Reinforcing

[Rid3r]

I've never really been into resin and fiberglass, as they are too costly to use on my armor and I like my method better. So I looked at some other tutorials and got started.

>>> Reinforcing Your Armor With Foamcore and Glue <<<
by Rid3r

1. Materials:
> OfficeMax 110 lb cardstock (whiteindex)
> Foamcore (the white type)
> Glue gun
> 100+ hot glue sticks

2. Pep Time!
Print out, fold, and assemble your pepakura piece. That's it. I started with easy parts, like the crotch (about 3 hours). I glued the folds.

3. Glue
On the inside of the piece, go over the tabs' edges with glue.

4. Reinforcing
In some other pieces I actually filled the whole thing with glue. But I recently got a low-temp glue gun and have been using it instead of the high-temp (low temp will not fill easily). So I haven't been using the glue-filling method.

Instead I cut peices of foamcore and built a frame inside of the crotch piece. This was extremely easy to do. A couple of tips when using this method are:
> Glue the foamcore pieces together for more stability.
> Make sure to reinforce all parts of the piece that bend/flex easily.

And that's pretty much it. There aren't any pics because I finished the piece already, but it should be relatively easy to know what to do.

 

[innerrayg]

Not bad; a good modification of the Cardboard/Hotglue method for someone wanting even more stability, however the cost of Foamcore might be a negative offset unless one can find it for pretty cheap. Well, then again, you do get pretty big sheets when you buy them, let me know how much of your armor you can reinforce with just one sheet.

 

[AoBfrost]

Omg.....stealing my idea :/


I came out with the hot glue method, and 5-6 people have used it and have ben happy, you dont need a hot glue gun, my method works alot better.

All you do is get 2-3 packs of hot glue sticks high temp, a portable stove (most people have one), paint brushes, and a coffee or pie tin. Place pie/coffee tin over the stove on medium heat, toss in 30 sticks at a time, start brushing the hot glue on. I thought this up a long time ago, there was a thread for it. It is much stronger than just sealing the seams with hot glue and foam. It makes a solid layer of hot glue. A hot glur stick itself is study, but flexible, it being so thin, if you made a layer of 1/4th an inch, you'd have armor pretty strong and slightly weighted. So it wouldnt be extremely heavy.

 

[Rid3r]

I don't use your method, Frost, because my parents won't let me. =(

innerrayg: It took me like a quarter of the whole sheet for the crotch piece and the sheet was pretty small.

 

[Kamuro]

Will this work with 67 lbs. cardstock?

 

[AoBfrost]

Probably will, but dont start asking if it will work on printer paper. I doubt that will ever happen.