I updated the OP with this info for those who've just started the thread or don't want to skip around for everything, but for the majority of you guys who will probably never revisit the earlier pages I'll just post this normally as well.
I was glancing through my reference photos and found a few interesting items, which kicked me back into
Massive Info Post Mode so I threw together some more images for you guys.
Shoulder Pistons
The Shoulder Pistons are the silver , erm,
pistons connecting the chestplate to the shoulder armor. This is not present on the real suit, and was added in post by ILM. This little montage displays two pictures (top left, top right) from the same photoshoot (same location, same dust, even the same sloppy paint job on the helm) showing the addition. Bottom left is from a display of the suit, showing the non-existent piston, and the bottom right is the ILM model and the piston.
I have no clue why this couldn't have been integrated into the real suit, but I'm sure there was a real reason for it. Or maybe it was an idea after-the-fact, and since the CG suit pipeline was already so integrated into the production, they just ran with it and didn't bother updating the suits. I don't think we'll know till the DVD/Blu-Ray or the Art Of book is released.
7-11 had a cardboard display of Iron Man, before I had done proper research on this thing, so I had no clue whether it was an actual suit or the ILM model. It was gotten rid of before I could nab it, but I did manage to find this pic of it:
No shoulder piston=real suit. I was examining the photo in full res when I suddenly spotted
this and got a goofy little grin. Which brings us to:
Rocket Pod Revisited
That's right, though faint, there was definitely a line on the Winston suit to indicate the opening panel for the rocket pod.
This little detail made my day.
Mark 2 Finish
The Mark 2 had a very impressive metallic finish, both on the real suit and on the ILM model. However, I found myself distracted by these little bits on the soft armor.
Now, was the metallic film covering the soft armor the same as the hard armor? The finish appears to be the same in every pic I've seen, so it could very well be, but again, this is something that won't be entirely clear until we get the video release with some special features.