"Help!" for: Papercraft or Pepakura

[redwizard3d]

with armour i'm heavily influenced by the whole iron man suit and how it assembles from parts to form a complete protective shell. now i cant really dig out the floor of my workshop to fit a suit assembly system as seen in the film... i could however build the various parts of a suit of armour that have a selection of motors and locking mechanisms. in response to SergantTinkers question, i was thinking perhaps hinged with pins on one side and either magnets or an automatic locking mechanism on the other. if you wanted to take it to extremes you then fit a motor to the hinge pin(s) so the arm swings shut and then locks into place with a single activation. For my first build i'm starting with a war machine helmet that i'm likely to motorise and fit led's and a means to fit/unfit around my fat head With the electronics and tools i have at my disposal, i should be able to build in some cool features(i've yet to see an iron man/war machine helmet that has a motorized chin) and if i want to get creative i have an arduino i can hook up to everything(guess i'll be writing jarvis 0.1 ). Have many tried these kinds of mods on pepakura builds?

 

[Katsu]

Be careful with this. A pepakura'd helmet is going to weigh a good amount before adding metal components, and more with. If you actually have the know-how to do this all, you might be better off machining your own metal parts to cut down in size constraints, as bondo needs to be like a half inch thick, which reduces the amount of metal components you can fit inside without having to make the helmet even larger. I am not trying to discourage, just pointing out some key factors you should be aware of as you proceed forwards.

A lot of people make big plans for their peps and rarely follow through, you will find it is pretty difficult to get from pep to finished just with a solid helmet. Adding the moving parts comes after that, so you want to move in small steps to make sure you don't overwhelm yourself trying to make hand repulsor beams when you haven't even gotten the Mk 1 hammered out of missile parts!

If I were to give one bit of advice overall, it would be automation. The more work you can pass onto shopbots and waterjets and 3d printers, the less there will be on your plate, and I am not convinced pepakura and bondo is the best option for this application especially since it is so imprecise. I don't know much about your engineering background, so I am just giving very generalized advice.

 

[redwizard3d]

thanks for the advice. My engineering background is limited to building and selling the parts (and kits) for 3d printers. I have a 6" manual lathe, no mill, a drill press, grinders and a ton of electronics and dead "2d" printers i can aquire parts from. The pepakura helmet i'm not worried about - that'll just take time. I'm likely to finish building it and then put together some test pieces that i'll reinforce a few different ways to find a thin lightweight method of hardening it. I am seriously considering the likes of jb weld and drink can sheet steel glued on and welded and ground into a solid metal piece. If i can pull that off i'll be cackling but i have a long list of build methods to run through before I resort to half inch thick helmets . I've been watching the original iron man for reference(i.e. i've jumped right to about an hour in where the mk2 is built - huge differences with the war machine mk3 parts i have in front of me and the face plate for example is only a few mm thick as he plays with it with writing and marks all over it. Lots to think about. I better get back to the day job - these printer kits wont build themselves

 

[MTL616]

Hey can some one direct me to a Mk V helmet that isnt alot of parts but looks good i dont have much paper at my house so i need to conserve some paper

Thx, MTL616

 

[Fh2hi]

I've been looking for Reach armor Thigh pieces, but all I can find are files for the right leg. Is there a way to change it over to the left leg, or does someone have a left left Reach armor thigh file?

 

[Katsu]

Hey can some one direct me to a Mk V helmet that isnt alot of parts but looks good i dont have much paper at my house so i need to conserve some paper

Thx, MTL616

http://405th.4shared.com/
Under Halo 1 -> Spartan Mk V -> LD

I've been looking for Reach armor Thigh pieces, but all I can find are files for the right leg. Is there a way to change it over to the left leg, or does someone have a left left Reach armor thigh file?

http://405th.4shared.com/

Hahaha, to both of you, that is a great resource for files. But to answer Fh2hi, you CAN just invert the file so it prints lefty instead. In pepakura designer there is an option in the 2d menu to "invert pattern" that will do it.

 

[Fh2hi]

Thank you very much!

 

[redwizard3d]

i imagine if you built it inside out it would be lefty too wouldnt it?

 

[Katsu]

That is a bit harder, as you wouldn't have the visual cue of the fold lines and numbers to line up the pieces correctly. It's probably easier to just flip the file before printing it, unless you've already printed two right forearms..?

 

[nz405thman]

hi everytime I try and print out my designs it says receiving data thn just starts cleaning itself wot do I do?and wot size paper is it normally wen u guys print it

 

[Carpathia]

hi everytime I try and print out my designs it says receiving data thn just starts cleaning itself wot do I do?and wot size paper is it normally wen u guys print it

This sounds like a problem with your printer and not necessarily one with the program. Beyond that, I have no idea why it would be acting like that.

As far as paper sizes, it depends on where you live. If you live in the US, then you'll be printing on Letter size paper (8.5 x 11). If you're from pretty much anywhere else, then you'll be printing on A4 size paper. The type of paper you will want is cardstock (110 lb in the US, someone else will have to help with the metric equivalent if need be). Hope this helps, and good luck getting your stuff printed.

 

[nz405thman]

Thanks man

 

[nz405thman]

I got it working yay
Thanks guys I cant wait to show the final products of my creations me and some m8s r gonna start some costumes

 

[thewrongvine]

When you are changing the dimensions, they are all locked to scale, so changing one with keep the others in proportion. Will it mess up the build if you like only change one dimension?

The problem I'm having is that I finished my first helmet, which I scaled at a height/width/depth of 280/214/335 mm, since I measured the proportions to my head and 28 cm left a good amount of space extra. So I built it and then when it was finished, I found that, while in terms of height and depth there was plenty of comfortable space inside, it wasn't really wide enough and it was like scratching my head and all that (to wear it, I had to like really trim off parts in the inside and pad it). So I'm planning on starting a second, better helmet this time but I'm not sure what to do with the scaling. Like I said, the height and depth of before was fine, the width is the problem (since apparently I have a very wide head), but then another problem came because when I make the width larger - I tried 228 mm width - the height and depth then also get even larger, and the big parts don't even fit on one page so... yeah, not sure what to do.
Thanks.

EDIT: Okay, I see someone posted a thread just recently with sizing issues. So I have to adjust all of them... hmm... so I guess I'll just make it as large as I can while keeping it within the borders of the paper, since when I make the width fit, it geos off the paper.

 

[sik1276]

Cutting cardboard, I noticed on some builds, they were able to cut the edge at an angle. What kind of tool do you guys think they used to achieve this?

 

[Aster Tea]

Cutting cardboard, I noticed on some builds, they were able to cut the edge at an angle. What kind of tool do you guys think they used to achieve this?

Just tilt your exacto knife at an angle as you cut.

 

[Shin087]

wrong place

 

[Katsu]

You can try sending spase or ruze or rundown a PM. They post around especially in the This *&$# Is Broken subforum.

 

[Sangheilli106]

Hello everybody,

I am new to the 405th and would like to ask for major help, i have downloaded the pepakura designer and am ready for blue prints. I know that i just click on the links that say "mirrors" or ".pd" to get them but then i am taken to 4shared.com, do i have to get a account on there too inorder to view the blue prints? im very confused. I would like to begin my project and help others, but im having huge problems myself...

 

[Gray]

Hello everybody,

I am new to the 405th and would like to ask for major help, i have downloaded the pepakura designer and am ready for blue prints. I know that i just click on the links that say "mirrors" or ".pd" to get them but then i am taken to 4shared.com, do i have to get a account on there too inorder to view the blue prints? im very confused. I would like to begin my project and help others, but im having huge problems myself...

In order to download the actual files, you need an account on 4share, than you may download them and place them in pepakura designer. (If this didn't help, please tell me how to specify.)