Stormtrooper pepakura build by first-time costumer - still alive!

Can't believe it's been over two weeks without an update. Last week I made the decision to leave the company I co-founded four years ago and am now a full-time freelance web developer. Couple that with some tax-related issues and it still feels like it's April 1st to me! I did sand a bit in that time, but not much. Fortunately I have the next 10 hours open, and most of tomorrow, too, so no excuses!

Here's some input for when you're tackling the sanding of the face plate.
It might be easier to "ignore" the mouth grill when you're sanding, and just cut that out later. Ignoring the mouth grill, most of the faceplate can be sanded as as one "plane" (see the image below). When you get to the lower left side of the mouth there is an under bite where the lower faceplate begins to jut out (although you might not want it lopsided like the original). On both sides, from about the last tooth to the sides of the curved nodules, the lower faceplate sticks up higher than the upper (marked by the purple lines). Red lines demonstrate that the upper and lower faceplates are on the same plane. Hope this helps!

Thank you! This is going to help immensely.

Find a Harbor Freight and buy a rasping tool to use instead of sanding. Thank me later.

We don't have Harbor Freight here, but I went to multiple hardware stores and they were all confused about the rasping tool, ha. I managed to sand it down a fair bit before I went looking, so I'm not sure it'd benefit me much at this point, but I'll definitely try to get one for my next project.

I did end up getting four different sanding-related rotary tool pieces to experiment with sanding some of the trickier areas. No clue if any of them will work, but I'll see today. I'll post an update a little bit later! (There, now I said it, so I can't disappoint now! ;))
 
yea the rasping tool is pretty much a grater. You can order them online from Harbor Freight too. I love using mine.
 
Quick update from this morning. It doesn't feel like I'm making progress, but the sheer amount of dust coating my work area suggests otherwise.

There are some noticeable areas where it sunk in slightly, and other places that need some love to get into shape, but, looking back at my previous photos, it is moving along.



 
You're getting there! It certainly is a time consuming hobby; I never even had the patience to put together my own pepakura file... not too mention all this sanding!!!
 
Don't give up! And keep looking at those reference photos till you dream about it.
Sometimes I find it helpful to check my work by holding the sculpt and the reference photo upside down. This forces you to be unmercifully objective about what you're looking at since your brain doesn't recognize the shapes. Good luck!
 
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hey korban,
I stuck mine with tape, will it hang on? I don't plan on replacing tape with super glue cause it'll probably collapse and I'd have to start all over again :))
 
hey korban,
I stuck mine with tape, will it hang on? I don't plan on replacing tape with super glue cause it'll probably collapse and I'd have to start all over again :))

Hey chougoenen, I'm no expert - thinking of starting mine over due to beginner mistakes, actually! - but I didn't have any issues with the areas where I used scotch tape instead of super glue.

Good luck!
 
Finally a (long) update! I spent a lot of time sanding down the excess bondo and working on the shape. Following that I applied a coat of white paint to see how it looked and took a step back to evaluate the project as a whole.



When I started this crazy (awesome) project, I didn't know much going in, and I made a lot of mistakes that I can now avoid going forward. There are a lot of issues with the surface, areas where the Bondo is a little brittle, and shaping issues aplenty. On top of that I think it's going to be a little smaller than I'd hoped. :)



I could definitely keep going and spend time fixing everything (well, except the size), but I'm wondering if I'd be better off starting fresh some time down the road. I've learned a ton from this that I can apply to new projects, and in that it was a success. I started two other pieces while I thought this over (a Boba Fett helmet and Captain America's shield), both of which have gone so much better this time around.



I'm certainly not giving up - I'll have a trooper bucket one day before too long - and it'd be a little sad not finishing this one, but I think moving on from this particular piece might be what's best. What do you guys think? Have you considered restarting a project after you were already a ways in? It's a tough call, but feels right to me right now.
 
I have much empathy for you. First time I worked with bondo I lathered it on, spent countless hours sanding, and lost interest in my project. I found that working on smaller pieces and seeing them to completion reignited my interest. Perhaps taking some time away from the bucket and working on some of the smaller pieces (biceps, or handplates?) to achieve that "sense of completion" will help you along. Kudos to you for taking on such an ambitious project.
 
You've worked hard on that piece and as you say learnt alot doing it. If you started again from scratch you'd quickly make up the lost ground I think and have a better base to work from and detail. Maybe a case of 2 steps forward and 1 back? I would treat it like a trial run and have another go.

If you decide to stick with that one I would start marking it up with pencil or markers drawing in some lines that you want sand to to help keep definition. Go back and get some basic measurements and apply them again to see how you are going. I'm a big fan of using files on bondo when you are just getting the basic shape.

Good luck! :)
 
Hi Korban,

Just an idea... you did say that you felt the helmet ended up too small, so it may make a good base to sculpt on top of rather than starting a pepakura model from scratch again. You've been using fiberglass and bondo and all these products that can be a challenge to work with, but if you go about it from the idea of just having a piece to pull a mold from it, then you could use a really sculpt-friendly material like DAS or something to sculpt over your existing helmet.

Then you can do a mold (use alginate or something flexible) and make a wearable cast (using Smooth-Cast 300 or other). Maybe do an initial MASTER cast using hydrostone so in case your original mold gets damaged you can always make more. Check out how Terra1 did it:
http://www.therpf.com/f24/stormtrooper-pepakura-terra-returns-pics-122443/index9.html

As you sculpt, it's a good idea to take pictures and compare them to photographic references, or even use the 6-view technical drawing on my blog... then you'll get a much less biased view that way of what needs to be tweeked.

cheers!
 
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