Tutorial: Pepakura building for dummies (or noobs)

[Tau ceti]

Unless you are actively searching and able to buy a certain temp Hot glue gun (ie. you find one that says "High temp" or "low temp") you'll probably just end up with a bog standard one, which is totally fine. Just let it heat up for a few minutes (2-3) and give it a go. I find you get better at determining how much glue to use as you go. Start small and add more if needed. usually you don't need much, about the size of 2-3mm square drop in two or three places. Use more if you wish. The hot glue guns keep heating up though, so after say 15-20 mins it's not a bad idea to unplug then for a min or two and use the stored heat. I left one plugged in for aboy 45 mins once and it 'blew up' on me. No real mess, just fused and died. So leave 'em on for too long.

Buy plenty of Glue sticks though, especially if they are on sale!

BTW, sticky tape, while it has a bad rep, can work fine if you are careful. I usually just tape one side. resin the other, and when that coat is dry I can resin the taped side. No dramas so far.

 

[Tau ceti]

Re: edge id's: what are you expecting? The edges just have numbers. Use the viewer to find out where the pieces go. Hold your mouse over the piece on the 2d side (flat printout side - viewer only NOT designer) and a red line will connect that piece and edge to the next piece.

 

[WandererTJ]

Unless you are actively searching and able to buy a certain temp Hot glue gun (ie. you find one that says "High temp" or "low temp") you'll probably just end up with a bog standard one, which is totally fine. Just let it heat up for a few minutes (2-3) and give it a go. I find you get better at determining how much glue to use as you go. Start small and add more if needed. usually you don't need much, about the size of 2-3mm square drop in two or three places. Use more if you wish. The hot glue guns keep heating up though, so after say 15-20 mins it's not a bad idea to unplug then for a min or two and use the stored heat. I left one plugged in for aboy 45 mins once and it 'blew up' on me. No real mess, just fused and died. So leave 'em on for too long.

Buy plenty of Glue sticks though, especially if they are on sale!

BTW, sticky tape, while it has a bad rep, can work fine if you are careful. I usually just tape one side. resin the other, and when that coat is dry I can resin the taped side. No dramas so far.

Wow, thanks for the input. I got like a kid's low temp one, and lots of the small glue sticks. they were pretty cheap at hobby lobby, got like a pack of 100 for $3

 

[mike8213]

Well, just joined up a few days ago. Trying to find something for this years halloween, but then I fell onto this stuff and I was amazed at what could be done. I do enjoy me some lego's and craft cars so I am going to give this a try. Maybe I can have something done for next Halloween. Anyways, my name's Mike, NICE TO MEET YOU ALL!

 

[mike8213]

Ok! A few more days of reading, researching, finding files, and figuring this stuff out and I think I only have one question. I go into the menu to change scale factor, and I see the current measurements for the War Machine tester pep is 269 MM for height. Well, I am going to go ahead and change the scale because I got a big arse head . Something around 350 should give me room to play, so I change the scale to 1.27. In doing so, now none of my peices actually fit on the paper, well according to the screen on the right. I don't even think I can move and rotate them to fit. I know I will have to scale up stuff later on because I have a rather large frame (reason I'm doing War Machine and not Iron Man).

 

[Roadkiller]

You have two choices:

1. Print the parts on the multiple pages. Then tape or glue the piece(s) back together once you cut it out; or
2. Use Pepakura's "Join/Disjoin" faces function to spit the part(s) into smaller pieces (available in the 2D Menu - edit mode).

 

[Master Chives]

What does it mean to "score" a fold?

 

[Ral Partha]

What does it mean to "score" a fold?

I suggest that you read ALL the stickies (i.e., thread labeled "sticky") in this forum.

 

[Master Chives]

Ok... I'm done asking stupid questions now. I am just trying to clear things up. Thanks for not being a jerk.

 

[WandererTJ]

Hey man, feel free to ask questions. And even though you are a noob, you aren't a nUb. You are new to this stuff, but as for you and mike, you guys arent annoying at all, and it's amazing.
When I was new, I know I was semi annoying, mostly just because of where I was asking questions. While this topic isnt in the noob forums, it's still a very good place to ask questions.
I've only been here for a few weeks, and I'm new to this stuff too, but trust me, after you finish reading through the stickies in the noob forums as well as other stickies, things will make much sense to you and you'll be able to answer other newbies' questions.
Learn, Stay Safe, Have Fun

 

[KingCrill]

Help

I am bran new here and wanting to start my first project soon. I was thinking of starting with the master chief helmate but really i dont have a clue what i'm doing. Ive been through alought of the forums lately but i dont know where to buy the pepakura paper from and i dont know where to download the program from. Also i dont know how to do the scaling. Is there a place i can get a pre made blueprint ready to be printed so i can just start putting it together? And when i do the fiber glass and resin does the fiber glass just stick to the resin or do i do the resin and glue the fiber glass on? Thanks like i said i'm bran new here and think its a really cool hobby especially cause i have so much spare time on my hands.

 

[Sutekhian]

Heya, welcome to the forums! If you have a read through the stickies in the Noob forum you'll find all your questions answered in well written guides in there

 

[ventrue]

I was thinking of starting with the master chief helmate but really i dont have a clue what i'm doing. Ive been through alought of the forums lately but i dont know where to buy the pepakura paper from and i dont know where to download the program from. Also i dont know how to do the scaling. Is there a place i can get a pre made blueprint ready to be printed so i can just start putting it together? And when i do the fiber glass and resin does the fiber glass just stick to the resin or do i do the resin and glue the fiber glass on? Thanks like i said i'm bran new here and think its a really cool hobby especially cause i have so much spare time on my hands.

You should try something small and easy first, just to get the hang of it. Helmets are also hard to scale correctly.

There's no special "Pepakura Paper", it's just heavy paper (200...250 g/m²).

You can download Pepakura Designer from Tamasoft. Use Google.

Regarding scaling (and everything else you asked, actually ), there's a pretty good tutorial somewhere (try the search function). There's also lots of information about that floating around the various build- and help-threads.

Every Pepakura file basically is ready to print, but as you already discovered, you need to scale the model first and that will mess up the layout. So the answer to the "pre-made blueprint" would be: No, there isn't.

The fibres have to be inside the resin. You should read a few tutorials on that, I don't want to get too much into detail here.

 

[Roadkiller]

Hi and welcome to the 405th. There is a lot of information around, but I'd suggest you start by:

Watching this orientation vido:
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/15735-New-Recruit-Orientation-Video

Reading this complete Noob list:
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/14613-Complete-Noob-List

Reading this on how to use Pepakura to create the paper models:
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/1034-Tutorial-How-to-use-Pepakura-to-make-your-Mjolnir-Armor

Reading this on how to "scale" your paper creation to fit you:
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/25588-How-to-Scale-Your-Armour-Tutorial-V.2

Reading this on some of the forum's best practices:
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/27746-ATTENTION-NEW-(and-existing)-MEMBERS!-READ-THIS-NOW-PLEASE!

That's a start only. There is lots more reading required! Have fun learning!

 

[rvb4life]

I must say, it's been a while since i've played around in pepakura (not as long as i've been away from here), but i'll just say that this tutorial was for pepakura designer 2.0, i'm not sure what version they are on now, but i'm just giving you guys a heads up. not like you need it or anything. i'm glad this thread helped so many people though. gives me a tear of joy

 

[Jarret]

I have a pattern for a left arm piece, but it dont have it for the right arm, if i just invert the pattern in pepakura designer 3 will that make me a right arm piece? that is symetrical to the left arm?

Cheers,
Luke

 

[Zapper22127]

Thank you for that,it really cleared things up for me. I'm a new member ready to start a good project and this was extremely helpful.

 

[Enzero]

Any particular type of paper?!?!

 

[Ral Partha]

Any particular type of paper?!?!

Make sure that you read the Ultimate Pepakura FAQ sticky in this forum.

 

[loochboy]

Okay, so, GREAT info on the actual construction, but about the pep files themselves-where do we find them? Where do we download them? Should we have an office supply store print them out, and on what? Do we need to buy software? And are there any Iron Man pep files out there? Be gentle with me, it's my first time...