First Project... like ever! "Iron Girl"

Hi there,

This is my first post since my intro. I'm from Noobsville. Nice to meet you.

I would like to share some experiences for other locals of Noobsville as well as hopefully get some feedback from those in Skill City. (I wanna go there someday.)

I asked my daughter a couple of months ago what she wanted to be for Halloween...

"Iron Man!" she said... I love my baby girl.

I have recorded the progress with time-lapse for each part of the build also (except the paint because I feared for the life of my DSLR). There were two reasons I did this. a) Coz I could and b) I thought it would be an excellent way to be able to learn from my successes and mistakes.

I chose the "Pepakura->EVA->PVA->Easy Cast->Primer->Paint" method and for a first hack I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

There were deadlines and I should have started it sooner. Using the "Easy Cast" Resin is an art. Talent as well as experience will go a long way before applying it to anything massive. I recommend doing a good test on a small scrap first. I didn't... That didn't fare me well.

Then my paint reacted and changed colour after applying a clear top-coat. The faceplate started off a beautiful fau-chrome and then became a dull gun-metal grey before my eyes. after this it then started to smear. Ugh! I sort of recovered by applying another coat of the purple (yes purple) over the clear coat and that recovered it a bit but no where near where it was before that fatal spray.

TEST FIRST! TEST FIRST! TEST FIRST!

I may have even started with too much PVA also as I found myself sanding that back more than I thought I'd need to. Still not sure of that one.

I ended up getting as far as the paint and pink eye lenses. (I hear you all screaming "Blasphemy!!!)

Well Halloween was the best time we've had together in ages and she felt like the star that she is. So very very worth every one of those sometimes seemingly endless nights.



The time-lapse of the electronics build is not up yet but I'll be posting it really soon.

The forst parts of the build playlist to-date is HERE on the YouTubes.

Please let me know your thoughts and feedback.

After I get the servos flipping the face-plate of the helmet up i'll probably put that project away for a while. I'm toying with two ideas for my next pieces. This time it will be for myself. I'm not sure if these have been done but I was thinking of Sauron from Lord Of The Rings or the "Excalibur" or "Rhino" Warframe's. Though the last two may be a bit ambitious.

Bah! Go BIG or GO HOME hey??

Haha!!

Thanks for reading. This was a blast. Pretty sure you'll hear from me again.


Gambo

Helmet looks good mate, too bad about the paint reacting! I hate it when things like that happen, but looks like you recovered well .

I understand the labour of love creating costumes for the little ones can be. It can be exhausting and stressful, but it's worth it to see their faces when it all comes together!

Where abouts in Aus are you from? Planning to attend any Cons in costume in the future?

Thats really cool i like the paint job! I can kinda relate about the whole paint thing since i tried painting the spider on my symbiote spidey with a stencil but ended up failing and then trying to paint it again with a paint marker before i decided to just make the spider out of foam and paint that. It ended up being more complicated than it shoulda been haha but oh well thats how you learn

Thanks for the supportive comments guys.

P4r4dox86, I'm living in Melbourne and no I've never been to a Con. (Oh the shame!) That is an omission which I plan on rectifying as soon as possible though. Attending in Cosplay may be a little further off however.

Thanks OneGoodScare. I did learn a great deal indeed and already know the next project will be that little bit easier as a result of the mistakes I made this first time. Here I was thinking that the painting was the easy bit. Haha!!

are you going to attempt on building the rest of the suit?

mccheeesy said:

are you going to attempt on building the rest of the suit?

Click to expand...

Not sure... my daughter is 11 going on 31 and growing like it so I figure, by the time it's complete, it won't fit her any more.

Like I said. the next project is for me and. yes, it will be a complete suit... outfit... whatever it is it will be complete.