Iron Man Mark VI - Plastic Coated

[Haysey]

Hi everyone,

To start I would like to thank everyone on this forum just for all the help I have received -without you knowing it- from reading through different threads and posts.

I decided after watching STEALTH's and X-Robot's videos on youtube to build an Iron Man costume, it then seemed natural to do the Mark VI for my first build due to the fact there is lots of information out there on it and I like the suit.

However as I don't have the room / utilities to do fibreglass / bondo I decided to build a foam suit. Although I wasn't sure what to do because I really didn't want the look / texture of foam for my suit if I was going to invest all this time in it so after watching this video: XRobots - How To plastic coat foam & expanded polystyrene prop and costume pieces - YouTube
I decided I would plastic coat the whole suit to then sand and refine to give it a good look / texture / stiffness / strength.

So what I will do is post pictures of my foam suit as I build it however the emphasis will be on the plastic coating as i'm sure most of you are bored of standard foam builds so hopefully this will provide something different - I am not currently aware of any fully plastic coated suits.

Thank you to STEALTH for the files I used which can be found here: http://www.therpf.com/f24/iron-man-mark-4-6-pepakura-foam-128147/.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this thread, please do comment, I am new here and this is my first suit so just getting started.

 

[Haysey]

Good morning, i'm on English time so had to go to sleep before the admin had approved my thread so I couldn't post any pictures :unsure, well here are some now...

All the bicep pieces layed out...

And put together...

Biceps, chest, shoulders and back...

From the reverse...

 

[Drack]

Looking good so far. Before you coat it I would check out the videos I have on the first post of my Ironman build. There is one that explains removing the glue buds. Just be careful though as the glue gun nozzle can melt the plastizote. I would splatter some glue on a scrap then attempt melting it off so you can get a feel for it. It can be done with out melting the foam as my helmet started out as plastizote. Good luck and look forward to seeing how this turns out.

 

[Haysey]

Looking good so far. Before you coat it I would check out the videos I have on the first post of my Ironman build. There is one that explains removing the glue buds. Just be careful though as the glue gun nozzle can melt the plastizote. I would splatter some glue on a scrap then attempt melting it off so you can get a feel for it. It can be done with out melting the foam as my helmet started out as plastizote. Good luck and look forward to seeing how this turns out.

Thanks man, appreciate it! Will have a look at your videos when I get home. In the pictures uploaded it was as soon as the pieces were completed, since then I have got rid of a lot of the loose strands of hot glue and cleaned the pieces off.


On another note, I have coated the Upper Upper Body (chest, back, biceps and shoulders) with 3 coats of PVA on the top side and one on the under side.

Additionally I have PVA'd the cod piece and abs / lower back... Photos to come later on.

I also signed up for a Flickr account -more control over the photos and hopefully faster loading times...

Anyway here is a picture of some of the pieces after their second coat of PVA before they had dried:

 

[Haysey]

All the upper body pieces with 3 coats of PVA and ready for plastic coating...

And the pieces just resting on each other to look cool :lol

 

[bhodie]

Looking good, keep it up!

 

[Haysey]

So it looks like tomorrow night I have a free night so I should be able to attempt the plastic coating on the upper body -the resin has arrived! Let the coating-sanding cycle begin!

 

[Luxastra]

awesome! I look forward to seeing how this progresses as this is the method I'm planning for my suit once I'm done with the fiberglass helmet I'm doing.

 

[Haysey]

Looking good, keep it up!

Thanks man!

awesome! I look forward to seeing how this progresses as this is the method I'm planning for my suit once I'm done with the fiberglass helmet I'm doing.

Awesome, yes hopefully the detail of the suit will be significantly better than normal foam build! We shall see :lol

 

[goalieboywkc33]

Any more updates I can't wait to c what else u have done

 

[Haysey]

Any more updates I can't wait to c what else u have done

Funny you should say that ...

The plastic resin is here!

All ready to go with both parts

Will update you all as soon as I have applied the resin to the pieces!

(In case you were wondering I bought the resin from here.)

 

[Haysey]

So I've prepped 3 pieces for resin application. I basically cut up a cardboard kind of tube that posters come in and hot glued it to the back of the piece so I could hold the pieces up to paint on the resin without touching the foam.

Yes, that is a large box of Maltesers in the corner :lol

 

[Shakeitdavey]

Keep us posted, I don't think i'll be going down the plastic coating route, but i'm interested to see how this turns out

 

[Haysey]

Sorry for the delayed update; I have plastic coated all the pieces I have currently made and have to say, so far I am pretty impressed! -The pieces are hard yet still have a slight flexibility to them which is exactly what i wanted!

I am currently sanding all of the pieces to enhance the details and smooth the coat then will be applying another couple.

Here is the back piece after the first coat but pre-sanded:

 

[Peejfro]

very interesting bro i will be watching

 

[brandomack]

Coming along quite nicely!

 

[Haysey]

very interesting bro i will be watching

Thanks man!

Coming along quite nicely!

Cheers!

Okay I have done 3 coats of plastic resin on the abs and sanded them down and spray painted them with a primer and this is how it looks:

Pre-primer:

Post-primer:

I am thinking now that I may do another plastic resin coat on this piece and sand it once more to get a nice finish, a few parts have slight lumps which I would like to polish out.

 

[bigjustin12]

It's looking good!

 

[Haysey]

It's looking good!

Thanks, always nice to receive compliments

Sanding some more pieces today, can't wait to get these all primed!

 

[firebapx]

man you inspired me to plastic coat the iron patriot suit im working on. always wanted a way to make my foam stuff more durable and last longer this seems like it would do it thank you