Iron Man Mark III Costume

thewrongvine

The Evolved Panda Commandant
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Hello, as many of you should know, the Avengers is coming out soon. So, I have started creating my Iron Man costume!
I will be following a tutorial from TheHeroTutorials on Youtube, which uses a program called Pepakura to build the suit. I'll be posting my progress as I go, but it will probably be slow as it takes a lot of time.
And, the reason why I am sadly making Mark III is because I realized too late that I opened a Mark III file instead of the Mark VI and I didn't feel like starting over yet, but oh well, it's good practice.

Checkpoint 1: 4/13
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Pepakura Designer 3, the Iron Man helmet piece I will be making.

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29 pages of cardstock, 96 pieces, printed out.

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Halfway through cutting, after like 2 days of 4 hours each...

Checkpoint 2: 4/15
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Finished cutting, assembled the faceplate of the helmet.

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Finished the jaw. Hopefully I didn't make the helmet too small. It's been a week since I started, but it's looking good. Except the the faceplate, there's one part that seems off compared to how it should be, but I'll worry about that later.

Checkpoint 3: 4/21
Update. It's looking terrible! You might not be able to tell, but it's really bad. The pieces don't like fit in smoothly and tape doesn't work very well (I used tape to reinforce, the glue's the main holding force). The individual pieces look fine (faceplate, head, neck, jaw, ears) but when I put them together... ugh. Oh well, I will try to move on to the next stage tomorrow, buying fiberglass resin and whatnot.

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Checkpoint 4: 4/27
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I kinda finished the fiberglass I think. So sharp and spiky, as you can see. I need to sand it out but I don't have all the mechanical tools so not sure if I'll be able to, since sanding by hand will take hours...

Checkpoint 5: 5/2
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This is with the bondo body filler. I realized too late I put too much, so I would need so much sanding. Since I don't have time, I just rushed the sanding, and painted it. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

It'll take awhile before I finish this but ah well.
 

Syndrome

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Looks good so far, will you be going with your Plan B if it's too small?
 

Jedimindtrixxx

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Thats actually pretty god damn awesome
i want one :]
 

Syndrome

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No no no!
You need to reinforce it with something.
Like tape.

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Fatmankev

Chef, Writer, and Midnight Toker
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Dude, very cool. I hope it works out just as well as you're hoping. Don't lose your stride!
 

thewrongvine

The Evolved Panda Commandant
Reaction score
506
Update. It's looking terrible! You might not be able to tell, but it's really bad. The pieces don't like fit in smoothly and tape doesn't work very well (I used tape to reinforce, the glue's the main holding force). The individual pieces look fine (faceplate, head, neck, jaw, ears) but when I put them together... ugh. Oh well, I will try to move on to the next stage tomorrow, buying fiberglass resin and whatnot.

Checkpoint 3: 4/21
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347dvle.jpg

2yju5au.jpg

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vypur85

Hibernate
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Awesome work there TWV! Looks like a very challenging task here. Do you plan to colour it? Colour printing would make life easier but I guess the ink consumption is crazy. What paper material did you use?
 

thewrongvine

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Thanks everyone. Yeah, definitely one of the most difficult craft projects I've ever done.

Yup, it will be (hopefully) colored. This first stage of assembling the pieces I finished here, and next is strengthening. I'll be getting supplies to do that tomorrow, which is probably gonna be pretty costly... but yeah, I will be using fiberglass resin and cloth to strengthen the helmet. After that, I will use bondo and sanding to fill in any spots/crevices and to add detail to it. Then, after it's all smooth, I will cut out the faceplate so it's separate, and spray paint the red and gold, and probably some other things to make it shiny.

If I can get that far before the Avengers premiere, some extra things I will attempt to do is make the faceplate open, either manually or motorized, and adding lights to the eyes.

The paper I'm using is 110 lbs. card stock so it can keep its shape.

But this is all in theory, :) This is challenging enough as is, and I only sloppily finished stage one, the easiest part. Time s running out! Like 11 days left to do this, I don't know if I can make it ha.
 

thewrongvine

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506
So I tried fiberglassing my helmet today. I got all the supplies, read a few tutorials, watched some videos, and I'm like, yeah I'm ready. So I go out to my garage and set everything up, wanting to be careful and safe and all. Opened all the doors, set up a table, put tin foil under, set up where I would prop the helmet up while drying, got the resin, hardener, brush, container, etc. I was ready!
Also, I'm supposed to wear an OV (organic vapor) mask to protect against the fumes, but those are costly so I didn't want to buy one, so I just ended up using a cheap dust mask. Anyway, mask is on, plastic gloves and long sleeves for protection, open air, I was set.
Opened the resin can, started pouring it in the container, halfway through I think to myself, wow, I should read the instructions. So I quickly stop and read the instructions, and if you don't know, this stuff once out only lasts well for about 10-12 minutes, so I couldn't waste too much time. I find out the ratio of resin to hardener, which is like 1:4 I believe, 4 teaspoons of hardener to like 16 of resin. Anyway, I didn't have any measuring stuff, so I just kinda guestimated and poured in the resin to like an inch. Then I took the hardener and I was set. Opening it up, pointed it down, and squeezed the tube to get the drops out. Nothing comes out. Oh, turns out there's a seal on it. And not like a seal you can take off, it's one piece, so I spend like 3 minutes trying to open it, and I end up using a nail to poke a hole through the seal.
That's done, I just randomly pour in 6 drops or whatever, again, no measurements so I probably already messed up big. But okay, the two things are in, and I realize I don't have anything to mix it with. Spend another 2 minutes, end up using a plastic spoon to mix it. Like 5 minutes are gone, so I begin painting it. And I also smell the fiberglass really well, most likely due to the mask I was wearing that was not made for fumes.
But yeah, I got it done in like 10 minutes sloppily. It's a mess, fiberglass resin is really sticky, couldn't wash it off.
Hopefully it's all good, and I will add the next two layers + fiberglass cloth over the next two days or whatever. And I'm sure 3 days of inhaling that stuff doesn't count as overexposure so I'm fine from any harmful effects that may or may not lead to cancer or nervous system damage :)
 

Syndrome

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This really sounds like a recipe for disaster lol haha xP
Would read again.
 

vypur85

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Working with Fiberglass is an unpleasant business due to the fumes from the resin and itchiness of the fiberglass. Whenever you are working with fiberglass use gloves, overalls and a respirator, take frequent breaks for fresh air if you are in a confined space. To reduce the itching of fiberglass try not to scratch . Instead wash the affected areas gently with cool water as often as possible.
Careful there.
It even has MSDS. Check it out before using it the next time around. Get some rubber gloves instead. :)

Pictures! :D
 

thewrongvine

The Evolved Panda Commandant
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Ha, yeah, but I'm just some low profile DIY guy here, :D

Anyway, it's supposed to dry in like 2 hours, but I painted it really fast so the coat was uneven, and it's in my garage which is cool so it's taking really long to cure. Probably the whole night. I guess I'll do like one layer a day, take a few days to finish.

And I hope the resin in my container/on my brush dries or gets off, I don't wanna just throw out the whole thing each time.

The clock is ticking, running out of time! This will probably take half the week, not sure how long detailing will take. Painting should be quick, 2 days, so I need to paint this latest a week from today. I'll get pics when it's all strengthened both inside and out.
 

thewrongvine

The Evolved Panda Commandant
Reaction score
506
Checkpoint 4: 4/27
wbezpk.jpg

vnd11h.jpg

1eoy1k.jpg

2yty7n7.jpg

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I kinda finished the fiberglass I think. So sharp and spiky, as you can see. I need to sand it out but I don't have all the mechanical tools so not sure if I'll be able to, since sanding by hand will take hours...
 

vypur85

Hibernate
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Not sure if you can actually put that on safely on your head. But it looks cool so far. Haven't seen fiber glass coating before...
 
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