instead of using cardstock

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MichaelRea22

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would printing the designs out on regular paper and then transferring them to posterboard work just as well?

i was telling my mom about doing this, and she said doing that would be better (and cheaper) than buying cardstock

lemme know what you guys think
 
Mom's listen to numbers. Especially wallet related numbers.
<blockquote><ul>[*]1 piece of 22 x 28 posterboard costs about 75 cents to $1. [*]1 poster board is like having 6.5 sheets of letter sized paper. (based on sq inch areas)[*]250 pieces of letter sized card stock is at most $12. [*]If you wanted the poster board equivalent of what's in the card stock pack, you would need to buy about 38 poster boards. Yikes, good luck toting that around.[*]So, even at a good price, poster board is about 3 times more expensive than card stock.[*]It would take you a really long time to redraw the paper patterns (time is money too), and if you translated it off even a little, the pieces wouldn't go together.[/list]</blockquote>

Hands down, go getcha some card stock. I recommend this kind.

It was nice of her to try and think of alternatives, but you'll save her a good chunk of change doing it the tried and true way.



Hope that's what you were needing, CoolDude

:devil:
-Vex
 
That answered my question great.


Now I have another one, if i plowed through this, could i get it done before Halloween?

hah
 
Posterboard is the same but 3 times more expensive for only say 6 sheets worth of cardstock.
buying cardstock for 8-12 dollars you can get 250 sheets which is enough for 1 while suit of armor.

Btw, you will need 50-100 dollars to make decent armor, I have 1 thousand dollars, but i'm saving that on important things, only 50-100 will go into my armor, so make sure you use your own money, or else your parents will not like the idea of you making the armor from their money.
 
CoolDude said:
That answered my question great.

Now I have another one, if i plowed through this, could i get it done before Halloween?

hah

If you commit yourself to working on it each day after school or work (whichever it is you do during the day), then you should be able to get it done with a few days to spare. A few hours each day before going to bed should suffice, depending on how much progress you find you're making; you may need to put more time in if you find your progress is somewhat slower than expected. You should put some time in on weekends too, to ensure you will have it done in advance.

I myself am making my own MJOLNIR armour suit, using the Pepakura models as a base and then layering sheet styrene (.080 thickness; it was the thickest I could find) to make the build sturdier.

Not only that, but with styrene I will be able to putty and sand the sharp edges, which will give it a much smoother and rounded appearance as it should. I just started on my build beginning of this month, and I'm pretty much already done the helmet and moving on to the chest/back plate. So, I'm confident I'll have mine ready to go in time for Hallowe'en.

Of course, using the materials I am my suit will undoubtedly be more expensive than yours, but if you follow the given steps in the Pepakura and Resining/Fiberglassing tutorials yours should turn out nicely... :cool:
 
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if you work 3 hours a day 'm sure you will get it done before halloween, I am working 2-3 hours per day on mine and I have helmet, torso, crotch done, legs and arms will be done is like 4 days, then I can star resining everything, so I'm sure you can make it, helmet and torso will take 1 week or 1.5 weeks.
 
AoBfrost said:
if you work 3 hours a day 'm sure you will get it done before halloween, I am working 2-3 hours per day on mine and I have helmet, torso, crotch done, legs and arms will be done is like 4 days, then I can star resining everything, so I'm sure you can make it, helmet and torso will take 1 week or 1.5 weeks.

Yeah, that sounds about right, as I started work on my helmet beginning of this week and am nearing completion of it now. As for the torso, I've only got a few of the more easily-recognizable pieces put together, and that I plan on completing throughout the weekend.

Then again, my build may take a little longer than most, since I'm not just assembling the Pepakura model and then resining/fiberglassing over that. Having to trace out the Pepakura templates onto styrene, and then adhering that in place, is more time-consuming, I find. I know I'll be happier with the finished product this way, though... :whistle:
 
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CoolDude said:
That answered my question great.
Now I have another one, if i plowed through this, could i get it done before Halloween?

hah

As I recall, there was one member here who built everything in a week. I think it took him most of the day, each day but it's possible.

-Vex
 
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Yeah, I go to school, and work every day

i should be able to commit at least 3-4 hours every night (maybe more, depending if i need to sleep or not)


whats the hardest part of building one of these things?


should i just concentrate on the armor, and not worry about any weapons or anything like that?



and for a fun question, what color? :p
 
Hardest part is just that. Building this suit ;) In all seriousness, probably getting each piece scaled right before going insane. That and getting decent at fiberglassing.
 
hardest is helmet, second is torso, then everything else can be done all in 1-2 hours, I just got done with the left lower arm and gauntlet, but for those who made it...is the lower arm suppose to be huge? I scaled every peice to 24 and it is huge on me...I guess maybe thats why people use padding.
 
Hehe, I think the hardest part for me was the grunt task of folding and assembling all the pep. It gets old after a while lol. Like the others said, the helmet gave me the most trouble just cause it's a lot of pieces and scaling is...fun. lol

I thought the resin and fiberglassing was strangely easy. I got everything resined in one Saturday. I've been spray mounting the cloth in a little each day after work so I can get all the inside glassing done this upcoming weekend.

I started working on the armor first. I would like to make an actual halo weapon later on, but for the sake of time and trying not to delineate from my plan, I just modded a new Nerf gun (it's not very purist but it works for the time being). I'll edit this post when I get home so you can see a picture of what it looks like. But yeah, it's prolly a good idea to finish what you started since it's close to the deadline :).

Oh color mmmm. Y'know I just couldn't resist that MC green for mine. As far as some other colors, MacAttack did a nice red with some white stripes (you can look at his gallery) and I saw a golden "saints" themed one the other day that looked awesome too. I bet you kinda have an inkling which color you'd want to do ;)

:devil:
-Vex

p.s.
CoolDude said:
i should be able to commit at least 3-4 hours every night (maybe more, depending if i need to sleep or not)
spoken like a true student /salute!
 
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I work on the thing 2-3 times a day each 1-2 hours, I'm say 50% done with folding and gluing.

Oh vexona, when you resin it, do you have to fiberglass it right away? Do you fiberglass the outside? I've seen some just fiberglass inside and say they are done, I'm a bit confused on it. btw, did you use a respirator when resining, thats something I really dont want to buy, but might.
 
Yuppers, like Fuffuloo said, always use a respirator (not a dust mask). It may cost as much as your resin, but it'll prevent you from having related medical problems down the road. That resin is baaaad stuff. Also, I think respirators look pretty cool.

Ok, I started writing individual responses to your fiberglassing questions, but I realized it would probably sound vague without giving some timeline or list of steps. So, I decided it would be better to post this in depth tutorial I wrote up a while ago. I hope in the info below you'll find lots of things you knew how to do, then the few things you weren't sure about, and then finally how they relate to each other.

(Hehe I've been up since 6am so if anything is confusing let me know lol)

<blockquote>_____________________________________________________________

Step 1, preparing the exterior (No Fiberglass Cloth until Step 2, we are working strictly with the resin and hardener)
<ul>[*]Mix a batch of resin and hardener (I mixed 2oz. for mine). and 'paint' a layer of it on the exterior of your piece. You will have approximately 20mins to work with your resin (depending on temp) before it starts turning into globules and curing.[*]Allow it to cure (usually around 2 hours, but read your packaging for specific rates).[/list]It will look something like this after 1 coat:
demo0.jpg
<ul>[*]Mix another batch and apply a second layer of resin to the exterior. [*]Allow the 2nd layer to cure.[*]If after the recommended time your piece still has a little tack to it, you can put some baby powder on it.[*]It'll still be rather flimsy but will be stiff enough to hold it's shape under the weight of cloth.[/list]Step 2, strengthening the interior

<ul>[*]Fiberglass cloth will commonly come in rolls or 8sqft. So, begin to cut your fiberglass into strips. The idea is to overlap the cloth and contour to the folds of each piece.[*]Using spray adhesive, gently adhere your strips of cloth to the piece. Use just enough spray adhesive to hold it in place while you work with the resin. The spray is not meant to make your armor strong or keep the cloth on there permanently.[*]Mix a batch of resin and hardener.[*]Begin to paint the mix onto the cloth. You want the resin to go all the way through, so you will need to apply pressure with a brush or your gloved hands to get the resin to soak through the cloth and onto the piece. [*]Smooth out air bubbles with a roller or your gloved hands (i think fingers work well since most surfaces are pretty curvy).[*]Allow to cure.[/list]Here is the inside of a piece after the fiberglass has cured:
demo.jpg


Here is the outside of the piece:
demo1.jpg


(I held this up for the picture but it's a good idea to wear gloves when handling, because the stray strands are pretty spiky)

At this point, you could add more layers of fiberglass or continue by sanding, filling, priming, painting, etc. :)

After a coat of primer:
demo2.jpg

_____________________________________________________________
</blockquote>

I'll actually bondo, sand, and re-primer that piece but hopefully that gives ya the skinny on fiberglassing :)

:devil:
-Vex
 
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Good tut, Vexona. Thanks for agreeing with me. As for the respirator looking cool, I agree all the way! It could even be used for a grunt costume!
 
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