it gets tiny crevices better.

So the cloth method or rondo is used on the insides of things like gauntlets and things like that?

 

[Katsu]

The two things to use when hardening the inside are fiberglass resin + fiberglass cloth, and/or rondo.

Some will do JUST fiberglass resin+cloth, the pros: Light, strong. cons: can get airbubbles, difficult to lay on complex pieces.
Some will do JUST rondo, the pros: easy to use, VERY easy to use. cons: Brittle, heavy.

I personally do a blend. I lay rondo inside the helmet first. This smoothes out the hard edges of the pepakura piece. Those edges are where you can form airbubbles with fiberglass! With the rondo poured evenly inside, you can then lay fiberglass over that (inside.. you know what I mean!) and it will lay very smooth and easily, and provide the skeleton and strength for the rondo.