Questions About Finishing Cardboard Iron Man Armor

Hey guys. I'm working on some cardboard-based Iron Man armor for halloween (I know it's several months away, I'm giving myself plenty of time ), but I need a little help regarding the finish.

Basically, I'm building it out of cardboard, but I don't want to use bondo or some kind of body filler. I've never built something like this before, and I heard that bondo has a steep learning curve. So I'd like to simply finish the cardboard itself. I plan to harden it using a mixture of wood glue and water, which seems to be working quite well. The surface is even sandable afterwards! My one problem is that, no matter how much I sand and re-apply the glue mixture, there is still a sort of "corrugated" effect in the shine on the surface. I can't seem to get it smooth. I have a couple of ideas that I'd like your feedback on:

• Could I maybe apply two or three coats of Plasti Dip to the hardened cardboard? Would that smooth things out?
• Would I be able to harden the Plasti Dip by applying a clear coat on top before painting?
• Would be a decent finish to the suit: cardboard, glue mixture to harden the cardboard -> Plasti Dip to smooth the surface -> clear coat to protect the Plasti Dip -> paint?

If anyone else has any ideas or insight into this, I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

First coat it with fibreglass resin. The back or the inside of the armour is coated with resin and fibreglass is applied, after that usually it's Rondo which is a 50/50 mix of bonds and fibreglass resin with both their respective hardener's. YouTube is your friend. Go to the Heroes Workshop $25.00 for Stealth's download tutorial is an investment you can pickup Shawn Thorsson's book. They both are members here and I have both...

Try using filler primer, it can smooth out surfaces that are almost smooth but not quite there.

If you want to stay nontoxic, I use blue shop towels soaked in a mix of white or wood glue and water to cover the cardboard. This layer dries really hard. Then if you want it smoother you can use a mix of Durham's water putty, white glue, and water, mixed to a spreadable paste (thick). In this mixture, more glue makes it more durable, but much harder to sand, so experiment to get a feel for it.

If you do fiberglass then you might as well also do body fillers, since they're all toxic, difficult to work with first-time, and irreparably messy.

-Rog

Thanks for the replies, guys. Rog's solution led me to find a recipe for something called "paper clay" which I am experimenting with right now. It looks pretty good to me, though I think that filler primer that Huang suggested might be just what I need to get the finish just right.

how about covering it in craft foam?