The PEPAKURA question thread - PLEASE READ RULES IN FIRST POST!

[InsaneLuck]

the fibreglass is supposed to be put on the inside. also, one coat of bondo wont get you a smooth surface. you will have to work with either several coats of very thin bondo, or fill the mistakes with spot putty

Thanks thats exactly what I needed. Sorry for the double post

 

[Tigerblood]

anyone here have a Red and White Power Ranger pdo?

 

[mrdarkmonkey96]

looking For files. and advice

So I've purcahsed exacto knives, a printer, ink, and cardstock paper. I have almost all of the dancin_fool files. except the knuckles and stuff, the knees, and the shoes.

I am also curious if, when you go to use bondo on the pepped and 'glassed suit, do you then have to go and freehand all of the lines in with a dremel?

I see alot of people molding there suits, what are the advantages and disadvantages to this?? Also are there any good tutorials on this?

My main question is in the files there are two peices called flaps. what are they?
Thank you, and this was my first post so don't rape my grammar too bad.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Re: looking For files. and advice

The amount of bondo used on a finished pepped suit makes it very heavy, so people will mold and cast the pieces in resin or fiberglass to make a lighter suit. Check out Smooth-On's YouTube channel for some great how to videos.

 

[EyeofSauron]

anyone here have a Red and White Power Ranger pdo?

The Printable Armory

red and blue are atm only sold by blackkaos afaik

what grain sandpaper do ya'll recommend for bondo and is there a good bondo filler out there to smooth out the air bubbles

start out with a low grit, like 40 or 60, then go up as you go, the higher the grit, the better the surface gets

 

[Tigerblood]

The Printable Armory

red and blue are atm only sold by blackkaos afaik



start out with a low grit, like 40 or 60, then go up as you go, the higher the grit, the better the surface gets

Thanks man appreciate it :cool

 

[InsaneLuck]

The Printable Armory

red and blue are atm only sold by blackkaos afaik



start out with a low grit, like 40 or 60, then go up as you go, the higher the grit, the better the surface gets

Thanks

 

[Tigerblood]

Hello
I know I'm asking for too much, but anyone wouldn't mind unfolding the white power ranger pep?
The Printable Armory

 

[EyeofSauron]

im pretty sure i unfolded file somewhere, let me check

/edit: here you go
http://www.2shared.com/file/s8A917d9/whiteranger.html

 

[Tigerblood]

osweet. Thanks again

 

[mrdarkmonkey96]

Re: looking For files. and advice

Does this method require you to sculpt the peice out of clay, or can you pep the file and get it the wat you like it then mold the pepped file?

 

[EyeofSauron]

you dont need clay. but you dont just mold the pep file either. you pep the file, resin it, put body filler on it, sand it, repeat the process until you have a smooth surface, after that you can mold

 

[Bigturc]

Hey pep'ers!

I've been using a Silhouette SD for a couple weeks now. Followed the tutorial on Youtube from ThePropworx and setup everything. Everything worked properly so I began cutting away!!!

I`ve been cutting a lot of paper, or my cutter did anyway, and I feel like I've been wasting a lot of paper too .. so today, I decided I'd understand all the mess about using A4 format in Pep Designer vs normal default printer paper in the Viewer .. here's what I found:

ThePropWorx suggests this:

In Pep Designer : A4 paper with side margins:15 and top/bottom:32
In The Viewer: Letter paper with top:25, bottom:32, right:15, left:10

I started with looking at the different sizes of paper to understand the maths .. and it didn't make sense at all to me. So I decided to discard these for now.

Next I began playing with the values, making them as small as possible to use as much paper surface as possible but then, that's where I saw the limitations:

1. Pep Viewer forces a min top margin @ 25 (I'm totally clueless as to why!?)
2. That forces Pep Designer top margin @ 25.
3. Since Pep Designer has one value for top and bottom, that forces bottom @ 25
4. Back to the viewer where the bottom needs to be @ 25.
5. That leaves the margin of both sides to be @ 10.

With those settings, I gained a minimal amount :

Top : Nothing.
Bottom : +7cm
Left : +5cm
Right : Nothing.

Is it worth losing an hour trying to understand it .. well, I won't sleep better at night. Will I save trees and #&@ .. not really, won't pep that much in my life!

:thumbsup

 

[Southerngal]

I'm looking at making a full suit, what's the better method? Foam or bondo/resin?

 

[EyeofSauron]

I'm looking at making a full suit, what's the better method? Foam or bondo/resin?

depending on usage, work input, and funds

a foam suit is handy, its easier to build, but its also not as rigid as a bondo/resin suit. also you wont get all the details and greeblies in foam, that you can do with bondo.
If you are looking for something durable, that you can also put on a mannequin and display, go for bondo/resin

if you just want a fun costume to wear to a party, an event etc, and dont mind that it wont hold forever, go with foam

 

[usajdm]

Help please.
Does anyone this gentleman here......
Elso Craft Museo

Im hoping I can convince him into letting rescale the head of BuzzLightyear.
If anyone has contact with him, please feel free to pass this on.
Any and all help would be great.
Thankyou,
Robert

 

[Indigogyre]

Hey pep'ers!

I've been using a Silhouette SD for a couple weeks now. Followed the tutorial on Youtube from ThePropworx and setup everything. Everything worked properly so I began cutting away!!!

I`ve been cutting a lot of paper, or my cutter did anyway, and I feel like I've been wasting a lot of paper too .. so today, I decided I'd understand all the mess about using A4 format in Pep Designer vs normal default printer paper in the Viewer .. here's what I found:

ThePropWorx suggests this:

In Pep Designer : A4 paper with side margins:15 and top/bottom:32
In The Viewer: Letter paper with top:25, bottom:32, right:15, left:10

I started with looking at the different sizes of paper to understand the maths .. and it didn't make sense at all to me. So I decided to discard these for now.

Next I began playing with the values, making them as small as possible to use as much paper surface as possible but then, that's where I saw the limitations:

1. Pep Viewer forces a min top margin @ 25 (I'm totally clueless as to why!?)
2. That forces Pep Designer top margin @ 25.
3. Since Pep Designer has one value for top and bottom, that forces bottom @ 25
4. Back to the viewer where the bottom needs to be @ 25.
5. That leaves the margin of both sides to be @ 10.

With those settings, I gained a minimal amount :

Top : Nothing.
Bottom : +7cm
Left : +5cm
Right : Nothing.

Is it worth losing an hour trying to understand it .. well, I won't sleep better at night. Will I save trees and #&@ .. not really, won't pep that much in my life!

:thumbsup

Well, here is the technical difference between A4 and standard paper:
A4 = 297 x 210 mm = 11.7 x 8.3 in
Letter = 11 x 8.5 in

Overall, A4 offers about 6 square inches more of paper.

In comparison, for a standard use ream of 500 sheets of 20 pound paper on Officemax.com the A4 cost $.50 more then the same exact type of paper in letter size. That being said it will obviously cost more to use A4 if you could find it in your desired weight.

How's the sillouette SD working out for you? If you don't mind saying, ho much did you pay for it and were you able to get it locally or did you mail order it? I'd really love to pick on up since I absolutely hate cutting out the cardstock to put things together. Even more so since my scaling skills are not so great and I have to keep cutting the same pattern over and over.

On the plus side of doing the cutting it gives me time to think about how I will cut the foam with the pattern. while working on various helmet's it's getting to the point that I know which cut to angle here and there to make things fit together that much nicer.

Dean

 

[Darth Storm]

Okay. So I had a major stuff up. I didn't put enough hardener in most of the bondo. I can imprint my fingernail into the bondo. Is there a way to harden it up? Would coating in resin work? Would putting more bondo over work.

Or...

...am I going to have to bite the bullet and and scrape it off and what is the best method to get it off.

I am pretty gutted about this but atleast I will learn from it hopefully.
Cheers

 

[Wes R]

I seem to be having a stupid moment when it comes to the math of scaling these projects i want to do. they're gifts for 2 kids next year so i'm aiming to have them a little big in time for Halloween in case they grow but i can't get the math right for some reason. i have the heights of kat from Halo and isaac from Deadspace and the average heights of kids the age these 2 will be but from there i get lost. Anyone good at this kind of thing?

 

[The Ronin]

There are a few things that you'll need to figure out your scaling. Pencil, paper, ruler or measuring tape, full standing pic of the character in question, and a calculator helps. The numbers I will use are arbitrary, so don't use them, I'm just giving examples of how to do the math.

Print a pic of the character standing as straight as possible, and measure the total height of the character in the pic (in millimeters) from the bottom of the feet to the top of the helmet. We'll call this value "X" (we'll use 8" or 203mm)

Now measure the height of the kid (in millimeters) and add 10mm for growth. This will be value "Y" (I'm gonna guess 4' or 1219mm +10mm=1229mm)

Divide Y by X

1229/203=6.054

Round that to a simpler 6.05 and you now have a scale factor!

Now take a measurement ofthe just the helmet in the pic from top to bottom. Be as precise as possible! (I'm gonna guess 30mm)

Now take that measurement and multiply it by your scale factor

30x6.05=181.5

Round up to 182 because pepakura designer doesn't do half millimeters, and this is the height that you'll enter in to the scaling option.

You should now have a correctly scaled helmet!

*Remember, I pulled the actual numbers out of my ass, don't use them! Also, this isn't foolproof, so don't blame me if you're a little off