Infinite MK V and Switching Gears-- Unfolding and Foamsmithing Advice Appreciated

[AdAstra029]

Hi all!

I originally was planning to try my hand at crafting the Marcus Lehto MKV set that was unfolded in these threads somewhere, but then the Infinite MK V came out and I immediately knew I wanted to do that instead. As a practice project, I tried my hand at unfolding the H3 MKV for foam and putting that together. For my first earnest attempt at foam, I don't think it turned out half bad.

As far as the unfolding process goes, I'm using my copy of Pep 4 and trying my best to be mindful of how this will play out when transferred to foam. I'm rocking 4mm and 2mm EVA; when I did the first helmet, I took this thickness into account and was able to work around the geometry in some interesting and efficient ways. If you'd like to critique my work, you can find it here.

I did formally submit an unfold request with ODCA, but I thought it would be a good learning experience since I have other cosplans that might necessitate their own unfolds. At the moment, I'm currently working on the Infinite MK V helmet.

My questions are as follows:

• Thickness of foam?
  • I see a lot of people run and generally recommend thicker foam. Would it be better to opt for thicker foam, and how would that affect how I approach unfolding the models?
• Should I go for bigger pieces or smaller pieces?
  • I think I cut the H3 model into too many small pieces, which increase my margin for error when my subpar cutting, beveling, and gluing skills were taken into account.
• Process?
  • I'm kinda just winging it loosely based on what I've seen other cosplayers do; for this one I've just kinda opened all the edges and now I'm going through and manually reconnecting the pieces in the general shape I want them to be before I unfold. Any feedback on ways to improve this process are always welcome.

 

[AdAstra029]

Actually!

ElJeiloAmarillo has already gotten around to unfolding the Infinite MK V files as of a few months ago.

I did get around to unfolding the kneepad myself, but now that I know that these exist I'm in the process of editing the unfold and adjusting it for foam. I'll be posting that once I'm finished, maybe in another category, so people more experienced than I might have the chance to take a look and give some feedback.

What I have done so far is unfolded the neck seal from the ripped files, which I noted were missing from these unfolds (using the same scale as ElJeiloAmarillo's unfold for reference). I think it's a cool piece of geometry and a simple way to add a bit of flair to this build. I'm hoping to unfold the undersuit and replicate it as much as I can; I've seen it done before with upholstery foam on a Reach build so I'm excited to try something similar.

Cheers!

 

[N8TEBB]

Personally for armour, I use 12mm EVA foam. This may be a bit thicker than some folks prefer, but seeing as I'm using floor mats, it's the only size I work with. Often I find foam unfolds are made for thinner foam. It's quite easy to translate them to work with thicker foam though, but I can't imagine it's easier to do it the other way around. See if I was making a piece that had a flat part, then a 8mm drop, and then another flat piece, I could easily do that simply by gluing 2 thick foam pieces together with an offset. But if I was using thinner foam, I would need to cut a piece for that drop. If the templates are designed for thin foam and I'm using thick foam, I can simply omit the part of the template for the vertical piece and continue with the two other pieces. If there were only two pieces in the template assuming I would be using thick foam but I'm using thin foam, It would be a bit more involved to solve this problem. All this to say, from my perspective, I think it is better to err on the side of assuming thinner foam rather than assuming thicker foam.

In terms of how big to make the pieces, it can be a tricky balance. Really, it depends on how comfortable you are with foam-smithing. The mk 6 halo 3 chief files for example have quite large pieces and are easy to assemble, but being from halo 3 they lack geometry. The halo infinite files that I used for my most recent suit however have much more pieces. I remember I ended up combining some of the pieces for the halo infinite template before cutting them so that there wouldn't be as many seams. I think it's wiser to err on the side of more details rather than less details because it's always easier to omit details when crafting, but harder to add them back if they've been erased.

Again, I've only used templates, I don't make them. So this isn't an objective truth. I hope my perspective is helpful to you though!