Building a Companion Cube

Building a Companion Cube MK2

I said I would be building a second Companion Cube And here it is. On my search for how to build a Companion Cube I discovered multiple ways to build a Companion Cube. Most that I discovered turned out to be crap but I did come across some golden nuggets.

I found a program called "Pepakura" That makes is really easy to build 3D objects. If you read my first post you will have found a link for the Companion Cube Pepakura file for my first Companion Cube build.

In my last post I did mention that I contacted a youtuber "microwavabletofoo" who had offered to send his version of the Companion Cube Pepakura file.

He finally sent me the files and I started my new Companion Cube build.


"microwavabletofoo" In fact sent me two files to work from that you can down load here. One of the files was none textured Download Here and a textured version that you can Download Here.

This Companion Cube is made as one solid piece unlike the other Companion Cube that was made out of multiple sections.

You can see here the different sections this Companion Cube is made from.

As you can see the Companion Cube is designed to be one whole piece.

I'm building two Companion Cubes because I want to build a Companion Cube chair but first I need to workout what the best build is.

Building the Companion Cube

First I made one face of the Companion Cube. This section was quite easy to do.

Attaching the other sides got quite fiddly.

But I didn't take to long to start looking like a Companion Cube.

I know that I could have to have access to the inside of the Companion Cube so I could Harden the thing So I left one of the round faces off one of the sides of the Companion Cube.

Hardening the Companion Cube

During my search on how to build a Companion Cube I also realised quite quickly that I would need to make the companion cube hard but not only hard but strong enough to stand on.

I found that people who make Cosplay armour also harden their armour with Fiberglass. So I decided to use the same method with my Companion Cube Build.

I had already tested the resin with my earlier build and worked out how best to use the smelly stuff.

So mixing 20ml of resin to about 6 centimetres of hardener I started painting the inside of the Companion Cube.

Now this fiberGlass resin cures fast like really fast and before I could use the whole 20ml's of mix the resin hardened...

So to combat this I only used 10ml batches. Once the inside was done I felt the Companion Cube to cure.



While the resin was setting I started to cut up the fiberglass mat ready for glueing into the Companion Cube.

This is what the inside of the Companion Cube Looked like after I glued all the fiberglass in place.

Horrible stuff that fiberglass mat... Glueing it into place was a nightmare but I did it in the end.

Then I resined up the out side of the Companion Cube.... and placed it next to the radiator to cure




I left the Companion Cube to Cure over night to make sure it was ready for the next stage.

Next Stage 

I just needed to resin up the inside of the Companion Cube again, all that fiberglass mat needed to be soaked in resin... 

Don't use fiberglass matt as its crap for this project I suggest that you use fiberglass tissues, I know I will with my next build.

After I fiberglassed the Companion Cube I painted it white.

Painting the Companion Cube 

So I gave the Companion Cube a quick blast of gray paint.

Then I used masking tape for the finer details.

and I used a stencil for the heart




And Boom its done...

I'm very happy with this Companion Cube But I do feel if I was to make it again I would do it much better.

When I started resined the Companion Cube some of the resin  blobbed up so I did not get the best finish...

In fact I have started to make A life size Companion Cube.... I will post a third blog once I have completed my next Companion Cube.

Kertins.....

How to make a perfect companion cube from portal

This is My experience of trying to learn how to make a Companion Cube from the video game Portal. 

I am quite obsessed with portal and all things portal related and I have always wanted to have my very own Companion Cube. Surprisingly enough you can not buy a  Companion Cube (well not a life size one) online. So I decided to see how I could make one.

To start with I first search the internet for a "Net" of the  Companion Cube . I came across this Net it seamed very promising

But the Net is not very accurate and the folds do not work properly. I was really struggling with this build I even found a youtube video of someone building this Net. You can view this video here.

But I found this Net to be crap and I would not recommend it to anyone.

Defeated, or was I?

So my first attempt was not very successful but I was not going to give up. I decided to search google again but this time for "how to make a companion cube" and I found this blogger who had made her own Companion Cube. 

This Looked promising at first and I even got to printing out her corner bits But I soon realised that you was only using the Papercraft net made by Moony... And on closer inspection of her Companion Cube I realised that the build was not very accurate at all. I wanted to make a 100% accurate Companion Cube that I could sit on lol.

I did however modify her template to include the smaller side panels. 

 

If you want a quick and easy way to build a Companion Cube this is the one for you. 

How to make a perfect Companion Cube?

This was rattling my head "how do you make a real life Companion Cube?". I decided to see how people make halo armour as the process must be the same as making a Companion Cube and I wanted to know how I could make the Companion Cube strong enough to sit on. 

Back to Google... So I Googled "how to make halo armour" and there is loads of people make this shit its amazing. One of the first links I came across was this guy indymogul. This web site is full of people and tutorials on how to make halo armour and much more. 

I did not learn how to make a Companion Cube but I did discover a program called "Pepakura" This little program can turn 3D models into Nets that you can cut out and build. This was exactly what I needed to get my Companion Cube project started. All I needed now was a 3D model of the Companion Cube... 

Where the hell do you find a 3D model of the Companion Cube?

Google!!!!  You know it. I Googled "pepakura Companion Cube" and found this amazing forum full called www.405th.com it had loads of "Pepakura" files for building basically anything you want. I found one thread with some PDO files of the Companion Cube http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/25649. There are two files here the first file I didn't think would work as it seem too complicated but the second PDO file seemed like it could work. You can download it here.

The PDO file was ok and I decided to use it for build my "proto type Companion Cube" 

I resized all the bits to fit. (I wanted to make it as big as possible with A4 paper.) I used a 0.35 ratio and selected the sections I wanted to print out.



I started making the Companion Cube using this Net.

However I was not 100% satisfied with this net and decided to see if there was anyone else using it.

I Googled "how to make a companion cube with pepakura" and I found youtube videos for making halo and iron man armour lol but one video has a little gem init. This guy "microwavabletofoo" was making a  Companion Cube .

In the video he also offer to email people his "Pepakura" files for the Companion Cube as it was for a one  piece version. The PDO file I was working from was made with multiple pieces. So I emailed him.

But got no answer back....

I decided to continue with the Companion Cube I was working on. After all this was just a proto type.
 Slowly I construed each section.



The Companion Cube started to take shape as you can see here.




Then I got an email from  "microwavabletofoo's". The guy was a legend he not only emailed me the file but he had send me a textured version of the "Pepakura" one pieces version of the Companion Cube.

You can down load the none textured Companion Cube here and the textured one here

I continued building my fist attempt. Soon I had all the parts completed.

I had almost finished the my Companion Cube but I wanted to know if I could harden the paper... 

How to make paper hard...

Well I googled it, didn't I and you know what I found out... You can't make paper hard not unless your a 14 year old kid with loads of pva glue and you like folding paper.... I had already built the damn thing.... Oh well I decided to complete the proto type Companion Cube anyway...

Even though I found out you can't harden paper I wanted to find out how the people that make halo armour hard...

So I went back to google and searched "how to make halo armour" and went back to indymogul tutorial. 

With in the tutorial he talked about fiberglassing the armour. This is exactly what I need. So I tested the fiberglass resin on a section of paper... 

I bought a Daves Fibreglass kit from Halford. Now this totally blaged me the instruction for mixing the resin with the hardener are in milliliters and centimeters???? "for every 10 ml of resin you need 2-3 cm of hardener ????

Took me bloody ages to work this one out.... In the end I realised the hardener comes out like a sausage haha you measure the cm when you squeeze it out... ffs I must have bee having a bad day. 

Anyway I was not happy with the results and as the Companion Cube was build in sections their was no way I could fibreglass the inside of the Companion Cube.

It looks nice though...

In all this Companion Cube took me 1 month to complete. I'm currently looking for a way to paint it without damaging it as its made from paper most water based paints will make it warp... 

I have also started working on the one piece version of the Companion Cube. I'll updated my progress soon. 

 If you want any advice or need any help please comment or if you want me to make you one (at a price) I will consider it.

Kertins...

Keep an eye out for Companion Cube MK2 ;)

You can now buy this Companion Cube that I made here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230777483555#ht_1827wt_1065