Weekend Warrior's (I know ANOTHER one) Iron Man MK3 Build.

[Weekend Warrior]

Greetings everyone and first off I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed so much to this site and hobby! I stumbled across this world by accident just a few months ago and instantly became hooked.

I am just so in awe of all of the talent and appreciate the amazing willingness of so many people who have given me advice and tips so far.

*edit - now that this thread is getting a little longer I've decided to keep an updated pic in this first post showing the current overall progress. Here it is:



My first build was a pepakura Predator mask (thread HERE. )

and a quick pic:

Which I think turned out quite well for a first go round :$

And gave me the confidence and practice to dig into what is one of my dream projects. Ever since the Iron Man movie came out I have wanted my own suit. I never expected to actually own one due to the costs involved and just not being able to justify 8-10k for the type of quality I would want. Then this site comes up on a Google search and I see all of these suits people are building in their home workshops! My mind was blown and I had to give it a try.

I have decided to build the Mark 3 (the first "real" suit in my opinion) due to it being the original and also due to it being the one with the LEAST on screen CGI used - meaning the one I build will be as screen accurate as possible. You can see some of my decision making process starting on post #13 of the predator mask build thread referenced above. (And thank you Stealth for helping me with that part)

THIS is a link to a Google+ gallery that will be updated along the way with a lot of photos in chronological order.

This build is taking place in my limited spare time, evenings and weekends so it will probably be a long one. My plan for the end result is the most accurate suit possible for display in my home, with all joints filled and articulated. I do plan to make it wearable and if all goes well may try my hand at casting it, the future will tell...

Questions, comments and (constructive) criticism are extremely welcome and once again thank you to all of you who have been such a wealth of knowledge and advice - I really appreciate it!

 

[Zeigrin]

Nice, seems like you have a good start going. I've been working on one too and waiting on my thread to gain approval so that I can share. I fine the chest and back is probably the hardest part of the build in my opinion. If you need help with the helmet check out Project earth's helmet thread. That man is the king of ironman helmets

 

[fingaz]

Just stumbled across your pred bio thread.
Lovely bit of work and thanks for the thumbs up.

Off to a great clean start on this build,and in for the long haul.(plus its gonna fit you)
keep it up:thumbsup

fingaz iron man mk4/6

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Nice, seems like you have a good start going. I've been working on one too and waiting on my thread to gain approval so that I can share. I fine the chest and back is probably the hardest part of the build in my opinion. If you need help with the helmet check out Project earth's helmet thread. That man is the king of ironman helmets

They are very nice! I've also been paying a lot of attention to surreal studios build.

Just stumbled across your pred bio thread.
Lovely bit of work and thanks for the thumbs up.

Off to a great clean start on this build,and in for the long haul.(plus its gonna fit you)
keep it up:thumbsup

fingaz iron man mk4/6

Thank you Fingaz, you know I never mentioned it but it was actually your suit that popped up in that google search that lead me here so a big thank you to you for that!

I appreciate your comments, you are definitely one of the masters.

 

[STEALTH]

Mark 3!

Awesome man. Keep going.

 

[Surreal Studios]

Mark 3!

Awesome man. Keep going.

I will 2nd that , big MRK III fan here as well thumbsup

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Mark 3!

Awesome man. Keep going.

Thank you Stealth!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, it may have been me seeing Fingaz' Iron man build that pulled me in to this hobby, but it is your videos that made me realize and believe I really could do this stuff. THANK YOU for all of your time and effort putting those together!

-Oh, and that War machine is KILLER! :eek

I will 2nd that , big MRK III fan here as well thumbsup

Surreal, Your build is absolutely amazing, so many have said so, but honestly that piece of art you have put together is so much cleaner than anything I have ever seen, including the original from the movie...

I hope you don't mind but I am actually using some of the great closeup shots you have posted as reference pics for mine :confused

Keep it up, I can not wait to see that thing done!

 

[Surreal Studios]

Surreal, Your build is absolutely amazing, so many have said so, but honestly that piece of art you have put together is so much cleaner than anything I have ever seen, including the original from the movie...

I hope you don't mind but I am actually using some of the great closeup shots you have posted as reference pics for mine :confused

Keep it up, I can not wait to see that thing done!

Thanks Buddy I am really glad that my build is able to help you out with yours. I will be following will great interest!

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Took a little time off for the holidays, thought I should get something going and post an update. Here is the progress I made on the arm in the last couple of days, a couple more evenings and it should be ready for resin. :thumbsup

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Got the left arm fully pepped and ready for resin, progress has been a little slower than I like lately but it is a busy time of year. Here are a couple of pics of the finished pieces.





Will probably get the resin on in the next few days, I hate how fragile the raw paper parts are.

I also have the chest printed and will be cutting it over the next few evenings while watching TV with the family.

Thanks for looking and thanks as well for all of the support, you guys are keeping me motivated.

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Got the chest pepped and first coast of resin on it and the arm, should be posting some updated pics in the next day or two.

Now on to printing the back.

I need a couple of opinions here though, I don't have that much interest in making the back flaps functional and plan to pep all of DancinFool's "back dongles" and the back itself in one piece in the interest of smoothness. Any opinions for or against this?

Thanks guys!

 

[electraflier]

My advice from experience is that it is best to finish a piece in pep then resin that minute! The longer it sits the more warping and deformation you will experience! I learned the hard way.

 

[Surreal Studios]

Here is some advice when finishing the chest. Attach the chest and back together and totally finish it as one part resin/bondo/finishing the whole works, then seperate the two from each other. The two halves will fit together perfect and you will not have any warping between the two parts that you can get when you finish each one separately. If you dont want the flaps seperate then pep them up and glue them onto the back before you resin it, when it comes to finishing the back it will be easier than having the flaps seperate. Now for the back dongles I would do them seperate and add them on after you finish the back

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Here is some advice when finishing the chest. ..

Thanks, your input is very appreciated and that incredible suit you are building is proof enough for me that you know what you are talking about.

I have already resined the chest at this point, but it is not fiberglassed and is still flexible (especially when heated). I think I will complete the back and resin it separately and then join them together and fiberglass as a single unit.

As far as the flaps go I'm definitely going to attach them before resin to ensure a good fit.

Thanks again. :thumbsup

 

[Surreal Studios]

I have already resined the chest at this point, but it is not fiberglassed and is still flexible (especially when heated). I think I will complete the back and resin it separately and then join them together and fiberglass as a single unit.

As far as the flaps go I'm definitely going to attach them before resin to ensure a good fit.

Thanks again. :thumbsup

That will work fine, after that you will also want to apply your body filler and finish the chest and back as a single part then cut the two from each other. your build is looking great so far! thumbsup
*subscribed*

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Well I promised an update today so here it is.

Got the arm resined:


And also got the chest in resin as well:


I have the back and shoulder printed and will begin cutting directly.

Must..... stay..... motivated.... (Lol )

 

[Crank729]

Looking forward to this! Looks like you know what you're doing, and I admire the fact you built something small before jumping into a gigantic fibreglass suit.

Keep going!

 

[Boogaman]

Looks like it's coming along really nicely! Glad to see that I'm not the only person who builds the arms just a little bit big.

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Looking forward to this! Looks like you know what you're doing, and I admire the fact you built something small before jumping into a gigantic fibreglass suit.

Keep going!

Thank you very much, I thought a practice round was a good idea for something this major.

Looks like it's coming along really nicely! Glad to see that I'm not the only person who builds the arms just a little bit big.

Thanks! Funny you mention that about the arm, I think part of it it's the crappy cell phone lens distorting things a bit but also brings up something I've been wanting to mention. I think the original dancin fool model for these pep files was proportioned extremely well. I know you can scale parts to fit individually, but doing so also changes the look of the whole costume. (tiny arms, big waist, etc.) I decided when I started this to scale the suit to fit me, but to keep all of the pieces at the same scale as each other. I did a huge amount of measuring all parts of my body and comparing to point to point measurements in pepakura designer before I decided on a scale. I found that for me 1.5484 is the best overall. Height is perfect, cod and waist are a little close, but not bad, arm length is good (maybe a tiny bit long in the bicep, but not bad), and overall the thing will fit while maintaining the proportions of the original model.

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Progress update:

Have one shoulder pepped and should be finishing the back pep tonight. Resin in the next couple of days. I'll post some pics of the completed back and shoulder in a bit.