Hey all,
As I mentioned in my intro post, my goal/dream is to have a proton pack and uniform. However, I am limited in the whole arts and crafts/mechanical assembly/anything with woodworking, metalworking or plasticworking. That and, I am always tight on funds, what with the family and all.
Now, I do have a PKE meter thanks to MattyCollector. This is a start.
A friend of mine just built a vent room in his house for painting, fiberglass and resin work. His son is really into Halo and wanted to make some armor.
Here is how they did it.
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Find full-scale papercraft armor and make it.
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Coat in fiberglass
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Make rubber mold from fiberglass mold
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Cast resin
So, I have found a papercraft full-size proton pack and am hoping that my friend can complete the same process. At least this would give me a decent quality shell to work with…
ive made a bunch of stuff from pepakura. the proton pack plans from the pep need ALOT of editing because they’re mirrored and NOT 1:1 scale like the creator claims they are.
you need pep designer to fix all these errors.
The only thing I don’t like about making a paper model then applying fiberglass and resin on top is that fact you’ll get a piece that’s over sized the thickness of the mat/resin used. You’d almost have to print the plans scaled down to account for the thickness of the material placed on top or only use a thin coat of resin just to harden the paper for molding… Did that make sense? Its pretty late here… 
I still don’t see much of a point in using pep for a proton pack. Pep is good for things with rounded forms, not so much something that is made out of a bunch of flat boxes.
Well, I’ll see what my friend says about it. If he feels that it is too complex of a shape, or that it really doesn’t get the look/feel I’d be looking for, he’ll let me know. The fact is, if it isn’t 100% to scale or 100% screen accurate, it isn’t a huge issue. I want to get it as close as possible without having to spend $300 on a fiberglass shell or something of that nature.
Well, it isn’t complex enough. Print out Stefan’s plans at 1:1 scale, paste them on your material (wood, styrene sheets, what have you) and just cut out the shapes.
Could give that a try as well. The issue is, justifying the cost of materials to my wife…she was a bit miffed about the cost of the PKE meter at $60. But, I will figure something out eventually. I have had this dream since age 5 and am not going to give up that easily.
Unless your friend has free access to fiberglass and rubber/silicone (very expensive) for the very large mold it would take, it would cost more to make it like your suggesting than to just buy a shell in the first place. Now if you, your friend, and a few other people you know all want proton packs, then it’s not that bad of an investment to make your own mold and copies.
If you have a hard time justifying the cost of the materials, just use cardboard for most of it. Should be able to get that free from most places (i.e. retail/grocery stores) that just throw it out instead.
cardboard would also help creating the majority of the boxed shapes that the card stock wouldnt be able to take and you can also resin it. alot of the tubes and pipes and clippards, you’re better off using pvc pipe in substitution.
alkaline, the way most pepakura works is you fiberglass on the inside, and sand off the paper on the outside.
if you dont own the 3d file, you shouldnt be molding because there’s debate whether or not that’s recasting, especially if you have the intent on reselling. there’s even debate where its digital recasting if you use someone’s prop as a guide for your 3d file(which hardly ever happens).