Iron Man Progress Thread

[Xyranthin]

Long time lurker recent poster here. I started working on an Iron Man foam suit back in October after watching the Hero Tutorials and combing through xrobots.co.uk. The plan is to use the foam suit to make the molds in silicon and cast them in polyerethane. This plastic suit will be my wearable armor. The foam 'rough draft' suit I intend to coat in aluminium sheet like I have seen some here do and set it up as a display armor as metal edges can get sharp and I am wary about injuring myself/others. Eventually I would like to have a 'Hall of Armor' set up like in the movie with multiple MK's.

I have a plethora of ideas for things I would like to include in this suit including obvious ones like Repulsors, Motorized faceplate, and unibeam/arc reactor. I would also like to include a working laser in one wrist (strong enough to pop balloons) and a small flame thrower in the other. I know that both of those can get dangerous which is why I want to set up a safety using a dual switch system and an accelerometer in the forearm. The only way the thrower or laser will work is if the safety switch (probably located in the center of the chest so it won't be accidentally bumped) is on, the accelerometer senses the arm is in the upright position, and the second button (probably located in the opposite hand) is pressed.

Also, it would be pretty cool to set up a HUD in the suit. I have seen both WiFi and cell phone (plug in a working SIM and you have 3g) arduinio shields for sale. Has anyone ever thought about trying to build a small cathode tube located in the helmet on one of the temples maybe that will reflect off of one lens back at your eye for a working infinity focus HUD? That way you could plug it into the shield and get real time info like weather, map, gps, or even attach it to a camera located in the back of the helmet to give you the ability to literally 'see' behind you?

These are all just theoretical right now, I am only just beginning the casting phase and it will be a while before I start on all the electronics, but I think they would be pretty cool. Anyone have any ideas or see any obvious design flaws? My only concerns are whether or not a cathode can be built that small and whether it will be possible to get the flame thrower to shoot the flames far enough away from your wrist and hand so as not to burn yourself/damage the armor or paint. Any thoughts would be awesome.

Huge shout out to Stealth, Xrobots, Robo, and Darkside501 for their files, tuturials, videos and general help

Test fitting before I cast

 

[Stonebro]

Unless you are going to do Stunt Shows - I would forget the whole flame thing. You would have to have a couple of fire fighters following you around, and what if it accidentally triggered?
Everything else though - good luck - good to be ambitious - try and work out a workplan on paper - What you want to achieve - Which Suit you will do first - Don't forget the world outside your door!

 

[Xyranthin]

Ok just a quick update. I have finally begun the casting process. This is my first time making molds like this so we will see how it goes.

Also, after some thought I think I am going to follow stonebro's advice and forgo the flamethrower. It is cool in concept and viable in theory but it does pose way too many safety issues, besides whats the point of taking all the time to add something to the suit if you can't even use it?

So instead I have been spending my time focusing on electronics. Going to stretch my horizons here and try to do them all myself. We will see how well that goes.

Pics of the casting progress below. This is showing just the initial detail coat of silicone.

 

[TurboTrey03]

I want to try this myself..what materials are you using? I'll be looking forward to see what you come up with!

 

[Xyranthin]

I want to try this myself..what materials are you using? I'll be looking forward to see what you come up with!

I am using silicone rubber and polyurethane (Smooth on 65D) from Smooth On, as well as Aqua Resin, fiberglass, and modroc bandages to make the molds outer shells.

 

[Xyranthin]

Update time for the molding/casting. Made molds of the chest plate, hand plate, elbow and helmet. Made a cast of the hand plate yesterday and it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Of course it needs a TON of clean up but I was pleased. So I figured I would try the helmet next and it was a disaster. Made a couple of errors.

Firstly I poured too much polyurethane in at one time and so it all lumped together to form this ball of immovable plastic stuck to the inside left eye.

Secondly, turns out during the molding the silicone's weight warped my foam helmet so the whole helmet was abnormally narrow. I had noticed the neck was kinda thin before I cast it but I figured if the rest of the mold was good I could just use bondo and fiberglass to widen the opening.... yea I was wrong. The thing is as thin as a Battle Droid head.


Long story short I am going to have to redo the whole mold and try again. Gonna try to reinforce the helmet with some PVC pipes on the inside this time.

 

[omarbou1]

If i can give you advices
Make the helmet lastly so you ll have btter skill and wait till you got an foam helmet that pleases you before casting it
Also before casting any foam parts you should reinforce it with fiberglass and add some support spacers
Good luck!!

 

[Xyranthin]

Update!

Began trying to clean up the cast helmet. It still needs work but its getting there. Also coated the original foam helmet in polyurethane so I can eventually set it as a display piece.