updated ironman build

so after spending weeks building one ironman suit ive decided to start another one without even finishing the old one off
i get like that sometimes

i havent taken many before pics of this build but its using a different technique, this one is entirely made out of foam rather than fibreglass. its not going to be as durable but it will be more comfortable and easier to move around in which is ultimately a better thing in my mind

so some progress pictures so far.

the helmet is the only thing i modelled out of fibreglass, and then painted black. everything else you see in the picture is made out of foam and then painted the same colour black.

the black paint is actually a silicon based paint so that it gives some structure to the foam as well as giving the paint something to stick to

upper torso pretty much complete along with neck and helmet

the arc reactor is also complete as i will be using the one from the previous build i just didnt put it into the chest for the picture

i have also completed the hands, along with moveable finger joints and light up palms

you will see in the first pic there is a small button sticking out just to the side of the index finger

the whole thing is again made out of foam which makes the joints able to move rather than having to make indivudal joints with fibre glass this was one of the reasons i chose the foam as everything was a lot easier than fibreglass and there were quite a lot more advantages to useing it

and in this picture you can see that by holding my thumb in it presses he button and that then brings the light on in the palm, just a simple circuit with a bright LED, nothing special but looks good.

Iron Man Arc Reactor

ok so this project started out as something quick and simple but it ended up taking all day to complete.
To go with my iron man suit i wanted the infamous arc reactor tony stark has to stay alive as well as to power the suit.

i began by making a 3d model

then printed out all the parts and started the process of building and piecing it all together.

at this stage i had to kep all the pieces seperate as i knew i wanted to add lighting to this particular project. but lighting adds a whole new challenge. I designed the arc reactor to be as slim as possible due to the fact i dont have a great amount of room to put it within the suit, but also wanted to stick somewhat close to the movie prop even though this will prop never get seen apart from the front.

the thin ring peice here

is where the LED's will be housed....the problem is that piece is around 5mm thick, a lot thinner than your average LED, but thats a good thing in a way cause i can have the LED protruding without it being too much of a problem. in the end it was barely big enough to store all the wireing that joined the LED's together.

i dont have any pics of the next couple of steps i kind of rushed through it and forgot to document it.
essentially what i did was take each component, spray it with 2 layers of resin hardener so its dureable and then a base layer of black paint followed by 2 layers of silver and 2 layers of clear.

for the actual housing around each of the lights i originally planned on using frosted acetate, but when it came to it i thought it might look kind of rustic to just use layers of hot glue, so thats exactly what i did. just pumped a load of hot glue into each of the sections containing LED's totally covering them and the final model looks something like this

wich i am extremely happy with, it fits in the space in the suit perfectly and when the lights are on it looks amazing

Hoverboard version 2

I have decided to rebuild a more movie accurate version of the hoverboard.
so far the modelling s all done and i thought i would let you have a look at the entire process that i go through.

so it starts out with first a computer model, to be able to create the model i take an image of the actual hoverboard from different views

and from that image i create the 3D model

also at this point i take time to edit the vinal stickers that are goin to go on it for the design, a top and bottom view

after all that is done i convert the 3D model into a 2D format so that i will be able to print the parts out onto card stock and re create the hoverboard in real life

iron man work in progress build

As promised i am currently working on a full iron man suit, this is going to be the biggest and most time consuming off all my builds so far i believe but i will endeavor to keep on track.

first i started with the helmet, very similar to the first one i built, infact i believe it was the same file i used. only this time its going to be a much better build. over recent years i have changed my style of building to make models a lot smoother, i've learned that having a smoother better quality base model makes the fiberglass and resin as well as paint look a lot better and there is not so much of a need to fix obvious problems in the structure of the build

dont mind the tape, the helmet is actually modeled in 3 parts. the helmet is a rather tight fit so i needed a way to be able to get it on and off once its fibreglassed. the front jaw comes off and will be attached with strong magnets once i get it all fibreglassed and the face plate will of course be moveable just like in the film. the reason i tape the pats together rather than keeping them seperate is that in the modelling process the computer model can be made into any shape and hold it, but in the real world card doesnt act like that, yes it can be folded to a certain degree but large parts tend to want to just flop about and smoother parts tend to want to keep straight. so to keep everything together and in the right shape so that it all fits back together seamlessly after its fiberglassed its held together with tape. after the first 2 coats of resin i will remove the tape and continue with the fiberglass.

the chest was next and came along really nice

there is obviously the space in the centre for the arc reactor that i will be making at some point after the build is finished

the back section was a littel tricky but it also looks pretty good at this stage

its coming together nicely and the best part is it all fits lol

working my way down i completed the abdominal and the cod piece in record time

 

i then jumped a little further down and did both boots

these did take me about 4 attempts to get right just because i had to get them to fit my feet perfectly.
they are modeled in 3 parts, the main shoe then the heel and then the toe sections. normally i would glue these 3 sections together right now but i have decided not to basically for the fact it will be easier to fiberglass with them all apart. but also because of how i intend to make these fully wearable.

when it comes time to fiberglass i will no doubt go into it in more detail but to begin with i will cover all 3 sections in 2 layers of resin/fiberglass. the heel and toe sections will then be filled with expanding foam filler to make them solid and able to carry my weight. the foot section will have a vice soft layer of foam insulation added to all sides and gel inner soles added for comfort.

next part i have moved onto the shoulders. i normally dont post the "process" so to speak because its not that glamerous lol, but all my creations start out just like this

just a few sheets of card, something to cut with and some glue.

and when its finished i get this

just one of the finished shoulder pieces, one more to go then move down the arm to the bicep next

so the next piece is the  bicep, and to be honest although a rather small piece of the puzzle it did have its complexities to get all the little details right, but it turned out ok.

moving down i started to create the forearm and the elbow section, i didnt really like the model for the forearm, it didnt really fit all that well cause i have big hands but thin long arms so i ended up modelling some of it from scratch and in all honesty a little bit of guess work, it turned out ok though.

combined with the bicep it works very well although im not 100% at this stage how im goin to attach it all together but i will cross that bridge when i get to it after the fiber glass is done

I have skipped the hands for now as i think they will cause me the most problems out of everything i left to build so i moved onto the legs. Starting with the thigh. didnt ave too many problems with it although its a large piece so a few things did make it a little awkward to work with.
You will notice there are triangular parts that seem to block the openings. these are structural to help it kep its shape, after the fiber glass as gone on i will just cut them away and it will be fine

Continuing with the legs i have moved on and completed one of the shins. Again this piece has triangular reinforcements to keep its shape but will be removed when it has been fiber glassed.

the final part to the mammoth task was to complete the hands. on both hands iron man has repulsors which act as stabilizers for flight as well as weapons so i had to add that into the design. they came out pretty good and are intended to fit snug around my hands, a major flaw with that is that i cant actually try them out cause ive moddeled them as a single piece but will actually be cutting it into 3 sections and reassembling it each time i wear it to fit around my hand nice and snug.

 you will notice the black thick lines i drew on, those are where i will split it into 3 sections. there will be the main palm section then 2 sections at the top just to add a bit of detail.

and this is both palms side by side

the next step was obviously the fingers, which i knew was going to be time consuming and fiddly but its finally done here's what they look like

that is the underside, due to the nature of the fingers they have a tendency to not sit right on the curved bottom so i had to lay them out on the flat top but they look good and fit fine although the middle finger is a little too tight (i have fatter fingers than i thought). i wont be using the entire finger section though, i will just be taking the top and sides of each section of each finger and glueing them in place on the undersuit, the curved bottom of each piece will only be used for support so the fingers keep their shape when i fiber glass them.

and this is how they look when matched up to the palm part

and that is it. 8 weeks later and ive finally finished the modelling stage of the build, the next step is to fiber glass each section. for which i will be using a new technique that i havent tried before but im hoping it will work out rather well. then its paint and finally fitting so stay tuned for all of that to come :D

So the time has come to finally start the resin stage of this project then test fitting everything, as of yet i dont even know if any of it fits properly lol

the first part i did was the chest piece followed by the neck and helmet, i havent test fitted these parts yet as there is more work to do and its easier to do that when its still all joined together but i have faith that it will fit...but it does look good standing up as it is

working my way down i focused on both arm sections and i was surprised at how much movement i had, cant quite get a glass up to my mouth so if i go out anywhere ill have to remember to take a straw with me but other than that i like the progress so far

next was both leg pieces, didnt think it was going to fit to begin with but surprisingly it fits quite well, still a lot to do and i have a few ideas as to what i will be doing to cover up the joints when i bend knees and elbows so the morph undersuit doesnt show through as much

and the abdomen...i have no idea how flexible this is goin to be. i have a feeling that sitting down or bending may be an isue but im not bothered at this stage