First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Sentinel here I come.

[Unsung]

Well everyone... After looking online for a week at TheHeroTutorials videos and posts I decided it was time to attempt my own armor. My wife and I are biig time comic con veterans and cosplayers. But never have I attempted a costume on this scale.

I am using the Warmachine design but i will be making slight variations and painting the armor in the likeness of one of marvels most iconic machines, The SENTINEL.

Easy right.... Yeah they make it look so easy online.. It cant be that hard...... Ohh boy.

On day one i downloaded the Pepakura Designer program and bought my card stock, blades, glue sticks, two rolls of the AtiFatigue matts that they use on the tutorials, metal ruler, nice scissors and even ordered an X-Acto to cut at 45 degree angle..... (I like the good ol scissors better though...) 100$ never went so fast!!

That night I also cut out the design for the Marmachine gauntlet. After that of course I cut out the foam..... These steps took WAAAYYY loner than I had anticipated.

That was that no more for the night.

Last night I broke out the glue gun to give it a go..... What the heck.... What angle do I cut these things at? So Ilooked and looked at the 3D picture..... And said screw it here goes nothing.

Yeah... Ha.... Well.... The gauntlet was huge on me so I edited it a little.. I figure im not going for an exact warmachine match any ways so who cares. The other thing that didnt work well for me was the recess in the design... To give it the 3D effect... You all know what I mean... Im supposed to just glue it on the under side and slightly slide it up but... What the heck... I just need to do something else.... Here is a picture of my gauntlet... And it only took almost 4 hours to do it all...ha....ohh boy.

 

[Grave]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

ya man. untill you get it down really good, its a little expensive. my first foam was my gundam. $800 later... done and perfect. but my new one is going a lot better. a lot less wasted and much cleaner.
scissors are great! for corners it does the job because only the outside edge needs to be flush. the foam will mold itself to the shape. the gundam only has 90's and 45's (ish) on it. never botheres trying to get an exact angle, which i could have done on my scroll saw.
and really, its all about how you finish it. ive seen some BAD glue jobs on here, but if you can figure out how to finish it, you could never tell.
good luck, ill be watching.

 

[GrumpyStud]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Where's the picture I can't see it?

 

[Unsung]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Heres the pictures guys. I changed it a little but because im making a SENTINEL no one will know any different. Cutting out the left gauntlet tonight.

Here we go!

 

[Unsung]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Well crap.. I thought Ijust posted guess not... Its been far too long so here is my progress.

 

[Grave]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

are you doing something different with the helmet?

 

[Lord Magneto]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Nice start. Your wife looks like she has some nice tats on her arm.

Sentinel is a cool project to try

 

[iMan]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

For your first go at this, it doesn't look half bad. Looking forward to seeing more progress on this since it is something different that is not normally built on here.

 

[Unsung]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Grave... This is it for the helmet.... The first go wasnt sentinely enough... But i feel this helmet portrays what i need.

Magnet and Mcfly.... Keep watching we are gonna do some bad ass painting.... I just need to figure out if i plastidip or bondo... Or what. Any suggestions?

 

[iMan]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Plastidip seems to be the main form of sealant that most people use on here. I am not at that stage yet in my build so I don't even know what I am going to go with but if you check out docholiday78's Iron Man build, he uses rondo to seal his.

 

[Alpha Proto]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Are you making the sentinal from the Marvel VS Capcom 3 game?

 

[Unsung]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Ill check his out Mcfly, Ive heard rondo too... I wouldnt mind to find some way to have the helmet and neck casted to make plastic copies... But I dont know how to do, is there companies thatll do it for me?

Alpha... Im just doing my own interpretation of the Sentinel.

Thanks huahua, keep watching and posting!

 

[docholiday78]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Ill check his out Mcfly, Ive heard rondo too... I wouldnt mind to find some way to have the helmet and neck casted to make plastic copies... But I dont know how to do, is there companies thatll do it for me?

Alpha... Im just doing my own interpretation of the Sentinel.

Thanks huahua, keep watching and posting!

well Mcfly was close lol I dont use rondo to seal the foam I explain in my thread more in depth, I use rondo when I want a more rigid outer shell but not for sealing

 

[Grave]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

oh, i missed that your making a sentinel.

 

[Unsung]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Doc what do you use for the sealing agent? I bought a bunch of plastidip.... But im open to other suggestions... Ill check yur threads out later today.

Also is there a company that will make casts or molds of my stuff?

 

[Grave]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

most people use mod-podge. its cheaper and you get more of it. if you search painting on here, you will see there are many options.

 

[Unsung]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Kinda at a stan still for now.... I have everything made except the legs.... I am gonna try to heat form the foam and make plat forms.... My buddy did a bad ass costume during our Sci fi party... So im waiting for his help.

Heres my question that im still not getting good answers too.... Am I supposed to seal first then sand down the corners? Melt the glue that is visible?

I see all these perfectly smooth helmets and armor... Do Ilayer it then sand? Are these pieces im seeing using something different then glue/water and/or plastidip?

Im such a noob im sorry guys... This is my first go at this art... Or any art to be honest.

Help me out peeps.

 

[Grave]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

actually, your not supposed to get glue on the outside. your edges should be almost seamless. its something that has taken me 2 years to figure out.
dont use glue water. its not good. even if you use plastidip, it doesnt fill in holes, cracks and bubble marks. podge is cheap, easy, non-toxic and is meant for eva foam. you just keep layering it on so smooth it out and sand it with 240 or greater sand aper. if you have deep grooves or divets, you need to fill them with something first.
so it goes back to gluing your seams properly the first time.

also, i dont know what you mean by using foam for platforms. advice from my experience with the gundam. get rubber, dont use foam. it will shread walking around and end up tearing the foot apart. i bought 1/2 solid rubber for the feet of the gundam. it had traction and the foot has only a slight bend.

 

[Unsung]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

Its really just the first few pieces that I did that have glue on the outside of the seams, i think im gonna melt em with the glue gun, then mod podge, then 240 sand.

Do you have your design for the feet?

I wasnt gonna be walking on the actualy foam... I think my buddy used stacked cardboard..or wood.. Shoot to be honest I dont know what he used. Ha.

 

[Grave]

Re: First go at Pepakura Foam Armor!!! Wish me luck!!

no design. i just traced out what i needed to make a sole for the boot, then attached it to a real boot and the boot cover. the rubber i used weighs about 10lbs per gundam foot.
but thats also 5x the size of a regular foot.
i got mine in the flooring section of our canadian bigbox store. i dont know whats around you.