Iron Man Mark 7 Fibreglass Build - New pics of full suit WIP - page 4

Update - February 19, 2016:
Bottom of page 4 - Lots of new pics and updates on where I'm at. More to come soon as I'm back at it!

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Just thought I would start sharing my work on this. I've been on here for a few weeks, mainly doing research while I started my helmet, and I plan on doing the whole Mark 7 suit. I'm going to do the helmet, start to finish, because I want a taste of all the steps and to get a feel for how long it will take. Once the helmet is done, hopefully the rest of the Mark 7 files will be uploaded somewhere so I can begin the rest of the suit.

Everyone on here has been a huge inspiration so thanks for all the help, people!

THE HELMET
I'm going to do the shark head helmet with the MightyJohn hinge system. I plan on having the chin and mask open/close. I also want to rig up the eyes to turn on once it closes like I saw in MightyJohn's video. I still have a long way before I'm even close to those steps, but that's the end goal.

Step 1: Paper Cutting and Glueing.This was a nice and relaxing step. I just turned on South Park, Game of Thrones, Modern Family and would sit and listen/watch while cutting. Cutting cutting cutting... I think I have permanent damage from grasping too firmly on the x-acto.. oh well. I scaled the helmet a little larger because I have a fat head, and it seemed to fit at different stages when I taped it all on, but if it doesn't in the end.. then I'll just give it to my little cousin and start again!

:darnkids
(ohh I like this emoticon.. sorry, first proper thread)



1. First piece of paper cut out.. how this is going to turn into a helmet.. beats the &@%$ out of me.. but yay!



2. Ok seriously.. WTF? And yes, that IS guacamole!



3. Ahhh I see what's going onnn... i was worried because I wasn't sure if I'm supposed to cut ON the black lines, or just outside of them so they can serve as borders. But hey, it's a learning experience. I now cut them right on the lines but I still try to keep a little bit of the black on the edge.



4. I.R.IRON.MAN. nananananananana vote for me!



5. Nice, got the back part of the helmet looking good! At this point I was amazed at how cool (and serious) this project is.



6. ME.WITHMY.GIRLY.HAIR nananananananana vote for me!



7. Done and all glued together.

This took way longer than i expected but I'm also working more than full time so I only got a couple of hours on it each night. It was definitely worth it though. Every day it gets closer to the end goal and it keeps me motivated when I can take a step back and say "damn this gonna be awesome!". I like taking my time with this stuff. No point in rushing it because then it will get sloppy. I'm sure I made a thousand mistakes during this process but it's my first part of the costume so I actually counted on doing this helmet twice (first to learn, and last to perfect). Also, I read that this helmet isn't actually the Mark 7 helmet, but it's very close. Maybe by the time my suit is done the Mark 7 helmet will be available.

NEXT POST - resin and fiberglass!

:darnkids

Re: My Iron Man WIP

THE HELMET
Step 2: Resin and Fiberglass!

Materials I purchased:
- 5 disposable brushes
- some plastic cups for mixing
- disposable rubber gloves
- 9 square feet of fiberglass (I had a lot left over so I'll save that for the rest of my build)
- Smoothcast 321 as suggested by Stealth on his tutorials (thanks Stealth!). It seemed easiest to use and I didn't have a scale to measure out the epoxamite. I never really researched what the difference was between the two, maybe somebody could tell me?
- Spray adhesive
- A bunch of big popsicle sticks (I couldn't find the small ones)
- those doctor mask thingies.



1. First coat of plastic. This was so cool to see the next day!



2. Looks like I put a little too much on. Oh well, I'll know better for next time. This stuff seems to sand easily which is good news.



3. Fiberglass city!


I don't have any pictures of the fiberglass after it has been coated with the Smoothcast, I guess I could take some later.

Questions:
1. The fiberglass didn't seem as hard as I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be rock hard but i can still push against the outside and compress it a bit. It springs back to it's normal shape, but I was wondering if this is normal or if I didn't apply enough Smoothcast to the inside fiberglass?

2. Also, on Stealth's tutorials during the bondo-ing stage, the guy (blackdynamo I think) uses a paint stripper to smooth out the fiberglass. I tried this on a small section and it just frayed the fiberglass, making it soft again. It didn't break it off completely really. Did anybody else run into this issue? I haven't tried it since because I was hoping somebody could guide me here. It also makes me think I didn't apply enough smoothcast to the inside, but it seems quite durable.. just not rock hard.

Next step: Bondo-ing!

:darnkids

Re: My Iron Man WIP

THE HELMET
Step 3: Bondo-ing

Materials:
- 1 can of bondo
- 60 grit sandpaper

This was a very cool step but I was also terrified to start it. Everyone was saying how the sanding would take forever and to use really thin coats. After my first coat, I was trying to use a thin one but it still looked like a lot. I didn't find the sanding all that difficult though. It was actually quite enjoyable. I could sit outside with music and just sand away. In the end, you can see the plastic showing through so I guess my coat was thin enough.. I'm going to do one chunk at a time until there is one coat around the entire helmet. Then I will start with the next coat. Again, I want to take my time here because I also read that the more time you invest in the early stages, the easier it is later on.



1. First layer of bondo. Looked like a bit much at first, I was worried it would take me days to sand.



2. Here it is sanded. It didn't take as long as I thought and it was so cool to see it all nice and somewhat smooth. Now that he has a face he stays in the garage... he's kind of creepy always staring at me now. Also, you can see the bondo I used on the side. I hope that's the right one! I originally bought RUSK fiberglass reinforced body filler from Wal-Mart, but I wasn't sure about it so I took it back. When I cook, I like to make the dish exactly according to the recipe, then I start experimenting the next time. I will do the same with this project.



3. Side shot before he is sanded. I quite like the texture. If I cast this guy, maybe my next version of him will be unsanded. Could be cool! (patent pending! :angry)



4. All sanded. I've since gooped the back of his head and sides. Just have his ears left, but I haven't sanded any of the rest. I will do that tomorrow and hopefully upload those pictures soon.


Again, please give me some feedback. The more help I get now the easier it will make the rest of the project for me. Anybody on here from Vancouver? Maybe we could meet up and work on our builds sometime!

Thanks for reading!
:darnkids

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

great start so far man! i see you went for the traditional pep style. planning to make a harder helmet my self with this method goodluck on this build and keep it up!

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

Looking very good, keep it up!

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

Thanks, guys!

@baden - I checked out your thread, your suit looks amazing! Very cool that you had it ready for the movie. Maybe my suit will be ready by the Avengers 2...

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

Man, you're off to a good start...thumbsup Keep it going!

Though looking at your progress photos is a bit strange to me... like it was deja vu... :confused... Almost exactly the same as what I did before.... :thumbsup

I'm sure you'll have a great helmet in the end.

cheers!

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

I'll echo what everyone else has said so far... Great start! As for the differences between this and the MkVII, the most notable is the chin indentation. On your helmet it is pointing up, on the MkVII it gets flipped to point down. Nothing major! And that is something you can easily do during this stage with filler :thumbsup

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

Thanks so much everyone for the kind words!

Kevin Gossett said:

As for the differences between this and the MkVII, the most notable is the chin indentation. On your helmet it is pointing up, on the MkVII it gets flipped to point down. Nothing major! And that is something you can easily do during this stage with filler :thumbsup

Click to expand...

I took a look at some files and I now know what you mean. I'll try to fix that when I start the second layer on bondo. I can fill the existing chin indentation fine, but making the new one to point up is going to be tricky. Would I have to re-resin and fiberglass that new little chin indentation? or is it small enough that I can just cut the hole there and patch it up with bondo?

Thanks everyone!

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

THE HELMET
Step 3: bondo-ing (continued)

Materials:
60 grit sandpaper
120 grit sandpaper
150 grit sandpaper

It's been a long time since I posted (about 2 months), but I've been working lots and have been having my summer vacation! Anyways, I've started back up on the helmet and would like to post my progress!


5. Let's see if I can remember how to upload images properly. Ok, this is me back at it. I've managed to coat the whole helmet and sanded it using the 60 grit sandpaper.




6. I then sanded it all using the 120 grit sandpaper, and then I repeated the process with 150 grit sandpaper. This is it after it has been fine sanded with the 150 grit sandpaper. It felt like velvet!




7. I then turned on Breaking Bad, sat down and cut the back off very slowly using an x-acto knife. I know some people put their primer on first, but I wanted to test what would happen (I kept the faceplate on to try it out that way too). So, I was super excited and happy to see that it actually fit! I scaled my helmet as big as I could and I was still worried it wouldn't fit.




Baby Cousin Iron Man. Cuuuuute.




8. First coat of primer. I couldn't resist! I did this to make myself feel better, hehe.




9. Second coat of primer! It looks so good now, this was a very motivating and satisfying step. I can now see where I will need to fill in some spots, and I'll get to start building the reinforcement for the backpiece

Any comments and tips are greatly appreciated!

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

Next I'm going to have to fill in those little spots, cut off the faceplate and the chin and add the screw holes. Does anyone have any recommendations on spot filler?

Thanks!
Darian

:darnkids

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

just use bondo for the spot also you should use a dremel an put the sandpaper tool to it so you can san the part the get sharp line like for the line in the faceplate

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

Looking great so far! I couldn't resist putting it on my daughter either

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

@omarbou1 - Thanks for the tip. I am going to work on those lines next.

@chinandler - cuuuuute! haha the Iron Princess

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

Mate this is fantastic work. I'm doing the same thing with my MKVI so cheers for the pics!

I'm scared to start adding the body filler to mine lol

I'm doing the whole suit in card first before i do any fibreglassing or body filling.
Have you started on the rest of the suit yet? keep us posted

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

THE HELMET
Step 3: bondo-ing (continued)

So I've been having a lot of guests from Europe over this summer but I'm still progressing on the helmet.. slowly. It's coming together quite nicely. I took omarbou1's suggestion and got the dremel sandpaper etcher thingy and used regular bondo for the spot filler. Here is how it's going now:



10. Here I used the bondo as the spot filler and sanded it all up nice and pretty. I had to do this a few times to get it right and there are still several imperfections to take care of, but every little bit I do still makes it better. I like this scratched up paint style.



11. I've also started on adding the little flaps that go inside the neck attachment. This picture is a bit out of date, I've actually bondo'ed the fibreglass already and smoothened it out, it looks really good. I just have to sand it down one more time on some small adjustments I made to it and then I can put the primer on that piece. Not sure if I should add the holes for magnets now or wait until I mold it first. You can see in the background that I've started to cut off the faceplate. I started and thought I would wait until everything else was perfect, and then cut the rest off. I've also been using the comic con reference pictures and have noticed there are a few other differences between the sharkhead helmet and the MK7, so I've been trying to fix those up as well.



12. Three reasons I'm posting this picture; I got this new respirator (which is amazing, I can't even smell the bondo at all), I feel like Bane every time I wear it, and even though you cannot see it since it's tied back, this is one of the last pictures of me with my long hair (it's all cut off now!).

The helmet fits much better without my long locks of lady-like hair, and it's coming along quite nicely. Next steps are to finish up any last last last major imperfections and then I'm pulling the rip cord on my detailing and am going to cut off the faceplate!

Thanks for watching!
:darnkids

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

I was worried about your helmet having too much filler. Man, did you clean that thing up nicely. Well done.

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

haha yeahhh well this whole thing has been the best learning experience.. I may or may not have gone through an entire can of bondo already. But I'm getting way better and spreading it thinner now. Thank you though, I feel very good about the result so far but there is still a lot that can go wrong

Re: Iron Man Mark 7 build - WIP

THE HELMET
Step 3: bondo-ing (continued)



13. Just thought I would upload the image of my completed neck-back piece thingy. It turned out pretty well, I can fit it in easily enough, it's pretty snug, and I reinforced the inside with more bondo so it wouldn't be so fragile. It's a little heavy, and I still have to put the magnets in, but I will probably wait and do that to one of the molded copies. Oh yeah, you can also see that I'm patching up the chin since it seems to be smooth in the MK7 version from the film and from the comic con reference pics.

Question to anyone who has done this before: Should I file out the spots for the magnets now? or should I do that on one of my molds?

:darnkids

Re: Iron Man Mk 7 Fibreglass Build - [Pic Heavy] WIP

THE HELMET
Step 3: bondo-ing (continued)



14. So it was time to cut off the faceplate! This felt like a huge step backwards, but I know it is for the greater good.



15. It still felt pretty cool holding it up over my face.



16. Here's a preview of how it will work once it's all done, pretty exciting!



17. Since the faceplate wasn't holding the whole helmet together anymore, I bondo'ed the rough edges where I cut and had to keep pressure on the sides of the helmet so it would harden in its original shape. This is the genius contraption I came up with.


Right now I'm in the process of fibreglassing and strengthening the overlaps on the inside of the helmet so I can attach the magnets to them. It's almost done and I will upload pics when that step is over. After that, I will be removing the chin piece and repeating the process... then it should be extremely close to being finished and ready for casting!

Oh, and I swear I'm wearing pants when I work on this.
:darnkids