Tutorial: Pepakura building for dummies (or noobs)

[zoron]

instead of glue, due to lack of funds and being a little lazy, i found that painters tape works quite well. it holds it together so it does the same thing as glue. but i was wondering if problems might arise later during fiberglassimg or any other stage?

 

[BetaBucky]

I'm a newbie and I gotta say this is one thbest tutorials I've read here so far. I'm trying to build an SMG first and make my way up to bigger weapons. Thanks for the tut. Really helped me out.

 

[rvb4life]

instead of glue, due to lack of funds and being a little lazy, i found that painters tape works quite well. it holds it together so it does the same thing as glue. but i was wondering if problems might arise later during fiberglassimg or any other stage?

painters tape may not hold up well against the curing of the fiberglass. check a piece before you go any further with the painters tape.

tape will be expensive in the long run, trust me, hot glue is much better (and stronger).



@bucky- thanks.

 

[millo]

I found this product which apparently may work for us on pepakura
Elmer's ultimate glue

 

[rvb4life]

you could just use white PVA glue instead of beefing it up, its unnecessary and your just wasting money.


oh, and just because its waterproof, doesn't mean its Polyester Resin-proof.

 

[droodles]

I found this product which apparently may work for us on pepakura
Elmer's ultimate glue

I used ultimate glue on my clone. I don't think it would work very well because it expands into a foamy like texture as it dries. Oh and it take about 8 hours to dry.

 

[Brokenchord]

An excellent idea about folding is to mark before cutting your pieces! Oh yeah!
Pass all your fording lines with pen! With red or blue colour depending of the folding type! Red for valley end blue for mountain! End then cut!

 

[nirvanaking95]

RIP Thomas Fromal 1989-2008 YOU ARE GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN (FAREWELL MY FRIEND)


im sorry =( makes me even feel made

 

[rvb4life]

RIP Thomas Fromal 1989-2008 YOU ARE GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN (FAREWELL MY FRIEND)
im sorry =( makes me even feel made

What?

 

[Freeztech]

Just as a side note with cutting out the parts,
always cut towards yourself.
not stupidly of course.
This is so you cut straighter lines.
you cut or draw straighter this way, because of the way your mind works.

just an interesting and maybe useful fact I thought I'd put out there for you all.

 

[meh man]

Definitely one of the bests tutorials on this web site, I'll make sure the bannana remembers it

Did you remember it banana? What? You can't hear me over your dancing! UGH! whatever, I'll have to remember it

 

[rvb4life]

thanks, and yes, cutting towards you is much more effective than away (kind of like writing, but with a knife)

 

[lostdude]

I must say, very nice tuitorial. Once classes were done today I printed a set out onto regular copy paper (doh...) and got started.... 10hrs later! I have everything cut out, folded, and ready for gluing.

THIS PROJECT TAKES A LOT OF TIME KIDS SO MAKE SURE YOU ENJOY WHAT YOU'RE DOING (for emphasis not yelling )

I am a member of the 501st Imperial Legion and enjoy costuming and I can't wait to have my own set of armor from Halo. Again thanks for the tuitorial and once I finish this test run on my first pepakura I'll dive right into the real thing.

Cheers!

 

[poosandwees]

i use tape and it works fine!!!
good tut rvb4life.

 

[Rhith]

After reading many repeated questions and all five pages I'm going to throw out some of my knowledge into this thread and you may work some of it into your first post.

The pen idea is great and seen in papercrafting across the internet. Since you mentioned the color idea that is great, one more commonly seen method is using a dried out/empty pen so you can still see all of the fold lines that were originally printed. A fine tip pen works great for this.

And though hot glue seems to be a common ingredient for armor around here I feel for paper crafting the way it dries may cause some complications and be hard to use on small pieces. I've been using Aleene's tacky glue for all of my papercrafts. You are able to put a nice dollop on a scrap piece of paper or laminated card (old school ID or the such) and then apply using either scraps of paper or my preference for most stuff, tooth picks. The cost should be cheaper for starting out to just get the glue as well, it's <$3 for a 16oz bottle of the glue at WalMart.

And I see you've mentioned a cutting board, a BIG help for cutting heavier paper is a self healing cutting mat. (Which it looks like you show) About $15 but well worth the investment. Saves the tips on your exacto's and has some give so it allows your blade to properly grab and cut your paper.

If anyone has questions feel free to PM me.

 

[rvb4life]

Tack glue is okay, i dont prefer it because you cannot undo anything if you messed up. And, hot glue allows for small pieces to be glued, you need that certain touch.

and yes, a self-healing mat is a lifesaver, just get an exacto brand mat. Plus, mine has measurement lines printed on.

 

[agfrx7]

Someone Please help me. I am a total noob to making pep armor, but I've been trying to do my homework. I follow the instructions on downloading a pep viewer and then I downloaded the pep file. I then tried to open the file ine the view, but when I looked where I had saved the file... the viewer didn't recognize anything in the file! SO I figured that I'd try it with the Pep Designer program. Still the same problem. I have tried everything that I can think of and now I'm about to pull my hair out! SO please help!!!

ps: I'm going to build this suit to start a super hero charity group much like the 405th and 501st. With any luck possibly have multiple chapters around the nation if not world ya know? I'll keep dreaming though

Thanks in advance for any help you guys could give me!
-Aaron

 

[Ithica]

Be sure to have it read all file types. Also check again on folder destination. If needed put it in the folder with Pepakura.

Ithica

 

[agfrx7]

Yeah i tried having it read as all file types and even placed the files in the Pep prgram as well. Still no luck. Uhg

 

[Ral Partha]

Yeah i tried having it read as all file types and even placed the files in the Pep prgram as well. Still no luck. Uhg

I'm not sure if you checked the file format of the downloaded file (since you made no mention of it) but there's a good possibility that you have a .rar file. Open this kind of file using WinRAR and decompress it. After that, both Viewer and Designer should be able to open it.