My Iron Man progress thread.

Iron Forge

New Hunter
Hey everyone. I had a thread started in the Sarlacc Pit, but as this is a work in progress I thought I would abandon the old thread and start a new one here. I decided to give a go at a movie accurate Iron Man costume. So this thread will show progress of my work so far.

Please feel free to post your responses, questions, comments, critiques even.

So to start the costume, I began with the Helmet. Here's a few pics from stage 1.

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After marking up the proposed helmet I began to sand down the medium to get my shape.

Let me say that it was more difficult than I imagined to sculpt down. I have used clay several times before to "add" dimensions to a project. But this was different. To "remove" the medium was tricky. Take away too much and you lose it. Not taking enough away makes it too flat. This took a lot of patience for me.

Step 2 was removing the foam, trying to get it closer to a helmet then a block of foam.
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(By way of footnote...I am trying to work out this whole picture uploading thing so if I screw up let me know)
 
After getting my general shape it was time to measure. To begin my project I scaled the Iron Man movie costume to get dimensions for each piece of armor including the helmet. So now it was time to check.

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At first I was going to just try using the foam to fiberglass over to make a negative mold. Then I figured that the fiberglass would eat the foam so something else needed to be done. So I have decided a nice coat of Bondo would work nicely. The Bondo still eats the foam so it is important to have a nice smooth light layer first. Here are a few pics from the beginning stages of Bondo layup.

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And this brings me to where I am now with the Bondo. I have the right side of the helmet almost completely finished. I need to attach the ear pieces yet but you can see the overall shape hopefully starting to look like Iron Man.

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That's good stuff, did you have to do much sanding to get the Bondo that smooth, or did you some how put it on like that?. Here's mine:

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That looks great X. Do you have pics from any other angles you can PM me? I applied the Bondo as smooth as possible in thin layers and sanded each one so far. Is that last pic a helmet or is it the Bondo stage?
That's good stuff, did you have to do much sanding to get the Bondo that smooth, or did you some how put it on like that?. Here's mine:

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Hi, most of my stuff, including my Iron Man armour in progress is at XRobots.co.uk - there are a few more pictures there, although my sculpt isn't that movie accurate. In the pics above, the last shot there is the actual helmet, first pic is a clay sculpt, second is the resin cast from the mould made off the clay.

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I like your foam and bondo method though because it's nice to be able to sand the thing smooth which you can't do with clay. I've previously made moulds out of wood and used them directly for vacuum forming which was a lot of sanding and filling, but for some reason it was easier to get a better finish. I did this, as well as foam and filler with my C-3PO project.
 
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So I am still working on the helmet but thought I'd show some more of the suit I've been working on. I'm hoping to get this thing built to wear and be as accurate as possible.

The Chest:
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I tell you what. I can make almost anything out of acrylic. but what you guys do is inspiring. has anyone done anykind of drawings to build from? or are you guys winging it from pictures?
 
My sculpts are just freehand in Klean Klay over bits of mannequins, or just by holding it up against me to get the size roughly right... mostly from reference pictures, but sometimes I get carried away and just do it how I think it should be ;-)
 
Well, then Great work. you sir are an artist and craftsman. I look forward to seeing it completed.

My sculpts are just freehand in Klean Klay over bits of mannequins, or just by holding it up against me to get the size roughly right... mostly from reference pictures, but sometimes I get carried away and just do it how I think it should be ;-)
 
I guys. I saw this thread and figured it would be the best place to ask a certain question. Could anyone supply me with a dimension on the helmet as shown.

thanks

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I guys. I saw this thread and figured it would be the best place to ask a certain question. Could anyone supply me with a dimension on the helmet as shown.

Mine is about 32cm long / 23cm / 23cm. This is just over 12" / 9" / 9", although it's probably a little small for some people.

EDIT: sorry I only just looked at the picture full size... not sure what it should be, but mine is about 3.7cm / just under 1.5"
 
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I started a new thread for this thread at http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/showthread.php?t=30200.

Here's a few new pics. For those asking questions about size...I scaled pics from the movie and then drew the schematics on the computer. Therefore this helmet as well as the rest of my armor should be some of the most accurate in sizing out there. Hopefully I can finish the helmet tomorrow. I just have the ears to do and finish some sanding.
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