Space Marine Build - First Attempt - WIP *PIC HEAVY*

[darianwiccan]

Well, after a few years of occasional planning and life getting in the way, I have finally started on my space marine build.

Attention: Please ignore the extreme mess in the background of the shots. After winter the garage quickly turns into "organized chaos."


Initial supplies gathered, templates cut out and glued to poster board for a little extra support when marking/cutting the foam.


Day 1: Foam pieces for chest cut.


Day 2: Chest piece coming together nicely. Need to re-work the neck collar pieces and I am in desperate need of caulk for gap-filling and sandpaper. However, things are coming along better than expected for my first time doing any foam work.

 

[CLOTHAR]

Great start! I know hot glue can be quick and convenient, but I recommend using contact cement. You can get much nicer seams. It might help you save some filling and sanding later. Space marines are fun to build. Keep at it.

 

[Grimwood]

Excellent! Another loyal subject for the emperor! I do love a good space marine build. Will be watching!

 

[darianwiccan]

Great start! I know hot glue can be quick and convenient, but I recommend using contact cement. You can get much nicer seams. It might help you save some filling and sanding later. Space marines are fun to build. Keep at it.

Clothar,
I have contact cement that I considered using, but I am concerned about the sheer amount of time it will take to get a single piece together, what with the 15-minute waiting for the contact cement to set up before pressing the seams together. I could coat multiple seams at once, but I would also be concerned about cementing the piece to my hands. For now I will stick with the hot glue and see how things progress. I appreciate the suggestion, as I am very much a novice!

 

[CLOTHAR]

Fair enough. I did my first suit with hot glue too. Good luck building!

 

[Grimwood]

You can speed up the drying time significantly by using a heat gun, which also doubles to seal up the foam. Just applied the cement to both edges, use heat gun and slowly match up edges and press. Boom. Easy peasy. Just don't hold the heat gun in one area for too long. Warps the foam.

good luck!

 

[darianwiccan]

You can speed up the drying time significantly by using a heat gun, which also doubles to seal up the foam. Just applied the cement to both edges, use heat gun and slowly match up edges and press. Boom. Easy peasy. Just don't hold the heat gun in one area for too long. Warps the foam.

good luck!

Thanks for the suggestion; I will give it a try. Do you recommend giving the whole suit a quick once-over with the heat gun to seal it prior to the PlastiDip stage?

 

[Grimwood]

absolutely. That foam will suck up the plastidip.

 

[Grimwood]

Another option is to use gesso. I personally have never used it but I have heard good things about it. It's a lot less expensive than plastidip.

 

[darianwiccan]

Another option is to use gesso. I personally have never used it but I have heard good things about it. It's a lot less expensive than plastidip.

I've seen mention of gesso here on TheRPF before, but haven't really looked into it. I'll have to pop over to the local big box store and pick some up, so I can do a side-by-side comparison with the PlastiDip. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Mockle]

Clothar,
I have contact cement that I considered using, but I am concerned about the sheer amount of time it will take to get a single piece together, what with the 15-minute waiting for the contact cement to set up before pressing the seams together. I could coat multiple seams at once, but I would also be concerned about cementing the piece to my hands. For now I will stick with the hot glue and see how things progress. I appreciate the suggestion, as I am very much a novice!

Contact cement? Its all in the glue gun, I use a Battery power 45 min charge hold time that burns the living day lights out of my fingers.. I guess once its molten hot it has a better adhesive ... you have to cut the foam if you want it apart again.

What file you using? a lot of extra cutting involved I swear by Hasenbrau files you can look at Sylgians or saberO5 he also is starting up a build.

Good luck...

 

[darianwiccan]

Contact cement? Its all in the glue gun, I use a Battery power 45 min charge hold time that burns the living day lights out of my fingers.. I guess once its molten hot it has a better adhesive ... you have to cut the foam if you want it apart again.

What file you using? a lot of extra cutting involved I swear by Hasenbrau files you can look at Sylgians or saberO5 he also is starting up a build.

Good luck...

I'm using the JFCustom foam files from here on TheRPF. I have the Hasenbrau files, but as they are just images and not actual pepakura files, I've had issues understanding if I have the scaling correct when working to print them out. The templates I'm using do require a fair bit of cutting, but it's good experience.

 

[Grimwood]

The Hasenbrau files are what I used. It was a matter of increasing the size of the pdfs to an appropriate size, then printing them out, taping them together and cutting out the patterns. Easy! The pepakura files are good, but you still have to make sure the dimensions are correct. Since I used foam for my space marine, the hasenbrau files made it very easy.

 

[Mockle]

I'm using the JFCustom foam files from here on TheRPF. I have the Hasenbrau files, but as they are just images and not actual pepakura files, I've had issues understanding if I have the scaling correct when working to print them out. The templates I'm using do require a fair bit of cutting, but it's good experience.

I Printed fit page to frame scaled out fine took more work I squared up all the edges numbered each page cut and taped.. if you like yours go for It

 

[Drack]

Hey thought I'd add some info for you. Saw the mention of gesso vs plastidip. Gesso is basicaly a thick acrylic. Might look good but compared to plastidip it doesn't even begin to compete. Plastidip holds fast to foam, the foam doesn't soak it up but it will self level so can be painted on. Gesso will wear off much easier than the pastidip. I used 2 thin coats of plastidip on all my foam suits and it worked perfectly. I use Gesso for my worbla build but that's because its solid. Just thought I'd save you trying them both cause they will both give the same appearance but with out a field test you won't see how they do at wear and tear.

 

[VinMan]

My two cents on contact cement vs. hot glue

I have made several foam builds, Super heroes, Buzz Lightyear etc. All with glue gun. Then I saw a youtube video by Evil Ted Smith. He uses contact cement.
I am working on a build now and I have to tell you...

I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO A GLUE GUN!!!

Why you ask...

• Glue gun also takes time – One seam at a time, holding the pieces together without letting the seams slip while the glue sets up is tedious as hell.
• Even if you are very careful hot glue squishes out of the seam and on to the front surface of your work.
• Hot glue doesn't cover the complete seam leaving small gaps and corners unglued.
• Hot glue can warp or even melt small detail parts

• Contact cement dries much much faster than 15 mins. I have found drying time to be less than 5 without heat applied.
• Contact cement doesn't burn the crap out of your fingers!!!
• Contact cement makes an incredibly tight seal for a nearly invisible seam with no gaps.
• I have found it to be actually faster than hot glue, you can coat several pieces let dry and adhere all at once.

Check out this build video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODSNPYdvJRo

he starts the gluing around the 16 min mark

 

[darianwiccan]

Check out this build video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODSNPYdvJRo

he starts the gluing around the 16 min mark

It's been a while since I found a video to be literally jaw-dropping. Granted, I'm quite sure he has much more experience than I do, but damn! That looked incredibly easy. Between the better seams with the contact cement, and the fact that some of my cuts were a bit jagged (didn't change out blades when I should have), I think I'm going to redo the chest. I just finished cutting out the templates for the helmet, so I will try to cut it as clean as possible and use contact cement to see how well it turns out. I'll definitely post pictures of the progress. Thanks so much!

- - - Updated - - -

The Hasenbrau files are what I used.

Do you happen to have a Hasenbrau file for the helmet? I have everything but that.

 

[Grimwood]

unfortunately no. You can try contacting Hasenbrau directly. He is very helpful with questions too. I ended up getting a helmet from someone on the board here.

there are files out there however that should work. Even some pep files can be modified to get you the helmet you want.

goodluck! I'll be watching.your progress.

grimwood

 

[Drewish]

You can speed up the drying time significantly by using a heat gun, which also doubles to seal up the foam. Just applied the cement to both edges, use heat gun and slowly match up edges and press. Boom. Easy peasy. Just don't hold the heat gun in one area for too long. Warps the foam.

good luck!

Just my 2 cents,

I had better success with a cheap hair dryer. The heat isn't as high and it dried the contact cement faster.