Teragon's Iron Man MK 47

Sound Awesome ...... let see the pic when you built

Hey there!

I am building an iron man suit (Mk VI) among similar circumstances...
for 45 degree cuts, I would recommend the X ACTO foamboard cutter... it's a really useful tool.
Dont worry about using too much foam... you have a budget of 1.5K, you are going to have to screw something up really badly to go over that! I have built 8 out of 14 sections, and have not yet reached £100...

Good luck, I would really like to see how this comes along

Your project sounds very interesting. I am doing something very similar with my own. I wish you luck! Keep us updated

Thanks !
Here are a few pics of what I have done so far :
the failed forearm, too tight, messy and not long enough (I want it to go from the wrist to the elbow hinge)




My dummy, still a work in progress, he needs a head and hands, as well as a lycra full bodysuit for aesthetic reasons. The leds on the base have to be covered to diffuse the light better too, they are so bright that they left me half blind the first time I switched them on !

and day light


The EL sheets I was talking about, in different lightning conditions :
direct sunlight exposure

ambient room light

low light

and complete darkness (I'm really sorry for the toilet, it's the only fully dark place I have !)

I think the eyes are too blue, even if they seem lighter/brighter in the pics, the real color looks more like the reflection in the last pic. I'll try with a set of white one when I get them.

And finally the new template for the forearm, with the previous one as reference

I'll cut it out tomorrow, hopefully this one will be better !

There is a way you can scale the part on PepakuraDesigner, you might still have to make alterations but they wont be that big, just a way to save some paper.

if you dont have designer you can still scale them in viewer but you can't save them. Just write down the scale that you used so you know what it is.

Very Nice! You have to buy the password in order to save your changes.

The program's password ? It's weird because I did purchase the license for Pep designer...
On the side note, I finished the new forearm, and I'm still not happy with it. My custom pattern was nice on paper, but doesn't translate that well in 10mm foam... I decided to give it a shot with plastic coating tomorrow, but I'm having second thoughts about this, mainly because I don't have much smooth on 65D and don't want to waste it on something I may just throw away, so I think I'll try to make a third forearm with the regular pattern this time, and see which one looks best before I try the smooth on.
Here is a pic of it though, already PVA coated, if you see what is off with it, please tell me ! I think the overal shape isn't accurate and I had trouble connecting the base of the elevated part of the forearm (curvy edge in the front) to the flat upper front part of it.

Not much to update, but I haven't quit, far from it !
I've done the elbows and started the biceps. One bicep actually. I don't understand how some of you guys can build so fast, it took me 3 hours to cut and assemble 1 bicep, and it's not even done yet ! I'm trying to keep it as clean as possible though, so I take my time to make sure everything fits perfectly and is well aligned.

As you can maybe see, the forearm is shiny because I applied a first light coat of smooth on 65D on it, it went great on the bottom but when I reached the top, that stuff has already started to dry, in only a few minutes (!) and it became messy ... So, next time, I will try mixing more of that stuff, maybe it will dry slower... Some sanding should fix the problem though.
I also got my round EL sheets for the hand repulsors, but I'm afraid they're a bit small, 3cm only (1,18 inches) and I'll need to isolate the back because it gave a me a very unpleasant electric shock ^^

Finished the bicep minus the elbow hinge today. 1 hour to get it done, 2 more to clean all the glue on the outside ! This bicep took me something like 7 hours to complete, and still need to be coated. I think it's safe to assume that I am a slow builder, but hopefully all this time spent making it as flawless as possible will be worth it once I'm done.
You'll also notice that my duct tape dummy got hands and a skin, but still missing his head (like me sometimes ^^). And should find something elegant to cover those LEDs on the display base, every time I turn them on, they blind me for almost half a minute !

going slowly but surely : here is one hand, based on J0wE's file in 3mm foam. Latex glove is not a part of it, it's just there to keep me from being shocked by the EL repulsor, that needs to be isolate with electric tape, which I currently don't have ^^





I think the El sheet looks really great as a repulsor, and I'm pleased with the hand itself too. The downside of the EL sheet is, as I said previously stated, the pink color when it's off :

But maybe it will blend in with the red once the suit will be painted.
The plan is to use these under : So it will cover nicely the empty space left under the fingers armor. Speaking of fingers, I'm still figuring out if I should 3D print them ($$$), or make them myself, but I can't find a material that would cover my needs : something between 1 and 2 mm thick, quite flexible and compatible with smooth on 65D if it's not already a plastic material. 2mm foam would work but my supplier doesn't have anything under 3mm.
Tomorrow I'll try to make the hand plate, and start either the second bicep or a shoulder.
Here is a last pic, it doesn't show anything but I thought it looked cool

Would you be willing to share where you got your EL sheets and brushes for the 65D?

Sure, that's why we're here
EL sheets come from here : http://stores.befr.ebay.be/elwirecraft more specifically the arc reactor/eyes kit is sold here : EL Iron Man Set = El Tape Glowing Eyes + EL Panel Arc Reactor (mask not included | eBay and the "buttons" I used for the repulsors seems to be out of stock right now, as I can't find them in the shop. I switched the driver that comes with the arc/eyes kit with this one, more powerful that also seems out of stock, but it's a 8 AA batteries portable one. I kept the other one for the repulsors.
As for the brushes I use with the 65D, since this stuff dries as solid plastic I just throw away the brush, so I bought cheap brushes at my local DYI store, 5 for 2$ I think. It's really regular brushes with the wooden handle, nothing fancy

Thanks so much, I have been looking around for materials to find out an estimated cost for my suit, still in the research stage...

Well, good luck for your research then ! Can't really help you with the foam, unless you are european and living in France (or close, like me)... It will probably be cheaper to find it close to you than make it ship from europe !

Oh yeah I forgot! Since our projects are similar I thought this might be useful to you, Pololu Robotics and Electronics. They have information on how to program servos and they even sell servos and their components.

Thanks ! That will come handy !
I completed one arm minus the fingers and elbow hinge, as well as the second bicep and I also got my undergloves, so I thought I'd throw everything together and take a couple a pictures, to see how it looks like.




And the shoulder :


It probably will need a bit a of tweaking here and there, especially to get a nice junction between the bicep and the shoulder, and also between the torso and the shoulder, so I'll wait to have the torso made before I coat it, sand it and paint it. But it looks quite right to me right now I think.

Looks good - looking forward to more of this one, glad you found the plastic coating info helpful.

Thank you, I still need to master the process of plastic coating, since this stuff dries fast, but I definitely think that your idea is the best way to go : hard outside, soft outside and yet flexible. It reminds me that I had to ask you about the PVA you're using : do you mix it with water with 1:1 ratio, or do you use it pure ? It looks more gel-like than liquid in your video, like pure PVA ?

Working on the torso, nothing to show yet on that but, I did finally get my helmet that has been sitting in the customs for a while... A few words on this helmet : I bought it on ebay, before I heard about foam costuming and the RPF, so it was supposed to be a display piece only. This means that it may be (hopefully not) a recast for all I know, I have no way to tell and I didn't even know what it meant back then. So if it is one, I apologies to the original maker. Now that being said, I paid for it, I have it and I'm going to use it for this project, recast or not.
I'll have to sand it, fix a little crack, probably remove the magnets of the removable faceplate (too strong for servo controlled faceplate), add some padding and paint it back with my shade of colors. Had I knew I was going to make a suit, I would have bought a blank one in one piece, but now I'll just mod it.
Regarding the modding, I see a lot a helmet here with detachable back piece, why exactly does it need this ? My helmet can be put on and off just like this, so what's the difference ?

Now for the electronic part : me and my engineer friend have, we think, found a solution to avoid looking through small gaps between the eyes. It is still in "R&D" phase, but the main idea is to use a pinhole camera hooked up to virtual eyewear screen. The best candidate so far are the Vuzix Wrap 920, displaying a 67" screen a 10 feet officially (from user reviews, it seems to appear closer, which is good for me). From the inside, it should look like playing a video game, sort of a primitive HUD, but without any intel and half decent quality picture, hopefully enough to move around and see better than through the gaps. The pinhole camera would be placed in the lip junction between the faceplate and the helmet, so it follows head movements. Placing it on the body, like in a shoulder, would allow a better quality camera with more advanced tech (IR,...) but it would be really weird to have the camera and the head not sync...
I'm a bit surprised to see so few, if any project like this : is there a reason for it ? Is what we are trying to do impossible ? My buddy thinks it's plausible, and so do I, we don't see any major issues to keep us from doing it.
For the faceplate, nothing fancy, servo controlled opening like many other helmets out here, except I'm hoping I can remove the vuzix glasses branches and fix them inside the faceplate so they would follow it when it opens.
And now the pictures :

Wow nice work so far

teragon said:

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Thank you, I still need to master the process of plastic coating, since this stuff dries fast, but I definitely think that your idea is the best way to go : hard outside, soft outside and yet flexible. It reminds me that I had to ask you about the PVA you're using : do you mix it with water with 1:1 ratio, or do you use it pure ? It looks more gel-like than liquid in your video, like pure PVA ?

Yes I used it as it came out of the container.