GG WP: Foam Iron Man Suit Pepakura Tutorial

Going to start with picture updates and eventually I will add in steps :)

It really doesn't look half as hard as it does! It's kinda like building a 3D puzzle with glue and camping mats.

Template by STEALTH:

http://www.therpf.com/f24/iron-man-mark-4-6-pepakura-foam-templates-video-tutorial-link-first-post-128147/

Software to read the template files:

Pepakura Viewer 3 to view

Pepakura Designer 3 to scale

Equipment I used:

8mm camping mats
crafts knife (must be sharp!)
glue gun - £6~ (I would recommend something that could take long glue sticks - you WILL get sick of placing glue in the glue gun every 5 mins)
sharpie
scissors
printer + paper/card for template
heat gun - £20 from Argos (1500w should be more than sufficient)

The simple tutorial:
Download the templates, cut it out in foam, glue it together.

Thank you Darkside501st for the scaling chart:

5'3" - 5'4" try in between scale 22 - 23

5'5" - 5'6" try in between scale 23 - 23.5
5'7" - 5'8" try in between scale 23.5 - 24
5'9" - 5'10" try in between scale 24 - 24.5
5'11" - 6' try in between scale 24.5 - 25.5
6'1" - 6'2" try in between scale 26 - 26.5
6'3" - 6'4" try in between scale 26.5 - 27.5

Started out by drawing cutting out the templates printed

Trace the template onto the foam.

Now cut it out. I would recommend a SHARP knife. I started out using an old one which I thought was sharp enough until I got me a brand new one.

Then cut it out bend it to the shapes you want with a heat gun.

Tip: don't keep the heat the foam for too long. A 1500w gun on low heat for 15-20 seconds should be more than enough.

If you want to keep it neat, a little bit of glue should be plenty. More than this, it will start ooozzzzing out and make a mess.

Don't forget to cut the edges in 45 digress if you want to create an outer edge!

Glue the pieces all together and you kinda get a shape like this

Looks pretty flat from the front. I think I might get a heat gun to bend the foam a bit...

Day 2: Tried this on and it is a bit small I think.
As you can see here, I did NOT cut my outer edges in 45 degree angles so they did not fit at all.

Just finished the back on day 2. Looks pretty crappy.

After searching on some forums, I learnt to cut outer joining edges at 45 degrees.

Going to start again with a heat gun + layering of the pieces.

Scaled the template up to 26.6 and started again.

Applied a bit less glue and 'molded' the foam a bit and it gave a much better result.

Continue gluing the pieces together. I referenced a LOT of other suits to find the most common/easiest way of shaping the pieces. You can see the subtle curves in some of the pieces. That was done with the heat gun.

I have made at least 4 or 5 helmets to finally get the correct scale and the edges right. This will take a lot of time. I would recommend making the helmet last as it will require all the skill and technique you learn from crafting the bigger pieces. Every little edge will matter on the helmet unlike some of the larger pieces (like the legs and the chest)

I filled in some of the gaps with normal wall fillers. Turned out quite crusty. Covered this with 4 layers of thick PVA glue. You will need to find your own thickness. Some recommend half and half but I just used the full strength. I believe the best practice is to apply PVA glue until the whole surface is smoothed