It's pretty shallow since the whole mask isn't terribly thick but I just wanted to give it some depth. Then I used my dremel with a grinding wheel attachment to carve into them. I used a pencil to draw the lines from the chin up to the forehead and under the eyes. I gave it a final coat of primer and then set to adding the detailing. Decided that I was actually happy with the look since the roughness seemed appropriate for a barbarian swordsman type character, decided to moved ahead with the next step of the build. Realized it still wasn't smooth and this step was going to take FOREVER. Sprayed it with some rust colored primer. Filled in low spots and rough areas, sanded it smooth. Once the resin was done I covered it with Bondo, sanded it smooth. Paint another layer of resin on, let it dry. Paint a layer of resin on the inside, let it dry. Cover the inside with fiberglass mesh tape. Paint another layer of resin, let it dry. The one thing that seemed to work for me was the fact that it was self-adhesive, however it's also not as dense as the fiberglass cloth since it's, well, mesh instead of cloth.Īll I did was paint a layer of resin on the outside, let it dry. I happened to have fiberglass mesh tape (the kind used for drywall repair) on hand and thought, 'Hey, that's the same thing right?!' Well it's not really the same thing, but it did seem to work just fine. All I can say is, you should definitely use gloves and a respirator but it's not really all that scary.īecause of my cheapness again I actually didn't use fiberglass cloth. The resin step was intimidating at first because of all of the work I had done up to this point combined with all of the hazmat warnings. Using a toothpick didn't make it any more so. I'm sure this sounds like I just told you I cleaned my whole house with a toothbrush, but honestly, gluing all of those tabs together is tedious regardless of how you do it. PVA glue doesn't dry very fast so rather than putting a big glob of glue on and then holding the tabs together for upwards of five minutes a piece I used a toothpick to apply small amounts of glue to the tabs so that it would dry faster. When I glued the pieces together I used ordinary Elmer's/School/PVA glue because I had it on hand and didn't feeel like dealing with the added complications a hot glue gun would cause. Now, I am very cheap, so rather than buy cardstock I printed the files on the backs of scrap paper, traced them onto manilla folders I happened to have around and cut them out of that. Continue recoating with auto body filler and sanding until it loses it's polygonal shape and looks smooth.Trim off excess cloth and coat with auto body filler.Paint 2-3 layers of resin on the inside adding fiberglass cloth after the first layer.Paint 2-3 layers of resin on the outside.Glue tiny numbered tabs to matching numbers.Painstakingly cut out 20 or so pages of tiny abstract shapes.The complete process of Pepakura goes like so:

I will, however, give some specifics on some of the things I did that may be different than elsewhere. This is not going to be a terribly in depth look at Pepakura since there are already many good tutorials out there.

Tamasoft Pepakura Viewer or Designer which can be downloaded here.

I did not create this file myself but it was freely shared so I will share it here. Here I'm using it to make a mask from the character Juggernaut, from the game DOTA: II.Įdit: I have attached a file for anyone looking to make this themselves. At that point all you have is a paper model, but with the use of things like fiberglass resin you can harden it and make it strong, and then you can apply things like papier mache or Bondo (an auto body filler) and basically make it into a real thing. Awesome right? Well, it doesn't have to stop there. Each piece has tabs, numbers, and fold lines so that it can be put back together in an actual physical representation of the 3D model.

Unfolding refers to the process of breaking the surface area of the 3D model into manageable pieces that can be printed onto paper or cardstock like puzzle pieces. It's all over the internet and instructables already but if you're new to the term basically the idea works like this: You create a 3D model, or take an existing one, and 'unfold' it. So, I've been eyeing this process called Pepakura for quite a while now.

How to do pepakura on foam