LeClubNerd
Well-Known Member
Re: Overwatch: Reinhardt 'Uprising Skin' - Almost done
Originally the carbon fibre for Rein was just a paint job, silver sprayed with black through a mat to make the pattern look like carbon fibre. I was happy with it at the time but vinyl wrap is fairly cheap per roll and the look of it was far superior so it was an upgrade I was willing to give a go.
If anyone has had any experience working with vinyl wrap it can be a tricky beast to work with, I won't mention which ones but quite a few of my favourite cosplay content makers have used it in their videos and then torn it off afterwoods in disgust . In the meantime you can find 1000s of videos of people wrapping car parts or even entire cars perfectly and making it look incredibly easy.
If you haven't tried it yet then from my meagre experience I have discovered a few things that might help.
If the part is not smooth then the final finish won't be either. It's very thin and won't disguise any surface imperfections.
It's not like the contact paper that you cover books with. To get the correct finish and for it to adhere properly then it must be heated and stretched over the surface.
Think in advance which parts you're going to wrap... maybe some parts should be wrapped prior to joining. Some parts become too complex to wrap properly after they're built...unless you're a car wrap professional who wraps complex things like entire car hubs 5 days a week. You'll make a mess.
If you get bubbles you can heat, relift and stretch it into place almost infinite times (probably not infinite but alot) so if you think you've made a mess and start to cry..don't, just heat it lift it and try again.
Use a tongue depresser or a non sharp flat device to smooth it out when heated rather than your fingers it seems to adhere more smoothly.
Now, all that being said... I am no expert, not by far. It is still one of the most frustrating materials i've worked with, it feels like you need 4 hands to control it..so maybe grab a friend.
So, all my parts are already built and are complex shapes that were always going to be difficult to wrap, so my results got better as I went along ..some parts of the torso are perfect and some parts are ugly as hell... i've just made sure the ugly parts are in areas that will be covered up anyway or unseen in general.
So here is a quick picture of my upper arm parts, they need bolts, greeblies, hoses, and a paint touch up but they turned out passable.
The most important thing about working with vinyl wrap is to take your photos from a distance... this way no one can see all the imperfections
Seriously though for carbon fibre and for some chrome finishes it might be worth trying at least once.
Originally the carbon fibre for Rein was just a paint job, silver sprayed with black through a mat to make the pattern look like carbon fibre. I was happy with it at the time but vinyl wrap is fairly cheap per roll and the look of it was far superior so it was an upgrade I was willing to give a go.
If anyone has had any experience working with vinyl wrap it can be a tricky beast to work with, I won't mention which ones but quite a few of my favourite cosplay content makers have used it in their videos and then torn it off afterwoods in disgust . In the meantime you can find 1000s of videos of people wrapping car parts or even entire cars perfectly and making it look incredibly easy.
If you haven't tried it yet then from my meagre experience I have discovered a few things that might help.
If the part is not smooth then the final finish won't be either. It's very thin and won't disguise any surface imperfections.
It's not like the contact paper that you cover books with. To get the correct finish and for it to adhere properly then it must be heated and stretched over the surface.
Think in advance which parts you're going to wrap... maybe some parts should be wrapped prior to joining. Some parts become too complex to wrap properly after they're built...unless you're a car wrap professional who wraps complex things like entire car hubs 5 days a week. You'll make a mess.
If you get bubbles you can heat, relift and stretch it into place almost infinite times (probably not infinite but alot) so if you think you've made a mess and start to cry..don't, just heat it lift it and try again.
Use a tongue depresser or a non sharp flat device to smooth it out when heated rather than your fingers it seems to adhere more smoothly.
Now, all that being said... I am no expert, not by far. It is still one of the most frustrating materials i've worked with, it feels like you need 4 hands to control it..so maybe grab a friend.
So, all my parts are already built and are complex shapes that were always going to be difficult to wrap, so my results got better as I went along ..some parts of the torso are perfect and some parts are ugly as hell... i've just made sure the ugly parts are in areas that will be covered up anyway or unseen in general.
So here is a quick picture of my upper arm parts, they need bolts, greeblies, hoses, and a paint touch up but they turned out passable.
The most important thing about working with vinyl wrap is to take your photos from a distance... this way no one can see all the imperfections
Seriously though for carbon fibre and for some chrome finishes it might be worth trying at least once.