Building Skip's Pepakura Gaunts (PIC HEAVY)

[OriKad]

I'm a big fan of Skip's Pepakura work, so I figured I'd throw some possible business his way by showing how to build a set of gaunts from his templates.  I might also do a WIP on his arena jetpack later.  So without further ado, let's begin.

What you will need:
Skip's Pepakura Gauntlets templates, available in our own armor templates section.
    Convenient link to that page here: http://mercs.firespray.net/forum/index.php?action=ezportal;sa=page;p=1
A printer
Light to medium weight cardstock
     A4 size is ideal, though you can use Letter size as long as the printer setting is set to A4.
     I use 110lb or 199g/m², Available at any office supply store.
A .pdo file reader.  You can find a free one here: http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/
Normal printer paper (I'll explain later)
Craft knife
Scissors
Straight-edge or ruler, preferably steel
Glue (I use normal Elmer's glue, or PVA glue.  Nothing special needed)
Cutting board
Some heavier card (cereal box minimum, thin corrugated maximum)

In this tutorial I'll take you right up to the point before you give it a coat of fiberglass resin, which is the same process for any card-built armor bits regardless of whether you use Skip's templates or WOF templates.  Adding the resin is the part I haven't done yet (as I have a couple sets waiting for resin right now) so I'm not qualified to instruct on that aspect yet.  I have, however, been building pepakura models for my roleplaying game habit for quite some time, and these are going to be my fifth run through on Skip's gaunts.  The first was a scrapped proof of concept, the second was a customized set that I printed too small (Pepakura viewer, linked above, scales the print to the paper size you have it set to.  It warns you first, though.) The third was a corrected version of the failed second, the fourth was a set for a vod, and this one is for my own V2 armor.

Stay tuned for updates.  This might take a couple days.  All in all it takes about 6 man-hours, but remembering to take pictures and post progress is going to slow me down a bit.

First advice for smaller people (if the normal size is a little big on you): Print it letter size, that scales it down JUST enough.

[Dar'manda]

Will be watching this VERY intently...

[OriKad]

Then I won't let you down... and in so doing, here's the beginning of the WIP:

Using Pepakura Viewer (the free one linked above), this is what the file should look like:

Now, before you print, you should make sure all the settings are right.  Here's how:

File - Printer Setup.  You should make sure this is set to A4.  If you're using Letter sized paper, pages 2 and 8 will print on two sheets, even though it'll all be on the first sheet.  Thus, reload the second sheet upside-down so you're printing on the other side.  Or you could use the second sheet as scrap for later.

View - Show Edge ID.  This is very useful, because when it prints, every edge will be numbered.  This can help in assembly, because you'll only have to line up one numbered edge with its corresponding numbered edge, 1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc.

Setting - Other Settings - General Settings.  Make sure "Place edge ID inside of face" is not checked.  This one's actually a little backwards, because with it unchecked, the edge ID will be inside the template faces.

Any other settings you fiddle with are just down to personal preference.  Don't forget to mess around in the program for a bit, because some things the program does will help you the first time you build.

Now for a a bit of a glossary section:
Mountain fold: This is a type of fold where the card will be folded away from the printed side, such that when it's set on a table with the printed side up, it'll rise like a mountain.  This is indicated on the template with this type of line: "- - - - - - - - - - "

Valley fold: This is a fold in the opposite direction of the mountain fold, such that it'll appear as a valley when laid on a table with the printed side up.  This is indicated on the template with this type of line: "-- - -- - -- - -- - "

Cut:  Obviously, you cut it here.  That would be any solid line on the template.  There are a couple places on the templates where you should cut somewhere other than a solid line just to make it easier, and there are some places where there isn't a fold line, but it should be folded.  I'll show these places when I get to them in their places on the assembly.

[Dar'manda]

And is there a way, say we wanted to tweak the designs and have two dart launchers and flamehrowers, one per gaunt, and naught else, that one could isolate specific add ons/greeblies and print just that and the clamshells?

[OriKad]

The next step: Printing.

One set of gaunts is 11 pages.  All 11 pages should be printed on your cardstock before you try anything else. It helps to keep track of which page is which.  You can set the setting in Pepakura Viewer to print page number, but I've never used that (maybe I should have, huh?)

Now, here's where the regular paper comes in:  Print pages 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 on the regular paper.  These are all the parts that you'll be reinforcing with heavier card.  The regular paper will be used to trace onto the heavier card.  I'll talk you through that when we get to it.  And I'll remind you then too of this VERY IMPORTANT RULE: Remember how thick your heavy card is.  You have to make allowances for its thickness when you cut the heavy card, otherwise you'll have a big pain in the shebs when you're assembling it.

When you've got it all printed, it should look something like this:

The cardstock on the left, the regular paper on the right.

To answer Ijaat's question: If you click on a part in the model pane on Pepakura Viewer, it'll highlight that part in the template pane.  To make a mirrored version, make note of which parts are asymmetrical, then make a mountain fold where a valley fold is indicated and vice versa.  I did that to make a pair of right gaunts for a vod. (One normal right gaunt, one right gaunt mirrored to go on the left.)

If you show the parts names, the only asymmetrical parts are: the clamshells (but that doesn't matter much on the right gaunt), obj10-1 through obj10-5 (and that's only very slightly asymmetrical, you could get by without mirroring),  obj12-3, obj16-2, and obj19-1 through obj19-7... so pretty much the whole left gaunt, and the forwardmost part of the right are asymmetrical.  I don't use obj13-1 at all, because it's easier overall to just use a wooden dowel or bit of pipe or sturdy straw.

Take notes if you're doing something custom and only print the pages that have pieces you'll be using.  Pages 1-6 are the left gaunt, pages 7-11 are the right gaunt.

The rest of the build will come soon, I promise.  Just have to find that darn cereal box.

Parting tip: When you cut, keep the scraps nearby.  You can use them to add a stronger join or snip a piece off and use it as a glue spreader.

[OriKad]

Now we get to the build.

Here's almost everything you need for the build, as listed in the first post.  You'll note two scissors and two knives.  They each have their own purpose later.


And here's the rest of what you need.  Yes, it's a dog food box.  Next to the box would be a finished set of the gaunts we're building here.


First thing to do is unfold your box.  It's best to glue the brown inner to your cardstock when we get to that step, rather than the glossy outer.


Now we work with cardstock.  What I prefer to do is find the end of a valley fold and push the tip of my knife through the card outside of it, that or cut a nearby cut line.  This makes sense after...


...you turn the sheet over and, with your straight edge, score the back of the card for the valley fold.  You HAVE to score all the fold lines, otherwise they won't fold nearly as crisply as you need them to.  Keep doing this until all of the valley folds are scored on the back.


Then do the same on the front of the page for all the mountain folds.  I recommend scoring ALL of the fold lines before cutting out any of the pieces.


Once all the folds are scored, you can start cutting out the pieces, either with your craft knife or your scissors, whichever you prefer.  Remember to use fine scissors for the tab cuts.


Once the piece is cut out, get to folding along all those lines you scored earlier.

To be continued.

[OriKad]

Continued.  A reminder: make sure you score the valley folds in the right place.  You really don't want to screw that up... although if you do, all you have to do is start over with just that page.


Now that you've got a piece cut out and folded, you get to glue down the tabs.  Glue the tabs to the back of the cardstock so the printed sides are on the outside when you get to the build. Remember to check the fit before you apply glue and carefully trim as necessary.  If you spread the glue out after you apply it, it'll hold tighter, faster.  Don't spread it too thin or it'll just dry on the card before you put it together.


Blurry pic, but you should be able to see roughly how it ends up.


You can hold the tabs together with your fingers.  It'll set well enough to let go after 10-30 seconds.


And here's that piece fully glued. You can set this one aside and repeat the same process with the other pieces.


Here's the first of the places where it's better not to cut on the lines.  This is on page 1.


And there it is cut and folded next to the piece we did before.  You'll note the angles follow... That's because those two pieces go together.


And there they are together.

Continuing shortly so I don't put too many pics in any given post.

[OriKad]

And more!


Here's a bit that helps for later.  Where indicated, add tabs on the outside.  You'll want to do this on the forward and rear of this piece, so that the tabs you're adding now are there to attach it to the clamshell later.  Remember to score the cut lines as if they were a mountain fold.


And there's that piece cut out.  You can see where I added the tabs on forward and rear.  The pieces laid to either side will attach near where they are.


Now you begin the folding and gluing on this piece.  I didn't add tabs here because it's a very fiddly piece to work with.  The resin and bondo later will do the same job as the tabs otherwise would.


And that's the center part glued in.  That's the back view so you can see how the tabs go on.  If you put the tabs on the outside, you'll have to do more work with bondo later.


And there it is from the outside with another of the several pieces attached in its proper place.


And now, that;s everything from page 1 all assembled.  When you attach two pieces together, be patient and as precise as you can, but don't worry about screwing it up a little.  It is just cardstock after all.  You can afford a few happy little accidents here and there, because any mistake can be corrected later, either by rebuilding, or covering with bondo and resin.

More to come later.  Parting tip: It helps to put a movie on while you work.  You'll have fewer bouts of impatience that way.

[OriKad]

Now we move to page 2.


After doing all the scoring, just cut out these two pieces.  Those are needed to finish the main body of the left gaunt before moving on to the other parts.


Once they're cut and folded like the other pieces before, they can be attached to the main body.


Now we're going to start reinforcing the main body with the heavy card from the dog food box (or cereal box, or whatever you have for heavy card).  First, cut out the pieces from the regular paper templates you printed earlier.  You don't have to cut every piece, just the ones that cover a large area.


When they're cut out, put them printed side up on the brown side of the card and trace them.


Set them in the place they're going to be to check their fit before gluing.  Best to do one at a time.


As you go along, cover just about every flat portion that doesn't have any dimension smaller than a quarter inch.  If it's smaller than a quarter inch, the light cardstock is strong enough.


And here you see how you do the gluing.  Using a scrap of card or a butter knife, or even a proper palette knife (whatever you have handy), spread the glue evenly over the whole surface of the card.


Once the glue is applied, carefully slide the piece into position.


And now that it's in position, apply as even pressure as possible to the surface until the glue sets.  A few seconds later, you should have a properly reinforced left gauntlet piece.  You may now take a break and have a cup of coffee.  You've earned it.

[Ca Loar]

Thankyou for this.Very informative and also helps people understand this is not as hard as it may seem.

[Ca Loar]

Admins Please sticky this.

[OriKad]

Demystifying pepakura-based costumes was my general intent for this.  Maybe if more people see how relatively easy it is, they'll take a look at Skip's catalog of templates and see things they like.  I know there are a few things he's done that are in my personal costume plans for the future.  Like I said in another thread.  This is a cheap and good option in the general costuming pick 2 equation.  Lots of build time, but it's actually kind of fun to do.

Anyway, more building!


Here's the front keypad bit for Boba-style.  If you're building a Jango style, you can skip this part entirely.  If you ARE gonna build it, it follows a slightly different process from the rest due to its fiddlyness and relative structural weakness.  As you may see if you squint a bit, there are tabs that I added, as well as two mountain folds and a valley fold in very close proximity.


Some other pieces on page 2 that need to have tabs added.  Remember, when adding tabs, you have to score the cut line as if it's a mountain fold line.


Back to the keypad part.  On the left is the plain paper template to cut the reinforcement card, as you can also see. The sides, front, and top absolutely need to be reinforced.


Here's the front part cut out, folded, and reinforced.  It helps to do this part in this order.  Reinforce the front, glue the front into the rest (the three close folds are difficult, but your reinforcement card should help).  Glue the side reinforcements, then glue the top reinforcement.  DO NOT FORGET TO FIT BEFORE GLUING.  I emphasize that because I did this time.


When you have it done, it looks like this.  Fortunately the glue hadn't completely set before I was able to fix my error.


When it's glued to the front it'll look like this.  Fortunately, you have the tabs to hold it on.  Unfortunately, it's a little flexible...


...Which fortunately is easily fixed by gluing on just a little bit more of the scrap cardstock you have lying around.  Now it's good, strong, and solid.  And we can move on.

Parting tip: Don't worry about minor imperfections.  They can always be fixed later, and if they can't... well, then it's more in the spirit of the original SW prop builders.  They rolled with their screwups.  Mistakes add character.

[OriKad]

Now for the next part, the little bit that sits on the top front.  I honestly have no idea what it's for, but it adds that Mando "je ne sais quoi."  Here it is, cut and folded with one of its card reinforcements sitting nearby.


Much like everything but the front keypad bit, it gets normal reinforcements.  Don't worry about the big hole in front.  That's a recessed bit that's supposed to be there.


Which gets filled with another piece, which is shown here already assembled and inserted.  This part is very difficult and I wouldn't blame you if you decided to skip it entirely (you can, by the way, by just not cutting out the front part of this whole assembly.)  If you skip the recess, just add a flat reinforcement in its place and change the scoring lines as your own logic tells you.  If you DON'T skip the recess, just firmly muscle it in until all the edges are lined up and then use some "Mandalorian persuasion" to correct any warping you cause.


Once you have the front recess in and all the sides reinforced, you can go ahead and glue it onto the main body, like so.  Line it up so it's centered but don't worry about it being slightly off.  You're allowed to eyeball it.


And that leaves only one piece that goes on the main body of the gaunts.  A little button thing.  You only need to reinforce the largest surface of this one.


Anbd once that's assembled and reinforced, glue it on the right side of the main body.  You can estimate where exactly to put it, but I like to put it roughly 3/4 toward the back.


If you've been following along step by step, you should have this.  This is the finished main body of your new left gaunt.  There's still work to be done on the left, but fortunately, the rest is pretty darn easy.

So that's it for the day.  Tune in tomorrow for the the next episode of our adventure in gauntlet building.

Parting tip: You're probably gonna suck at this the first time you try it.  You're supposed to.  I certainly did.  That's why we practice, and why cardstock comes in packages of 250 sheets.  It's also why my first attempt is in the garbage can and my FIFTH attempt is in a build tutorial.

[OriKad]

And now we resume.  At the culmination of the posting I've got prepared before I get back to building, I have about 4 hours of work in, plus about 3 hours of photography and posting... and 78 pictures... And that's only with ONE gauntlet done.


Now we're starting on the boxy rectangular bit.  Again, the construction on this varies from the previous parts, but I'm with you, I'll walk you through it.  Remember, do all your scoring before your cutting.


On your plain paper you'll want these two pieces cut out for your heavy card, just like all the other heavy card.


Because they're not QUITE perfect rectangles, make sure you mark which side goes which way, and which one is which.  I did that here with edge numbers and the box drawn on.  You do not want to cut out the middle part of your heavy card.


Repeat the same process with the larger pieces, and remember to leave enough space to account for the thickness of your heavy card.


This, surprisingly enough, uses up almost the same amount of heavy card as the rest of the left gaunt put together.  It helps to line up one of the long edges with a straight edge of the card and then line up the rest of the pieces with one of the previous cut edges.  Less cutting that way.


As always, once everything is cut out, check your fit.  Remember, like shown, to mark which way is which just so you don't mess it up later.


Since it's a larger area than the rest, I decided to use spray adhesive for the big parts.  The same gluing method as the rest can work, but it takes a little longer.  If you use spray adhesive, follow all the directions on the can and only do one piece at a time.


Once it's put together, it should resemble a big offset rectangle.  Not shown in this picture is that the tab is on the OUTSIDE unlike much of the rest of the build.  It's best to do it that way, because you won't have to do much covering and it means less fiddling with the heavy card.


Now fit the bottom cap, which is actually the rear of.. whatever this part is actually for.  Put in the reinforcement and glue the tabs on the outside.


And the front cap.  This one has valley fold tabs in the middle.  Glue your solid heavy card into it and don't worry about the hole.


I'm sure you can figure it out, but it helps to see.


Again, the tabs are on the outside.  Make sure your inner tabs are folded extra wide.  You may want to score them JUST a little wider than the lines too.


Post break!

[OriKad]

And resuming:


When you reinforce the front piece, remember to leave space for the inset, as shown.  Use the inset piece from your plain paper to determine how much.


Sorry I didn't photograph the assembly of the forward piece, but by now you should have the hang of it.  I was focusing on not screwing up and there was a fascinating documentary on while I was doing it.  The tabs all go on the outside of these pieces as shown in this assembled piece.


Now, because the forward inset piece needs some more strength, and the tabs need to be covered, all those scraps of card you've been saving up come into play.  Just glue some extra card onto the outside the same way you've been gluing the heavy card to the inside.


This is what it looks like when it's done, with a less done side for comparison.  Do it one side at a time and trim off the excess as you go.

Now for another post break because we're moving onto another section!