Iron man mark IV- progress and question

[DallasEve]

Hello there! ;P

I always wanted to make full Iron Man suit, and, finally, I started it. I've just "done" my first helmet (without painting), and it's from PE 8mm foam:


But there is still a lot of questions I wanna ask:

-The point is, that I can buy only 6mm EVA foam or 8mm PE foam, and I am not sure, which one would be better, if I want make whole suit from one thickness of foam? Wouldn't be 6mm EVA foam too thin?

-Scale. My helmet is too big, it suits my dad, but not me xD I don't want to make other parts too big like helmet is. If I'm using papekura files created by Robo3687 (and edited by STEALTH). The point is, if that was made to 72 inches guy why there is 3 different scales for other elements? I'm wondering, if I can simply do something like that: 68*25.411754 = x (my height in inches * scale which is used in files = x) and then x / 72 = scale I should use (because, as far as I know, robo2687's files were made for 72 inches guy). And I have to simply do this with all parts, part after part. Am I correct or I have to do the math in different way?

-My helmet's files are made by SHARKMAN. Do they can be easy adapted to helmet with electronic? I want the eyes lightening and opened helmet and I am not sure If i can just work with those files and make helmet (and add and cut off everything after it) or should I find different ones to make the adapting easier. Any tips?

In the end, I just wanna say, that I am a total newbie in doing anything of foam. It's my first papekura project and there is much more problems that I've thought (for example, I've just realised, that I have to make some changes cause of my gender, and that the scales are different, and... yeah, and so on and so forth). But I'm stil really enjoy making mistakes, but I have na materials to make scale in trial and error method. So I'll be grateful for all of tips and answers to my questions.

Take care!

 

[DallasEve]

Hello there!

Soo xD I've just bought 8mm eva foam mats (180x50). I hope they will not be too thick to do whole suit with it, because I bought 15 mats (someone said it's enought to make whole suit). Until it come to me, I am ending my first helmet (this one of PE foam), and I started to do next one xD



I know it's not perfect, but this foam is just unbelieveable. I've wiped it with sandpaper and covered with PVA glue (mixed with water, 3:1 PVA:water). Then I tried to paint it, and this is what drives me crazy. Pirst pic is with covering it with spray paint once. Third one shows helmet which is covered four times. It looks... bubbling I am not sure if I've done something wrong or it's just how this foam is works >.< I've cut the mask out, and I painted these parts separated, because I am not so skilled to paint it accurate when they are one. The second reason to cut it off is, that I wanna try make it like open and close, so I have to try on something xD



Here's the photo of second helmet (files made by Sharkhead7854) xD It's drying on the lamp (drying from glue, ofc) and looks pretty scary, that's why I put it here xD

I am wondering if EVA foam needs to be covered with PVA glue before painting? Or maybe with something else? I have to know it to order whatever I need, but I have no idea, what it should be xD
As far as I can observe now, PE foam is not keeping the shape after cutting it off. It's quite annoying and I have no clue how to make it harder. I hope EVA foam will be better in that. I'm going to make 3rd helmet, with EVA this time, as soon as it comes to me.

Okay, that's all. I have to put it somewhere, because I need some motivation to end it. It's just what my motivation system works xD
Take care!

 

[Ikras]

For your first helmet it's looking great. I have certainly not had that much luck with my helmet so far so that good.

In terms of the foam I've not had any experience with PE foam but it looks like that a much rougher surface than anything I've encountered with EVA foam. I think that your 8 mm should work fine. I've been putting things together through a mix of 6mm and 10mm and both have their benefits and I think that 8 mm would fall nicely in the middle and you should get good rigidity but still be able to flex it to shape reasonably well.

The EVA foam I've found needs a bit of heat to get it to bend but once it cools it tend to hold the shape pretty well so that should help.

I've not tried any painting so far but from what I've seen around online you definitely need to seal it. There are many different options for that and hopefully someone with more experience might chip in or you see what you can find in other build threads. Off the top of my head I've seen PVA mentioned before, plastidip and also epoxy based sealants I think but I'm not sure necessarily of relative benefits or combinations.

Scale is a hard thing from what I've seen. My first helmet was too big and I think the second one is maybe a touch too small. I've found a good way to get around wasting foam on badly scaled parts is to make a paper mock up first. Just print out the pepakura templates and tape them all together how they should connect. It gives a good idea of how parts connect and also you can get an idea of if it'll be too large or small etc and then you can continue on to give it a go in foam or rescale and test in paper again. However you go about it always note what dimensions you do use in the end.

Hope this helps.