Iron Man Mk. CXVI 3D Print Build

[jman116]

I am making a new Iron Man Suit that I have dubbed the Mark CXVI, or Mark "116", because I am probably going to source parts from many different "Marks" and probably make my own, so it's not one cohesive suit but an amalgam. I've made a Mk. 3 helmet in the past, it turned out pretty good but was undersized and I have no doubt I wouldn't fit in it anymore if it was still one whole helmet. I've also made a Mk. 2(?) gauntlet, got almost completely done with that, but some things happened and, well, time flies and here we are now. I've got a newer and more reliable (at least, it's supposed to be) 3D printer, the glorious Prusa MINI, and I have been printing parts like CRAZY. I've got the helmet mostly printed, scaled to 110% which I am pretty sure will give me decent clearance on both sides of the head.

So far my parts have been from thingiverse.com but I am interested in making my own pieces, too. I have a good amount of CAD experience but I haven't done anything "organic" like a suit. I'm a computer engineering student and with that title I'm basically an electrical engineering student, so the suit will definitely have the electronic bells and whistles. By Halloween, I expect to have the helmet printed, prepped, painted, and finished. The rest I will probably get to later down the line and I also want to explore more foam suit crafting.

I am making a video series on it if anyone's interested, but I will be posting pictures and such here as well, once I get the rest of the helmet printed. I have a LOT of 3d printing experience (don't judge me by the video, haha), so please feel free to ask or DM me if you are confused or need some guidance on anything from first printer, slicer settings, firmware, troubleshooting, whatever.

I will be editing this post to replace the video with the most recent one whenever I upload a new video. It'll be behind what I've got in these posts, but visual learners are visual learners.

Spoiler: old videos

 

[Shryyyk]

Oof - tight squeeze on your bed!

Just about to start doing this myself for the first time now that I have a reasonable amount of experience with my mk3s so I'll be watching

Would be good to know what your filament is - looks pretty smooth for .15 layers - sounds like PETG when you scrape it?

 

[jman116]

Oof - tight squeeze on your bed!

Just about to start doing this myself for the first time now that I have a reasonable amount of experience with my mk3s so I'll be watching

Would be good to know what your filament is - looks pretty smooth for .15 layers - sounds like PETG when you scrape it?

It is 3D Solutech PLA. Normally I would use PETG because I feel it is superior in almost every way, and I have a lot of print time with PETG, but I got a lot of PLA for Christmas and PETG does not get along well with PEI buildplates. I got a sample of Prusament PLA with my printer when I ordered it which was nice and the colors were really good, but this is a prepped and painted model, so the color doesn't matter. The only difference between the Prusament and the 3D Solutech besides cost and ease of purchase is that the 3D Solutech has a very slight amount more of whispy stringing, and that's just with the same GCODE through each material.

 

[jman116]

FITMENT TEST + BASIC SANDING PHOTOS IN THIS POST (20% FINISHED)​

I've got everything printed! These photos are from last night. Today I've spent a good two hours or so sanding the parts down after removing the hot glue, but I am only about 3/4 the way done with sanding. I switched rolls of PLA to yellow from white because the prints were overnight prints and I was not willing to sacrifice a 9 hour print because I felt that the minimal amount of white PLA I have left would cover it, which it probably would've.
As you can see in the photos below, the fitment is TERRIBLE! This is not actually anything to worry about, because the reason it is so bad is because the raft of one of the prints is stubborn so just that small bit of excess plastic threw everything else out of alignment. I simply don't have the tools to remove the rest of the raft here at my dorm, so it will be taken care of tomorrow.

Spoiler: Photos

 

[xl97]

Time for the POST work (sanding, priming, sanding , priming, sanding, sanding , sanding.,. LOL..

This is where you will make or break your project! Good luck!

 

[jman116]

Time for the POST work (sanding, priming, sanding , priming, sanding, sanding , sanding.,. LOL..

This is where you will make or break your project! Good luck!

I've already done a BUNCH of sanding... First coat of filler primer next... then more sanding.. then more filler primer... then more sanding... then final primer... does it end?

 

[xl97]

Yes!



* (when you get a resin printer)

 

[jman116]

Yes!



* (when you get a resin printer)

I was tempted on an Elegoo Mars, but for my engineering work a FFF based machine is much more appropriate...

 

[jman116]

SANDING PREP PHOTOS IN THIS POST (40% FINISHED)​

I've got a bunch of wood filler chooching in on some of the parts... It's dried and I sanded it on the jawline piece, and it turned out really well! I'm very happy with it. Since the wood filler is clay-based (I'm guessing it is by the smell), water has worked very well to smooth out the filler when it is not cured.

On the last image, you can see that I had to glue in a bit of support since the gap between the parts was a bit far and so the two pieces could flex a bit which would really ruin any paint there.

Spoiler: pictures

 

[xl97]

Not sure what an FFF based machine is....... FDM maybe?

 

[jman116]

Not sure what an FFF based machine is....... FDM maybe?

Yeah, FDM is trademarked by Stratasys so the 3DP community a long time ago came up with FFF to replace it

 

[jman116]

PAINTING PHOTOS IN THIS POST (90% FINISHED)
​

Hi! I got it painted and clear-coated. Here are the results. It is currently curing at home, and I will be redressing some of the areas. I had paint run on the mask in the upper corner because I got a bit carried away with trying to mask a bit of lint that fell on it. Since that area needed to be redone anyways, I used it as my grabbing point so its also super smudgy with fingerprints now

Once the clearcoat is cured (Thursdayish), I will be painting the upper piece of the jaw since right now it is the wrong color, but I had to choose to do one color first or the other, and the copper-tone cannot have clearcoat so I didn't want to risk any painters tape on it. The jaw also has a bit of bleh near the center which will be addressed too. It was caused from uneven weirdness near the joint, but the paint is actually level, so it was just the type of paint that caused it. There is a little bit of crunch at the midpoint between the eyes, which I think I could fix with just thicker paint.

I plan on adding neon blue paint/tape/both to the detail lines to make them all "pop". I feel like I outdid myself given the limited timespan of this project, the current circumstances, and the comparison between this helmet and my previous is insane. The jaw is actually magnetic and detachable, so that it is easier to put the helmet on, and I might motorize it later using the same sorta action that light switches have. The mask is also planned to do this same thing too, but I probably don't have time for either right now, so magnets will have to do.

Spoiler: Photos (90% Finished)

 

[xl97]

Waaaayyy better looking now from the original source/print!

Good job.

 

[jman116]

Waaaayyy better looking now from the original source/print!

Good job.

Sanding was arduous at best and problematic at worst since it dissolved (wet sanding) some of the wood filler since I apparently didn't let it set up for long enough. This only was at the base of the helmet in the rear so it didn't really matter and I smoothed it out a bunch just without the filler. I spent a lot of time on the mask, and gave it extra filler primer steps because in my mind it is the centerpiece so having it as smooth as possible would be best, which I got for the most part. I'll probably redo parts of it after halloween..

 

[jman116]

HALLOWEEN-FINISHED PHOTOS IN THIS POST (95% FINISHED)​

I have been busy and the rest of the footage is on my camera still and I left my data cable at a friends house, so no new videos yet . However, I do have an update for y'all. The copper paint is actually really fragile and since it discourages a clear-coat layer, I am going to replace it with a different paint. It has been just under two weeks since I painted the mask, and it still is not very handleable, meaning if I try to grip it with any force then the paint will be displaced. It is a beautiful color and I'm sad about having to replace it, but I need paint that is more durable. I did repaint it once because of the paint running issue, but it got damaged on the way back to my dorm. Gluing some parts in place so that the mask could be secured to the face also caused it to get damaged a bit, but I actually buffed out a LOT of the damage using a piece of foam. You can see this in one of the images below.

Also, on the chin you can see the copper paint ran somewhat, which was annoying because I spent a long time trying to mask that area off.

Spoiler: Pictures

I will be continuing the build starting with the hand sometime soon, but I will only be sanding them down and maybe priming. Painting will be done during Spring once it's warm.