Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - 5/31 update

Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

I'm excited to see this coming along. Puttin' a lot of methodical thinking into the ole' ironpunk man.
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Thanks, LoC and Judge! :):thumbsup

Did some more modifications today. Most of this surrounded the ear pieces. From the technical drawing sketches, it looks like the circular ear pieces are behind the outer helmet armor but in front of the jaw-line details. Unfortunately, the pep flares the ear pieces out away from the helmet.

So, to make it closer to my read of the artwork, I cut out two thick plastic circle pieces and glued them to the sides of the helmet as a place-holder. I built up the sides and back of the helmet to overlap those circles. I then built some depth into those circle pieces with the jaw-line area behind those.

This seems to both match the technical drawing side-view sketches while also matching the look of the finished artwork facing forward.

Here is a close up of the final ear-piece work...
7283118696_4cddc3a28e.jpg


I also filled in the eye holes right before I started fiberglassing. This will help those holes maintain their shape.
7283122996_6dd3f806cf.jpg


Here is the helmet ready for it's first outer coat of fiberglass resin....
7283120128_41cf1c616b.jpg


...and here is what it looks like as it dries tonight.
7283121954_0e46f09438.jpg


Tomorrow (Monday), I'll take the helmet off the model head, turn it over and fiberglass the inside with scrap material (usually t-shirt or sweat shirt material). Then it will be time to start making it look good again with some serious bondo and sanding! :love

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day - and a HUGE 'thank you' to all our men and women who are serving (or have served) in our armed forces! They are the REAL heroes, folks. :cheers
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Mate, that is looking so good. You're inspiring me to want to try a resin build with something as awesome and unique as this.

I'm following your progress eagerly!
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

i've been waiting to see something new from you since mikey's iron man suit! this is really an awesome build.
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Good luck on your ambitious and interesting build.
I'm looking forward to your progress!
Great idea!
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Thank you very, very much for your encouragement. Tonight was rough and it's easier to push through bad build nights when you've got a community like RPF supporting you!

I made two attempts to fiberglass the inside of the helmet with fabric as the re-enforcing material. I think the humidity, cheap foam brushes and the non-cotton materials I was using conspired to kill both of my tries. I ended up pulling most of the resin soaked material out of the inside both times. :angry

I'll get better foam brushes and go back to pure cotton t-shirt material (like I used with Mikey's build) before my next attempt. I'll also plan to go much slower than I did with my Ironman build. I'll try setting the bucket on it's side and just do the lowest inside section. I understand that will take 4x as long as hitting it all in one take, but hopefully with gravity in full cooperation I'll have some better luck. :love

Again, thanks for the words of encouragement. I'll be back soon with pictures of my progress. :):thumbsup
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

very awesome. I love the source material and looks like this will be an excellent costume
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

indie dont use foam brushes they tend to mess up when you fiberglass. good explenation of why is up on youtube (the ironman start to finish tutorial thing) i forgot who made it but its a good tutorial theherotutorials or something i believe it was called
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Bring it by when you get back to town if you want some help with the fiberglass. I love working with the stuff! I may even have some mat laying around somewhere.
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

The resin breaks down the foam, which is why you were having so much difficulty as far as that goes with the foam brushes.

Stock up on these. You can just throw them away or if you're bent on using them again, an acetone bath will break down the resin so you can clean them, but they're so cheap I'd say just toss them.
 
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Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

JacobRyan said:
Stock up on these. You can just throw them away or if you're bent on using them again, an acetone path will break down the resin so you can clean them, but they're so cheap I'd say just toss them.
Click to expand...

Got to love Harbor Freight! That's a good price too. We've got one in town, and I'm always looking for any excuse to go! :love
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

JacobRyan said:
The resin breaks down the foam, which is why you were having so much difficulty as far as that goes with the foam brushes.

Stock up on these. You can just throw them away or if you're bent on using them again, an acetone bath will break down the resin so you can clean them, but they're so cheap I'd say just toss them.
Click to expand...

Would have LOVED to find something like this over the weekend! You're TOTALLY right about the foam brushes. I used these disposable brushes you linked to when I did Mikey's build, but for some reason after hitting Ace, Walmart and another local hardware store the cheapest brushes I could find were almost $2 each. And even though Digitizit is paying for materials, I just couldn't justify paying those prices. I opted for a bunch of 50 cent foam brushes and will just throw them away when they start to fall apart. :unsure

The biggest challenge has turned out to be filling the gap between the pep and the outside of the helmet. I've been pouring resin slowly into those gaps, but, like any liquid, this crap finds every tiny hole to 'leak' out of. So, I have been pouring a bit of resin into the gaps then holding cloth or something else over any leaks that show up until the resin start to kick. It's time consuming, but without the resin in those areas, I'll never be able to bondo and smooth areas like the brow-ridges without crushing the paper pep.

Here is a look at the outside of the helmet right now. You can see the dark spots where the resin has been poured into the existing gaps and re-enforced the paper pep.

SIDE:
7299575964_454927df0f.jpg


BROW RIDGE:
7299578290_81dbc285af.jpg


And now that most of what I can fill is taken care of, I've finished up most of the resin work on the inside. It's not 'pretty', but luckily no-one (other than Digitizit) is going to SEE this part of the build! You'll notice the blue painter's tape covers most of the inside of the bucket. This got sloppy, and I'm glad I went ahead and covered that with tape so only the every edges of the skate helmet will have any hardened resin on them.

BACK:
7299582424_cc32ccd643.jpg


SIDE:
7299586512_9c72b4af37.jpg


FRONT:
7299589024_debbbbaf7e.jpg


So, the 'hard' part is done. Now it's mostly clean up and prep for the bondo stages. That's the most time-consuming, but at least it begins to start looking decent... I always thing this stage is the ugliest of the whole build. :confused

Thanks for the input, advice and encouragement! :):thumbsup
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

The build you're doing is fantastic man, and the work you did for your children is just fantastic. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see the final result! :)
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Progress is coming along well!

Finally got a picture of mine online.
iron_man_by_design_helmet_by_johnnymuffintop-d51sb03.jpg

Also, for anyone that's interested, got a more accurate (but crappier model) pdo of the helmet, get it here.
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Johnnymuffintop said:
Progress is coming along well!

Finally got a picture of mine online.
iron_man_by_design_helmet_by_johnnymuffintop-d51sb03.jpg

Also, for anyone that's interested, got a more accurate (but crappier model) pdo of the helmet, get it here.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting a pic! I wondered how yours was coming along.

I can see you also worked in some of the mods I'm adding (brow-ridge furrow, nose-plate separation from the faceplate, etc). Are you still using this for mostly protection rather than costuming?
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Yeah, though this one is now going on the shelf due to starting my Mk 3 build. That one was just Smooth-Cast 300 and bondo, not exactly the best for protection. Gonna strictly use it for costuming now, once I finish the suit. Speaking of which, I'm working on some foam patterns for the "Iron Man By Design" suit if you're interested.
 
Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

The $10 welding goggles I ordered for the eyes finally came in! Here are the goggles with the welding lenses in them.

7299191358_21480f3e68.jpg


These came with clear lenses, but I really want to do more than just 'light' these eyes. My goal is to make it look like there is very complex and 'deep' optical tech involved in this Victorian Age vision system.

So, I found some magnifying domes that were the same 50mm diameter as the welding goggle lenses. Here's what they look like compared to the flat clear lenses.
7299188884_d2ebe75217.jpg


And here is what the top and bottom of the magnifying domes look like.
7299186358_c796cfa77a.jpg


Now, with the dome toward the inside and the flat bottom of the magnifying dome toward the front, here is the assembly of these lenses in the goggles.
7299183150_67af52d915.jpg


With both of these lenses installed (and no lights added) it looks like these goggles are for a VERY myopic welder!
7299179622_493369b12a.jpg


They're weird enough to actually make me look stranger than normal! :love
7299178614_b4a8d437f4.jpg


...but with a light source added they look pretty kicka$$! Unfortunately, it doesn't photographic well, so I had to make a quick video of it. Check it out here:
 
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Re: Steampunk Ironman Helmet WIP - finally starting it!!!

Johnnymuffintop said:
Yeah, though this one is now going on the shelf due to starting my Mk 3 build. That one was just Smooth-Cast 300 and bondo, not exactly the best for protection. Gonna strictly use it for costuming now, once I finish the suit. Speaking of which, I'm working on some foam patterns for the "Iron Man By Design" suit if you're interested.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan! Yeah, any patterns you'd like to share would be awesome. Feel free to either email them to me or just post them in this thread. I think it would be cool to have any of your work on this helmet/suit included here so anyone looking to work on this type of build in the future will have all the info we have collected in one place! :):thumbsup
 
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