Ironman Costume for 5yr old - LINKS on PAGE 1 - tips & important bits

Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

I agree with STEALTH. I'm very impressed with your contribution and ingenuity within the forum. I know I've learned a lot from you since you've been here. I've thought about doing the same thing using my sons glove but didn't want to destroy it cause it was a holiday gift. But I may try my hand at it anyway. I'll buy my own of course. BTW I love the way this suit is coming out. Beautifully done! Keep Building!.... - Delray.:love

Wow. Thanks! I feel like I've learned SO much good stuff from both you and STEALTH -- that's a high compliment. :$


That Rocks! are you really going to need all those "C" batteries for each hand? ouch.

Oh, heavens no! :lol the plan is to run the helmet lights and voice-changer, both repulsors and the arc reactor off one consolidated power supply. Since most of the toys used between 2-4 batteries at the AA or AAA sizes, I figured I could power ALL of these individual units if I built ONE 4 pack of D batteries (I might down-grade those to C's to save space). I figured the D batteries could get housed in the chest or back piece and power all of the electronics for hours (maybe even days).

The only thing you need to be careful of when doing this is to wire extra leads to the battery pack at different points so you have a variety of voltages coming out of the 4-D battery pack. That gives you the right voltage for each of your components.

I totally messed that up at one point and burnt the heck out of one of my 9-LED flashlight components. Exploding LED's might make the most realistic looking Repulsors ever... but I certainly won't want to have anyone's suit catch on fire! :love

Thanks for everyone's encouragement! It certainly helps... especially at 7am as I'm getting the kids up for daycare -- daddy is very tired! :confused
 
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Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

Jonathan. I might be sending my full Iron Man suit your way when it's finished and have you paint it up for me. What you've done for Mikey is blowing my mind. Bravo!
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

Cool.. I didn't think so.

It would almost be better to have a couple of AA or AAA packs, versus one large D or C size unit. Those D's and C's can get quite heavy, especially if you have a pack of them in one place.

It shouldn't take much though. LEDs are pretty good. The Voice changer chest unit for Vader I believe has 3 AA batteries. It runs the voice changer, the 3 blinking LEDs (which don't take much as they blink) and the two LEDs in the red and green squares. Just make sure like you said, ad in some resistors if need be. You could probaly also run off one or two nine volts with the correct resistors.... very light but lots of voltage.
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

You never cease to amaze me!! Dad of all trades :)! Great work!
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

It would almost be better to have a couple of AA or AAA packs, versus one large D or C size unit. Those D's and C's can get quite heavy, especially if you have a pack of them in one place.

You make a good point. I got the D-size holder, but I agree it's pretty heavy once loaded with four of them. I think moving it down to C's will probably be a huge help.

The reason I was working toward a consolidated single power source was the fact that I had several power sources for Tia's Proton Pack... and that turned out to be annoying (turning on several packs and replacing batteries at several different places -- some hard to reach).

I know there's down sides (weight being one of them and all the necessary power wires running back to the main power supply being another), but here were the advantages I was hoping to achieve by building it with one longer-lasting single-point battery power supply...

  • Easier to replace batteries at one location.
  • Easier to wire a master suit power on/off switch.
  • Easier to wire up component on/off switches at the same master control point (i.e. turning off those annoying repulsors while leaving everything else running).
  • Longer battery life total (as C/D batteries are still 1.5volts like AA and AAA, but they last SO much longer).
  • Electronic components fit into smaller spaces (since they won't need individual battery packs).
We'll see as the electronics come together if this makes sense... I'm open to making a change if it's not working (for space or weight issues).

Thanks for the feedback - it's ALWAYS helpful to hear!
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

Hi, I just found this thread and did sort of an "overview read" of it for now (bookmarking it for a more-detailed read later).

I'm intrigued by your experiments with trying to paint this foam so that it looks like metal. Fascinating stuff, actually.

You see, about three years ago, I built my first real full costume set of armor (Robocop, using nothing but photos as a guide, no pep files) using a method commonly used at the first forum of this nature that I ever stumbled upon: cosplay.com. There are a few armor gurus there who use posterboard, overlayed with craft foam, and then overlayed with styrene plastic.

Now, for my plastic "outer layer", I used.... "For sale" signs from Walmart! Yes, I just hot-glued these over the foam. And then I spray-painted them with your typical "silver metallic" paint... and I was absolutely floored at how the shine made the costume truly look metallic !

The only down-sides I had to using this kind of layering were:
a) Didn't feel confident that I could sit down without damaging it
b) Occasionally, small pieces of the cut plastic would bend/warp due to rubbing on my body or other pieces... or they'd even break-off (hot glue failure)

Then, last year, I found the forum over at the 405th.com... and learned about using bondo-resin and fiberglass. Built myself a War Machine costume out of that. But the downsides of that whole thing were:

a) Severe wife aggro regarding how our garage was covered with dust in the aftermath of my bondo sanding.
b) I could definitely sit down without damaging it. BUT, I had a very hard time sitting down or being at all flexible. I still had to be hauled around in the back of a pickup truck.
c) My time spent sanding was low, due the ever-increasing pressure of a Halloween deadline. So my finish on the costume wasn't as metal-looking as I'd like it to have been.


So now, discovering this thread, I'm intrigued again about returning to foam. I'm curious to see just how "metal-looking" this whole thing is going to be. The photos you have posted look good, but I guess I need to see more photos or the whole final product.

I also do have to do a more detailed read here, because I need to understand where you chose to use fiberglass / harder parts instead of foam and why.

Congrats on the replusor switch success! I had struggled with that last year and eventually threw out the idea (kept the repulsors lit up full-time) when I was running short on time.

You know, I'm half-tempted to try to build a part in foam, as you have, and then trace the parts from pep all over again onto those plastic Walmart signs, cut those out, and hot glue them over the foam (or maybe some stronger glue). But that's an awful lot of part cutting !!

Looking forward to your future updates to this thread!

Thank you for being so open with information about what you are doing!
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

I've thought about doing the same thing using my sons glove but didn't want to destroy it cause it was a holiday gift.

P.S. The one thing that bugs me about this component (my inner perfectionist coming out) is the fact that the sound effects from the little arc reactor toy I'm using are not all 'repulsor-related.' It plays three different sounds (two that seem to be 'repulsor-like' and one that sounds like a power-up sequence. I've just dealt with this because the circuit boards were small enough to fit where I wanted them and the toys were CHEAP.

So, here would be the PERFECT solution using the handplate trigger...

  1. Buy a Repulsor Glove toy.
  2. Remove the circuit board and mount it anywhere you have room (in the chest lets say).
  3. Send wires from that board to the battery pack for power.
  4. Send wires from the trigger to EACH of the hand-plates.
  5. Send wires that were to go to the palm light to the suit's palm lights.
  6. Either mount the speaker in the chest near the board, or run wires to speakers mounted in the handplates.
  7. Rig up the mechanical switches at the handplates.

With this rig, the suit will fire 'repulsor-like' lights and sounds without the other FX that the Arc Reactor toy includes.

The only down side being that both repulsors fire whenever either one of the handplates is activated. An option to ellimate that would be to buy TWO Repulsor Glove toys and wire them up individually to each of the suit's gloves...

At $14/each... I'm sticking with the $3 solution I have working now. :)
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

Yup Jonathan has been a great help to my begginer build so a big thank you my friend :)
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

First off, welcome to the forum DR4296! Thanks for the kind words and I'm certainly willing to help out any way I can. This forum is a WEALTH of knowledge for me as I build this first suit and I feel like it's only fair to share my failures (and successes) with the group since all of the expert builders here have been kind enough to do the same over the years -- thereby saving me hundreds of hours in my build! :)

You see, about three years ago, I built my first real full costume set of armor (Robocop, using nothing but photos as a guide, no pep files)

That's awesome! I'm not an artist (just a craftsman) so I lean very heavily on pep. I have MAD respect for anyone that can craft this stuff from photos and reference drawings alone! :thumbsup

Now, for my plastic "outer layer", I used.... "For sale" signs from Walmart! Yes, I just hot-glued these over the foam. And then I spray-painted them with your typical "silver metallic" paint... and I was absolutely floored at how the shine made the costume truly look metallic !

The only down-sides I had to using this kind of layering were:
a) Didn't feel confident that I could sit down without damaging it
b) Occasionally, small pieces of the cut plastic would bend/warp due to rubbing on my body or other pieces... or they'd even break-off (hot glue failure)

I've seen a lot of threads where entire suits are built from foam, cardboard, styrene or resin. I think those are awesome in their purity; however, I planned to 'cheat' and steal the very best from each build material for my build attempt. :love

So the main reason I have begun working in foam was to provide armor pieces that are more flexible (and thereby more comfortable) than fiberglass/bondo pieces. And while I sometimes harden areas on these pieces (like connection points and hinges), hardening ALL of the foam (with plastic or epoxy) would mostly defeat the reason I selected foam for those piece. :lol

P.S. I work mostly under my car port for sanding and painting... but my wife often lets me know what she thinks of my dusty/resin-covered/paint-oversprayed clothes and shoes when I come back in the house! I feel your pain. :confused

I'm curious to see just how "metal-looking" this whole thing is going to be. The photos you have posted look good, but I guess I need to see more photos or the whole final product.

I'll post up some video for you when I get a chance. Photos aren't the best to relay this.

I also do have to do a more detailed read here, because I need to understand where you chose to use fiberglass / harder parts instead of foam and why.

I think the things I like the most about any of these build threads is reading about what DIDN'T work. That sometimes saves me more time and energy than seeing stuff that worked perfectly! I've tried to post as much of my failures as I can... so, definitely read as much of the thread as you'd like! :)

To sum up your question about individual pieces, I'll give you this quick list. I dealt with the issue of hardened vs flexible by building pieces out of different materials depending on what they needed to do.

  • The helmet is, obviously, built with fiberglass and bondo.
  • The cod piece anchors the lower torso and will support the legs, so that's also hardened.
  • The wrist/bracer part of the arm is hardened (fiberglass/bondo) as it will have the handplate triggers and electronics mounted on it.
  • The arms (shoulders, biceps, forearms) are all foam built with sections (elbows and hinge points) hardened with a coat of epoxy over the foam. This allows Mikey more flexibility and more comfort.
  • The Legs will also be built in foam (for the same reason as the arms).
  • The Boots will be hardened for obvious reasons.
  • The gloves will have a combination of fabric painted armor and styrene plates glued on it.
  • The chest and back are currently planned to be hardened as they are the upper support for the abs and the connection point for the arms (and via suspenders the Cod piece).
  • The abs will be foam.

You know, I'm half-tempted to try to build a part in foam, as you have, and then trace the parts from pep all over again onto those plastic Walmart signs, cut those out, and hot glue them over the foam (or maybe some stronger glue). But that's an awful lot of part cutting !!

I think you might be able to skip the plastic layer entirely if you can find plasti-dip (a rubberizing spray paint) that gives you a very good primed piece that you could then hit with any fabric/vinyl spray paint for your final color.

IF you really want to use an enamel paint (like the auto paint I'm using), you'd just need to add an extra layer of Adhesive Promoter between the plasti-dip and the final color coat. It certainly won't be as flexible as the fabric/vinyl painted pieces of foam, but it gives you more paint color options.

Good luck and drop me a note here or via PM if you have any questions!
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

I know there is a little more soldering involved to split off the wires and run separate resistors out... but go with a 9 volt battery or two. Much lighter, can still run 1 or 2 batteries to one on/off switch and save the weight of a larger pack. Mikey will thank me. :lol
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

Love the Repulsor technology! Thanks for the paint tips, I will have a busy holiday weekend!
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

Very, very impressive! He's going to be soooo unbelievably happy with the final suit. I can't let my three boys see this- I stay up too late as it is. :)
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

The only down side being that both repulsors fire whenever either one of the handplates is activated. An option to ellimate that would be to buy TWO Repulsor Glove toys and wire them up individually to each of the suit's gloves...


You almost doing what I have. Going to one of my Build threads I did the 2 toys gutted them rewired them add a secret switch lol Ill go over later and a better power source then a super blinding light.. works like a charm..... these bad boys rock.. and they only fire when I want them to fire:)

Keep up the great work..
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

Good luck and drop me a note here or via PM if you have any questions!


Thanks so much for your lengthy reply! I actually hadn't expected you to reply at ALL, given how much work you are doing and how much threads like this tend to get updated.

And thanks for explaining why you decided to go with the various materials! I will have to try your Plasti-dip spray method and see what the sheen looks like.

Well, considering that a few days ago, I was almost BORED with the idea of doing Iron Man (since I had done War Machine last year), you now have me actually EXCITED to get started!

(Looking at the price of CraftRobo's, though. <grin!>)

Thanks!

-= Dave =-
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

As I keep working on building and wiring the second handplate, I figured I'd post a little about my plans for the gloves since I'll be cheating quite a bit on those pieces.

My primary goal for Ironman gloves for this build is functionality. Mikey needs to be able to do as much as possible while in these gloves. And if he's not comfortable in them (or they are too bulky), they will come off and NOT go back on.

That said, I'd like to make them look as good as I can despite that goal. :$

So, my latest idea is to mount the 9-LED light on the palm and then use foam to 'armor up' the palm and the back of the hand. However, for the fingers... I'm thinking about something COMPLETELY different.

I'm thinking about taping off all the areas which would be 'in between' the armor plates of the fingers. Then I think I might try hitting the remaining finger areas (which normally be where the pep armor pieces would be) with some plasti-dip and then the rest of my painting procedure. That should give me something that looks a bit like the armored pieces while allowing Michael as much flexibility and comfort as possible.

I'll take some pictures of my progress... Until then, any advise or commentary on my proposed build plan for the gloves (specifically the fingers) will be welcomed.

Here's some pics of the underarmor gloves with the wrist armor and the light sitting in it's place (just cause pictures are cool and I don't have anything else to share!).

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Have a great holiday weekend! :)
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

Here's a quick video on the progress from last night. I had Mikey test it out and the switch will need to be calibrated a bit as his range of motion (pushing his hand back) is a very small amount. That will be a VERY easy fix (just moving the stopper closer to the micro-switch). I'll also be mounting the light on the glove for the next test-fitting as Mikey was pretty upset that the light just 'dangled there'.... :rolleyes

Anyway, here's a little video on what I got done last night.

 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

A little more work done on the repulsors last night...

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2mm foam for around the light. Most of the rest of the glove armor will just be painted on.

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Light on.

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Back of the glove with the handplate connector.

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Size comparison of Mikey's glove next to my hand.
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Working Repulsor Wiring VIDEO!!!

While I've loved playing around with the repulsor triggering handplate... I'm gonna have to ditch it for Mikey's build. :confused

Michael has been struggling this weekend. For whatever reason his Sensory Integration Disorder (something a lot of Fetal Alcohol Effects kids suffer from) has been really flaring up. I'm not sure if it's this flare up or if he's just not comfortable with the rig but he really freaked out regarding the glove and the handplate.

Specifically with the glove, he HATED the armor on the palm that made it weird to close his hand and he strongly disliked the connection of the glove to the handplate.

SO... I've made some changes to the plans for the gloves/repulsors.

  • The light will be wired as 'always on'.
  • The wiring for the light will be routed down the palm to the base of the wrist rather than going over the back of the hand to the handplate.
  • The trigger electronics will removed from the handplates and those pieces will just be mounted for aesthetics.
  • I'll try to keep the amount of rubberized armor-plating on the hands as little as possible.
  • The armor at the top of the palm (even though it's just 2mm craft foam) has been removed.
I know that's certainly different than the original trigger plans, but I think Mikey will be more comfortable with it. After all, it's his Halloween costume -- and he needs to be comfortable enough to enjoy his trick-or-treating (and other events) this Oct.

I also tested out the plasti-dip applied directly to taped off sections of glove yesterday... It's certainly NOT as smooth as using pep pieces or foam, but it's more flexible.

The last ditch solution would be to just get a pair of these... I won't be 'thrilled' with this, but if that would make Michael feel better I certainly would be open to having it as a back-up plan.

iron-man-gloves.jpg


We have a lot of 4th of July plans, so we're off to celebrate our country's independence! I hope you all have a GREAT day! :)
 
Re: WIP Ironman Costume for 5yr old - Reworking the repulsor plans :(

I love this build, and love the fact that you are ditching parts becuase of your son, like you said it is his costume. Save it for another costume. Sometimes it is all to easy to get carried away and forget why and who we are making some costumes for. Have a good day.
 
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