My Custom P1 inspired Pepakura Bio

[kanji]

Hello Hunters!

I've been wanting to try my hands on predator costuming, but never quite find the time to do so. Last week I stumbled on pepakura bio helmet while surfing and I had to give it a shot. I'm familiar with fiberglassing and fiberglass mold making so I thought that this pep could give excelent base for custom bio build.

I quickly threw cardboard helmet together and I wasn't too worried about the overall aesthetics, I focused on symmetry but cardboard just gives the internal core thats going to be glassed from outside and inside. I used cyano to glue cardboard because I feared that pritt paper glue might give up under resin.

Here are first pictures from the cardboard folding nightmare

 

[kanji]

Here is where I got yesterday. I soaked whole helmet with 30minute finishing epoxy resin and let it set for 6 hours before I started to laminate pretty heavy 100g/m2 fiberglass rowing over it.

 

[kanji]

Ok, and here is where I'm at today. I roughly sanded fiberglass weaving and took couple quick photos. This evening I'm going to glass the halo's upper and lower lip and fix the symmetry issue on left cheek.

Area between eyes is also going to be cut open, I just need to lay couple 50g/m2 fabrics in there to give rigid construction.

Other than that I'm quite happy how this is turning out. After I've glassed whole bio, I plan to spread filler/bondo all over it and sand it smooth. Then I start to lay more contours and details with bondo. I'm still strugling, should I make this as sleak and polished I can, or try to go for that hand forged metal look that suits P1 bio.

Thanks for looking and I will post more updates propably tomorrow.

 

[th3 pr3dat0r]

looking good.

 

[hez1]

Looks good so far. I've only seen one finished pep bio, but when it was all done out I would not have guessed that that was how it was made. Looking forward to seeing the rest.

 

[kanji]

Hello again and thank you for the kind words.

Yesterday I glassed halo area and gave extra layers to cheeks and area between eyes.

Bio came out pretty rigid, it takes lot of bending and twisting and it seems that it can take quite a pounding.

This morning started with 2 hours of nonstop sanding action. When I finally got helmet relatively smooth and even I sprayed fast drying white primer to show imperfections on glassing. After primer dried I threw healthy amount of 2 composite putty/bondo on top. On most areas there are at least 1mm think layer of bondo, but on areas like the halo and mouth there is quite a lot of to give more room for sanding contours. I let bondo to set at least 10 hours so that its fully cured and dont block sanding paper before I continue. I have to let my elbow rest too, that resin sanding this morning was quite a undertaking opcorn:

I will show you guys the good, the bad and the ugly

After I've got the basic shape clean I add targeting housing and other smaller details.


btw, I'm not an expert on different size bios, this one measures 10,5 inches widht on halo, is this on smaller side or...?

 

[kanji]

Two composite putty took almost 24 hours to fully cure, and yesterday evening I sanded most of it off. Here is couple of pics from the bio after rough sanding. I'm still thinking, should I sand this as smooth as I can and add another layer of bondo after primer coat, or leave it as it is. Now there is couple longer "scars" and dents and some smaller imperfections that would gather weathering nicely after final paintcoat

 

[kanji]

And here are some shots after first coat of building spray primer. Now I'm going to let that primer to set and then start filling that outer seam on halo. I might threw some filler on those couple bigger dents on the mouth and right cheek are too.


[edit : I added couple pics after adding laser housing.. rough skecth but I make it work ]

 

[kanji]

Oki, got some work done.. helmet now sanded and put another coat of filler, and sanded, and primed and... I wanted this to be sleak and polished bio. I ended up on my second idea, more hi-tech predator, without traditional dread beads and tribal feel. I just threw some thin and some 12mm diameter rubber insulation on the foam head to show where I'm going with this. I'm going to make some 30mm diameter dreads from latex to give back side of the head more volume.

I will paint helmet with pearlsheen antrasith gray and give it good polish. These insulation "dreads" are going to be dipped in black latex so smooth those out and give even colour. I want to use that black plastic installation piping as beads, those are going to be gunmetal grey and some basic shiny black.

Thanks for looking. I'm quite happy how I got that cardboard helmet turned to fiberglass one and now its origins are quite hidden.

 

[Robillicus]

Wow!!! You're right, there's no evidence that thing was made from carboard; folded cardboard no less. I can't imagine how much of a pain in the ass that would've been. Although, the end result looks to be worth all of the effort involved folding that stuff.

I've got no experience doing the whole "Pepakura" thing, but done well the results are pretty impressive!! I think that yours turned out great, and the symmetry is excellent. Nice sharp lines, and some really smooth contours, too. Thumbs up!!

 

[antcarb]

Hey you should mold that and and keep that as a base for future projects.I understand the work behind fiberglasing and its defintly a process.Really nice job fingersanding i would hire you.See ya

 

[Guan Thwei]

I must say that @ 1st I was not very interested in Pepakura Bios, but you help me change my perception on Pepakura all together. Excellent work indeed

 

[kanji]

Hi guys and thank you so much for the positive feedback. Yep, its had some work, but this has been quite a quick build. Its about 1½ weeks when I started to fold cardboard and even tho I've taken many days in between, its now on painting stage. I'm more DIY kinda guy.. I took this more as a challenge, to see how could I convert that paper model to a useable bio. I love doing stuff and best part on the process is to figure what materials/technigues to use and the overall creative feel, you can see your work as you progress.

Let me say that the metallic pearlsheen paint coat is unforgiving.. Every single scratch shows.. so it would be back to filling and sanding, or just flow with the punches. Now I have first pearlsheen grey coat on and tomorrow I'm going to shoot another pearlsheen mist coat over, but really lightly and with bit darker grey to add depth. Then I planned to weather this with bit darker gray thats on the bio itself to add some depth to those scratches and dents, but I dont want to do that with black, that would accent those too much. Well, I will post more pics how this works out. Pics dont give justice to shade of that paint, its wierd almost cameleont kinda paint that changes from almost chrome to darker antasinth grey and it has really fine metallic grain, not similar with cheaper spray silver/aluminium paints

I added first details before I shoot first final paintcoat. I added plastic gear on left cheek that resembles one on P1 bio. I got gear from RC cars differential spareparts, now when I look it after paint, I propably should have sanded some height off from that gear I also throw together really quick mockup from laser targeting, it also has some misc parts, like 3mm led, some wires, small gear from servo etc..

Oh, and you can see that I also added mockup P1 styled visor.. I have to get bigger and unfold piece of that plastic, so I can make final and tidy visor.

 

[kanji]

Ok, added some light gunmetal/black weathering wash and smeared lightly over whole bio, it looked to tidy in all chrome paintjob.

I will sleep over night and take good look tomorrow, if I will weather it more or seal this with final clear coat.

Sorry about that dented visor, I have to get clean film so I can make final visor.

 

[AlienatedPredator]

thats the best pepakura bio I have ever seen man, great job

 

[Getal Gratua]

Paper is just amaxing! Keep it up, man!

 

[kanji]

I didnt want to start new topic over this so I post my experiments here. I decided that bio doesnt look right with just dreads hanging from it, so I started to wonder what I could use to make that better. After some thinking I got myself 6cm thick piece of matress foam and roughly drew bio outline and sketched some dimensions. Then I just started to carve foam with scissors, slowly at a time. I cut rough shape, then drowned it with two thick layers of latex and this morning, when it was all set, I cut dread openings. Today I'm going to paint this mockup and see if I can use this technique to make light weight scale looking headpiece for dreads. If painting goes well and it looks ok, I add some more details on top layer and cover it with liquid latex again. Then paint it with final paintcoat.

 

[shockwave1]

Great work, it's looking awesome! The bio looks especially nice, I really like that colour.

 

[shaka-zulu]

I love the sharp edges and lines. It is a really neat looking bio helmet, great job dude.

 

[radtech7]

Holy Cow, that's awesome,love it!!!!
I'm going to have to try making this!!.