IronMan Mark 4 (Singapore)

[Snuppy]

Hey Guys, this is my first every Forum Post here, been trying to register here for months, however something was wrong with my side (or I didn't pray enough to the Gods of Internet), but I'm here now.

Please be kind to me, learning as I go.

Started off with a foam suit, but funny story, it got destroyed when my girlfriend's mom, thinking that foam would just "bounce" back, decided to be an angel, and tried to keep the whole suit it into an IKEA storage box.... Well, lets just say I nearly cried after seeing it squashed, she unknowingly took it out in pieces and still said "See its still good!" *holding squashed and mangled parts* (4 month's work and my first suit gone) :cry

So, I know I'm a bit slow, but finally got around to making a Full Resin/Body Filler Suit.

Constructive feedback would be great. So here we go! I'm at the Body Filler Stage, skipping or showing very little of the Pepakura Cardstock stages. Don't know about you guys, always feel that the helmet gets warped in one way or another during the resin stage..

PS: Watched Stealth from Hero's Workshop, James from Xrobots.uk, Fingaz and ProjectEarth7 (you guys are the real heroes)

 

[Bandiet]

Doing an awesome job there bro... keep it up. Looking forward to seeing this come together.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

 

[Snuppy]

Doing an awesome job there bro... keep it up. Looking forward to seeing this come together.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

Thank you Bandiet! Omg my like first post! LOL. I will honor you by just doing so

 

[GhostMinion]

Damn. That's one of the harder pep files, too. Good job so far. :thumbsup

 

[Snuppy]

Damn. That's one of the harder pep files, too. Good job so far. :thumbsup

Thank you GhostMinion! Doing my best. (You mean there are easier Pep Files?!) Damn it... -_-"

 

[Snuppy]

I have a love hate relationship with sanding... I hate it... But I love it (Quoting Tony Horton from P90X):facepalm
Took 3 hours to cut the faceplate out with a dremel tool "Roar... More sanding Sir!!!"
Those you work with bodyfiller know.... BodyFill, Sand, BodyFill, Sand... OMG.... You can see the uneven surface at the back..
Imperfect Seams... Really got to praise Members like ProjectEarth7, how did you do it?! Let me guess... Bodyfill, sand, rinse and repeat....

 

[laellee]

Dude, that is looking SHARP. And yup, you got it right, skim,sand,repeat until you think you're done, and then another few passes. :lol

I shoot a thin coat of cheap sandable primer on after each sanding pass, helps to highlight the areas that still need work. Keep going!

 

[Snuppy]

Dude, that is looking SHARP. And yup, you got it right, skim,sand,repeat until you think you're done, and then another few passes. :lol

I shoot a thin coat of cheap sandable primer on after each sanding pass, helps to highlight the areas that still need work. Keep going!

Thank you for the great advice Laellee! Saw your builds especially with IgorMk38, awesome work and love the implementation of electronic video feed (i am always amazed at how you guys do it from literally scratch, with a keen eye for details, you just see something and have a go making amazing results) Wish I could be like that

Btw how the hell do I add people as friends?

 

[laellee]

Click on the user control panel icon (the gear-looking icon next to your name in the upper right)

Then select Friends and Contacts under the Networking heading on the lower left side of the page

That'll take you to a screen to see and add friends. :thumbsup

 

[Snuppy]

Click on the user control panel icon (the gear-looking icon next to your name in the upper right)

Then select Friends and Contacts under the Networking heading on the lower left side of the page

That'll take you to a screen to see and add friends. :thumbsup

Thank you Sir! Keep up the awesome work!

 

[quantumsissy]

awesome man, another Singaporean! will be following this closely, all the best!

 

[Snuppy]

So, managed to stay the whole day in cause I was sick even and work on my project.

Not just an update... but more of a rant..

I have a serious pet peeve and been trying to look for answers...

With my helmet, I keep on putting on body filler, sanding and doing it again and again... sure it looks better than when I first started.

First Day vs Current Day



But I would really like to know, what happens if you can't sand it perfect... What I do is use 180 > 220 > 400 > 1000 Grit Sandpaper, but somehow since I have to reapply body filler (using a thin as a coat as I can) and then sand again... I seem to go back to square one :angry

And here at the bottom pictures, You can see that I will sand as gently as I can... But i keep on almost hitting back onto the base of the pepakura resin cardstock.. Its super annoying.

Anyone Got any suggestions or pro tips?

Can I just not worry about these small "pepakura exposed holes" and once done (Hopefully) with body filler and sanding, just spray a coat of primer over it? Will that also help cover up very thin scratch marks? And will paint thereafter just level things out?

Please advise...

The bane of my problems... you can see the poor "bones" of the helmet
Here too.... I tried upping the sand grit to 220 but still scrape off a bit too much, tried 400 immediately but didn't help level the uneveness of the in between coats of filler...
(I hate you)

Anyway here are the before and after pics when I cut the faceplate off, and tried my best to make things nice... But the inside of my helmet is a mess... may just use foam to pad it and cover the ugliness... (suggestions to would help)

BEFORE
AFTER (Not even but it helps..)
ALMOST SEAMLESS....... argh.. I hate those stupid black Pep Exposed marks :angry

Have a great weekend

 

[Snuppy]

awesome man, another Singaporean! will be following this closely, all the best!

Majulah Singapura..... I try my best and keep moving forward... lol

 

[laellee]

It's looking great!
You're going to burn through your cardstock eventually anyways, that's just the nature of skimming a resined pep. What you can do is get it to where you are mostly happy with it (this is all personal preference), and then spray a few decent coats of sandable primer/sealer over the top. After the primer dries, skim any holes or low spots with filler putty (usually comes in a tube like toothpaste), sand those down with 400, and shoot another coat of primer.
If you still have any areas where the 'tooth' or fuzziness of paper is showing through, skim those with filler as thin as possible and feather-sand them out. Then (you guessed it) spray another coat of primer/sealer on. It's all a lot of work, but it's just like your original skim coats; you only want to put a little on then take even less off.

If you want uniform edges at your cutout areas, here's what I do to clean them up. Get yourself some plastic lids (like disposable tupperware stuff, ice cream containers, etc..), cut them down and hot-glue them inside the helmet to form a lip:



You can skim a small amount of filler along that back edge, packing the gaps between the plastic and the helmet with a small amount of filler to create a sharp corner. When the filler hardens, the plastic can be popped off and the back side skimmed lightly to build up the edge and give it strength. Light sanding to clean up and you're done.

 

[Snuppy]

I feel like an idiot for not knowing all of this but ah well, always been a slow learner :facepalm

Took laellee's advice and it worked like a charm, I may not have applied it perfectly, but the results came out almost perfect.

Plastic Pieces used as given advise by laellee (Thanks Brother)

The Lines came out almost perfect even before sanding!

Almost seamless faceplate onto helmet... hours of trial and error but Happy as can be

PS: Sorry for the small pics.. I'm too lazy to resize them... (If only RPF had an option to change pic sizes to standard S/M/L... admin? lol)

Anyway I work a full time job... let me tell you, not easy working 8+ hours, then to rush home to do as much as I can... Don't know how I'm gonna do a full suit... but gonna take my lesson from the tortoise.. slow and easy.

Next post! Awesome small items to keep my interest peaked on this project.

Just a side story to note, over here in Singapore, it isn't easy getting materials such as Body Filler, Resin etc, VERY difficult to find unlike overseas in the States. We can't just walk in the a DIY store, cause usually, the DIY stores here are mainly for very simple home maintenance.. and we don't have stores like HOME DEPOT...

We do have stores like ART FRIEND, but they carry super expensive Resins in small 100ml bottles which go for like 25 bucks a pop...

And don't get me started on body filler....... not unless you know where or if you have connections... or work in the auto body industry, WHICH they won't even sell it to you cause they don't want you repairing your own vehicles...

 

[spideyruss]

hi there, I am from Singapore too. Good job on the resining.

 

[Snuppy]

hi there, I am from Singapore too. Good job on the resining.

Hi spideyruss, thanks but I'm still learning....

 

[Snuppy]

Finally got the hinges done. Late post because life took its toll on me.. work work work... off days also gotta work.

 

[creative stress]

that helmet looks awesome you are doing great! its nice to see someone else doing a resin mark 4 not seen many mostly foam I finished my mark 4 suit last year took me 3 years to complete lol I hope you continue to build it is well worth the time and effort keep up the good work :thumbsup

 

[crabbyjay]

Great helmet build, I'm confused as to how you use the plastic lid trick that laellee suggested, can you guys explain that in a little more detail or post a video for it please it would be greatly appreciated. Keep up the great work.