Iron Man Faceplate with Interior WIP (VashDstampede's Kit) PIC HEAVY

[FSURobbie]

This build is cursed. Seriously.

Two days ago my wife knocked the mask off the bookcase I had it drying on and it fell down between the bookcase and the wall and dragged along the wall all the way down, face first, scraping the paint job to hades and back.

You literally cannot make this stuff up.

Came really close to just throwing it on the JY and washing my hands of it. After a day to decompress and gather my bearings I sanded it again and, thanks to perfect weather and a random bout of luck (as far as this build is concerned) it's outside drying and looking perfect after only 2 coats.

Someday this build will actually finish.

On the plus side, I get to redo the horrible writing I did first time around, so I guess I should be thankful, right?:facepalm

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Silver linings!

 

[Dugger]

Hang in there bro! I'm loving your build!

Since you're re-doing the paint, that means you're going to re-do the writing again? In the screen caps it appears to me the writing was done with a grease pencil. (I do painting on custom cars on the side, and use them to layout lines for pin striping, flames, etc...) You can get them in white and yellow just about anywhere local for about $1.00. Best part, is that if you don't like what you've done it just wipes right off with your finger or a rag. Bad part, is that it just wipes off with a finger or rag, so you'd have to clear over it when you're done.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

[FSURobbie]

Silver linings!

Thanks Kevin, I'm working on keeping a positive outlook.

Hang in there bro! I'm loving your build!

Since you're re-doing the paint, that means you're going to re-do the writing again? In the screen caps it appears to me the writing was done with a grease pencil.

Hi! Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it! Grease pencils would be fantastic but the enamel paint I'm using can't be clear coated so I'm not sure I would be able to use them. I would love something that gave me some room for error but without a way to seal it I would have to stick with the Sharpie paint pens.

I might spray a bottle with my chrome paint and try coating it and see how badly it affects the chrome. If it's not sever I may just go grease pencil after all.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will let you guys know how it goes.

 

[Lord Magneto]

Well, in trying to figure out the hand writing on the mask all I can say is tweaking the levels of the screencaps above in Photoshop reinforced my beliefs on the marker lines...

So, it took some research but between my own observations and the builds by Vash and Bigturc I put together the following diagram to help me mark the mask up this weekend. I noticed no one else had done anything similar and hoped by doing this it would help others out as well as myself.

I will note that what I've listed in my diagram is a combination of sources and that the only things all builds tend to agree on are what's on the front of the face. The sides and upper portions near the screws vary with each build so I went with what made the most sense to me and, in some cases, made my own contributions altogether (Guide Mount 30° for instance).

That said, take this with a grain of salt. If nothing else hopefully it will help serve as a general layout guide and others can insert their own notes from Tony as they wish.

Also, looking at my screencaps from the film, the two circles on the right side of the mask (our left) seem to be centered around small holes carved in the mask. Anyone else notice this detail?

Should have some progress pics by the end of the weekend.

Hey man sorry you're having so many issues with this build... but thanks a ton for putting this diagram together.

I'm slowly but surely gathering lots of data for when I get to my IM build (which will happen one of these days).

This will be really helpful to a lot of people.

 

[FSURobbie]

This will be really helpful to a lot of people.

Thanks, I was hoping the research might help others out there, glad I was right. I've spent way too much time looking at pics of this prop. :$

So, update. I'm still letting the last coat cure completely before I begin marking it up again. In the meantime I tested the Testors Chrome with a coat of clear sealer and it did not go well. Ok, that's a stretch, the paint still looked chrome-ish but it was dulled to the point of looking no better than a flat silver that I could have bought off the shelf. Plus, it gave the paint a really weird, beaded texture.

Here, take a look:

Pre Clear:

Post Clear:

Outside shots were better natural lighting, but you can't see the dulling effect quite as clearly as you can from these indoor pics:

Pre Clear:

Post Clear:

Admittedly, it was a crap paint job to begin with as it was done in a rush but the effects were still obvious. Even my wife noticed and told me not to clear coat the mask, and the wife is always right...:lol

So, I'm going to give the mask a few more days and mark it up with the Paint Sharpies again rather than the grease pencil idea, which I was really excited about. I always prefer having a little wiggle room but it's not worth dulling the chrome down to a dirty silver.

Just so you don't leave empty handed though, here's some pics of the finished gold faceplate I've mentioned before. I made the eye pieces from black craft foam and the lenses from transparency sheets. Weathered the foam a bit with silver rub and buff, glued it in the mask and added some weathering to the crevices and screws to make them pop a bit more.

I would like to install an LED kit in it so it lights up. The plan is that it will be a companion piece to my Vash kit, once I finally get it done.

Thanks for looking!

Gold, Easy-Peasy Build:
-Faceplate by TJack

And finally, on display in the office:

 

[FSURobbie]

Update! Sweet, sweet success, how rare you have been!

I marked up the faceplate this weekend and it turned out great! I took my Exacto and cut down both Sharpie paint pen nibs to a point and that made a world of difference. I used a plain black Sharpie for the brow/cheek outlines. I used India ink the first time around and it was too delicate. I was pretty certain the prop was marked up with a Sharpie anyway so I figured I would just go for it. Funny thing, in some of my pics the Sharpie casts the same type of light reflections that the screencaps I posted show.

Ok, here you go:











And here are two from the inside. I painted the interior a darker grey and then used silver Rub & Buff to bring up the mesh highlights from the fabric I installed. The new edges I built using the Green Stuff look great I think...





This build wouldn't be true to itself without some problems though. I thought the additions of the sides I built up would cause some problems with placement of the interior parts and I was right. Things are...cramped...to say the least. It's not going to be an easy case of just gluing down the inner greeblies now. Due to my mods I will need to mod some of the greeblies as well, namely the two gold oval-shaped pieces at the top, the nose piece and possibly the upper portion of the mouth piece.

I will post pics as I progress. I was a bit bummed, I had hoped I would be able to glue the greeblies down and walk away but the modding I will have to do should be minor, basically just cutting them down to be a little shorter than they currently are.

I'm almost there folks!

 

[captainsolo]

Great build thread and reminds me to get out my 2nd kit and actually start building this again..................

It will be well worth it when you're done............

 

[RemyD4U]

OH WOW!! You went through so much with this build but I'm glad its coming together!! Looks great

 

[FSURobbie]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words.

So here's a massive update! I got started on the interior this weekend and things got off to a bumpy start but I'm happy with where I'm at (about 40% done...?). First thing I did was tackle cutting down some of the pieces. I mentioned previously that due to my adding the inner rims to the mask with the Green Stuff to make the mask a little more accurate I failed to consider how it would affect the space for the interior pieces. With all my additions I lost quite a bit of room and had to cut the gold "T" shaped piece, as well as the nose piece it rests on and the triangular piece that contains the microphone looking greeblie. I will also need to cut down the gold conduit-looking pieces that go on the top of the mask but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Here's some pics pre and post cutting of the two pieces I mentioned:





Once I cut this piece free from the mouth portion I went ahead and took advantage of the situation and made the two mouth portions come together at an angle like they do on the prop:





I also sized down the gold "T". It's no longer screen accurate, it's much shorter than the screen used piece, but that's the price I have to pay for trying to make the mask more accurate with the inner edges. It's been a game of compromise on that front.





I plan on going in and repairing the triangular nose piece with body putty so it's one whole piece again, but I went ahead and glued everything down so I could continue on with installing as much as I could as I only get about a day a week to work on this and I didn't want to lose any time. At this point I began installing all the greeblies around the eye. I still have to install my transparency overlays on the eyes so you wont see them yet, but they are coming.

I noticed when I installed the eyebrow piece that there was a ton of free space between the piece and the mask. So much so that it just looked weird and ruined the illusion of a cohesive mechanical faceplate so i came up with a solution that, while not perfect, keeps up the illusion and satisfies me. I took a piece of black craft foam and used silver Rub & Buff to weather it to look like metal. I then attached it to the bottom of the piece and trimmed it down where it was more or less flush with the mask. I touched up the seam a bit with acrylic metallic pearl to try and make it look like a smoother transition between the two pieces. I'm pretty happy with the results. At a glance it now looks like the eyebrow piece is actually attached to the mask rather than free floating and it more or less looks like one continuous surface.







Again, it's not perfect, but you only see it if you hold the mask at an angle and it keeps up the illusion. I'm going to do something similar on the bottom of the mask between the mouthpiece and the mask itself. Probably will install some audio wires and capacitors that will only be visible when you look at it from the bottom. Not screen accurate in the sense that it isn't seen in the film, but I'm trying to be true to the prop and make it feel and look real.

I've just realized I did not take a photo of the piece as it is now so I will try and grab one when I get home and update again. You can kind of see some of the installed greeblies in the last photo but I will get an overview shot and post it tonight or tomorrow. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. I'm a little disappointed as a lot more space was lost with my additions to the edges than I anticipated and as such the piece is much more cramped, but I will talk about that later when I post the overall pic so you can see more clearly what my gripes are.

Thanks for looking, and the encouragement.

 

[145689]

A great job....where and who can you buy the internal kit from?

 

[pd327otto]

Excellent thread, really useful. Well done

 

[coryline]

I feel for you, sir, but the progress thus far looks amazing.

 

[iron fonseca]

hey where'd you get the parts

 

[Jedifyfe]

hey where'd you get the parts

Those were made by a member VashDStampede a few years ago...like 5 or 6.Great kit.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

hey where'd you get the parts

Man, wouldn't it be super helpful if that information was made available in the first post or even the title..?

Wait a minute...

 

[TSleeper]

Hi FSURobbie, stumbled upon your treath and boy am I pleased I did.
A W S O M E work, some nice research and thanks for sharing it all.
I love the skill and determination you have put in it, you should get a medal for it

Would love to see a picture of the end result.

I can only hope to achieve the same quality results on the Ironman helmet that i'm creating at the moment.

 

[CT7567]

This is just amazing! I love it when people do the insides of props too. It gives them such a more real/technical feel

 

[Nokle]

very.....nice，but did you build a 3d model before?

 

[Kevin Gossett]

This was a resin kit. IT'S IN THE TITLE OF THE THREAD