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To start my journey into foam armor I found a thread on the RPF forums created by the user JFCustom. Following the advice of him and several others on the forum I am starting small with a Captain America Helmet.
Here is a link to JFCustom’s post on his Captain America helmet -> CLICK ME
To get started I need to get some software called Pepakura. The software takes 3D models and unfolds and flattens them into 2D templates, which then can be used to make a physical 3d object from paper. There are two versions of the software available: the free viewer to look at files, or the paid designer to create/modify files. For now just running the free version. This will let me look at and print the files to make templates.
This software combined with templates that others like JFCustom have made allows for “easy” building of armor. Or if I can’t find a pre-made template, I could set down and make my own. I lucked out as there are nice users like JFCustom that offers up some of his templates for free. He also had already made the adjustments for using foam as the building material rather than paper.
The foam I’m using is called EVA foam, also used in things like craft foam, work out mats, anti fatigue mats, ect. Basically a foam sheet about 1/4″ (6mm) thick. With the templates printed out, now have to cut them out and transfer them to the foam.
With the foam all cut out, now its time to start gluing up the pieces with hot glue. This is where my learning curve and head scratching comes in. This is due to having the templates, but no real direction of where to start the assembly process.
So I made a couple extra pieces to get a feel for it. Think this will go well.
UPDATE 5/29/2013
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Glued up some of the parts over lunch. This was as far as I could get over my 1/2 hour lunch. Should have it all glued up by end of lunch tomorrow.
UPDATE 5/31/2013
Finished gluing up the helmet. Now its the fun part of fixing seams (or trying to), sealing, and paint. Not to thrilled with the way one of the eyes turned out, but this is my learning curve piece so I knew this wouldn’t be top shelf.