Iron Man Mk IV WIP (Pic Heavy)

laurend

Member
So I can't resist, jumping on the Iron Man bandwagon. I've been wanting to do a bigger build for a while and since that seems to be the one with the most reference out there I'm hoping it will be a good jumping point (since there will be plenty of help out there if I get caught up ;) ). I'm on a bit of a budget in the sense that I'll have to buy all of my materials in bits and pieces so it will likely be a pretty slow build but, since my only real goal is NYCC/Halloween next year I'm not too worried about that. And yes, I'm just going with a straight Iron Man, I looked in to the feminized versions and in to Pepper's rescue armor but none of them really appealed to me. And at this point I'm just planning to build the waist out slightly and bind my chest down to make up for any weirdness in the dimensions.

So far I'm planning to do a foam, with plastic coat (xrobot method) build for the body and a pep helmet, though that may change later. I'm using the Stealth modified files for the foam and the shearkhead helmet, which i've started printing out (doubling the right/left parts for the foam pieces) and then cutting and taping in attempt to scale it since I'm going to have to mess with the shape in a few places-putting together a duct-tape-dummy this week to do most of this. But one question I did have, I know most people use bulk bought EVA foam or fatigue mats but I have a few packages of 6mm "Super Thick" foamies that I believe came from a Joann fabric and was wondering if those might work? Or will they be too porous for the PVA glue to get a good seal on?

Anyway, now that I've rambled on far too long about nothing, some actual progress pictures. I've started with the arc reactor, mostly because I had 90% of what I needed hanging around the house already. As of right now I'm waiting on my LEDs to come in the mail so I'm kind of just waiting before I can do anything else with it.
I started with an old bead organizer I had about 12 of kicking around the house.

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Pulled off the top and cut out all the little dividers and the middle piece with some wire clippers and a box cutter. This will eventually become my housing. (After some sanding and a brushed nickel paint job)

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For the rings to cover the LEDs and disperse some of the light I found this frosted plastic "take out container" at Michaels for $.50 and cut it up, doubling each of the pieces to make it a little bit thicker. (hot glued them together in places the glue wouldn't be seen on the bigger one, over the whole surface of the smaller one)

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Then I found these little chip mounts at RadioShack, I think it was aout $1.35 for each pack which had two in it. I realized only after I had them home and opened that I probably should have gotten a smaller size (these are 14 prong, I should have gone with probably 8 or 6) since the actual reactor has 10 of these clip/copper wire bits and I could only fit 6 before it started looking strange and crowded. I might change that later but for now I'm just going to go with it.

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Once I had them all on (just held in place with the prongs folded over the plastic, it seemed to hold fine) I wrapped them in some copper colored craft wire, I think it was 24 gauge, about 36 inches is wrapped around each one and then hot glued in to place.

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Then between each of those I hot glued two silver wires (I'm thinking 18 or possibly 20 gauge) I'm probably going to go over the hot glue with some silver paint at some point to make it look more like solder.

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Then I used the same silver wire to make three rings that desceded in size toward the middle of the base and connected them with more hot glue and pieces of the silver wire (again, might paint this silver later to disguise some of the glue)

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Then I had to make that odd little silver piece with holes in it that sits below the plastic/chip mount/wire bit. I tried a few different things but ended up going back to my little plastic take out container, cutting another piece the same size as the big ring but about twice as wide. Then I used an old wood burning tool with a round tip to melt the holes in it.

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Once I had that piece done I painted both it and the housing (after sanding both lightly) with a brushed nickel type silver paint. Then after cutting out the spaces that would need to be clear for the light to shine through I glued it on to the back of the wire with the side that had accumulated the melted plastic facing out so it would be on the inside of the mount.

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And at this point this is as far as I'm going to get. I've got an old picture frame backing I'm going to cut for a mount for those and some wire mesh that I'll incorporate in to the middle along with cleaning up a few bits and pieces before it's totally finished.

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And I know, this won't actually show much, if at all, in the final suit but I'm thinking that if I do go to comic con with this thing I'll get tired of wearing the suit for four days and want to actually be able to move around in booths so I'll just pull a Tony or Natasha Stark one of the days as well so might as well go all out.
 
Nice Arc!
With regards to your Foam question, i'm not too sure as i've gone down the card/resin/filler route. Although i'm making another suit in Foam after Halloween.

Good luck with the build and keep us updated :)
 
Cool arc! But dont forget (as I did) that you dont see the arc when the armor is worn. Instead you see the armor's own arc reactor, which looks different (no coils) and is called the uni-beam.
 
Shakeitdavey: Thanks! And yeah, I looked in to going the card/resin route but realized it was probably a little out of my budget at the moment and I figure I'll have a little easier time doing that sometime later when I've got some kind of decent build under my belt.

Dynofiend: Yep, I know. Like I said, as of now I'm planning to make some kind of removable housing for this in the suit behind some frosted "glass" along with some extra LEDs that are built in to the chest piece to get that 'unibeam' look and then just have this one around in case I decide to do a Tony or Natasha for a day or two of NYCC.
More than anything I was just hoping to get in to the spirit of the build while I save up enough for my main building materials haha :lol
 
Finally got my LEDs yesterday just in time to be stormed in by Sandy so I was able to both finish my arc and get all of the pieces for my pep helmet cut and started to put them together. I've decided to do both a pep helmet and a foam one to see whichever comes out better since I'm realizing I don't have the best pep skills yet and there are a few places it doesn't look the best.

For the arc I took a cheap plastic picture frame I found in the Michaels' "as is" bin for $1.50 and cut a circle out of it.
I sanded the circle with a fine grit paper to 'frost' it so the wiring wouldn't show through so much and used a leather punch to put 12 holes in it for my LEDs. I wired up the LED's and glued them in place with plenty of hot glue, pushed the wires through the center hole and neatened them up.

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Then I took a small circle of plastic and put three holes in it mounted three LEDs to that for the center light and glued that over the center hole.

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Gathered all the wires soldered them to a single wire and taped it all up.

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Added the battery pack, and we're lit!

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And finally put all the pieces together, adding some mesh over the LED mount, a few pieces of thin cardboard painted silver with holes punched and glued in place, screws covering the holes and holding it in to the plastic. I still have to do some neatening up of the glue points and hot glue strings, on the center rings especially but for a Halloween party tomorrow I'm satisfied.
Finished Pics!

finishedlight.jpg
finisheddark.jpg
 
Shakeitdavey: Thanks! And yeah, I looked in to going the card/resin route but realized it was probably a little out of my budget at the moment and I figure I'll have a little easier time doing that sometime later when I've got some kind of decent build under my belt.
:lol

Smart move :) - The Arc is looking great by the way!

I would say that the pep helmet would come out nicer than Foam. Be good to see both helmets though if you do go ahead with that idea!
 
I would say that the pep helmet would come out nicer than Foam. Be good to see both helmets though if you do go ahead with that idea!

Yeah, I'm almost certain it would, I'm just worried about my skill with the pep itself and getting it to come out clean so I want to have a 'back-up' of sorts in case I get to the pain stage and realize I don't like the way the card one looks or something :p
 
Thanks ImRaMin16! Just don't follow mine too much if you want accuracy, It technically should have 10 clips/copper wire coils but mine only has 6 because the chip mounts I had were too big
 
Thanks ImRaMin16! Just don't follow mine too much if you want accuracy, It technically should have 10 clips/copper wire coils but mine only has 6 because the chip mounts I had were too big

ohh ye tottaly forgot its 10 :lol
hope to see some pictures of you're build soon!
 
ohh ye tottaly forgot its 10 :lol
hope to see some pictures of you're build soon!

I hope so too! haha I'm hopefully ordering my foam by the end of the week, working on cutting out all my templates right now so depending, it might have to be a week or two before I actually get any progress though
 
Can I ask which foam you went for? which MM size did you go for aswell? and where from?

I'm still not sure yet if I'm going with the foamies or not, since I already have a bunch but I think they may be more difficult/temperamental but either way I'm going to do 6mm (1/4 inch).
If I don't use the foamies I'm going to get some 6mm EVA foam from here (the $24.75 "EVA grade" one). Still trying to decide how many sheets I think I'll need.
 
I'm still not sure yet if I'm going with the foamies or not, since I already have a bunch but I think they may be more difficult/temperamental but either way I'm going to do 6mm (1/4 inch).
If I don't use the foamies I'm going to get some 6mm EVA foam from here (the $24.75 "EVA grade" one). Still trying to decide how many sheets I think I'll need.

I used the EVA from Foam Order. Same stuff, 6mm. I used 3 sheets. I used some 2mm foamies for some details though. You might want to have some on hand.
 
I used the EVA from Foam Order. Same stuff, 6mm. I used 3 sheets. I used some 2mm foamies for some details though. You might want to have some on hand.

Awesome! Thanks so much, I've been trying to figure out how much to get for like three days now :facepalm
And yeah, I do have some of the thin foamies set aside for the helmet and detail work.
 
No problem. Looking forward to seeing your work.
Thanks :) Hopefully will have more to show soon, all depends on how well the foam will ship with all the chaos with Sandy though.

very well done.
Thank you! Thanks for all the videos to ha, I'd have had a much tougher time figuring out what I need if it weren't for them!

:thumbsupgreat job
Thank you!


Working on the repulsors tonight, found some cheap pumpkin lights (similar to the little push lights some people use) in one of the post-Halloween sales, ended up only paying about 75¢ each and already have everything else I'll need for those.
 
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