My Early Disasters pt 2 - A Biker Scout Helmet - How hard can it be?

Heh heh heh... This shows how epic it's going to look....

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Went a little over my hour but got less done this morning - a bit distracted waiting for the builders who, it turns out, are not coming today.
The right side looks ok:
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And if you think I'm being a little over optimistic, it's because the left side looks like this:

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On the plus side, it seems to be coming out much bigger than I had feared, and the general shape is not too far out. Unless I make some spectacular errors in the next few moves, I should have something to work from....
 
Pepakura is a live and learn process. What you should do is use this helmet as a learning process. You're right, those sides are terribly warped and all, but that's how it goes on your first pep, then the next is a little better and third one is the charm!

So just take your time, I see lots of places where your lines don't align, the probably the corners of your parts don't align either. It takes only one row to completely mess up the whole shape.

I've done enough pep to realize that building a nicely shaped pep is the basic of a good end result. Moving on from a warped pep will give you 5x the head ache vs restarting and having a better base shape. Trust me and look at other pep project, that's the general conscensus too!

Keep at it, I love the humor of this thread! :thumbsup
 
Many thanks Bigturc! Yes, alignment is a notion at this point, not a reality, but I'm pressing on. I really want to get to the end of my first Pep, even if it means starting over with a better understanding for the next attempt. I'm certainly going to use heavier stock.

Last pictures for today:
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Doesn't look bad at all for a first attempt! You can certainly see the FO ST Bucket appearing albeit a little "floppy" . If you re-do it in heavier stock I'm sure it will be miles better (read, more usable for your purpose).

Roughneckone:cool
 
Hey D,

Looking good, definitely looks like a FO ST now at any rate, first attempt or not.

Keep working on it my friend, the experience you get on this will pay you back in spades in the Mk2 version.

Roughneckone:cool
 
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Ok, so it's decision time. There's no question that this one turned out rough, but still better than I expected for a 1st pep. Learning that I read the folds wrong on a couple of areas was critical, and using regular paper was a rookie mistake. Knowing this, I re-printed a couple of the final pieces on heavier stock and got way better results. I've used some heavy stock to reinforce dodgy areas too, but patching up is never going to be as good as getting it right in the first place.

Yesterday I delivered a letter to my bosses at work, offering to fill the display area in my library with my helmets and books as part of Star Wars Day (May 4th, in case you'd forgotten). I did this last year with only three helmets. Now I have five complete, and possibly enough time to get this one up to scratch. Which brings me back to decision time: Do I press on, building on this faulty start and relying on surface corrections to pull it back into shape, or do I put this aside and start over?

Answer number two is trhe sensible one, but I found the pep process awfully addictive. I've got real paying work to get done in the next couple of weeks, but if I print off another batch of pep pages, I know I'll lose a couple of hours each day to cutting and gluing.... What do you think? For once in my life, should I avoid the path to disaster and do a proper job, even if it means...well, not doing my proper job?
 
Answer number two is the sensible one, but I found the pep process awfully addictive. I've got real paying work to get done in the next couple of weeks, but if I print off another batch of pep pages, I know I'll lose a couple of hours each day to cutting and gluing.... What do you think? For once in my life, should I avoid the path to disaster and do a proper job, even if it means...well, not doing my proper job?

Hey that's a tough one. My head says do it right (make a second helmet using helmet one as experience). However my head also says your proper job brings in the dough so best to keep that sweet first.

Best option IMHO would be to do the best you can with number one and when the proper job pressure is off make a second "improved" Turbo version!

Roughneckone:cool
 
The inevitable has happened of course: I'm doing both.
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Since I used regular paper on this model, it would collapse under a coat of resin. I'm using a light layer of paper mache to reinforce it a few times before I try something more substantial.

Meanwhile....

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The Mark II is taking slow, careful shape. I understand the notations, I'm cutting it out more carefully, and I'm actually using cardstock instead of paper. I don't start anything until the paying work is out of the way, so this will take longer than the week I threw the first one together in, but it'll be much neater when it's done.
 
SECOND option alllll the way :)

You will NOT regret it .. and you keep the first one as a reference on how much your pep work has improved. That being said ... if you are to do papier mache on the first one .. do it from the INSIDE, never from the outside as you'll completely mess up your shape!

Same applies to when you reach the fiberglass stage on a pep, never on the outside, always on the inside. No reason to mess your details! We already see this happening in the pics you uploaded!

You will not regret it!
 
The good news is that you're doing much MUCH better on this one!! You already see the huge difference in shape.

The bad news is that now that you're doing well, these threads won't be half as fun!

:popcorn
 
The good news is that you're doing much MUCH better on this one!! You already see the huge difference in shape.

The bad news is that now that you're doing well, these threads won't be half as fun!

:popcorn
What Bigturc said. :D

However I'll also enjoy watching you really getting better at something and maybe getting some fun out of it, instead of thinking "something else I screwed up" as you seem to do in the past.

Well Done.:thumbsup

Roughneckone:cool
 
Thanks to both of you! I like to think there's a fundamental flaw in my character that means I can continue to improve without any hope of getting better.... Since I'm piling all kinds of atrocities on that first pep (no pictures yet... I'll wait until I feel it's looking hopeful) there are plenty of disasters still in store for the future. After all, I still want my own Halo helmet, and a Republic commando helmet. And I want to put electronics in them too. This from a guy who has to check that little diagram to get the batteries the right way up in a flashlight.

But yes, the Pep experiment has been a great one, even if I'm only eight pieces into the second attempt. It's made a lot of things seem possible, and best of all it's made me want to take time and effort to get it right.
 
Hemingway said......the first draft of anything is s.h.i.t.

No one pops out of their Mom and is instantly great at anything.

You are doing stuff...and slowly getting better.

Pepukura is a great, easy way into the learning curve of prop building...many folk think it makes the process easier and that's not true, what it really does it make the process more accessible.

Keep going...FIGHT!!...KILL!!...VICTORY!!............;)
 

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