First time Iron Man foam build - my WIP complete with fail pics

[BigPun69]

Hi all,

I'm starting my planning for this year's Halloween early and want to build a foam Iron Man suit. Right now I'm trying to find all of the pieces I'll need but being in Japan I think ordering from the Internet is going to be my best bet for a lot of supplies as things like plasti-dip aren't common out here.

My main question is, when it comes to doing the helmet, what is the best method for transferring the paper / card stock printed template to foam, and how should I approach the many small slices? I saw the XRobots video where he says that cutting the card to remove the slits and forming one solid piece which can be bended and formed to curve using heat is the best way, but I wanted to know what you all do.

I didn't want to use that trial and error method as I don't feel confident that my joins would end up matching up perfectly, or the pieces may be slightly out of proportion to one another.

Is there a helmet template already made which I could print without the many individual slits intended specifically for foam use? Any advise is very much appreciated, as it's really overwhelming - despite reading as much as I can over the past week or so.

For now, I'm sourcing (I'll try to add places they've been found and prices as I find them for other members in the same situation):

• 9mm EVA foam - Nitori 490 yen for 9 32x32 mats
• A4 cardstock for printing templates
• PVA / wood glue for sealing - Khama home centre, 1litre for around 450 yen (quick drying was also there for around 650 yen, but i'm cheap )
• Plasti-dip / Smooth On 65D - Actually ended up going for some Japanese brand stuff as the other options were prohibitively expensive (over $140 for a litre ) So I ordered this from Amazon for around 3000 yen delivered.
• Cutting mat - 100 yen store (Daiso)
• Cutting knife and blades - 100 yen store (Daiso)
• Brushes - bought one but need to source these in bulk from eBay
• Xacto angle cutter (Bought from a Canadian seller on Ebay - $9(CAD) + $8.86 delivery - approx 1790 yen)
• Primer
• Metalic spray paint (red / gold / silver)
• Clear coat sealer

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Ok, so I didn't get any responses to my request for help so I'm changing this into my own WIP so I can keep a trail on what is working and what isn't for me..

First, the purchased items (stores and prices for fellow Japan builders above)

 

[BigPun69]

Re: First time Iron Man foam build - questions before starting

Bump...

Edit no responses so changing to wip...

 

[BigPun69]

Re: First time Iron Man foam build - questions before starting

So, things that I learned IMMEDIATELY...

• Always use a cutting mat
• Use some sort of prop when applying a sealer such as PVA to a piece, don't try to wing it by holding the piece or resting it on a table
• Wear gloves
• Open all of your doors and windows to improve ventilation, glue guns, plastic chemicals etc are very dangerous
• Take your time - take breaks reguarly
• Start cutting the foam piece BEFORE the line starts, this leads to much cleaner cuts as you already have momentum build
• Press down as hard as you can to ensure you're cutting all the way through.. well maybe not quite as hard as you can, but use a fair amount of pressure

With all of that being said, the reason I came to those conclusions is because of my testing of the Japanese plastic casting resin. Let's just say, epic fail First, I applied PVA while holding the test piece of foam, it slipped out of my fingers and landed face down on a printed piece of card which stuck itself to the surface.

I rushed each layer of pva and the resin so nothing really set properly. However, It's been a few hours now and it does seem to have applied a (pretty terrible quality) plastic layer that seems durable. My next test piece of foam, I'll take my time and do it properly.

Below is the result of trying to do a days work in an hour



So, onto my actual build. For the helmet, I'm using Stealths foam edited MK6 files - specifically this one:



I don't know about everyone else's experiences but this doesn't seem like a beginner friendly helmet now I'm actually trying to build it. My cuts are actually pretty clean for a first timer, and I've been able to glue pieces together without excess seaping through but it seems a really tough design to follow.



So yeah, I clearly haven't followed the design properly as there seems to be an extra part connecting the top and bottom (above the eyes. Also, the way the back part of the helmet is made (the scalp area) seems utterly impossible! Should I just start again with an easier helmet file? Can anyone recommend anything? The positive was that the default scale on this one seemed to be OK for me.

 

[chinandler]

Re: First time Iron Man foam build - questions before starting

looking great so far

 

[zorprime]

Actually I was going to say the first rule is to start with an easier part to build, legs and arms are probably the easist pieces to build first. (I am a first time foamie as well) I am saving the helmet for last to get my skill level up to make it look good, but so far I have made the chest, back, abs, cod, thighs, arms, and have finished the right calf piece and halfway done with the left. The only other tips I can offer are, take your time, either sharpen your razor blade on a piece of foam (just like a knife) or buy a large pack of razor blades to cut with.

 

[jayart05]

Looking good...keep it up

 

[Kolin86]

One of your issues is your not cutting angles into the foam. JFCustom has a good tutorial on this. But you can see the difference between your pic and one of mine in a side by side. Cut the edges of the foam to the degrees you need. It'll take some trial to get that done.

However congrats on the smooth work so far. Once you get the angles right, you'll have a top looking foam suit.

 

[WerewolfCop]

What Kolin said above. The pep file doesn't tell you which pieces require an angle cut. So you have to look at your model and figure out which pieces need them. I've made 3 foam helmets so far and almost done with a cardstock one. One thing I do before cutting is align my cutouts on the foam, trace them and place a adjoining piece next to one another to make sure it lines up and will fit perfectly. Sometimes you can place multiple pieces together and cut to ensure the best fit possible. I've used Stealths foam file and it does work, I had to do a few minor adjustments but the Helmet came together just fine.

 

[WerewolfCop]

Another trick I learned was when you go to shape your foam with a heatgun or hair dryer you can take your cardstock cutouts, tape or glue them to use as a guide to forming your foam. When I first did this with the top part of my helmet I knew I was on the right track. Also before gluing anything put your helmet together to make sure everything fits. This is the time when you will find problems that you can fix. Nothing worse than having to re-heat a glued on piece and pull it off. Messy messy messy

 

[BigPun69]

Great advice all, thank you!!

 

[Taiyou]

Bit of an old thread by the looks of it, but being a foam/pepakura newbie living in Japan, I'm very interested in the materials you used. I'm living on the Japanese countryside, so there's not a whole lot af variety in stores, but I got EVA joint mats yesterday. They're pretty thick though (1cm), as opposed to many people seemingly using around 7mm. I've also read about Lion Board, which seems somewhat similar to EVA.
In short; wondering how the build went and what Japanese problems you might have run in to.