My First Pepakura - Magneto

[Radioman]

Update:

I've been stressing over what to do with the edges. They were pretty rough and you could see card stock, fiberglass, bondo and gray board all stacked up. I've been trying to figure out how to make that thick layer of bondo on the mask detail hide all of that. Well tonight, I was watching another RPF'er video of a fella making a Captain America mask and on his edges, he glued strips of paper before he did his resin. Brilliant! I didn't want to do paper so I decided to attempt with tape, and then a thin layer of resin. I"m hoping I don't come out in the morning and find it all laying in a pile. I only had blue painter's tape and that doesn't always stick the best. The resin seems to be holding though.

 

[The_Mike]

This is looking good! This may be bad form but can you point me in the direction of the crest pep? I found the helmet file but haven't located the crest.

 

[Radioman]

Update time.

I didn't take pics, but this week I attempted to Bondo over the gray board on the detail design. That was really, really hard. In retrospect, I almost wish I hadn't done it. As evident in the second picture, I think I waited too long to get it on the left side and my Bondo was too dry. When I sanded, it left a very crumbled, pock-marked layer. After a couple more hours of sanding, I decided to take Cbhurless' advice and spray some sandable primer so I could see where I have issues. Saturday, I'm going to go back over the pits with Bondo and try to even out those areas. For sure, I need to re-hit the face detail.

I also have the sharp dent on the top back from the pep file. I'm assuming I'll have to just pile up the Bondo and try to smooth it out. I bought a Black and Decker Mouse Hand Sander at Target today (on sale for $29.99) so that should help.

I'm still pretty happy with it but am starting to realize that the quality will be what the quality is. It's my first piece, and I've certainly made some mistakes, but I've learned a lot.

Here are the pics for today. Thanks for reading!

 

[Radioman]

Updates!

After my first primer layer I went back and added some more Bondo to the low spots, holes, etc. I was able to fix a lot of the pock marks on the front, thankfully. My wife gave me a palette knife to spread the Bondo which was awesome. After a lot more sanding, here's where I'm at. I'm probably going to do one more interim primer layer and the last Bondo touch up. Kinda looks like Shaw's helmet and I was momentarily tempted to paint it that way.

I'm also including the crest work. It's a pain to sand this but we'll get there. I'm planning to paint tomorrow so if anyone has last minute painting advice, I'm all ears!

Pics!

 

[Radioman]

Lots of work today. Primer, sand, paint, rinse repeat.

I struck out finding metallic paint at Michaels and Home Depot, but the auto parts store had a wonderful supply of metallic spray paint, including purple. The woman at the counter asked me what I was painting and I told her that she wouldn't believe me if I told her. She said, "try me" so I said, "I'm doing Magneto's helmet." She stared at me for a moment and then screamed "OH MY GOD I LOVE THE X-MEN CAN I SEE IT???". I showed her the pics on my phone and she was thrilled. A nice moment for me to be sure!



I threw a layer of black paint on the inside, because dried resin looks like snot. I decided I didn't want people looking inside and wondering if I was congested.

The red paint was darker than it was on the cap and I realized it was a thin paint and picking up the grey primer. I originally painted the detail red thinking I could do purple over it. Wrong! The purple didn't show at all. So I switched to white primer and then painted the purple over the white. For some reason, the purple was really runny even after shaking the crap out of the can. Fortunately, the second coat is coming out better.

I'm also trying to decide the position of the crest. Here's my low, medium and high test.



To be honest, I like the medium, even though it's not technically accurate. The low is too low, the high (while most accurate) doesn't hide some of my mistakes. (I'm honest, at least.)

Since there are a couple of people following this thread, I thought I would also add a shot of my resources. These are the products I have been using on this project.



On top of this, I also used 110lb card stock but forgot to include it. The Bondo resin was about $17 and the Bondo about $10. Brushes, cups and other supplies are from the Dollar Store. Note the lines on my measuring cup. If you don't know this trick, let me know. It'll save you a little money and time.

Sorry this is so long. Almost done!

Thanks for reading and the support.

Mark

 

[OhMyStarLord]

Wow this is absolutely incredible, I am now inspired to actually try this, I was a bit timid, but dang. Thanks and I'll be watching for updates! Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[smellyscot]

Well done, its coming along nicely. I too am new to pepakura, but I am loving it. Lots to learn but having an absolute ball doing so. I now have Stormtrooper, Iron Man and Hellboy bust on the go.
Looking forward to seeing the end the result, but the big question, what is next??

 

[Radioman]

Don't know, smellyscot. I started a Captain America helmet just for some practice doing cardboard instead of cardstock. The difference (that I'm aware of) is that with cardboard, and then 3mm to 6mm foam, you're dealing with gluing edges directly together instead of having the tabs. Makes cutting a hell of a lot easier. I own a scroll saw so I'm anxious to move to foam. I drive right past a Harbor Freight tools on the way to and from work and they sell sheets of the rubber floot matting pretty cheap. Can't wait to grab some.

I'm going to WonderCon up in Anaheim this weekend so maybe I'll get some inspiration there.

 

[Radioman]

Quick update.

I have to tell you, I've had a hell of a time painting this damn thing.

The paints I bought at the auto parts store just didn't work as well as I hoped. They are extremely thin. Every flaw showed and when there was even the slightest amount of pooling, it ruined the finish. I've primered three times now and I'm just about done with it.

So I went back to Michael's and picked up standard, gloss (not metallic) Testors spray paint. Today I did two red coats. I probably won't do a third as I'm anxious to finish this and move on. Tomorrow I'll reverse my taping and do at least one coat of the purple. I have a plan for attaching the crest that I think will work. I'll document that for you all as well.

Here's some pics. Again, thanks for the support. I've been less than excited about this the last couple of days due to my paint woes. The current red is looking nice though.

 

[Radioman]

I had every intention of having this helmet done by today when I took the kids to WonderCon up in Anaheim. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. This paint has been the death of me and almost caused me to take a hammer to the project.

I finished off the red coat, waited for it to dry, then masked and painted the purple. The purple paint didn't cooperate. I don't know if it was the temperature (mid 60's), me laying too thick or what have you, but it ran, globbed, seeped under the tape onto the red, you name it. It was screwed up.




I tried to do some spot sand and touch up and things just got progressively worse. There was just literally no way to fix this. At this point in time, I was ready to quit. Trying to paint two colors that really couldn't overlap and trying to exactly hit the blend line so none of the white primer showed through, especially on those weird curves, was just beyond me. My wife told me to walk away from it for a while but instead I grabbed the sander, and proceeded to attack it again.

I took a great deal of the paint off, and then went into what I was jokingly referring to as "dental mode". I took out the small tools and began cleaning paint out of every crack, took the detail file and dug on every line and then primered again. After that, I looked at where I still had pocks, dents and dips. I mixed up a very small amount of Bondo and using my palette knife, began filling in everything left. After it sets, I start with 600 grit sandpaper and finish it off with 120 and a sanding sponge.




There are still going to be small imperfections but I wanted to make sure the design on the front was as perfect as I could get.

My painting plan is this: I'm going to primer one last time, then cover the entire helmet with the candy apple red. I'll then hand paint the design with purple acrylic. Once that dries, I'll mask the red tightly, and do a single, light coat of purple spray over the acrylic. Then I will clear coat the entire piece.

I did have a two "come to *****" moments about this project today. At WonderCon, I saw a guy with a home made helmet that looked like it was made out of mashed potatoes. As I was about to snicker to myself I realized the difference between his and mine is that HE WAS WEARING HIS PROUDLY and mine was still on my bench. Ouch. The other, is that I might not "want" to finish this. I'm enjoying the project and sanding is quite cathartic for me. Regardless, the Master of Magnetism cannot be denied. This must be finished.

Sorry to go all zen there, but I'm starting to understand the insanity this hobby brings. More updates as they come.

Mark

 

[Radioman]

Update time.

Started with the red coat. This is about 4 coats of red. There's a couple of different colors on here until I found the one I liked.



I then taped for the detail and did a single, very light coat of white primer as I didn't want to risk the purple paint right on top of the red. Taping this is was a pain. It takes lots of patience and custom cutting tape pieces, especially in the corners. (You can see my next project on the sander in the background.)



Then three light coats of purple Testors paint.



And here's where we are this morning!



The paint came out pretty smooth and I'm overall happy with the finish. There's still some pock marks and such, but for a first project it's not bad. This weekend, I'll do two coats of gloss clear coat and then I'll paint interior black to hide that work and some overspray. I also need to attach the crest and it'll be done.

 

[Radioman]

Last update!!

We were supposed to compete in the county race for my son's Pinewood Derby but it got cancelled due to weather. (We build winning cars, too.) So, I decided to knock this out.

I started with two coats of clear coat on the helmet and crest. No reason to waste time with pictures of that.

So the next step was how to mount the crest. I wanted to come up with a solution that didn't glue it right to the helmet. One, the back of the crest is flat and the forehead of the helmet is rounded so there wasn't much surface area. If I ever did wear to a con, it would be fragile. So instead, I decided to peg it.

I drilled a 1/4" hole in the crest, amazingly not damaging the front of it in the process.



Then cut a piece of quarter inch dowel that we had and glued and zip kicked it into the crest.



Then the scary part. I drilled a quarter inch hole in the forehead of my beautiful helmet. I knew this would be covered up anyway but I had visions of it splitting into pieces. It chipped a bit on the top, but it's manageable. (By the way, this is what it would look like if the Punisher successfully got a shot in on Erik.)



I then slid the pegged crest into the hole, and here we have it.



And this is my first pepakura. Before this, I had never cut and glued one. Never used resin or fiberglass mesh or Bondo. I have never sanded ANYTHING so much in my life, and forced myself to learn the patience of a monk through three layers of spray paint.

Looping back to the start of this thread I would give the same advice some wise RPF'er posted in another thread. Just start. Pick your project and jump in knowing full well you will make mistakes. You will. You'll get frustrated and want to give up but if you keep pushing yourself, you will surprise yourself and come up with something that you'll be proud of. Magneto here is not studio quality at all. You can spot a thousand defects in my pictures. But I think I turned in a solid B.

Thanks for reading all. It's been a a lot of fun.

Now...Mark VII or Mark 42???

Mark