If you start with something you know, it makes the process of learning this stuff easier, even if you don't have a background in computer science or digital art (which I don't). I've got practically EVERY model from the ME universe in a 3D format (and that includes weapons, characters, and vehicles) off a 3D modeling community forum.įrom there it's just a matter of doing the same process (remove everything but the part you want from the 3D model) in whatever 3D program you're comfortable with, then export it into Pep and unfold. Chances are most of the leg work has already been done for you. There's a whole world of people out there ripping models from games for mod work. If something happens to be slightly off, you're only out the printing/cutting/gluing of one small section instead of the whole file and you don't have to keep track of what scale you used for what pieces. The other benefit to this method is you now have everything saved in their own proper scale. It's messy, and you'll have a lot of clutter hanging out in Pepakura purgatory, but it gets the job done relatively painlessly. When you scale up or down now, everything (including the unprinted stuff) gets scaled, but only what you have on the printed area will print out to be pep'ed. Repeat the process with all the other parts you want to individually scale in their own file.

Then just select/grab all the parts that aren't a part of that piece you just named the file for (so for example, for the 'Torso' file, remove everything from the page but the torso) and stick them outside of the printable area. Name them 'Arms', 'Torso', 'Legs', or whatever floats your boat.

What I do is make several copies of the bigger, all inclusive, file.

Bent pipe pepakura pattern