Ironman117's Steel Mjolnir Armor Tutorial

[tommy tank25]

Hey everyone, first of all i want to thank everyone on the 405th for making this all possible i simply dropped in and looked at posts when i was designing it, downloaded the pep files and came back if i had to but there was no real reason to post...also i didn't want to anyone to know incase i couldn't make it lol. i know i havn't achieved the level of detail others have this was mainly due to the limitations of folding steel and my non-existant painting and fabric skills! but i think it turned out ok in the end.

I just noticed there was a post already up about enquiries towards the production of a metal halo suit but Sean Bradley advised me to start a new thread in case anyone wanted to have a crack at making their own (i highly recommend it if you have the time, persistance and cash!!).

I made my armor by quite simply replacing the paper pepakura templates with the steel sheet. after printing them out, i cut them and traced around them onto the steel sheet. i then cut these out using a good pair of tin-snips began to fold them slightly, using a vice and hammer, along the fold lines. once roughly bent to their required shape i welded the edges together and gently bent the weld to allow for another piece to be welded on. This was repeated for all the pieces and at the end i cut certain parts in two such as the chest piece and shin guards so i could put them on. the whole thing was then painted, padded and electrified! with LED's and a helmet fan.

i hope to get some more pictures up and some pre-production/paint ones as well but below are a few of my final suit along with some of the facts about it;

Weight: 21kg (without 5kg MA5C assault rifle)
Timescale: 9months

Materials : two 6ft x 3ft 22 guage (1mm thick) mild steel sheets
: 20 sq ft of 1/2 inch foam
: 1m of black elastic
: one old skeleton costume (i know i couldn't seem to get anything else at the time!)
: A4 acetate sheet (visor)
: hinges, bolts, nuts, clips etc
: 4 x blue Helm LED's
: 8 x yellow Body LED's
: 1 5v Helm comp fan
: 14 x AA batteries
: 2 x 9v batteries

Main Costs : New MIG Welder (£175)
: steel sheets (£20)
: Foam (£30)
: Metallic MC Green Paint (£80)
: LED's (pack of 5's) (roughly £15 blue ultra brights were more expensive 1.50 each)
: lack of social interaction for 9 months......Priceless!

 

[jawshwaa]

i knew i seen a metal suit online somewhere and this was the one.....you did some wicked stuff with that

 

[Loess]

Bad-A$$ metal bendin'

:not worthy: :not worthy: :not worthy: :not worthy:

 

[tommy tank25]

Cheers, dude but i think the suits everyone else produces here have alot more work put into them. I am completely amazed when i look at the level of detail and the fibre glassing process everyone uses!! seen your Mrk 6 Helm btw looks great!

 

[tommy tank25]

LOL cheers Loess!

Had a look at your profile there, in one of your posts...is that the Solidworks CAD program your using?

 

[Loess]

LOL cheers Loess!

Had a look at your profile there, in one of your posts...is that the Solidworks CAD program your using?

That one's ProEngineer, its what I use at work, though I used SolidWorks back in college.

 

[tommy tank25]

That one's ProEngineer, its what I use at work, though I used SolidWorks back in college.

Ah cool,
Im a design student and hav always used it, havn't tried ProEngineer what's it like compared to SW's???

 

[HeavyGunner]

Dude! You took nine months to make an absolutley mind-boggling metal suit, and you're just now sharing the progress????!!!!!???? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??? hahaha But seriously man, I'm floored. The 405th now has a member who can competently instruct the rest of us in the fine art of metal armor-smithing. (no offense to Moz or any others who have done this) I'm really looking forward to all the stuff you'll be able to teach people dude. Welcome to the 405th.

Oh, and any way you could un-noob this guy Sean? One of the first finished steel suits in my opinion deserves some un-noobification!

 

[tommy tank25]

Here are some of my early pics i hav just compressed of the Rifle, Helm and Hand Guards

And i just remembered i entered a photo competition at my university about my armor and posted it online, check it out;

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uz36rTzE7qY

 

[tommy tank25]

Dude! You took nine months to make an absolutley mind-boggling metal suit, and you're just now sharing the progress????!!!!!???? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??? hahaha But seriously man, I'm floored. The 405th now has a member who can competently instruct the rest of us in the fine art of metal armor-smithing. (no offense to Moz or any others who have done this) I'm really looking forward to all the stuff you'll be able to teach people dude. Welcome to the 405th.

Oh, and any way you could un-noob this guy Sean? One of the first finished steel suits in my opinion deserves some un-noobification!

LOL Thanks man,
i know its a bit late for me to be getting into the game HeavyGunner (sweet name btw!!) if iv alreadly done it, like buying a car then learning to drive!!!! as i said eariler to i was afraid i wouldn't be able to put if off but i managed to wahoo! im gona keep compressing down some of my images of the armor as i went along and post them up to let you guys see it...I would be honored to help you guys, but i'm sure there will be better suits than mine at the end of it!!

 

[SPARTAN1803]

Great work! that looks amazing!

 

[Loess]

Ah cool,
Im a design student and hav always used it, havn't tried ProEngineer what's it like compared to SW's???

Cool, another solid modeler. Pro works a lot like SW, the interface and tools are very similar, but Pro is a little more powerful and a bit harder to jump into. It handles large assemblies (500+ components in most of ours) better than SW does.

It's nice to see someone succeed at building a metal suit, makes me want to start up my Marine suit again.

 

[brychang]

thats just cool! i'd say you have too much time on your hands, but that would be the pot calling the kettle black! what you need now is a pimp undersuit like blue realms and that will make your suit worthy of legend....although i wouldnt make it out of steel too

 

[Balthezar]

Nice work dude! Its sweet to see people thinking outside the box of the cookie-cutter pep-files. Awsome that you brought in some outside-skill to the forums. I make small bits of chainmail to wear around, and I have to ask. how heavy is all of that? lol, I think if I ever got around to welding armor, I would simply do the helmet. Take it out and use it as a display peice or something... but ye, great job!

 

[Crucible]

You have to be either a genius or completely balls-nutty. That stuff has to weigh a heck of a lot o.o

Still, MAJOR props for the armor. It's awesome to see someone working on metal armor for once.

 

[BFDesigns]

That's pretty badass!! I was gonna do something kinda like this by extending the tabs and cutting the pep files out of sheet aluminum and riveting them together (cuz I don't have a TIG welder). Looks like you beat me to it though and you did an amazing job!

You oughta make a chainmaille suit to wear as an undersuit with it

 

[Chipdaily77]

I consider metal work to be a fine art, and this is amazing!
Oh yeah, why is this in the noob forum? This definitely deserves elite status.

 

[Privateer]

Very nice steelwork!! I have made alot of steel armour and I can attest to the difficulty of making complex shapes with steel plate Kudos for the clean bendlines and lack of hammer marks even on the raw pieces. And actually a steel suit like this will wiegh significantly less than a fiberglass and bondo suit depending on the amount of filler you use.

Cheers!

 

[tommy tank25]

I consider metal work to be a fine art, and this is amazing!
Oh yeah, why is this in the noob forum? This definitely deserves elite status.

cheers voodoo but i can't seem to post it up on the elite site for some reason, maybe my status is too low or something to do that but the only place i could put it was the noob one.???..is there anyway to move it???

thanks for the comments everyone, it really does mean everything to me to get some proper critisim and appraisal for this suit. at one point on holloween i heard a mum from the outer side of the road say to her son "look its a ninja turtle!" and another saying guy saying "sweet power ranger costume!" that hurt the most lol

to answer a few questions, as i said at the top the suit weighs 21kg in total but i went a bit overkill on the now bombproof 5kg gun! and Arith i noticed some of your chain mail it does look pretty sweet! i can't wait to do some more metal stuff...ideas anyone?? i'm working on a ghost but i could hav a craic at something smaller in the mean time lol

 

[tommy tank25]

That's pretty badass!! I was gonna do something kinda like this by extending the tabs and cutting the pep files out of sheet aluminum and riveting them together (cuz I don't have a TIG welder). Looks like you beat me to it though and you did an amazing job!

You oughta make a chainmaille suit to wear as an undersuit with it

thanks BF (what does that stand for you've got me intriged now lol) you can technically weld your aluminum with a MIG they're roughly 5 times cheaper than a TIG and would do an alright job, unless you're lookin for perfection!!...if not i definatly would suggest you get some steel and have a go lol??