"Help!" for: Papercraft or Pepakura

[TMC]

Thanks for the help! When you say I'm "right on track for scaling the helmet" are you saying that my 71 scaled helmet is correct or my 73 scale helmet is correct?

 

[Haven923]

I wouldn't use expanding foam inside them, it has a tendancy to adhere to the paper really well, and then shrink, sucking all the paper in with it. What I would suggest doing is after you've resin'd the outside of it to give it some strength, is carefully line the inside of it with fiberglass that is long enough to protrude into the helmet and adhere it down to the inside of the dome as well, so it looks like an 'L'. Then fill the fin with resin or rondo and resin down the root of the fiberglass cloth. That will give you some incredible strength to them.

I second against expanding foam. I used it to fill my AR and it ended up leaking out of every imaginable point where the hot glue wasn't 100% there and ballooned out the sides. It took a LOT of pressing the sides in and holding with clamps to get it remotely close to how it was supposed to look. My biggest mistake, though, was not resining first....

 

[Shrouded Maribel]

Thanks for the help I finished the pep but it turns out that it's too small. If I have my head close to center of helmet, my eyes and ears are like 7cm (2.75in) below the eye holes and ear pieces(?). So If I increase the height by 12cm (4.7in) should be good enough? I don't want the helmet to be too huge. The helmet design itself seems a bit out of proportion.

EDIT: I tried putting it on again and by tilding in more and it seems it's a good fit. One fin is a bit higher, will I able to twist it down a couple of degrees after resining by using a heat gun?

 

[dorgaorpha]

Hi there! So I'm completely new to this and was wondering if there was a proper way for sizing pepakura. I'm going to be working on a JFO Halo Reach Helmet and was wondering how to make the right sizes.

 

[SergantTinkers]

Welcome to the 405th, dorgaopha! Scaling can be both an easy step and a challanging one. Because there are so many kinds of things to scale, there is no "right way" to do it. The most important thing to remember is that Pepakura measures from greatest possible distances. For example, the Hayabusa helmet's measurements include the length of the "spikes" that are known to stick out. The main thing to understand about the scaling process is that is a guess-and-check process, so screwing up on a measurement is bound to happen a bit when making various pieces.

Again, there is no exact way to do this, but I think most agree that HaloGodess' scaling tutorial is the best. I certainly found it helpful. Here's the link:
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/31627-HaloGoddess-quot-How-To-Scale-quot-and-More-Tutorial

 

[TheRabbit]

Thanks for the help I finished the pep but it turns out that it's too small. If I have my head close to center of helmet, my eyes and ears are like 7cm (2.75in) below the eye holes and ear pieces(?). So If I increase the height by 12cm (4.7in) should be good enough? I don't want the helmet to be too huge. The helmet design itself seems a bit out of proportion.

EDIT: I tried putting it on again and by tilding in more and it seems it's a good fit. One fin is a bit higher, will I able to twist it down a couple of degrees after resining by using a heat gun?

Get it lined up before you resin it, it's very difficult to bend something into place after resining. Try using chopsticks or things like that to support it.

 

[TMC]

Hi 405th. I was planning on adding a visor to my Mk VI helmet, but I noticed there a paper visor in the pep. Should I just not pep the visor, or is it necessary for support? Thanks!

 

[Katsu]

This is a common question. The answer is: YES! PEP THE VISOR PLEASE! The reason why is that while you will be cutting it out later, it is required to keep the bill of the helmet (the part that extends forward on the top of the helmet above the visor) from collapsing. Once the helmet is hardened with rondo or fiberglass, then it will be strong enough that you can cut the visor out. You could risk non pepping it, and might get lucky, but it's very dangerous.

The other reason is some people like to vacuum form their visors, and by pepping one, you have a buck ready to make a visor that will fit the helmet perfectly.

 

[TMC]

Thanks, that really cleared things up for me. I have one more short question. Is there any particular order I should pep the helmet in? My last attempt led to some distortion, and I figured I had assembled it starting at the wrong place. I started at the very top of the helmet, working my way down. Should I go by the numbers on the flaps, or is there another way? Thanks.

 

[TutlarAce06]

I'm noticing that as I am peping the helmet the paper is warping and I am wondering in what stage do i fix that? do i fix it after i fiber glass and sand/fill them out or do they need to be fixed in this stage and if so how do I do that?

 

[aurias]

By visor, do you mean the Up-Armor? It's the third armor permutation of the CQC (If you count the "default" one too), with the thing over the top of the helmet and the box on the right ear?
If yes, then that IS in the http://405th.4shared.com db. It's under Reach -> Helmet -> Attachment -> UA -> UA [CQ] (Reach CQC helmet attach MS7).pdo

Some of the other ones in that folder might work as well, but that one is labeled to be for CQC so give it a try!

As for the HUL, it's in that Attachment folder, just leaf through the HUL folders and pick one you like.

Most helmets are meant to have the attachments seperate, so you can do what you want with them!

Awesome, thanks a ton! I need to just download the entire database.

 

[TheRabbit]

I'm noticing that as I am peping the helmet the paper is warping and I am wondering in what stage do i fix that? do i fix it after i fiber glass and sand/fill them out or do they need to be fixed in this stage and if so how do I do that?

You need to fix it as you're going, it depends on the piece, but you definitely need to fix it prior to resining it.

 

[TMC]

Hi, I was wondering if there was any order I should pep a Mk VI helmet?

 

[misfitjh]

Well I always start at the top and work down from there, but some people start at the visor and work around but you'll develop your own style as you go along.

 

[briciius]

Hey i'm looking for pep COVENANT HEAD like this one :

or something like that :

i can't say why i need this because it's a secret but if i find what i want the secret wil no stay a secret for long time

thanks

 

[SergantTinkers]

Well, you won't find these on the costuming index. You could maybe try 4shared.com.

 

[SergantTinkers]

Thanks, that really cleared things up for me. I have one more short question. Is there any particular order I should pep the helmet in? My last attempt led to some distortion, and I figured I had assembled it starting at the wrong place. I started at the very top of the helmet, working my way down. Should I go by the numbers on the flaps, or is there another way? Thanks.

There is no particular way you have to do this. I personally like to start from the front and go back, allowing be to know ahead of time if the helmet fits or not. But you can take it any direction you want. What's important is to choose a direction and keep pepping that way throughout the entire piece. I wouldn't go by the numbers, as that would result in a lot of confusion, since many of the numbers are very mixed up.

 

[Skoalmin1]

I feel like the scaling for just about everything is different.. for instance I scaled a master chief helmet and pilot helmet the same and my pilot helmet came out like jumbo sized... I thought that I had done something wrong so i went back and redid my calculations and same thing still happens

 

[TheRabbit]

Yes, the scaling for most models will be different because they were modeled by different people, or not based on a common attribute.

 

[TMC]

Hi 405th! A noob here. This is my fourth question, but I have reason to be paranoid, haha. I've recently printed out and cut a MK VI helmet by ROBOGENESIS. I was reading some project threads when I saw a person who "had to scrap [his] helmet because [he] built it without supports, and it warped out of repair". Now, I really, really hate cutting paper. The ROBOGENESIS MK VI helmet doesn't have supports in the pep. How can I support the helmet to keep it from warping so I don't have to cut ANOTHER helmet? (It would be my fourth...)