pepakura to fiberglass/bondo suit

[Acuzio]

Would it be possible to make a pepakura style suit then cover it with fiberglass and or bondo? I know it would be alot of work but my artistic skills are fairly .... well they suck. Thank you.

 

[Ares]

I think it would be....

 

[Acuzio]

I wasn't sure if the fiberglass would weaken the card stock/cardboard underneath or not. Time to go back to cutting and gluing things.

 

[Sean Bradley]

I believe that it would be possible, but I would tread lightly when applying that first layer of fiberglass. If it were to oversaturate your cardstock and tape it could begin to fall apart. I'm sure though that with some patience that you could carefully brush on a little fiberglass at a time. Maybe a test of the process is in order before you proceed?

Also I would reccomend to all the Pepakura/cardstock armor makers that they reinforce their armor with fiberglass cloth from the underside, rather than the exterior. Just brush a light coat of resin on the exterior after it's been reinforced. I think your results will be much cleaner, and preserve tha accuracy of your original paper models.

 

[Acuzio]

Thank you Sean, I will try it out once my model is done and try to get back (may be a few weeks x_X

 

[Frizzlefry]

Not to contradict Sean, but I think I'm going to put a cloth layer on the exterior of my helmet because I really don't care so much for the hard edges. Sanding it should help smooth it out some.

 

[Sean Bradley]

Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you... you might be making more work for yourself that way... but I understand your reasons why.

;-)

 

[smilie120]

if i was ne of you i would pain a few coats of resin in the interior and exterior of your armour to give it extra strength. because the fiberglass could crush the paper/card mold and then youd have a blob of.......well, nothing ;-)

 

[Sigma LS]

I did this with my Halo 1 helmet

http://www.mjolnirarmor.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1566

Epoxy soaked into paper and cardboard first cured it for the fiberglass resin coats later, cloth on the inside with critical parts also reinforced with bondo.

I can't wait to finish that thing when I get back.

 

[Darth Malevelus]

if i was ne of you i would pain a few coats of resin in the interior and exterior of your armour to give it extra strength. because the fiberglass could crush the paper/card mold and then youd have a blob of.......well, nothing ;-)

Exactly, when I started my papercrafted Fett bucket, I had to reiforce all the seams with good ole elmers, then paint on several coats of polyester resin. Once the 4 coats of this cured, now my paper crafted bucket shell is nearly as hard as a full fiberglass lid.

The resin will soak right into the cardboard, and paper, but if carefull it will reinforce things alot once its cured up.

 

[Acuzio]

Where would you suggest getting poly. resin nearby? lowes, walmart, advanced auto and k-mart are my choices that are big name brand.

 

[Sigma LS]

Wal-Mart is probably cheapest. They have it in the auto section. $14 for bondo putty and $19 for resin

Wish I would've found that out before I got ripped off at Home Depot. $22 for bondo putty and $33 for resin.