Noob. First pepakura build Iron Man MK. III WIP

[ironpredator]

Hi all

What has me here in the first place was looking around on the RPF fourms looking for a replica resin Iron Man Helmet. Someone had mentioned it to me that it was possible to make your using pepakura and file etc (never heard of until over one week ago) anyway it led me to here and after a week of looking around and pesturing people I decided to try give it a go myself. my experiance is minimal and have never used fiberglass or bondo so im literally going step by step. Only experiance I have is doing model building and some airbrushing.

Anyway here is were I am. Please what I would like more is for people to tell me were I am going wrong or what else I could be doing. indiefilmgeek suggested to me to do a WIP to get people advise and opinions and im greatful to him and stealth(cultcollectables on youtube) who I have been pesturing the last few days.

I have never used a glue gun before or worked with cardstock so the first thing I noticed was a few bumps and lumps as I was gluing, Im sure its one of them things with practice you get better at. its only at this point that im getting the grips with the glue gun as most people have suggested its the best glue to use. I have no idea how far Im going to go with this but it would be really really fantastic if I could get as far as the torso even to display. (arc reactor, and repulsor's im worrying about achieving this) one step at a time.

anyway the first thing im looking for advise on is on the face plate which I have markied out. Its the eye area right in the centre. as you can see from the red line do i fold this and make it flush with the bottom part of the face plate by hot gluing it down? on another picture I have pinched it down to show if thats the correct position before hot gluing it.


please tell me if I need to start over etc that it might not be good enough for fiberglass.

Anyway thanks for looking!! and thank you for any advise and for having me here on 405 th

David

 

[tReXXXan]

Good first attempt...it will get easier the more you practice. I am no expert but I generally have as many pictures of the piece I am working on as I can get for reference. It makes it easier to make those confusing folds. I would finish the bucket before you decide to scrap it... You can learn a lot from repairing mistakes. The cleaner the pep the less work (and sanding) on the back end. Check out Ben Streepers YouTube videos about rondo. I prefer it for fiberglassing in most cases. I am not sure I answered anything...but keep at it you are doing great.

 

[Ironhide]

Aloha and welcome to the 405th,

for the first try it is actually not bad, even though I am still beginner but I think that's why I can give good tips to get started.
1. the paper that you used looks pretty thin, I think it would be better glue or craft glue to use. No hot glue. This will probably also help to avoid warps.
2. I heir in the forum is a very good toturial found that describes how the folded edges with the help of pen gets out very clean (http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/1368-Tutorial-How-To-Make-Good-Folds-For-Pepakura-Armor).
I hope that helps.

Greetings Ironhide

 

[ironpredator]

Hey Ironside

Thank you for your kind words and I will take your advise on board. What glue are you using yourself? I just had a look
at your WIP and your work is very neat indeed. Great job!

Aloha and welcome to the 405th,

for the first try it is actually not bad, even though I am still beginner but I think that's why I can give good tips to get started.
1. the paper that you used looks pretty thin, I think it would be better glue or craft glue to use. No hot glue. This will probably also help to avoid warps.
2. I heir in the forum is a very good toturial found that describes how the folded edges with the help of pen gets out very clean (http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/1368-Tutorial-How-To-Make-Good-Folds-For-Pepakura-Armor).
I hope that helps.

Greetings Ironhide

 

[ironpredator]

Hey thanks fo that. have you got the link for those videos
?

Good first attempt...it will get easier the more you practice. I am no expert but I generally have as many pictures of the piece I am working on as I can get for reference. It makes it easier to make those confusing folds. I would finish the bucket before you decide to scrap it... You can learn a lot from repairing mistakes. The cleaner the pep the less work (and sanding) on the back end. Check out Ben Streepers YouTube videos about rondo. I prefer it for fiberglassing in most cases. I am not sure I answered anything...but keep at it you are doing great.

 

[Ironhide]

I live in Germany so it could be that the glue that I use is not to get for you. He calls himself "Tesa Klebe-Pen" and is special craftglue for paper. But I think it gives something like this everywhere else, too.

Thanks for the compliment on my work, I used a lot of model making when i was a teen and I think it's very useful now. But as I said I am still beginner in Paper Craft ^.^

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Looking good IP!

Hey, if any of those seams look wavy or buckled a little bit, if you've used hot glue you can very easily re-heat the glue with the tip of the hot glue gun. When the seam opens, you can use the existing glue (or add more) as you close the seam back up... hopefully, in a way that's a bit smoother. Can't do that with craft or superglue.

Can't wait to see it all together! Keep up the good work!

 

[ironpredator]

Thanks for all the help my friend ;-) ( thats what she said ha)

Looking good IP!

Hey, if any of those seams look wavy or buckled a little bit, if you've used hot glue you can very easily re-heat the glue with the tip of the hot glue gun. When the seam opens, you can use the existing glue (or add more) as you close the seam back up... hopefully, in a way that's a bit smoother. Can't do that with craft or superglue.

Can't wait to see it all together! Keep up the good work!

 

[ironpredator]

Quick up date on the helmet, I have finished the helmet and glued the pieces together. As mention this is my first time doing this and I do notice the warpping and bumps here and there. This was harder than I thought, it was ok having the pieces together but getting clean folds, the glue just right and keeping the parts flush was difficult.

Im thinking seriously to myself how can I improve on this becasue I did find it tricky in some pieces.

I think after its hardened and bondo used ALOT of sanding might just get it presentable haha but any comments are greatly taking on

 

[BioDelta]

Greetings program

Well hello there. Im not an expert on peping. Infact im a noo just like you. But i started with and high def pep and form there it got easyer. In fact if you go to my thread you can see the progress. As for te iron man mask. It looks great! I my self Jump on the iron man banwaggon. It's casue my friend wants to make the MRK III. So im helping out while makeing my own. So i will be watching your thread. So will you be makeing the helmet to open or just keep it like it is. I my self want to try and make it to open up. Also I have many pep files. So if you need any hit me up XD. I look forward to seeing more from you.
(also i love that predator shot, Is that you in a cosplay please message me)

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Yeah, BioDelta. I went with the easier to construct (more basic) helmet design pep files for my first build because it provides you with a good base without overwhelming you with an overly complex pep construction before ever getting to the hardening phase!

In fact, I've stuck with more basic peps throughout my build and then just add any details I want to individual pieces.

 

[ironpredator]

Thanks for teh comments. Im debating to cut the faceplate out if I get to that stage or try put panel lines in. It might be a bit out of my experiance
level but I will try anything once ;-) for this one I might just use it as a display pieces and try my luck with LEDS in the eyes, again something im not used to
doing, but with peoples help im sure ill get there. nice build by the way also

No thats not me in in the predator costume..I wish it was, but I have two close friends who have complete P1,P2 and the wold costumes

Well hello there. Im not an expert on peping. Infact im a noo just like you. But i started with and high def pep and form there it got easyer. In fact if you go to my thread you can see the progress. As for te iron man mask. It looks great! I my self Jump on the iron man banwaggon. It's casue my friend wants to make the MRK III. So im helping out while makeing my own. So i will be watching your thread. So will you be makeing the helmet to open or just keep it like it is. I my self want to try and make it to open up. Also I have many pep files. So if you need any hit me up XD. I look forward to seeing more from you.
(also i love that predator shot, Is that you in a cosplay please message me)

 

[Ironhide]

The helmet looks nice so far. I am so excited to see the rest of the suit. Keep it up

 

[thorn696]

Looking good, A little warping but nothing the bondo coat won't fix. As for glue.. Allot of people use Hot glue. And then again allot of us use Tacky glue. Me I use the Tacky glue its fast and smooth. As for pep, The more you do the easier/better it gets.

Well I hope this helps and I'm looking forward to see more of you're build.

 

[ironpredator]

Thanks for the advise thorn, Im kinda hoping the bondo takes that warpping out thats on the helmet. I think for my first pep files I rush the cutting process instead of taking my time cutting percise using a ruler on every straight part. It is a learning process for sure and im glad I have come here with the right people who can help me out

Looking good, A little warping but nothing the bondo coat won't fix. As for glue.. Allot of people use Hot glue. And then again allot of us use Tacky glue. Me I use the Tacky glue its fast and smooth. As for pep, The more you do the easier/better it gets.

Well I hope this helps and I'm looking forward to see more of you're build.

 

[ironpredator]

just a quick update, I fiberglassed my very first pep today and going to do the inside with the cloth tomorrow

 

[thorn696]

Now that looks great.

 

[ironpredator]

well I invested a few euro/dollars and decided to get a few bits today, Stealth uses smooth-cast 321 in his videos for hardening because of its low fumes etc so I could not get the 5 litre one so I had to get the trial version, hopefully ill get a helmet or two out of it.

No bondo in Ireland here im afreaid so ive read alot about U-POL and how good a finish it leave so again this is all trial and error so lots of luck needed ha!!


just a quick question, on the U-POL it says mix 100 ratio filler to 2 ratio hardener, how would people manage to do this correctly?

cheers

 

[Sutekhian]

U-Pol's the stuff I use too, had very good experience with it so far! As for the mixing ratio, probably not the best way but I've always just played it by ear and guesstimated the amounts.

 

[ventrue]

SmoothCast is not harmless. Make sure to ventilate really well or use a respirator.

If you really wanted to mix your filler in the exact ratio, you could use scales, but it's easier to just eyeball it. Too much hardener is better than too little, but don't overdo it.