WoofyD's Iron Man Mrk 4/6 foam build

Hello RPFers. First off i want to say a huge thanks to Robo3687, STEALTH, XRobots, darkside501st and many other users on this site for all their great input into how to make these costumes.

I am quite new to the costume making world. Looking around here and i didnt even know that skill and talent like this even existed. So much raw talent and some really amazing builds on here. Some of the suits look like they could be used in the actual film.

Anyway on to my build. I am building out of foam and i am going to use Robo3687 - IRON MAN Mark 4/6 Pepakura FOAM Templates -Easy to Build "Green" Version files for this build. Huge thanks to all those involved in creating these files.

After loosing patients with my fibreglass helmet i decided to try and tacle this with foam instead. here are some pics of the current state of my fibreglass helm.

Cant remember what files i used but because im a mac user i just googles iron man helmet pepukura pdf and found a link somewhere.




It was very uncomfortable and wasn't symmetrical what so ever.

But enough of that one. Lets move on to the foam build. I got 6mm Plastazote foam from Rapid Online. heres a link if anyone is interested. Started of by printing the pep files, cutting them out and drawing round them on the foam.





Im going to use XRobots technique of heat bending the foam first before cutting it out for the top of the head part.

And I've already learnt a lesson in building with foam. Dont lean on the outlines you have already drawn.



And did I mention that im giving myself a little deadline for thing project. i want it finished for the release of iron man 3 next year. and because i work at vue cinema im hoping to wear it to work for the release. if my manager lets me lol.
i know its a long timescale but i have no idea what problems im going to face yet so it might even take me that long.

more updates coming soon.

A video I saw over at 405th, might come in handy (as far as getting your designs onto foam). You can check out the video here, Acetone transfers.mov - YouTube it might speed up things just as far as getting everything onto the foam to cut out.

maybe a stupid question, but did you glass the outside of the helmet? You should never do that, just resin the outside. the glassfiber should always go in the inside. Anyways, good luck with the foam build

Did mine on the outside turned out pretty good.

markkNL said:

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maybe a stupid question, but did you glass the outside of the helmet? You should never do that, just resin the outside. the glassfiber should always go in the inside. Anyways, good luck with the foam build

markkNL said:

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maybe a stupid question, but did you glass the outside of the helmet? You should never do that, just resin the outside. the glassfiber should always go in the inside. Anyways, good luck with the foam build

yeah i did, i saw on stealths tutorial to glass the inside but it looked really fiddley so i done it on the outside thinking that i would get the same effect. but i just ended up getting really frustrated with the fibreglass not sticking properly. and not being able to fit it in all the little details. anyway. changed to foam now.

and cheers jacob, ill bive that video a look.

Glassing the inside vs. the outside is all down to one thing: Your skill.

If you feel confident in laying glass smooth enough that you can use it as a surface later, awesome! Otherwise, for mere mortals, it's usually easier to just glass the inside since you already have a fairly smooth, albeit faceted, surface from the paper.

The big benefit to glassing the outside: fewer undercuts and small spaces to try to glass into.

Sand it, skim it, sand it, and repeat and there's no reason why you can't get the same results from glass on the outside as you can from glass on the inside.

-Nick

Looking promising so far.

I have an odd question... It looks like you're using the Sharkbeetle file, right? I noticed that, while the file itself has little v-cuts in some of the pieces (like the faceplate), you don't have those marks on your foam. Did you simply leave them out, or did you already connect the v's and trace around it?

My apologies if that's a stupid question. I'm almost to the point of tracing my pieces onto foam and I'm curious about the best way to proceed.

I cut the v's out on the template. Then made the piece in paper. Then traced round that. And heated it with a hair dryer and bent it into shape that way.

Time for an update. I cut all the parts out for the helmet and put them together using hot glue.




gave it a coat of diluted 1:1 pva but it was very runny and just ran off the side, so i added more pva and was still runny but managed to coat the whole thing. took all night to dry though so after that i done 3 coats of just pva and it worked fine.





I also got the shoulder and bicep done. just need to pva them now.




need to order some more foam now because ive used the one sheet i had. also waiting on a 45 degree exacto cutter so i can make my angled cuts a lot neater.

Great build! The hair dryer heating method must really have an effect - using the same templates, my own effort was, well, ******, yet yours has turned out pretty awesome!
I will be following this build, keep it up!

cheers man, yeah the hair dryer worked great. buch cheaper than getting a heat gun, takes a little longer but you get the same results.

Cool build!now I have to get moving and start my own.