Iron Man Mark 4 Halloween WIP - Foam

Well, I have decided to take it upon myself to try to get a Mark 4 done by Halloween made out of foam. Hopefully, between classes, homework, work, gym, life, etc. I can accomplish this. I would like some input from you guys though, please. I was planning on using Stealth's method found here:

http://www.therpf.com/f24/robo3687-i...pakura-128147/

But, I noticed that the only Mark 4 pieces are the chest and brace. Does this mean that the rest of the mark 4 is just mark 6 pieces? Sorry, I love Iron Man, but I'm not hardcore like a lot of your folks that would have greater knowledge on the subject.

I decided to buy this stuff:

http://i.imgur.com/d1LU7.jpg

There was some of the gray matting, but it seemed in pretty bad shape, and this was pretty ridged. Hopefully it will still work.

Anyways, I will be printing out the template for a piece tomorrow to test it out. I was thinking about doing the helmet in foam, but I dont have a heat gun, yet, and it seems to be needing one (even when you cut slits).

Wish me luck, im already $50.00 in, lol.

Hey man, good luck!
I got the same foam but mine is all grey an 1/2" (12mm) thick. It is a bit thicker than I would like. Some of that flooring also comes in 3/8" (10mm) I would suggest that thickness if you have an option.
If you are doing a foam build, a heat gun is an absolute NEED. Not just for the helmet. I started off with my helmet and it was pretty much a disaster. I used some foam I happened to have in my garage and it was thinner than the floor mat. But I didn't have a heat gun and I didn't take care with my angle cuts.
You are better off starting with another piece (the cest came together pretty easy for me) that will give you some practice with the material before you attempt the helm and get totally discouraged. (maybe that was just me!)
When you do attack the helmet, get some 3mm foam from wandys on eBay. Also for the hands, get some of the 1 or 2 mm "craft foam" you can get that at walmart or hobby lobby or wherever.
If there is one piece o advice I would give you it's this: TAKE YOUR TIME!! make your cuts perfect and reference the 3d model in pepakura often. Make sure weather it needs to be an angle cut or a straight cut before you start hacking up foam!
Good luck man! Can't wait to see some pics!

Good luck man! some good tips have already been given by Helagak. cant wait to start seeing pics of the build.And as stated before, take your time, and dont rush

Helagak said:

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Hey man, good luck!
I got the same foam but mine is all grey an 1/2" (12mm) thick. It is a bit thicker than I would like. Some of that flooring also comes in 3/8" (10mm) I would suggest that thickness if you have an option.
If you are doing a foam build, a heat gun is an absolute NEED. Not just for the helmet. I started off with my helmet and it was pretty much a disaster. I used some foam I happened to have in my garage and it was thinner than the floor mat. But I didn't have a heat gun and I didn't take care with my angle cuts.
You are better off starting with another piece (the cest came together pretty easy for me) that will give you some practice with the material before you attempt the helm and get totally discouraged. (maybe that was just me!)
When you do attack the helmet, get some 3mm foam from wandys on eBay. Also for the hands, get some of the 1 or 2 mm "craft foam" you can get that at walmart or hobby lobby or wherever.
If there is one piece o advice I would give you it's this: TAKE YOUR TIME!! make your cuts perfect and reference the 3d model in pepakura often. Make sure weather it needs to be an angle cut or a straight cut before you start hacking up foam!
Good luck man! Can't wait to see some pics!

Good tips, I definitely plan on trying something else aside from doing the helmet first, since I have a feeling I am going to be making plenty of mistakes, and I would prefer the main piece (helmet, duh) to be perfect.

The rest of the armor can be turned into battle damage

I am at the library now waiting for my next two classes to begin, but I plan on hitting up the pawn store after class to see if I can find a cheap heat gun (the cheapest one I found at walmart was around $30, seems excessive for a heat gun :/)

Also, I think I have come to the conclusion from lurking the forums that the Mark 6 arms, legs, etc. (aside from brace and chest) are the same as the Mark 4. Hopefully I have come to the right conclusion.

One more question, I have noticed many people coming across new hardeners, something called like plasticote or polyeuithane plastic or something? I live in the U.S. and am wondering where I can get this stuff... I would assume I could do something along the lines of EVA glue then the resin to harden it into plastic, then prime and paint. Anyone have any experiences with this stuff?

If you have a harbor freight nearby, go there. I just bought one on Friday for $16. It works really well too! (my poor fingers are paying the price!!)
If there isn't one near by, check out their website.

Pyrotechx said:

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Also, I think I have come to the conclusion from lurking the forums that the Mark 6 arms, legs, etc. (aside from brace and chest) are the same as the Mark 4. Hopefully I have come to the right conclusion.

Yup, your conclusion is correct!

One more question, I have noticed many people coming across new hardeners, something called like plasticote or polyeuithane plastic or something? I live in the U.S. and am wondering where I can get this stuff... I would assume I could do something along the lines of EVA glue then the resin to harden it into plastic, then prime and paint. Anyone have any experiences with this stuff?

Check out xrobots site (xrobots.co.uk) he has a very good tutorial on plasticoating foam pieces.
Coat foam in PVA glue, cover in smooth on 65d.
Check his site for specific details. James is a true master.

Helagak said:

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Check out xrobots site (xrobots.co.uk) he has a very good tutorial on plasticoating foam pieces.
Coat foam in PVA glue, cover in smooth on 65d.
Check his site for specific details. James is a true master.

Yea, I have seen all of his videos, even that one... I am just not really sure where to get this Smooth On 65D aside from Ebay... Plus he lives in the U.K. or something, so where he gets it probably wouldnt work for me.

Helagak said:

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If you have a harbor freight nearby, go there. I just bought one on Friday for $16. It works really well too! (my poor fingers are paying the price!!)
If there isn't one near by, check out their website.

Harbor Freight has a coupon deal for a 1500 W. heat gun for 7.99! But, It would cost me around $10 in gas just to get there... So, if I find a gun around here for $16-$18 ill just get it here ... Hate being away from all the good stores!

Pyrotechx said:

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Yea, I have seen all of his videos, even that one... I am just not really sure where to get this Smooth On 65D aside from Ebay... Plus he lives in the U.K. or something, so where he gets it probably wouldnt work for me.

Here is a list of distributors in the us. I didn't know what state you live in, you you just get the whole list! =D

| U.S. Stocking Distributors | Mold Making and Casting Materials Rubber, Plastic, Lifecasting, and More

Helagak said:

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Here is a list of distributors in the us. I didn't know what state you live in, you you just get the whole list! =D

| U.S. Stocking Distributors | Mold Making and Casting Materials Rubber, Plastic, Lifecasting, and More

Oh nice, I didn't even know they made this stuff in the U.S.! This will definitely be a future purchase of mine, I really liked the way Robo's piece turned out watching his youtube video.

Thanks for finding this!

No problem!

I have one more quick question. I am currently playing around with the scaling but am somewhat confused. I have figured out my dimensions to be about 24.something on a piece, but where do we input this scale? I have looked and the one area that had any numbers similar at all was in decimals like ".25235" or something... But mine is 24.something. Do I put this in the same place and just move the decimal over to make it ".24something" ???

edit - I am about to just measure each body piece of mine and revert it to millimeters and just input those dimensions...Would this be a better plan?

Ok, I am currently messing around with the scaling in the pepakura files. I ended up printing on default on some card stock and cut them out and am "test" fitting. When I built the forearm piece (very roughly) it seemed overly big, but I am not sure if foam will be totally different?

Here are my specs:
5'10 tall
170 lbs
5'7 arm span (finger to finger)
12" forearm (from elbow to wrist)

So, I know we are supposed to somehow allow 1-2" for the armor, does this mean I can pretty much just use the default of 6'0 (that is what im assuming it is)...

Maybe I should just dive in and build a foam forearm and see what happens.

I am 5'10" 178 lbs. almost identical measurements. I am building mine with the default scale. Everything is fitting just about perfect. I would suggest building something like an arm and checking. But I'll bet that the default scale will fit you perfect.

Helagak said:

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I am 5'10" 178 lbs. almost identical measurements. I am building mine with the default scale. Everything is fitting just about perfect. I would suggest building something like an arm and checking. But I'll bet that the default scale will fit you perfect.

sweet, ill give it a try on an arm piece and test her out! Thanks

Here is my arm that I've been working on the last two nights. (I have no friggin clue how some of these guys knock out a suit in 5 days!! Mind blowing!)
That is default scale and you can see, it's fitting pretty good. The only way to learn is dive in and try it!

Well, it definitely didn't fit the way I would like. I speedily built the forearm piece and just decided to stop there and not even try to elbow piece. I noticed that my elbow pivots were way off and actually on my arm ( I feel like it should be at least hanging off somewhat)... Here are some pics of the try, I think you will all agree this is scrap foam now.

Pyrotechx said:

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Well, it definitely didn't fit the way I would like. I speedily built the forearm piece and just decided to stop there and not even try to elbow piece. I noticed that my elbow pivots were way off and actually on my arm ( I feel like it should be at least hanging off somewhat)... Here are some pics of the try, I think you will all agree this is scrap foam now.

a little idea with foam buildings and uneven edge cutts in the foam, Pyrotechx, assuming you own a good heating gun and not just a hair dryer( i tried it does not put out enough heat ^^) i see some of your cuts are rigid, heat it up til it starts melting, and you will have a way better finish and its alot faster than trying to smoothen it with a grinder and also. use just a little glue with the hot glue gun, and after it dries up. glue it on the inside, cus hot glue on the outside is a menace to get off when you prime it. and btw ur foam looks alot more dense then my foam i kinda wished mine was like that, when i prime it with pva i gotta give it like 12 coats cus theres always some small holes that dident get filled.

Hammer said:

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a little idea with foam buildings and uneven edge cutts in the foam, Pyrotechx, assuming you own a good heating gun and not just a hair dryer( i tried it does not put out enough heat ^^) i see some of your cuts are rigid, heat it up til it starts melting, and you will have a way better finish and its alot faster than trying to smoothen it with a grinder and also. use just a little glue with the hot glue gun, and after it dries up. glue it on the inside, cus hot glue on the outside is a menace to get off when you prime it. and btw ur foam looks alot more dense then my foam i kinda wished mine was like that, when i prime it with pva i gotta give it like 12 coats cus theres always some small holes that dident get filled.

Thanks for the tips. I actually went a little crazy with the glue because I wanted to test the final fit. I do have a heat gun, yes, ill give that idea a try. I was actually using a candle to make my razor blade red hot and cutting like that for a bit, but it actually ended up disfiguring some of the more detailed pointy pieces... It also cut a little too fast and I ended up making some mistakes.

The more I try on the arm piece, I actually end up liking the more slim look. I was thinking about leaving it at the default 6 foot, but I feel like it would be too bulky on me. Although Helagak's looks nice, I feel it is a wee bit too big

Maybe I will give it one more try and add one more inch to 5'11, maybe that will be the perfect fit. For right now it feels a little tight, but I do like the way it feels "slim".

i got no idea what the measurements is in cm´s so yeah i took my foam parts from theherototurials im 187 cm and 85 kg,s and im pretty sure it will fit me perfectly, im gonna start on my arms and fingers next, cus the bits ive made now was mostly for trial and error and feels like ive perfected my techniques, when i trace onto foam now i put the paper piece on and pin it and cut it there instead of tracing it. dunno if that's how pro´s do it but i found it way better also makes it easier for me not to cut in a wrong angle

War machine foam build by Hougaard | Facebook if you wanna see, (war mashine helmet = first build ever, IM helmet my third, there is a massive difference just in the cuts of foam

Well, I gave it another try. I resized the pep files to 5'11 1/2 instead of 6'0 and I believe I have found a good match! I had a little trouble fitting the wrist piece to the forearm (seemed the forearm was a lil too round compared to the wrist piece), but I ended up figuring it out, I think. Anyways, Here is the second try, it fits a LOT better. I still have some stuff to clean up with the cuts, but I like it overall.