Tutorial: Pepakura building for dummies (or noobs)

All right everyone, since I joined, i noticed that a lot of the people attempting pepakura (not the experienced, i understand) dont have ANY idea of what to do. they just join and ask questions.
Until today.

Reading the Frizzlefry tutorial is VERY helpful, until the parts are printed out and ready to be built. For those who have no idea of what to do after the printing and computer stage, READ ON.

This is for those who have hardly ANY experience with paper modeling or the pepakura designer layout.


Here is what you need.

1. Printed out parts (im making a FS torso)
2. Cutting knife (you can use scissors if you want, just a little harder with small parts)
3. Pens (to make clean folds)
4. Ruler (to make clean folds)
5. Cutting board (It helps save furniture)
6.Itunes (or ipod) to keep the boredom down
7. Pepakura designer with file open (itll be explained later)

Continuing on, since the board wont let me post all my pictures,

1.Start by Selecting a spot that you want to begin building off of. For my torso, im choosing the chest area first.

2.Cut out the part you are going to make first, By cutting out the inside parts and then working on the exterior.

3. Inside and out, use the pen and ruler to draw lines (with pressure) to make nice, clean folds. More is explained at http://405th.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2043
here.

4. Fold the tab according to what direction it goes in pepakura designer. usually mountain folds are --------- and valley folds are _._._._

5. After a bit, you will need to glue the folded parts together. I use hot glue now, because of its strong adhesive qualities and quick drying time. Sure it goes up to about 200 degrees, but hey! burnt fingers never hurt anyone :rolleyes

6. To do this, line up the numbers on the tab to the exact same number on the other side. This is actually really useful, im glad pepakura designer does this.

7.Be careful, sometimes you HAVE to look at the numbers in order to not screw up.

8. After a while, You may want to cut the pieces out in advance to folding and glueing. Use the Check corresponding Face Tool in pepakura designer to help tell which pieces go where. This is when a computer comes in handy

TIPS TO HELP ANYONE NEW TO THE FORUMS
A.Use a thin layer of glue to avoid wasting glue and other stuff....like your skin.
B.Work quickly with a low temperature glue gun, it cools very quickly.
C.With VERY TINY pieces, a pair of tweezers is recommended to fold.
D. Have a designated space for your work, it can (and WILL) get messy at times.
E. Throw hot glue scraps away. Dont melt them, unless the are big and can be useful. They just add to the mess.
F.Practice with little projects if you arent ready for a big job. Try the Jedifraz models and work your way up.

Above all, HAVE FUN! this is a VOLUNTARY hobby. You shouldnt have to hate doing this. Fruits of your labor always taste better.

Even more important, READ ALL OF THE STICKIES IN THE PEPAKURA FORUM BEFORE STARTING ANYTHING! that way, when you do decide to build, you wont be so lost, and scaling and proper folding will be like second nature.

Mods, if this is in the wrong place (i think the noob forum is perfect though) you can move it.


For those who arent up to pepakura yet and need directions, here are some excellent websites to start out on (plus a few good toys to end up with)

www.papertoys.com
www.jleslie48.com

Good job being very specific. If people have questions about it now I have no clue what to say.

lolz if people have questions about it they obviously didnt read it.


But if they do, LET THEM BE HEARD NOW.

wow very nice ur markin the mountain and the valley with two different colors while folding them!!!
im goin to get an exato knife and some clay...

actually, i decided to screw the 2 colors and base it on my.....excellent.......memory?

It gets annoying after a while. Glad people like it.


it should be stickified.

EDIT: AND IN FACT IT DID! AWESOME!

Wow, this is almost exactly how I do it, minus the pens. Good tut!

Attention: the above tutorial to be obeyed to a TEE (I think thats how its spelled, not T) I do exactly what he recommends, except I use an X-Acto on the folds, not pens, and I have half a mjolnir already.


-Chupa

I'm really new here, I've been spending my time going through all the tutorials and archives (because that's what good newbies do) and this has REALLY helped me understand the whole Pepakura building process. Thanks man.

Hey, this tutorial was DESIGNED for you. Glad it is working!

Spartan NX, glad to hear it all workin for you!

Actually, i skipped a lot.....went from my first piece to my latest piece.....oh well.....

I dont recommend you use your blade as a scoring tool, it wears it down and breaks the tip really easily, you should use a pen, it is more visible and really works better. I know from experience.

Awesome tutorial rvb, and congrats on the stickification. I'm glad you made this, because I wouldn't have thought of looking at the pep file to do bit by bit....And just because it says im a Vet, I'm still a noobie at heart.

rvb4life said:

Actually, i skipped a lot.....went from my first piece to my latest piece.....oh well.....

Click to expand...

Well for me just seeing the basic techniques you explained, like the folding and stuff, showed me a lot. Being as I don't know much at all (yet) it was nice.

lol like i said, its made for those with nooblike tendencies to post a whole thread about one question.


This should help kill the clutter.

Yea it most likely will. and I'm also a noob at brain

hi im new, but what kind of paper works best?

shadowgamma said:

hi im new, but what kind of paper works best?

Click to expand...

http://405th.com/forums/index.php?showforum=12

Everything you need to know is in there. All you need to do is make the effort to find it.

thanks, this will help a lot

most people use cardstock (110 lb) for their projects, probably because it is sturdy and cheap, plus wont need reinforcement when resining.

NEVER use normal computer paper. Way too thin.

Nice tutorial The one thing I do different, is I score all the folds before I cut them out, the teeny tabs are hard to score after they're cut out, for me anyhow

This was a great idea

i think you need to add the resin, fiberglass and bando steps. Then that brings it down to one or two tutorials