It's been way too long since the last update

It's been WAY too long since I updated

And I apologize.  As my previous post stated, I started a new job which is going very well. It is still super busy though.  Bathroom renovation done! House has been showing more lately as a result.

In other news, my wife and I both had the stomach flu all weekend which was horrible.  Both of us at the same time while trying to keep up with 2 kids was no fun at all.

In other news, I lost 3 pounds last weekend!

The Real Post

Due to certain horrible reality TV shows being on Monday Nights, I've had a fairly regular block of time to work on this project.  I finished the Pepakura for the chest piece and it will definitely need some love during the fiberglass and Bondo stages.  I'm pretty sure I can salvage the piece, but I'll be putting my sculpting training to the test here.

Some gaps were made intentionally to accommodate for the ones that weren't

The small piece I had to add in was in order to square up the bottom and HOPEFULLY I can make it match up OK with Fiberglass reinforcement.

I promise that the end result won't be crooked

Finished result. I couldn't sleep tonight, so I decided to finish the chest piece.  The pic makes it look a little more uneven that it is.  I'll make sure to brace it well before I resin it.  I hope I can resin the chest and fiberglass the helmet this weekend.  We shall see.

In the mean time, it's back to long nights of cutting as the back comes next!  Also, I'll try to get a little more regular on the updates.

Short update

Not too much to report. Cut out most of the chest piece parts except the edge pieces. Those pieces take a while to sort through and look a lot alike. 

I went ahead and printed pages for the arms and cod piece before I ran out of card stock. There will be plenty to keep me busy there. 

Unfortunately I have not been able to do as much work as I had hoped the past few days.  It has been a VERY busy week.  The temp has been in the 30s and below, so doing Fiberglass isn't really a good idea.  The cold temps can make it troublesome for the fiberglass to cure

Also, I am renovating a bathroom and that is taking a lot of time as well between finishing drywall and painting.

Finally, I started a new job this week.  Well, new-ish anyway.  I am going back to the company I was working for a year ago.  It's going well, but really, really busy.

I did start putting the chest piece together.  it's about 1/4 completed.  Maybe if it stays cold, I can get more work on the pepakura parts finished.  

Maybe I can get some more pictures up soon as soon as I have something worth taking pictures of.

Here's hoping!

Starting to Fiberglass

Final Pepakura

Well I have finally cut out all of the pieces and assembled all of the paper parts for the helmet. It didn't take as long as I was expecting overall, but there were some parts that I felt took WAY longer than it should have.

Like this one

Looks simple, right?  Well yes, and no.  I did the second one much quicker, but the first took me over 30 min.  The majority of that was cutting all of the tabs though.

Meh...

I'm not thrilled with how the final Pep turned out.  It seems that no matter how meticulous I THINK I am being, there is still a bit more error than I was hoping for.

Like this for example:  There is just a bit more overlap than should be.  The overall shape is close, but there is a slight bit more malforming around the face than should be.  My hope is that I can fix it once fiberglass and Bondo are applied.

Here Goes Nothing!

This is the first time I have ever done any fiberglass work of any kind.  According to articles, the first step is the apply the resin to the model. This stiffens the paper enough to hold its shape while the fiberglass mat is applied.

So after donning a respirator and following the instructions to the letter,  I mixed up the resin and applied to the helmet pieces.  

These pieces need to cure for 2-3 hours at least, probably overnight.  I'm hoping I can salvage these parts and fix any problems with Fiberglass and Bondo, but worst case, I'll re-build the helmet.  

Next Steps:
Chest piece.  That means MORE CUTTING!!!

Assembling the helmet

Putting The Helmet Together

I spent most of today assembling the helmet pieces.  Literally from 8:00 this morning until 8:00 tonight I have been working on gluing this thing together.  It has really come a long way, as I hope you can see.  

This helmet pattern is vastly superior to the one that I previously put together.  It is much more structurally sound, which translates to a much more stable and less floppy helmet.  

I was hoping to have the helmet pieces completed tonight and be ready for fiberglass tomorrow, but I still have a few pieces left.  

And this here is the ABSOLUTE WORST PIECE IN THE WHOLE FRIGGIN HELMET!!  Seriously, this little charm has been a headache like none other.  


I will post final pics of the Pepakura tomorrow (I hope).  I'm actually going to get up early on my day off and hit the ground running to get this piece finished.  MAYBE I'll even get to staring the Chest piece as well.

It Burns Us!!!

FYI: Hot Glue Still Burns

Similar to this

I finished cutting out all of the pieces for the helmet.  My goal is to get the card stock all glued together before Thursday.  We'll see if I can make it or not.  

I started gluing the pieces together last night and while this design has fewer overall pieces, the cuts are MUCH more intricate. There are many more curves to this piece than the rest of the suit. 

I don't have any more pictures yet, so you'll have to imagine them glued together. 

To date I have the Helmet, Chest, and Back printed with only the Helmet cut out. Here are pics from the models:

I haven't gotten any bad hot glue burns yet, but I do expect that there will be some.

My plan right now is to finish the helmet pepakura, fiberglass it, and get at least a few coats of Bondo on it.  I will likely save all painting to do at one time so to reduce the amount of fading and inconsistencies between pieces.  Here is the order that I am thinking:

1. Helmet
2. Chest/Back
3. Shoulders
4. Upper Arm
5. Forearm
6. Thigh
7. Shin
8. Boots
9. Hands

The Abs section is going to prove tricky.  This process with fiberglass/Bondo produces a rigid piece.  Possibly not ideal for sections that may need to bend or flex.  I do have a few tricks up my sleeve for how to accommodate this movement while using stiff pieces.  

I could go the EVA Foam route, and still might, but I think I can make this work.  Also, stay tuned for the suit under the suit.  Still quite a way off, but I have ideas!

Let the cutting begin!

Cutting out the parts

So I started the rough cuts on my helmet pieces.  By rough cuts, I mean that I cut out the majority of the shapes with leaving the in between parts of the tabs intact to keep them from tearing before I can get to the gluing stage. I do this because it can sometimes be days between working on the project and I'd rather not have to re-print sheets for one torn part. 

I planned on doing the helmet first for 2 reasons, 1) it's the most iconic part and if I decide to bail out on this project after only 1 piece, at least I will have a cool helmet to display and 2) It looks to be one of the hardest pieces to put together, so lets get that out of the way first.

I have done 1 pepakura helmet and did not go on to fiberglass/bondo it.  I mainly wanted to see what the process was like and see what I was getting myself in to.  I ended up giving it to my sons to play with, and to their credit, it is still in 1 piece, even after a trip to school for Show and Tell.

Resources for this project

I need to stop and give credit to the resources I'm using in this Project:

Pepakura Designer

This software is amazing.  I'm VERY new to using it, but it is fairly intuitive and easy to use.

Instructables

If you don't know about this resource yet, what have you been doing?  They have everything from costuming to recipes. 

The RPF

This site is also amazing.  It is THE resource for costume / prop replication.  

Special thanks to Darkside501st.  It is because of his pepakura patterns that I've been able to start this project.

Printing Off Parts

Starting with 150 sheets of 110 lb Card Stock



Since my printer is currently in Murfreesboro,  my mom and dad were gracious enough to let me use theirs.  75 some odd pages later, and I have finished printing the parts for the Helmet, Chest Piece, Back, and Shoulders.  Time to cut. And cut. And Cut.

The Iron Man Project

I have recently decided to undertake a costuming challenge.  I am going to attempt to create an Iron Man Mark VII costume and have it finished by Halloween.  This will likely be very hard and time consuming, but it also looks like LOTS of fun.  I will attempt to keep this blog updated with progress and lots of pictures.  Hopefully it will keep me on track to get the suit finished on time.

More to come later!