Calling all (or most) foam builders!

[Galois0]

Yeah, foam is always a lot cheaper, and a lot more flexible than pep. It can be scaled to fit better to your body, as it is flexible, so you don't have to be worry about how you would get it on or off as much as you would with pep. That's what is so great about foam. You can also improvise where needed, and build from scratch, which you can't really do with pep. With foam, if it doesn't fit, but it is scaled proportionally to your body, you can easily adjust it so that it does fit. Keep in mind: spartans have very heroic builds. They have somewhat small-ish waists, and huge chests, etc. It also really depends what it is you want to make, and how much time you have to spare. If you want to make a skin-tight armor (anime, I am pointing right at you) then pep will be painful, figuratively and literally. It will be difficult to make and to get it on, and it will hurt. A lot. Foam is super light and flexible. Heck, I have deliberately thrown my Halo 4 Mark VII chest on the floor, to see how durable it is. It just bounced, and that's it. Pep would have been dented, or damaged very badly in other ways. If it is a suit like the mark VI (not the halo 4 one) it will be do-able out of pepakura, but it will still take time, and will be super heavy. Another advantage is the time it takes. I made a helmet from hardened pepakura, and it was fiberglassed and ready to bondo in about a month. In 1 month I managed to complete a Mark VII chest, 2 shoulders, 2 biceps, one forearm, and one codpiece. Goes to show that foam saves a lot of time. The only two downsides of foam are that it cannot really be sanded, in order to perfect the piece, and it cannot really be made to look like a different material. For example, for suits like iron man, it is hard to make the foam look as glossy as it should. Foam will look pretty matte when painted. Don't get me wrong, you can still do it, but it just takes time, and it is difficult. Bottom line is, if you want a perfect movie/game replica, that can be sanded and perfected, then go with bondo and pepakura. If you just want a cheaper alternative, that will be flexible, durable, will take less time to make, and will impress 99% of people, or if you are not super OCD about making everything perfect and flawless, go with foam. Foam builds will not be as perfect as pepakura, as you can't sand foam that well. (it is not super cheap, don't get me wrong. Just cheaper. My foam suit cost about 150 dollars so far, and I haven't painted it yet) So yeah, that's really it. Have fun!