Iron Man Mark IV for 5 year old son

I'm in the very early stages so far. I have printed all of Stealths foam pep files and I have started putting together some card stock versions first to get the scaling right.

Helmet scaling complete at 10% decrease.


Its a good size for him to be able to see out of the eye holes and of course I want my son to be able to breathe.

I did cut the back of the neck out (as recommended by most) to fit the helmet over his head. I'll figure something out later with magnets or velcro.

So far with the same 10% decrease the neck piece seems ok, but the chest is very large. I will try it on him in the morning since I just finished the card stock version about an hour ago. I'll try to get as many progress photos as I can.

Clearly the chest is too big. I have been looking at other suits and am wondering where exactly the points should end up for a good custom fit. Should the points meet right at the shoulders or just inside to make way for the shoulder caps.

Also ignore the "wings" on the bottom. It has no rigidity so it was the only way to keep it on his chest without covering him in tape.

Pics don't seem to be showing up??? Better hurry on the build before he starts growing!

WOW GOOD START!
keep us informed! i have a 5yr old as well that i've been wanting to do a warmachine. i started last year but never got to finish it. i got to the faceplate and half the head

helmet looks pretty big too. i'd try 30% reduction.

SofaKing01 said:

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Pics don't seem to be showing up??? Better hurry on the build before he starts growing!

I was thinking the same exact thing.

Are the pics still not showing?

pics are showing but isnt the chest a little too big? did you run the scale through the formula?

Genises said:

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pics are showing but isnt the chest a little too big? did you run the scale through the formula?

The chest is HUGE haha. I was not aware of the formula scale, I searched for it and found it.

I'll give it a try. Thanks

What helmet file are you using? I know Shark's helmet has an original scale of 1.00 and it's supposed to fit your typical 6' tall person. I don't know what you know about scaling, but since we know this, the formula is easy.

First, divide your height by the original intended height. In my case, it would be:

69 / 72 = .958333

Now take the number you get from this, and multiply it by the scale in Pepakura. Since the scale for this helmet is 1.00, you don't have to do anything, but for the sake of demonstration, do this:

.958333 * 1.00 = .958333

You can add a bit or take away a bit depending on your head size, but this should get you in the ballpark. I hope this helps.

Posted for those looking for it

Ok I have spent the last month making and tossing paper patterns like crazy. The scaling is becoming an impossible hurdle, and varies so much from piece to piece. I have finally become a bit of a tailor and have resorted to simple measurements of my son and some simple math to get the pieces right.


Here are the biceps finished. they fit perfect.

I have finished test fit peps on forearm and shoulder and hope to get to the this week in foam form.

As far as bevels are going I have tried 4 different things.

1. Belt sander - Works well on flat pieces but be careful the pieces like to fold out scarring the front of them. Slow and patient.

2. Simple razor blade cut - This seems to work the best for me right now. I can be slow and deliberate and get the cut i want.

3. Sand Paper - works but it's agonizingly slow. I wouldn't go this route unless you have a sleeping 5 year old a noisy house and suit work that needs to get done.

4. Dremel - I know this has also been suggested. It does work and works great on some small pieces that you can't get to with blades but one simple slip and the dremel like to slip to the front of your piece and I get the same scarring issue. Slow and patient. I also like to place the pieces on a piece of scrap wood for an even bevel.

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I'm doing a Mark VI for my three year old (despite the age difference there's probably not a huge size difference). I'm using robo's files and each piece is a different scale. For instance the feet, cod, biceps are in the 17-18 range and the chest and back are 13.

On some of the pieces I had to take the model into blender and squish it so that it would fit like for legs and wrists. I just had to measure each body part and look at lots of pictures to see where things should line up. Hands/fingers were a pain!

And about the formula, that has no chance of working on a child's frame, take a look at this:

Tutorial: Adult & Child Proportions | idrawdigital - Tutorials for Drawing Digital Comics

You doing this for halloween?

Incinorator said:

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I'm doing a Mark VI for my three year old (despite the age difference there's probably not a huge size difference). I'm using robo's files and each piece is a different scale. For instance the feet, cod, biceps are in the 17-18 range and the chest and back are 13.

On some of the pieces I had to take the model into blender and squish it so that it would fit like for legs and wrists. I just had to measure each body part and look at lots of pictures to see where things should line up. Hands/fingers were a pain!

And about the formula, that has no chance of working on a child's frame, take a look at this:

Tutorial: Adult & Child Proportions | idrawdigital - Tutorials for Drawing Digital Comics

You doing this for halloween?

I don't think I'm gonna make Halloween and now just want to do it for the challenge of doing it. It may still happen but I already got him another costume just in case.

What scaling did you use for the Helmet?

So far I have used the same scaling on all the arm pieces with some success.

Did you exclude some pieces just because it's for a child? (Neck Piece)

I used the Samuray small chin helmet found over on 405th at a scale of 54.2. I don't remember what the default scale was, but assembled size reported by Pepakura Designer is H227 W182 D271. It is big enough that he can grow a little, I wanted him to still be able to wear the helmet a few years down the road. Just FYI, I originally did Shark's helmet at .78 and it was way too small. The size tester has flat ears while on the actual helmet the ears are inset.

I think the only pieces I'm not doing from Robo's files are the collar plates. I'm going to do the neck, abs, thigh extensions, and inside of knees and elbows out of foam.

Incinorator said:

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I used the Samuray small chin helmet found over on 405th at a scale of 54.2. I don't remember what the default scale was, but assembled size reported by Pepakura Designer is H227 W182 D271. It is big enough that he can grow a little, I wanted him to still be able to wear the helmet a few years down the road. Just FYI, I originally did Shark's helmet at .78 and it was way too small. The size tester has flat ears while on the actual helmet the ears are inset.

I think the only pieces I'm not doing from Robo's files are the collar plates. I'm going to do the neck, abs, thigh extensions, and inside of knees and elbows out of foam.

Let me first say I was checking your build out VERY nice. Thanks for all the info. That's why we have so many IM build threads because everyone has a different approach to it.

I was checking out Graphic Jordan approach to arm joints. I really like the way he connects the elbow to the bicep instead of the forearm.

I just completed a quick foam costume for my 5 year old. Instead of cutting an glueing pepakura files like my adult costume I started with a closed foam spirals and built them up. It took me 5 days about and hour or two a day in front of the TV. Here are some pics

Suit Update:

I have finished the arms. Time to get working on the legs. I know there is some glue ooze cleanup to fix. I'll take care of that before paint.

Before I started the legs I wanted to resolve how I was going to handle the joints. I decided to try snaps. I headed out to my local Walmart and spotted these



Nothing fancy just a good gob of hot glue. The snaps are around the size of a quarter and the are really solid. I had to reglue on my first attempt. I would say put enough glue for it to ooze out around the open areas to lock it on there. Apply a lot of pressure while cooling for ideal results. My son already tried them on with very good mobility.

Nice job!! look forward to seeing the finished thing! it's great building stuff for your son! I just built the dark knight for my 15yr old . . he looked awesome!! keep up the great work! Abs

abs said:

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Nice job!! look forward to seeing the finished thing! it's great building stuff for your son! I just built the dark knight for my 15yr old . . he looked awesome!! keep up the great work! Abs

Thanks! It is a lot of fun. I will keep updating. I think it's also important to document the failures as well as the cool stuff. I have learned so much from other threads because of it.

Looking good so far man. A little advice for your snap usage. Try cutting a trough for some 3mm plastic card to rest in to glue your snaps on. This makes it easy to snap them together. Check the first page of my IM build to see what I mean.

Keep up the good work,
Tom.

Drack said:

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Looking good so far man. A little advice for your snap usage. Try cutting a trough for some 3mm plastic card to rest in to glue your snaps on. This makes it easy to snap them together. Check the first page of my IM build to see what I mean.

Keep up the good work,
Tom.

Thanks for the Tip! I think I'll give it a try when I join the legs.

I watched your vids great info. If it wasn't for all the great shared info I don't think I would have even started the project.