/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>9444313 here, documenting my experiments

The two extreme conveniences that the laser cutter offers, accuracy and speed, mean that I can go through putting an entire helmet together in one night so I'm doing multiple test builds at once. Each helmet here took a total of about five hours from raw paperboard to (nearly) finished pepakura build, with the vast majority of time spent on gluing pieces together. The helmet with the wooden rim had some problems so that dome is not attached at all yet.

Even with the cut accuracy and the heavier materials, the parts will bend and warp a bit, making assembly as messy as regular pepakura. I started using laser cut plywood for making hard-edged parts that need to stay in shape like the rim in the middle of the helmet and the bottom edge. The ears have sloped edges that I plan to freehand with Bondo and a flat edge.

I am going to also try laser cutting foam to get complex curves like the helmet dome (and later coat it in Rondo for a rigid outer layer) but there are some complications with cutting foam on the laser. The insane heat where the laser hits the foam causes the edge of the foam to melt and contract inwards so you get width to a cut that shouldn't have any. Multiple cutting passes with a low power setting might work though.

Another idea would be using the laser to kerf wood according to a pepakura pattern and make the whole thing from wood and wood filler. I can't even begin to have an idea if this would work though.