Welcome to The Forge

Ok so for a long time, I wanted a stormtrooper helmet and I looked up how to make one and that shit was way too much work. Molding and clay and cutting and all types of shit I didn’t have the money or time for. So I bought one. It’s kinda sucky but whatever, that’s not the point. So I kept looking up helmets that I wanted and I decided that Iron Man was the best choice and looked up how to do it myself. That’s how I found therpf.com

The Replica Prop Forum is a place where people post props they’ve found, bought or made themselves. Some people on the forum use a program called Pepakura to design 3D models, flatten the image so you can cut it out, and make it so you can put it together on paper or foam. In the program, you can view the model, move it around, play around with it and print the pieces you’ll need to put it together.

On the forums, you can find .pdo files for Pepakura that people have built their models from. Some people post them because they like to share, some people sell them. But if you google [name of project].pdo, you might find something good. But look at the forums for ideas or just to see the awesome things people come up with.

Next, I found a series of video tutorials that take you through the process of building armor or a costume from the .pdo stage all the way to painting the final product. You can watch those here. He has 2 sets of tutorials, one for paper/resin and one for foam. I started with paper but he says foam is easier so I don’t know. It’s your choice. Do what you want. Frankly, foam is cheaper but I hear it doesn’t last as long or have the detail that paper/resin has.

Next round, materials.

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