cwho
New Member
The costume began as a casual conversation in August between my son and I about making an Iron Man mask that opened and closed. I was eager for him to learn to program and Arduino seemed like a good place to start. It kind of snowballed (that is what nerds are best at) from there. Features that made it into the costume included servo helmet, light up eyes, dimmed repulsors, sound effects and of course the arc reactor. The main features that did NOT make it were Heads Up Display and voice control. Voice control may come later…. In the post we is Andrew (son) and I (Dad).
We soon found the RPF and this costume stands on the backs of giants. We exited the build maze of the costume by running into dead ends, taking long roads and shortcuts. First, we looked at a folded version of the iron man armor thinking we could 3d print the parts. Also wanting the helmet to move up and down we discovered an arduino (link needed) Then later, discovered The rpf and more specifically Jackieisrockin and 7sinzz . 7sinzz provided the initial code which was improved with help from multiple arduino forums. (thank you Dancin_fool). But we still did not find the biceps or shoulders. Finally, we got a breakthrough thanks to helagak
We don’t have a lot of experience costumes, certainly nothing beyond halloween. I have done several of those, starting with cardboard robots, Lego, and Minecraft Steve. I do have the benefit of being a professional model maker with a good shop and some fun tools. One of the great things for Pepakura is a laser cutter. Also 3d printing machines including the ZCorp process and a new Form1 resin printer. The Form1 did the helmet arms and the arc reactor.
We created some code that I think has value to others trying to do this. We came back to the RPF on Sunday to post the code and give back to the community. That was when we found the costume contest. Sorry for the snap entry.
In general the Pepakura was the most problematic using thin foam. Having used ¾” foam on the Legoman legs in years past and then realizing that kids cant bend ¾ inch foam and therefor can’t run (less running = less candy) we went with a variety of 2mm, 3mm and 5mm foamies foam. It worked well as a material but as others have found, hiding the glue and coatings are a problem. Plastidip spray works very well for a soft coating and was a great RPF tip. I never thought that we would get a super shiny coating though so that made things easier.
Enjoy….
We soon found the RPF and this costume stands on the backs of giants. We exited the build maze of the costume by running into dead ends, taking long roads and shortcuts. First, we looked at a folded version of the iron man armor thinking we could 3d print the parts. Also wanting the helmet to move up and down we discovered an arduino (link needed) Then later, discovered The rpf and more specifically Jackieisrockin and 7sinzz . 7sinzz provided the initial code which was improved with help from multiple arduino forums. (thank you Dancin_fool). But we still did not find the biceps or shoulders. Finally, we got a breakthrough thanks to helagak
We don’t have a lot of experience costumes, certainly nothing beyond halloween. I have done several of those, starting with cardboard robots, Lego, and Minecraft Steve. I do have the benefit of being a professional model maker with a good shop and some fun tools. One of the great things for Pepakura is a laser cutter. Also 3d printing machines including the ZCorp process and a new Form1 resin printer. The Form1 did the helmet arms and the arc reactor.
We created some code that I think has value to others trying to do this. We came back to the RPF on Sunday to post the code and give back to the community. That was when we found the costume contest. Sorry for the snap entry.
In general the Pepakura was the most problematic using thin foam. Having used ¾” foam on the Legoman legs in years past and then realizing that kids cant bend ¾ inch foam and therefor can’t run (less running = less candy) we went with a variety of 2mm, 3mm and 5mm foamies foam. It worked well as a material but as others have found, hiding the glue and coatings are a problem. Plastidip spray works very well for a soft coating and was a great RPF tip. I never thought that we would get a super shiny coating though so that made things easier.
Enjoy….