Re: Just What This Forum Needs: Another Ironman Build
Thank you all for the compliments. Lots of questions to answer here...
Will you be offering other individual parts? Namely gloves and shoes, and the unibeam if it comes out alright?
Shoot me a PM and we'll see what we can work out.
I hate to be negative, but are you planning to build all the parts from hard plastic? You do realize that
1. it is impossible to make a real, working version of any of the IM suits?
2. many of the Legacy suits had soft, bendy parts to allow the actors and stuntmen to move in them?
3. for all the effort Legacy has put in, most of the suits were replaced with CG, even if the actor/stuntman was wearing the costume, which was used just as lighting reference for the VFX artists?
Not all of it will be hard plastic, but it is what I'm making the first round of casts with. The hard pieces will be easier to paint and end up looking better when the suit is put together for display.
1. I'm not making a real, working version of the suit. It won't fly, stop bullets, or involve any kind of repulsor beam.
2. The soft, bendy parts make it easier to move, but the don't last as long and they don't look as good. Even in the completely rigid fiberglass corset (pictured above) Trevor was able to move around. His movement was restricted, yes, but not impossible. Having made a couple of sets of stormtrooper armor, the rigid suit that I'm making will have about the same amount of maneuverability. It won't be especially comfortable and sudden movements will probably pinch things here and there, but it won't be impossible to get around.
3. In the first film, a great deal of the slower, less dynamic scenes with the suit were shot practically. It wasn't until well into the production that RDJ finally tapped out and said he couldn't act effectively with the restrictions of the suit. It was made, it worked, it just caused the actor enough discomfort to demand post-production animation instead.
This a beautiful build, and I really admire the method. I am sure the people at Craftsman never had this in mind when they developed the Carvewright. You should send them some phots of your project, and maybe they will include them in the advertisements.
I have a few questions, none the least of which is why is everything PINK? ...and How difficult was the Carvewright to adapt to this type of modeling? Did you have to alter the digital file to get all those slices to print (carve)?
There's a forum for Carvewright users on their website. Occasionally I'll find some of my projects being discussed there.
The Carvewright is not at all ideal for this type of work. It's a 3-axis machine that can only cut 3/4" deep and is limited to stock that's 14.5" wide. The STL import plugin for the design software is very helpful, but I still have to go through the nightmare process of picking an angle of attack for each piece, deciding which details I can sacrifice in order to expedite the carving/assembly process, and making myself a painful 3D jigsaw puzzle. I've found the just-right-for-me machine, but I'll need another $20,000 worth of spare change before I can get one of those. For now, I'm making do with the Carvewright.
I make all of my prototypes pink. This is something I started back when I was making
my Halo armor. When I'd decided the helmet prototype was done and all it needed was a quick gloss coat before molding, I grabbed the first can of green spraypaint I found and made it shiny. I got a handful of messages from folks telling me that the color wasn't exactly perfect. Ever since then I've made all of my prototypes lightish red in order to make it clear that at this stage the color doesn't matter, just the shapes.
how many armor do you will make ??? because if i remember you have done 10 or more halo spartans armor right ? so maybe make a rock brand with your amors xD should be cool. i'm sure you can do the guitar too ><
I will make all of the armors...
I don't want to make a rock band (I've got more than enough for that so far), I want to make a marching band. I figure Space Marines on the drum line, Halo Spartans for the brass, Ironman playing the bells, and Boba Fett as drum major. It's all coming together...
They're PINK, and the molds are LAVENDER!
This is a very manly build. Carry on.
Carry on aye, sir!
But the molds are plurple and pink. I'm very secure in my masculinity...
It's been a busy couple of days. One so much so that I didn't take the time to snap any pics at all. So here's pictures from yesterday...
I've had the pelvis molds sitting around empty for a while, so we finally poured in the first coat of resin:
It still needs to be backed with fiberglass.
Since I had another bucket of silicone show up yesterday, I concentrated on mold making. Here I am putting the print coat on the thighs:
Here they are after a bit of thickening and some registration keys were added:
Once that had set up a bit, I put on another coat of plurple silicone to smooth out the pointy bits and make it easier ot fit into the mold properly:
While I was doing that, Trevor stopped by again. So I started him on the shins:
Here they are all ready for rubber:
And with the print coat:
And a suicidal moth stuck in the goo:
In addition to the last four really big molds, we also made a whole bunch of small molds. Here's the heel flaps:
These are the smaller control flaps for the back:
These are the instep plates under the print coat:
And finally, the completed jacket mold for the wrist plates:
While Trevor was mixing and pouring and murdering insects, I finally got a chance to add a bib to the printed/CNC'ed neck parts. Here's what I started with:
It was getting pretty late last night and the "f$*#-its" started to take hold, so I didn't do the best job ever of matching the screen-used piece:
Fortunately, most of this work will be covered by the chest armor. Still, the whole thing got a solid coat of shiny lightish red:
Today I'll be molding the neck (so I can pull wearable copies in flexfoam), the armpit details, the boot (which I neglected to take any progress pictures of) the bigger control flaps, the ankle flaps, and all sorts of little widgets that are stacked up on one of the benches. I'll also be making mothermolds for the thighs and shins, reinforcing the first pelvis casting with fiberglass, and experimenting with a couple of new finishes to see if I can get the gold parts just right. It's Saturday and I'll probably have a few friends over to help.
I'm expecting to have a suit walking around in a few days. Fingers crossed. Stay tuned...
