My First Attempt At Pepakura

[Raffles]

Hi guys, I've been lurking here for quite a while now and had the odst pep files sitting on my desktop gathering dust so I decided to give them a go.

I think I have progress shots on a memory card somewhere so I'll post what I've got and fill in the blanks today and tomorrow.



Anyways, I built the pep as usual and gave it a coat of resin to stiffen it up. this managed to distort the shape but I figured I'd straighten it up later.

5 or 6 coats of fiberglass matting to reinforce it and I started the smoothing.

Thank god for power sanders!! I used loads of filler and got a reasonably smooth surface.

looking at the details on this pep printout I noticed a few details I wasn't too keen on (I was going for something like the weta versions) so I made a few alterations. I wasn't happy with the front bar and vents plus they were still a bit skewed from earlier, so I fired up the grinder and chopped them out, replacing the front with an acrylic bar and sintra details.

I also cut a new face plate with a smoother transition to the visor area.

I cut out the visor section as it had a bad pitch to it and built a new rough out of styrene, acrylic and sintra.

I took a vac form of this and then took a plaster positive to use as a buck for making clear acrylic visors.

that done I then took the cutting disc and divided the helmet in two for vacforming so I could experiment a bit with paint finishes.

I mounted the helmet halves on a base of 10mm mdf to make releasing the pulls easier.

Some test pulls done and that's where I'm at just now. I'm probably going to work through the weekend and finish it midweek. I'll keep you all posted!

 

[ummi60]

Hi guys, I've been lurking here for quite a while now and had the odst pep files sitting on my desktop gathering dust so I decided to give them a go.

I think I have progress shots on a memory card somewhere so I'll post what I've got and fill in the blanks today and tomorrow.

I like the duck tape color. anyways, nice buld, from 1 of the pics it looks like you used styrofoam to make it, its very nice. i give it 9,5 stars. the only downside are the pics, i would make a video to show it from every direction.

 

[HaloGoddess]

It seems to me that it is coming along quite nicely.



When you say that the resin caused it to distort, did you have the paper visor in place or did you leave it out? Sometimes that can make a difference.



And that's A LOT of fiberglass! When I was using fiberglass, I used only 1 layer and my stuff turned out just fine.

 

[theateam2006]

Looks great so far. Are you planning on molding?

 

[kenster1000]

Awesome job so far, when your done you should mold it. It looks really great so far.

Good job, Keep it up.



Andrew

 

[Raffles]

added some better pictures!

I like the duck tape color. anyways, nice buld, from 1 of the pics it looks like you used styrofoam to make it, its very nice. i give it 9,5 stars.

A lot of people have mentioned they liked the tape stripes. I reackon I may do one like that to see how it'd look. I didn't use any foam in this apart from sintra but if I was to do it again I would shape the whole shell from foam.

i would make a video to show it from every direction.

Here you go! - video

When you say that the resin caused it to distort, did you have the paper visor in place or did you leave it out? Sometimes that can make a difference.

Yeah I only removed the visor when it was fiberglassed. I think it was the neck detail being uneven that pushed it into an odd angle whilst it was setting.

And that's A LOT of fiberglass! When I was using fiberglass, I used only 1 layer and my stuff turned out just fine.

I figured I'd add a few layers as I'm going to be vacforming and using heavier materials than usual so I didn't want it to deform in the process. I was pretty close to just filling the entire helmet with expanding AB foam as I was going to pull a silicone mould.

 

[Raffles]

Looks great so far. Are you planning on molding?

Definately. That's why it's taking me so long and why I've re-enforced the hell out of it!

 

[samuel murray]

Wow, that is looking great. Can't wait to see it finished

 

[Raffles]

Wow, that is looking great. Can't wait to see it finished

I can't wait to get it finished! I've had so many problems with this that I think I'll just use pep as reference and sculpt verything for silicone moulding in future.

 

[bopx]

Wow that looks brilliant, especially for first try :0

 

[Raffles]

tried tinting a visor, didn't work at all. Lots of debris in the spray and a massive loss in visibility. I have some sheets of iridium coated acrylic I'm gonna try on Monday.

 

[samuel murray]

tried tinting a visor, didn't work at all. Lots of debris in the spray and a massive loss in visibility. I have some sheets of iridium coated acrylic I'm gonna try on Monday.

Did you use just a regular spray can to try and tint it? If yes, maybe you can try and get an airbrushing kit. Or you could put the paint into one of those weed sprayer things and spray it with that?

 

[jake11124]

wow! this is you first try! you have an unbelievable natural skill for this your doing awesome.

 

[Raffles]

Did you use just a regular spray can to try and tint it? If yes, maybe you can try and get an airbrushing kit. Or you could put the paint into one of those weed sprayer things and spray it with that?

Nope, it was a smoke tint applied with an airbrush. I've moved to a more expensive tint now so it should be better.

 

[tmurray]

you said you were going for a wet helmet right....... well you do know there is a weta helmet pep file made b skullcandygirl. just for future references so you dont have to go through as much work. either way i love how your helmet is going

 

[Raffles]

Well this one's been plodding along since the weta trailer first came out! Skullcandygirl's files are awesome but for vacforming I'll be staying clear of pepakura. It needs too much reinforcement and smoothing.

Anyways it's finished!!!

Completed pics in a bit but here's what you missed when the forum was down -

Here's the completed formers all mounted and backfilled. They are really hefty!

Here's a closeup of one side before mounting. They clock in at around 8KG a piece!

And here's the first batch. I pulled 10 at first but I'm working on 3 at a time.

 

[Raffles]

The shells were taped together on the outside and re-enforced on the inside either with short strips or a long plate of styrene.

Once this was done the ridges and gaps were sanded and filled with u-pol and the surfaces were prepped for paint. Unfortunateley I don't have any of the progress painting shots handy but if they resurface I'll pop them up.

 

[Raffles]

But here's some of the first finished helmet -

 

[Raffles]

a closeup of some of the battle damage -

And finally an action shot! (thanks Chris)

 

[whiteninja1990]

that is awesome. I wish my first was that good. I didn't scale, used nomal paper and used school glue(so mine was a fail)