foam Iron Man mark 4, with cereal box helmet wip

[bigjustin12]

So I've run into a bit of a snag with a foam IM helm. I am making the sharkman mark6 helm modified for foam by Stealth. But the piece below the eyes (or nose, if Ironman had one) seems much too big. You can see in the pics below that with the sides attached, the front sticks out much too far. If I push it in anyway, the lower eyes bulge way out. Has anyone encountered this? I've been looking at pictures of the helmet made by others and they don't look quite like this. I did scale the helmet up 5% and I've checked again and again and even printed out new paper pieces, but I can't catch my error. If this is the way it is, are other people trimming the piece to fit?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Fatutch]

Re: Ironman foam question...

we have the same problem dude but mines not sticking out too much, maybe it's the thickness of the foam you're using?

here's mine:

 

[IMIM2]

Re: Ironman foam question...

What you need is to heat the lower faceplate, then pressed it against your knee (wear a thick jeans will help). In that way, the lower faceplate will meet the eyebrow at an angle. I normally make the lid between the eyes a bit longer, so it'll catch on the inner side of the eyebrow. Also the extra length will use as flap to put the glue.
If you don't use heat, you need to make a cut (or the template normally show cuts).

 

[bigjustin12]

Re: Ironman foam question...

Fatutch: I'm using 6mm craft foam from Michael's. It's really nice stuff to work with.

IMIM2: I did heat and pre-curve the faceplate. It's just that there is too much length leftover below the eyes so they become pushed way out.

 

[Helagak]

Re: Ironman foam question...

I ran into the same issue. What I did was attach the lower face mask between the eyes. Then when you attach the parts by the temples, I let it over hang a bit to get the eye shape I wanted then trimmed off the parts that were hanging over.

 

[Drack]

Re: Ironman foam question...

I pretty much did the same. I glued the the face plate between the eyes then glued the 2 side bits a bit further out then trimed of the extra so the bottom of the eyes didnt jut out so much.

 

[IMIM2]

Re: Ironman foam question...

Here i draw some illustration for it.
Yes, just trim the excess away.
However the faceplate has two way bend, so not only left-right curve, but it also has top-down curve. My picture on the side shows that. while yours not. In that way, your helmet will look better.

 

[bigjustin12]

Re: Ironman foam question...

Sounds like a good plan. Thanks for all the replies and suggestions! I am familiar with all of you guys from your amazing build threads and it's pretty awesome that you make time to help out the newbies like me. I'll hopefully start a build thread soon.

 

[Helagak]

Re: Ironman foam question...

We all started as newbies. Some (like me!) more recently than others. That's what's great about this community. Everyone is willing to help.
Good luck!

 

[IMIM2]

Re: Ironman foam question...

I am a newbie too!
Welcome aboard, you already started the thread.
Happy building

 

[Fatutch]

Re: Ironman foam question...

Fatutch: I'm using 6mm craft foam from Michael's. It's really nice stuff to work with.

Lol we're using the same thickness

 

[Fatutch]

Re: Ironman foam question...

Here i draw some illustration for it.
Yes, just trim the excess away.
However the faceplate has two way bend, so not only left-right curve, but it also has top-down curve. My picture on the side shows that. while yours not. In that way, your helmet will look better.

I am soooo gonna do that!:facepalm thank you so much for that tip!

 

[bigjustin12]

Re: Ironman foam build

Got some more work done on the helmet. I did end up trimming the ends off of the middle faceplate, thanks for the help with that! I'm trying to be as precise as I can. I've made one helmet before that was just a little too small for my big head, and the jaw ended up being skewed slightly to one side. But so far I'm happy with the progress. I'm often using pics of other foam helmets as references as well as a close up pic of real ironman. Hoping to have most of the upper body suit built and painted before Halloween so I can pass out candy as ironman. I have a chest and back built already. If I can get this helmet, the shoulders and possibly arms done by Halloween that'd be nice.

 

[iMan]

Re: Ironman foam question...

The new one looks great. Well done so far.

 

[IMIM2]

Re: Ironman foam question...

I normally start with the lips, chin and jaw first.
Then bend the lower faceplate, glue the cheeks, then the upper faceplate.
And then sides, and back.

Gluing cheek will help to maintain the two way bend, and also adjust the angle to the jaws.

Your second one look much better, hopefully it'll align well to with the lower parts.

 

[bigjustin12]

Re: Ironman foam question...

HeyMcFly88 & IMIM2: Thank you very much

So, I've realized that when I line up the jaw of the helmet with the rest, the jaw sticks forward about half an inch, probably because I shifted the sides back too far where the faceplate attaches to the sides of the eyes Rather than be the underbite version of ironman, I've been trying to figure out where I can adjust or trim to make the jaw line up with the bottom of the faceplate. I don't have a method that I'm happy with. I think I finally realize what caused my first problem of the faceplate being too wide. Because the foam template is just a simplified version of the pep file, there are about 7 wedges to cut out on the pep faceplate that aren't there anymore on the foam template. You can just still see the gaps under the eyes where those wedges were. I think if I make a new faceplate and cut all those wedges out, I'll be in decent shape. It'll also give me the 2 way curve that IMIM2 talked about. Hopefully I'll get it squared away tomorrow, right now I'm worried I'll fall asleep with my x-acto knife still in my hand... :confused

 

[IMIM2]

Re: Ironman foam question...

Actually, you don't need to cut the wedges (it's a speed build anyway). If you do bending, the curve can be magically re-shaped. All you ended up with is extra length to cut/adjust.
Press firmly to your knee and do some stretch a bit to force a 2-way bend. A bit difficult for 10mm foam, need more heat (but not too hot) to make it soft. The heat need to be uniform too. A heat gun will help a lot, if you have a high watt of hair dryer also can be used.

Oh, don't do it tonight, take a rest.

 

[bigjustin12]

Re: Ironman foam question...

To bend pieces I just throw them in the toasteroven at 200 degrees for about 30 seconds for 6mm foam. Comes out perfect!

 

[IMIM2]

Re: Ironman foam question...

Nice :thumbsup.
Too bad I don't have an oven.
Iron (for ironing clothes) can be used too.

 

[JFcustom]

Re: Ironman foam question...

I had this issue too with this pdo file. I did yesterday a new unfold of the helmet to solve the problem without the need of a heatgun, and built it the same day. Here's the result :



Sharkhead7854-ironman-helmet-foam-unfold-by-JFcustom.pdo