first time builder going big right off the bat with a hulkbuster foam build

[hturt]

That's what I do, on a lot of the foam unfolds they are only going to give you one half of the symmetrical shape. I lay the piece down,trace it, then flip it over and trace the other half to create one large outline. Some shin (and some bicep) unfolds are especially notorious for having only one side of even center pieces, so if you cut each side separate you'll end up with a seam running down the dead center of your entire part. If you look at the bicep in the right of the pic below (ignore the red circle), you can see that there's no seam down the center because all of those templates were flipped like you did for the faceplate. You can even see the pen mark in the foam towards the top to help me align the flipped template.

http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/26a3/9xpdzo541kh9erx4g.jpg

Less seams is better, but just make sure that the piece your flipping is truly a straight edge; even lightly curved edges usually come out better if you cut the sides separate and then glue, because the joint is supposed to have a bit of curve to it.

awesome so im on the right track now here is another question do you shape and glue pieces as you are cutting or do you cut everything shape than glue piece by piece?

 

[laellee]

I've built A LOT, so I have my own system, but I've kind of turned into a foam miser. I build one piece at a time to prevent confusion. I'll get my paper templates ready, and then first cut out all of the largest pieces. Then I look at my scrap foam, and try to use as much as possible by fitting the remaining. I DO cut out all of the foam pieces out before I start gluing anything, to answer your question. It's monotonous to do it this way, but then the actual building turns into a break for me.
Also, when I print my templates, I DO also print the edge ID numbers on the pieces.... On long seams, I mark the foam using those edge numbers as guides to help keep the pieces aligned. I don't mark the location of every number, just maybe the one closest to the center of the seam and a couple more if I think it helps. I also do this A LOT on curved joints, because it's easy for the foam pieces to drift out of alignment without a guide.

 

[hturt]

ok cool with builds do you ever run into an issue where the pieces dont fit or align and you have to kinda freestyle it?

 

[hturt]

i feel like i may have butchered my first attempt at the helm
so im going to call it a night a restart tomorrow and see i can make a good one

 

[hturt]

a bit of an update scrapping the original help and now going to freestyle the hulkbuster suit that came out on the avengers trailer

 

[Ikras]

The new one does look really nice. Might be hard to work out some regions that aren't too clear in the trailer. Guess that you can use the previous files you had as a basepoint to get an idea of where to with some sections at least.

ok cool with builds do you ever run into an issue where the pieces dont fit or align and you have to kinda freestyle it?

I've definitely found that sometimes. It's hard to tell if it's an issue with the template not transferring well to the foam or if angles are a bit off. On some parts I've made of my build I've definitely had to trim down some sections to get them to line up. I'd have thought the helmet is a hard part to start with too but keep at it and it should come out well in the end. On my second attempt at one just now myself.