Introduction and first question

[daecu]

Hey everyone, I'm pretty new to pepakura in general, but I've gotten alot of the basics down and I am planning on attempting the Mark IV helmet, originally I was planning on using a model I found on some other forums, but it wasn't nearly as well-defined as the one here. Nor were there as many experienced HALO specific model workers, I highly doubt there are anywhere xD. I haven't begun yet on account of my one main question, concerning the hardener. I've seen that the majority suggests resin/fiberglass, but what are your feelings on EPOXY? My school tech wing has alot of this stuff lying around and they are happy to let me use it, or otherwise just don't mind ( xD ), and I know how well it works on giving a smooth surface to something like a powder model ( 3d printer sort of material, plastic powder) after 2 coats its solid as a rock and smooth, but able to be sanded for a nice rough surface. My main question I guess is: has anyone tried this before, and if so were your results good or not so much ;; I made a small card-stock cube as a test (using sturdier for the actual model... unless theres a miracle and this may save me money on good paper, highly doubt it :[ ) I gave it a coat today and I'll be back at that class on monday to give it a second coat, by tuesday I can post my results for the forum, but in the mean time if anyone has any comments on the idea please share I hope I can be useful with this experiment (search on "epoxy" brought up a few posts but the ones i clicked seemed to not have a conclusion) and I hope I'm not just being a bother

 

[daecu]

just an update: i've finished the first coat of epoxy as of today and the parts that I had already covered looked great, I'm using a yellow epoxy so the color is kind of wierd, but it will be painted in the end so I don't think it will be a huge problem... right now i'd say its equivalent to a thin plastic, maybe a little stronger than a pepsi bottle. hoping that a second coat will do it, will let noob forum know :]

 

[AoBfrost]

If epoxy works for you, and you have say 3-4 quarts of it, i'd use it.

For if you want a solid feeling to it too, use hotglue on the inside, it's actually a fiberglass replacement, but since you are using epoxy and claim it is rock hard when cured, I doubt you need any hot glue

 

[daecu]

well it is kinda brittle, dropping my test-piece (a small rectangular solid, with flaps to simulate the thickness differences) didn't break any parts of it, i hit it kinda hard with my fist and it cracked on one side, but this is just with one coat so I'm going to try more and see what happens

thanks for the hot glue suggestion, I'll look up how to do that, pretty inexperienced with the stuff anywhere beyond a glue gun.

 

[lionheart912]

Welcome to the forums. Like Frost said, if you have epoxy, you might as well use it and save a little money. Also, take a look at the stickies, they usually have the answers to your questions. Btw nice sig.

 

[AoBfrost]

The epoxy if toooooo brittle, may not be a good idea, you want something strong, and hard. If it is just hard but cracks with a simple drop, it may not be a good idea, add more coats to it, and then tell us what happens.

 

[daecu]

Welcome to the forums. Like Frost said, if you have epoxy, you might as well use it and save a little money. Also, take a look at the stickies, they usually have the answers to your questions. Btw nice sig.

thanks for the welcome :] yea im aiming at low cost more than anything, aside from careful work >_< and thanks for the comment on the sig xD i make em for requests if u want one drop me a message ^_-

The epoxy if toooooo brittle, may not be a good idea, you want something strong, and hard. If it is just hard but cracks with a simple drop, it may not be a good idea, add more coats to it, and then tell us what happens.

I totally agree, i added another coat and im hoping it stands up to more force, after 3 or 4 layers ill probably give it a good old hammer test :]

 

[lionheart912]

Can you use fiberglass with the epoxy? If you can, then you shouldnt have to worry about it being brittle.

 

[daecu]

I'm not sure about fiberglassing the epoxy, i see no reason it wouldnt work though...

 

[Xavier]

epoxy and glass should work just fine, glass and resin is just the same thing. basically glue over cloth, doesn't really matter what kinda glue you use.

 

[daecu]

Ok here's my final verdict on my test for now, 2 layers is not nearly enough, about 5 hits with the hammer and it was done, not just the layers of epoxy but the original cube shattered along with it. Too brittle, like everyone figured from the beginning xD

I'm going to try to fiber glass when i get to that point, just filling everyone in, epoxy by itself=not strong enough (maybe if u put like 8 layers but it will lose detailing)