eternalstudios
New Member
First off I just want to say that everyone on this site is amazing for being able to make the costumes that I have seen made on here. Frankly I am very new to this and still learning. But I am going to get straight to the point.
This post is for new pepakura wanderers whom I do not want to make the same mistakes that I made. In order to do so I am going to show you some of my past failures and my current project.
This was my first baby. It was suppose to be a red hood helmet. It wasn't until later that I found out it wasn't a red hood helmet. It was just a deathstroke helmet that was all red. It still started out good none the less. It started out so promising, that is until when I got about 75% of the way done I realised it was going to be too small.
Still I was determined to finish it. Unfortunately though, the way I put it together was off some sort of way. I was unable to glue the back of the helmet and the face of it together without basically warping it. So my advice to anyone working on pepakura is to glue sections at a time, and then make it all come together as a smaller puzzle in the end.
This one here was my first true love though. My Arkham Knight helmet was a thing of beauty. It almost was so perfect it brought tears to my eyes. You have to understand, the first time I heard about pepakura I thought to myself "HELL NO, thats too much and it is impossible". So to see something like this that I did was extremely amazing to me.
Unfortunately that happiness soon subsided. It was my first time EVER using polyester resin and fiberglass. So before I did it I wanted to watch one last tutorial video to make sure I had a good understanding of what I was doing. Ironically I chose the absolute wrong video as a reference. Out of all the tutorial videos I could have found I chose to use the only one that was 100% wrong. Not only did he recommend a dusk mask instead of a respirator, but he fiberglassed the outside of the helmet which is ABSOLUTELY WRONG!
Now at the time I figured I was doing everything right. Until I got finished and felt like something was wrong. As soon as I got done fiberglassing I went to my laptop to look at other tutorials. And that is when I realised I F%$d Up.
This time I really did cry, tears of dispair.
Next up was another Red Hood helmet. This one didn't come out so bad. I just didn't like the design.
this time I resin properly, unfortunately though as you can see here the bridge of the nose started to come apart. That coupled with the fact that the helmet was the size of a watermelon(if not bigger) I just didn't care enough about this particular helmet to save it. I made this helmet because the design was simple and less time consuming. Its true when they say you get what you put into it. But now I have developed a better technique that helps me get even the most complex of designs done in less than a day(of work time)
Yes I was really determined to get this red hood thing done. And trust me when I say I am a bandwagon fan. I never even knew who the red hood was before an episode of Gotham last year. And I sure as hell didn't appreciate him as a character until Arkham Knight. Since then I have been a fan of his overall mystique.
This time the fiberglassing process went absolutely perfect...well almost. I'm not quite sure what to do about the inside of the helmet. The extra fiberglass is difficult to cut and Im pretty sure putting this thing on would be like wearing one of those traps from the jigsaw movies.
And currently this is where I stand.
At this point I am ready to swallow my pride and admit it. I have no idea what I am doing.
I tried watch as many tutorials on the bondo process as I could before I started. I kind of got the general idea. Feeling in spots right? Well when I started I think I used it more to smooth it out, which I dont think it is used for that.
First mistake was I used bondo glass. It has fiberglass in it, which makes it slightly stronger than regular bondo but much harder to work with. Look , just take my word for it and use regular bondo.
Second mistake was I think I used too much bondo at once. One of the tutorial videos I watched was filling in an Iron Man helmet. So he split it in a lot of different sections due to all the detailing. Mine doesn't have a lot of details so I figured a could get away with doing large sections at a time. WRONG
So at this point I am not sure where to go next. I have been doing nothing but sanding for the last few days but not really knowing exactly what I am sanding for. For anyone with an opinion, please don't hesitate.
But to all the noobs(like me) dont make the same mistakes I made.
This post is for new pepakura wanderers whom I do not want to make the same mistakes that I made. In order to do so I am going to show you some of my past failures and my current project.
This was my first baby. It was suppose to be a red hood helmet. It wasn't until later that I found out it wasn't a red hood helmet. It was just a deathstroke helmet that was all red. It still started out good none the less. It started out so promising, that is until when I got about 75% of the way done I realised it was going to be too small.
Still I was determined to finish it. Unfortunately though, the way I put it together was off some sort of way. I was unable to glue the back of the helmet and the face of it together without basically warping it. So my advice to anyone working on pepakura is to glue sections at a time, and then make it all come together as a smaller puzzle in the end.
This one here was my first true love though. My Arkham Knight helmet was a thing of beauty. It almost was so perfect it brought tears to my eyes. You have to understand, the first time I heard about pepakura I thought to myself "HELL NO, thats too much and it is impossible". So to see something like this that I did was extremely amazing to me.
Unfortunately that happiness soon subsided. It was my first time EVER using polyester resin and fiberglass. So before I did it I wanted to watch one last tutorial video to make sure I had a good understanding of what I was doing. Ironically I chose the absolute wrong video as a reference. Out of all the tutorial videos I could have found I chose to use the only one that was 100% wrong. Not only did he recommend a dusk mask instead of a respirator, but he fiberglassed the outside of the helmet which is ABSOLUTELY WRONG!
Now at the time I figured I was doing everything right. Until I got finished and felt like something was wrong. As soon as I got done fiberglassing I went to my laptop to look at other tutorials. And that is when I realised I F%$d Up.
This time I really did cry, tears of dispair.
Next up was another Red Hood helmet. This one didn't come out so bad. I just didn't like the design.
this time I resin properly, unfortunately though as you can see here the bridge of the nose started to come apart. That coupled with the fact that the helmet was the size of a watermelon(if not bigger) I just didn't care enough about this particular helmet to save it. I made this helmet because the design was simple and less time consuming. Its true when they say you get what you put into it. But now I have developed a better technique that helps me get even the most complex of designs done in less than a day(of work time)
Yes I was really determined to get this red hood thing done. And trust me when I say I am a bandwagon fan. I never even knew who the red hood was before an episode of Gotham last year. And I sure as hell didn't appreciate him as a character until Arkham Knight. Since then I have been a fan of his overall mystique.
This time the fiberglassing process went absolutely perfect...well almost. I'm not quite sure what to do about the inside of the helmet. The extra fiberglass is difficult to cut and Im pretty sure putting this thing on would be like wearing one of those traps from the jigsaw movies.
And currently this is where I stand.
At this point I am ready to swallow my pride and admit it. I have no idea what I am doing.
I tried watch as many tutorials on the bondo process as I could before I started. I kind of got the general idea. Feeling in spots right? Well when I started I think I used it more to smooth it out, which I dont think it is used for that.
First mistake was I used bondo glass. It has fiberglass in it, which makes it slightly stronger than regular bondo but much harder to work with. Look , just take my word for it and use regular bondo.
Second mistake was I think I used too much bondo at once. One of the tutorial videos I watched was filling in an Iron Man helmet. So he split it in a lot of different sections due to all the detailing. Mine doesn't have a lot of details so I figured a could get away with doing large sections at a time. WRONG
So at this point I am not sure where to go next. I have been doing nothing but sanding for the last few days but not really knowing exactly what I am sanding for. For anyone with an opinion, please don't hesitate.
But to all the noobs(like me) dont make the same mistakes I made.
