Another Iron Man build? Say it ain't so...My Iron Man MK 3

[Philthy Stache]

So I started this build last year, and I've just now kicked it into overdrive.

But before I start compartmentalizing this build since the site keeps crashing before I can save the post. I want to give out the props that are deserved to those who provided the files I used for the build. I'm using Dancin_Fool's files of the MK 3 from his thread. http://www.therpf.com/f78/dancinfools-iron-man-mark-iii-pep-files-new-chest-started-101543/

I also used Dubean's helmet, and would have used Zabana's hands, but I made the wrong size and those won't be ready any time soon.

Now even though this is my first full build, sadly my first item I pepped was one of Darkside501st's helmets that was scaled incorrectly. And since it would have fit Andre the giant, I had to start fresh. And while I was gazing at my newly made construct my kid came in and saw what I was doing. And from then on I was set on a new path. She wanted to be Iron Man for Halloween. So pretty much making her Iron WOman. But the bad news is that I told her I'd have it for her for THIS Halloween. The one that is in less than 2 weeks.

As I go along in this thread, I'll be posting the different stages and some of the techniques I used and if they came from inspiration from someone in particular.

I'd also like to give a big shout out to Dave, aka Cereal Kill3r whose instruction videos were an immense help and a wealth of advice. For anyone wanting to do this, if it's your first time or if you're a veteran and can keep an open mind to new ideas you can find him on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2kInwJRdwJxJvvOGqwggAw

He has experienced a loss in his life and I just hope he is still doing well and invite all who see this to go give him some encouraging words to let him know he is missed and is not alone in his time of sadness.

 

[Philthy Stache]

After I got all the supplies I needed for crafting the paper, and yes that's my kids glue gun,

I started printing...and printing...and printing. And I started cutting, folding, and gluing. After cutting the pieces I just used my ruler and a pen to score the valley folds and just the ruler to do the ridge folds. If I had a multi-directional fold, I always folding the valley folds first no matter what.

I started with colored paper just to have some fun, but I messed up the lower back of the helmet for the ear wrap around. This was the second build I ever did. But I was happy with the end result.


Here is the rest of my hard work

 

[Philthy Stache]

First time builders advice!!!

I would highly recommend that you don't build everything all at once unless you are ready to resin the pieces IMMEDIATELY. Many of the veteran builders are probably letting out a sigh and going "Duh." but I just wanted to add that in there to reiterate the point. Your risk of part damage goes up exponentially each day they sit there. I know this because I left mine on the side for a few months. Yes, I said months. Luckily there wasn't too much damage to my pieces. All it took was a little extra bracing and things went back to shape. But next time I do a build I'll do one piece at a time. Or at least I'll craft a piece then go harden it. Much like Don Juan did for his War Machine build. http://www.therpf.com/f78/war-machine-1st-attempt-154973/

 

[Philthy Stache]

The reason why it took so long for me to apply the resin was mostly due to fear. Being that this was my first attempt I didn't want to screw up and have to remake a piece. But I found it was rather easy doing the resin application. All you do is treat it like paint and just brush it on. And second due to the fact it was the winter so it was out of the temperature range for the resin.

So once I started applying the resin I put on a coat on the outside, let it dry, then a very liberally generous amount on the inside. Some builders do a couple coats on both the inside and outside, but I only applied one to each. You don't want to put too much on the outside because you risk allowing the resin to pool in some of the finer details you painstakingly pepped out for hours forcing you to have to go back later and carve it out. Also don't bite off too much more than you can chew. Only make about an ounce at a time, and you shouldn't use the same cup because there are still small amounts of chemicals left over from the last batch and can alter your time frame. That's why you see so many cups in the one picture.



Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was that you can see in the third pic on the helmet I had removed the faceplate prior to applying the resin and reattached it using blue painters tape. I found that it was better to leave it on and apply the resin to maintain the all around shape of the faceplate and the helmet. You can go in later and cut it off which I'll talk about some methods I tried later on and what I'll do next time when I start a War Machine suit.

 

[Philthy Stache]

At this point I utilized a method that a gentleman by the name of Cereal Kill3r calls "rondo." For those who aren't familiar with this term it's a mixture of bondo and resin. I used about a 50/50 mixture of each and then just brushed in around the inside BEFORE I removed the braces. Once the rondo has dried go ahead and start removing the braces.

Another direction I chose to go with this build was using bondohair instead of using fiberglass sheets that many use to strengthen the interiors of their suits. And for those who aren't familiar with bondohair, it's just fiberglass strands mixed in with a liquid mixture that uses the same hardening agent as regular bondo and hardens just the same. There are two types of bondohair, long and short strand. I used the long strand and mixed that with resin.

So to recap, I would apply a single (thin) coat of rondo, then applied the bondohair/resin (which I'll designate as rondohair) on the inside. Now I suggest you don't be afraid of applying a liberal amount of rondohair inside either. Don't be shy, coat it in there and work it around. It takes a lil time to get the knack of how to push it around, but in no time you'll know just what to do. Then once the rondohair is cured, I applied another coat of rondo just to cut back on any sharp edges the rondohair may have left.

***EDIT*** In working with pieces later on below, I did apply rondohair first before the rondo. As I did use rondo, but to simply act as a smoothing agent over the fiberglass hairs that stick up.





The difference between the brown and the green look is just the amount of hardening agent you use. The brown I used more hardening agent, where the green I used less. There's no difference in how hard the pieces are, just in how much time it takes to harden. Plus you are also mixing resin into the mix so you have that hardening agent as well.

 

[Philthy Stache]

Once all the pieces had rondo/bondohair applied to the inside I was able to remove all the supports and move onto prepping the outside for bondo. I started by going to Lowes and buying an affordable file set. My main goal was to get a rasp in order to knock down all the ridges, as this would require me to use less bondo and also keep the shape a lot better. After the edges are knocked down it will leave some of the paper exposed which would show up after you sanded down the bondo and cause you problems later. You can just seal all the exposed paper with simple super glue.

Cereal Kill3r explains this step in full detail in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcotY9s5Zjw&list=UU2kInwJRdwJxJvvOGqwggAw

And yes, I will be referencing many of Cereals' videos as they apply throughout my thread.

If you click on the pic you can see the ridges better.


Here is the first coat of bondo, but you can see some of the ridges knocked down.

 

[Philthy Stache]

At this point it was just rasping, and bondo-ing all the pieces. There were times when it felt like I was just spinning plates going from one piece to another.



I chose to combine all the pieces of the leg into one solid piece. I did this by taping the four calf flaps to the main piece first. I used the rondohair to seal all the joints and bond it to the main calf piece on the inside. Once all that was set I put on the final calf bell piece on top. I wanted to be sure that all the edges matched up and if I needed to trim anything...which I did. But it all turned out well in the end.

If I were to do another leg like this I would have just started out in the resin stage by putting them all together first.



One thing MANY of you will notice is the lack of detail on the shin piece here. I had to make many sacrifices when it came to the suit, and minor details was the big one. In many of the following posts/pictures you will notice this too. The main reason was I was on a tight schedule to try to finish before Halloween. Sadly I was unable to meet that deadline so I might go back on some pieces and put in the details now and have it ready for the Emerald City Comic Con.



Another thing I would do different is cut the piece off the back of the neck seal AFTER it was completed. It's much harder to match up the pieces when it's pre-cut than when the bondo is applied first.

 

[Philthy Stache]

While working on the abs and lower back pieces I applied the same methods as I used on the shin, slightly modified. I don't have many step by step pictures of when I pieced the abs together, but I do have some for the back pieces.

The way I chose to do the abs and back was to bondo each piece individually, then tape the insides and bondo all the joints on the outside. After that I took my dremel and cut all the seams to separate the pieces again. Then I taped the outside of the pieces together and used rondohair to seal the seams on the inside. I did this because I wanted to maintain a fluid look to all the ab/back pieces instead of using bondo on each piece and sanding or adding bondo over and over again until all the seams lined up.

 

[Philthy Stache]

Here's a couple of pics that are pre-bondo. I wanted to get an idea of how it was all coming together.

 

[Philthy Stache]

One obstacle I had to over come was what I was going to do to join the chest and back pieces together. I finally decided to go with a method Cereal Kill3r used for his Halo chest piece explained in this video here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU34yC_2heo&list=UU2kInwJRdwJxJvvOGqwggAw




BUUUUUT....... by using those magnets I actually caused more work for me later on because they fell into the groove of the abs and back pieces I attached to the pelvis piece in an above post. So I would actually recommend a style much like what Don Juan did for his pieces for War Machine. That link is here: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=154973&p=2709054&viewfull=1#post2709054

Other methods that can be done is velcro strips at the joints, or even taking some fiberglass sheets to create an overhang to put magnets on.

So I had to carve and pry those magnets out of the rondo putting me back to square 1. I just recently removed them so I'll have to get back to figure out what I finally want that is low profile enough to work with the abs and back pieces and allow slightly better rotation ability.

 

[MiddleFinger]

Really great progress so far! There aren't too many Mark III suits being made and you're doing a great job. :thumbsup

As for joining the chest and back piece together, you can use an elastic strap attached to a buckle. Have one side of the strap permanently attached to, let's just say, the back of the suit. The other end of the strap would be attached to a male end of a buckle whee the female end is permanently attached to the front of the suit. (See diagram below) The female end should be far enough away so there is some tension on the strap so the pieces want to come together, close enough so it stretch some more for mobility reasons. I haven't tried this myself, but I don't see why it wouldn't work!

 

[Philthy Stache]

Really great progress so far! There aren't too many Mark III suits being made and you're doing a great job. :thumbsup

As for joining the chest and back piece together, you can use an elastic strap attached to a buckle. Have one side of the strap permanently attached to, let's just say, the back of the suit. The other end of the strap would be attached to a male end of a buckle whee the female end is permanently attached to the front of the suit. (See diagram below) The female end should be far enough away so there is some tension on the strap so the pieces want to come together, close enough so it stretch some more for mobility reasons. I haven't tried this myself, but I don't see why it wouldn't work!


http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii86/hackmandude12/diagram_zpsdd0f01f3.png

I've thought about that too and will definitely be a consideration. My concern though is having the clearance from the mechanism to the ab section. I plan on keeping my abs attached to the pelvis permanently. It all depends on how low of a profile I can get buckles if I go that road.

And as far as the illustration is concerned, that's actually pretty good and point well made.

 

[Philthy Stache]

Here's just a few pics of the chest with the shoulder bells on and the arms propped up with some glazing putty on them and ending with the arms primed up.

But in the end I ended up putting a decent coat of glazing putty over the entire arm and sanded with a 220 grit sand paper.
View attachment 399003View attachment 399004View attachment 399005View attachment 399006View attachment 399007View attachment 399009

 

[Philthy Stache]

If anyone is actually following this thread, or who might be just looking at it. I have made more progress since the last post. But due to a pending divorce I will not be making any new updates for a while. I hope to finish off my build and this thread eventually, but in the meantime I have to adjust to what life will be like now.

For those following, or just wanted to check this build out....I thank you for your interest.

Darrin

 

[funboy1013xx]

sorry to hear that bro. been reading this off and on before I go to work and then before bed. keep your chin up

 

[Philthy Stache]

So I wanted to give an update. Things have dramatically improved on my life and my marriage and I will be continuing my work on this project within the next few months. I appreciate any who are interested in this post and I look forward to being able to add new pics and progress reports soon.

 

[Philthy Stache]

Heres just a taste of the progress I never mentioned before I stopped working on the suit.

 

[sandbagger]

So I wanted to give an update. Things have dramatically improved on my life and my marriage and I will be continuing my work on this project within the next few months. I appreciate any who are interested in this post and I look forward to being able to add new pics and progress reports soon.

Absolutely FANTASTIC that your marriage is back on track mate! We all go through it in varying degrees but it's sure horrible when it gets to the point where you have to rethink your life. At the end of the day, you are you and what you do, like, get into is all part of what makes you you and the partner in life should love that about you. In saying that, there is a balance between what we spend the majority of our time doing, and spending time with the partner.

Stay balanced bro and I can't wait to see how far you take this suit!

SB

 

[Philthy Stache]

Just a little update....The build is not dead, just delayed as I wait to reclaim my garage from all the belongings currently stored in there.

I will also be creating a duct tape mannequin in order to further things as well.