Some quick questions

[Lukeh]

Heya, I've been researching a prospected build for this coming Halloween, I wanna make the T51B Power Armour from Fallout.

I just have some quick questions.

I'm planning to use pepakura, and already have the head scaled, and the files exported to a pdf to be printed.

If I'm working from my smallish room in a apartment, what is the best way to go about strengthening and finish?

I can paint outside come spring, and I'm expecting this to be a long term project. But what is the best course of action resin/epoxy wise?

Bare in mind I'm living in the room I work in, so fumes are a nono, and the only thing I could think of is mod podge and paper mache, since sanding would be troublesome in my room.

Anyone who has made anything in my situation have any recommendations? I'm sure there's tons of stuff I don't even realize are issues yet.

Thanks, and I'll be sure to post progress pics as I'm working

 

[FlyinPhil]

Using a non toxic epoxy resin will be your best bet if you are using pep as your main form of construction. I've seen a number of users have great luck using a product called aqua resin, so it's probably worth checking out!

So now I'm going to do something which irks me to no end. I often see members suggest a different method of building simply because they think it is easier or better, despite having never tried different mediums. That being said, have you considered using foam for the body parts of the armor? Pep will score you some awesome detail in the helmet, so I would definitely take that route, but foam would be a great non-toxic way to tackle the body. I went with foam for a slightly different reason (mostly the cold canadian climate making it hard to work with resin year round haha), but I am very happy with the results.

 

[Lukeh]

Using a non toxic epoxy resin will be your best bet if you are using pep as your main form of construction. I've seen a number of users have great luck using a product called aqua resin, so it's probably worth checking out!

So now I'm going to do something which irks me to no end. I often see members suggest a different method of building simply because they think it is easier or better, despite having never tried different mediums. That being said, have you considered using foam for the body parts of the armor? Pep will score you some awesome detail in the helmet, so I would definitely take that route, but foam would be a great non-toxic way to tackle the body. I went with foam for a slightly different reason (mostly the cold canadian climate making it hard to work with resin year round haha), but I am very happy with the results.

Hmm, how much harder/easier is foam to work with then pep? I'm unable to use bondo, the mess is simply too much for my apartment, so I'm thinking that a foam body might actually be much nicer.

 

[FlyinPhil]

Hmm, how much harder/easier is foam to work with then pep? I'm unable to use bondo, the mess is simply too much for my apartment, so I'm thinking that a foam body might actually be much nicer.

It's not necessarily any easier or harder, it's just quite a different method. You have to make sure all of your seams and shape are pretty close to being perfect, as you don't follow up with bondo and smooth over anything. If you take a look at the build thread in my signature, you can see my various methods of working with foam!