Foam IronMan MkVII WIP first build

Hi everyone I'm Mike and I'm a recently diagnosed propaholic. After lurking here for some time now, I finally registered and decided to post a bit of my progress. Aside from a few helmet trial and errors (yeah I started with the helmet lol) tho is my first try at this. And thanks to you wonderful people on the RPF I have found a wealth of knowledge. Any constructive criticism is always welcome. I've fallen in love with this hobby and wish to push my skills as I can. So without more delay here is my progress thanks to this site and JTMs foam files.

 

Awesome! Those are some very well done seams brother. You using a heat gun?

 

Thanks. Yes I'm using a heat gun. Being a tattooist I've got pretty steady hands so smooth cuts and seams are coming pretty easy. Progress is kinda slow because of material experimentation along the way. Eventually I want to plastic cast everything but for now craft foam and figuring out what bits I can use sintra for are the name of the game.

I have, however, run into a snag. Working on the abs I can't figure out how to get the right contours on the sides. Maybe I just don't have enough experience decoding pep viewer/designer but I'm stumped. I've got my pieces cut I just can't figure the proper way to "layer" (for lack of a better word) the sections to get the proper contours. Anyone that's used these files have any tips? Thanks in advance.