Tuesday 17 January 2012

Pepa... PRINT!

Ok, now that I've got all the shapes unfolded and laid out as best I could. It's time to turn these pixels into reality! Exciting.

The paper. To be more accurate... 110lbs. card stock from Staples (cost me $13 for 250 sheets) It's plenty for this project. This weight should be tested on your printer first. You never know if the thickness would jam the printer or not.


57 printed pages! 
(I was running out of ink on my printer so I printed these pages at 50% transparency to save ink)



I did not print the horns. The 4 antennae looking things (2 white ones and 2 yellow ones) jutting out from the forehead. Not going to make them out of paper. Going a different route with them... plastic! I wanted something more durable. I foresee these things being banged around and broken off easily. So, I'm going to make them out of something a bit more durable. Something that can take a bit more beating. Then I'll have to come up with a way that it could 'break off' and attached again without trouble. I had imagine walking through a doorway. Since I'll have extremely limited vision, I would break the horns off right away. I'm thinking .. velcro or magnets. But, we'll see when I get to them later.


Once you're ready for the cutting board, grab the hobby knife with a fresh blade. Don't use those utility knives with break-away blades. They suck.. and are actually dangerous for this. You need precision cuts. Big handle will make your life easier. You're gonna be cutting a LOT. Bigger handle would easier on the fatigue. Similar with a rubber grip. Don't forget a good cutting matte! Don't use cardboard underneath. They cause a mess and ruin your precision cuts. You can get cheap healing cutting mattes for $2 at Dollarama or Daiso. (Internet high-5s for us cheap-Os!)



Here's the face all printed and cut.
Notice the curl on the pages? That's because they went through my printer. No biggie.


The lines printed by Pepakura are pretty easy to understand. There are only 3 types of lines to look out for.

1) Solid lines = CUT
2) Dotted lines = Mountain fold
3) Broken up dotted lines = Valley fold

Here is a typical Pepakura shape. Lines and dotted lines with numbers everywhere. Every number has a corresponding number to merge the edges. With a tab to use to glue them together.

*TIP: Pepakura prints the tabs really big. Too big for my taste. Whenever I see a tab to cut.. I just cut them shorter. It makes it a bit easier to work with later. Less surface area to glue too. The big tabs can get in the way sometimes, going past a few shapes.

*TIP: I use my knife to score ALL the dotted lines. Just a little pressure, making sure not to cut all the way through. The score would make it easier for me to fold later. It also gives me a nice crisp straight fold.

*TIP: If you're rich, I'd recommend getting a Silhouette Cameo cutting printer! It'll save you LOADS of time cutting all the pieces manually. Man, wish I was rich.
The face all scored and folded. Ready for glue!

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