Iron Man Arc Reactor Mk I Build

[fk00gsr]

Hi all, I have always wanted to build my own prop and have decided the arc reactor would be great for my first build. I will attempt to go for as screen accurate as possible however, I am limited to non CNC equipment. I will try and document best I can the process I go through. Please feel free to provide comments, tips and criticism. We are all here to learn so if you can think of a better way of going about something by all means do share.

I have reviewed all the other arc reactor builds on here and some of them are just amazing The all alloy one built by marsattack is absolutely stunning. I am gong to use a mix of materials and go for metal parts where it's feasible. My goal is for the auction cave built version.

That being said on to the build and fun part.

The first thing I decided to attack was the ring. I started by making it out of styrene to the correct dimensions per other's on the board here. Once the glue dries up I am going to use some metal glaze putty to fill the gaps and finish it out really smooth. I will them make a mold with silicone and use clear epoxy resin to make the ring. Going to tint it ever so slightly green to match the auction version.

Here is the reference I am using






Thanks for looking!

 

[stigmorgan]

I love arc reactor builds, cant wait to see this progress.

 

[fk00gsr]

Over the weekend I made a little progress on the arc reactor.

After making the master in styrene I need to use a little spot glaze putty to make it extremely smooth. Im my experience anytime you make a silicone mold of something it picks up every little impression. So for instance in my case the section where the styrene wall and ring meets, would come through in my mold and then in my casting.




Afterwards I covered it with primer and sanded it smooth with 400 grit. Next step was on to making the silicone mold. I used a ricotta cheese container and cleaned it out really good. I then glued the ring down on the top of the cheese container so no silicone would slide underneath the ring after I poured it. I just cut half the bottom of the container and used that as my mold walls, easy and free. The next step is where I messed up. I used normal acrylic clear green from Tamiya to tint my epoxy resin, which worked great with no streaking however it didn't look right (so much cheaper than getting resin dye). Seemed to need a bit of blue which I did not have. I read somewhere you can use ink jet ink, so I found some blue (cyan) lying around and put a drop of it in there. Let me warn you this stuff is super potent and as you can see it totally messed up the color and made it way to dark. Also don't mind the slightly jagged edges of the mold as I intentionally made it 1/16" deeper than it needed to be so that I can sand it smooth and polish it up again while still maintaining the right dimensions.



So after my failed attempt in color matching I took another stab at it. Also during this time I really starting thinking more about this green "coke bottle" color and in the movie I never recall seeing it have a green tint to the glass. I decided to go back to the cave scene and see if I can get some stills. You can see in the scene where Tony is soldering, that the ring looks clear. I did some more research and read somewhere that the ring was originally much clearer and it turned green over time, can't remember where I read that now but it makes sense. So I decided to do a bit of a hybrid and make it a very slight light green to give it the appearance of glass. I happy with the final color, its not clear and not as green as the auction pics. My goal was to get it clear but still have a slight green tint that you would see if you were to pick a piece of glass and look at the edges from a certain angle.

 

[fk00gsr]

While the epoxy ring was drying I moved on to the transformers. I was originally going to make this out of aluminum but then realized it was going to be painted and weather so I decided to go the styrene route. I was having a really hard time getting these to all come out evenly. So I made one to my satisfaction and then glued a piece of styrene to it as a handle so I can trace it consistently. I then used a razor saw which was the exact thickness of my marker and it worked great. I ended up just needing to a do a little filing with a mini file to get them all just right. Extremely tedious but its the little details that will make it look great in the end...I hope....

 

[stigmorgan]

looking good dude keep it up, the details may be tedious and take ages to achieve but will b so worth the work in the end

 

[wryuoni]

Thumbs up

 

[fk00gsr]

Thanks!

So here is the latest progress. I finished cutting out all the transformers and filed them smooth and even. I then placed them in what I felt was the correct orientation on the ring however, I feel they may be a bit close to each other? I used a few reference images that others have provided and on average I have calculated the transformers to be about .45 inches from wall to wall. Keen to here your thoughts. Want to make sure my obsession with perfection is not getting the best of me here haha.

 

[dangol007]

iron man my favourite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chaos

 

[dangol007]

Thumbs up Guys.....................

 

[Tumbler]

Great build so far.

Compared to the initial reference image it looks like the transformers are a little wide
http://www.therpf.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=438598&d=1423846334

However, compared to the screen captures from the movie I think you have 2 too many transformers on there, causing them to crowd up. Based on the photo above there should be only 8.
http://www.therpf.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=440025&d=1424168185

Guess you need to decide which one you want to duplicate. Keep up the good work!

 

[fk00gsr]

Ok so decided that the transformers were too big (wide) and ended up reducing them a bit. They certainly seem to be more accurate now and properly spaced apart. Since my last post I have also polished the epoxy with varying degrees of sandpaper 240-2000 and then polished. I have also primed and painted each of the transformers. I also attempted my first ever weathering job through a technique called dry brushing... think it came out ok for my first try. I may go back and add a little more in the end but will leave it for now. I lastly decided to attempt the infamous wire wrapping. I ended up doing two of them for now, just because I was too impatient to see how it would all look. Enjoy and hope you all are having a great weekend!

 

[fk00gsr]

Latest progress. Ran out of the copper wire, will need to get more. Can't make much more progress until then. Where she stands... only the right side is locked in, the left 4 transformers are just placed for the overall look.

 

[marsattack]

Awesome build Franzi,
If I ak able to assist you in any way lmk, and appreciate the above remarks ,
Thank you
Marcel

 

[fk00gsr]

Thanks Marcel!

Transformers all wrapped, now onto the tiny bronze plates and soldering bronze wire to each.

 

[CT7567]

Nice! I've been wanting to do this fro a while. maybe I'll give it a go.

 

[fk00gsr]

Quick update on the build. I cut out small rectangles from bronze sheet metal and glued them to each transformer. I then cut bronze wire and glue to each plate. At first I tried soldering but with the styrene based transformers the heat wasn't playing nice. So I resorted to glue followed by some daps of silver. Actually worked out well where I have to really look to find the few that are soldered.

 

[stigmorgan]

loving this.

 

[CTK creations]

This ever get finished?

 

[87sf]

I hope so. It is looking really good.

 

[BDBear]

Does anyone know what happened with this build? I'm always interested in a good iron man build.