Sandbagger's Iron Man builds - Now in STEEL.

[BuildsByBaz]

Cheers guys.

Hey Sandbagger, just curious, what width did you set your helmet to in Pepakura?

Mate, I can't remember too much but I remember using a large, "F" clamp to measure my head dimensions. Ear to ear it was 180 and nose to back of head was 200mm.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

1. Getting the final fitting done on a half-finished suit and preparing for it's first night out in public!

2. Only a week to go before the suit goes out in public. Cleaned the shed, organised the benches, got all the fibreglass and bog, paint, sandpaper, files, hot-glue and more, ready to get into some serious overtime this week to get as much done as possible. I at least want to have the whole upper-body finished. No time for the legs. Oh well, at least I'll be able to sit down at the party.

 

[DarkFoxProjectX]

its lookin Really bad ass as the progress continues ^^ keep up the good work

 

[BuildsByBaz]

its lookin Really bad ass as the progress continues ^^ keep up the good work

Thanks mate.


Day one of 1 of 6 - got a couple of hours in the shed today so I've been slush casting and putty-filling madly to get done by party time on day 6. Slush casting completed on shoulder bell, bicep and most of left forearm. Bit of filling done on shoulder bell.

 

[Jen A266]

ERRMMAAHHGEERDD!! Sandbagger you are Flippin Dippin awesome! That paint job is excellent, wish mine is as god as yours. Keep it up!

 

[BuildsByBaz]

ERRMMAAHHGEERDD!! Sandbagger you are Flippin Dippin awesome! That paint job is excellent, wish mine is as god as yours. Keep it up!

I think a lot of these costumes look great in photos because you can't see the myriad of flaws all over them, but cohesively they all come together well enough that no-one notice!

 

[BuildsByBaz]

1. A fair bit of progress today. Lots of fibreglassing curing in the shed. In the meantime, the neck piece has been a problem as the rigid fibreglass one offers no movement, plus I can't get my head through it. This new EVA foam one does the trick.

2. Fitting with alternate-locking velcro plates.

3. With helmet. Making some return springs to close the helmet behind my head. More on that bit later.

4. Neck piece painted with vinyl spray for flexibility.

Four days to go!

 

[Jen A266]

Yup ,that's a good thing till a certain extent XD

 

[BuildsByBaz]

3 days left.....

1. Got the neck installed.

2, 3 & 4. Got the left arm hardened, jointed and have started filling.

5. Got a shoulder bell hardened, filled and sanded. Just put the undercoat on it.

6. Got the waist sorted out, just got to go down town and get some velcro to finish it. I'm having a quick lunch now then back to the shed for some serious sanding muscle.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Abdominal and waist armour fitted. Velcro to pull in my fat guts and a couple of nylon straps to hold it up.

 

[JayOneSeven]

If you could go back and do other pieces in EVA would you? Or would you stick with the Pep for the rest?
Also thanks for the reply about the F clamp. Did you add a little onto those measurements in the pep scale to leave room for padding? Or just set it at those measurements?

 

[BuildsByBaz]

If you could go back and do other pieces in EVA would you? Or would you stick with the Pep for the rest?
Also thanks for the reply about the F clamp. Did you add a little onto those measurements in the pep scale to leave room for padding? Or just set it at those measurements?

Actually if I did it all again, I would build the whole thing out of aluminium. Foam is flimsy and the glue tears and unsticks when you least want it to. Pepakura, bondo, fibreglass is messy, smelly, very time consuming, brittle and all kinds of other anooying, not to mention the amount of dust I am bringing inside the house every time I work on it.

In short, I hate it.

As difficult as some people may consider aluminium, I have worked with all kinds of materials including steel, brass, copper, aluminium and in my opinion, it would be simpler by FAR, to build this thing out of metal.

Price? If you know what you are looking for, I could do it cheaper too.

RE: the helmet sizing, yes, I added an extra 10mm all around.

SB

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Tonight's the night! I worked on the suit right up until 5am this morning. Last bit of painting and fitting happening now.

Here's the waist setup finished.

Very rushed job on the arms to get them done. They are painted now and baking outside in the sun.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

While that was happening, I fitted straps and clips to the inside of the shoulder bell and bolted the plastic receiver to the inside of the shoulder.

That's the top half complete enough to wear tonight. That's if I don't collapse from exhaustion first....

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Here's some failure feedback for those attempting similar. I've just got my brother to come around ten minutes ago to help me put it all on and see what mobility I have and make any adjustments. Might have a few holes to drill and bolts to install. I can't move my arms much because the shoulder bells jam on the chest piece.

The suit is not anatomically correct in the Pepakura files, so even though my height and width measurements were entered in the scaling software, the proportions just don't work.

It's wearable with limited movement, but after the initial fuss at the party dies down, I'll take the arms off to relax.

Like the first observatory, the second will be a huge improvement. There are so many things I would do different, but you have to try it all out to find out how.

I'll still finish the rest of the suit. It still makes a great statue in the observatory.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

First night out in the suit (top half) a raging success. Hanging out with sidekicks Mr. Riddick and the Green Lantern. Lot's of good clean fun.

A few things I learned that are very useful:

1. The suit, while difficult to move my arms, was very comfortable and kept me quite cozy in the cool night air.
2. Visibility in the helmet was difficult in the dark so they will need work. Helmet was very comfortable and having a hinged faceplate was fantastic.
3. The upper body is too bulky so the next one will have to be tailored in under the arms to allow arm movement.
4. Need to find a better way to attach the arms to the chest-piece.
5. Very happy with the waist setup. Easy on , easy off and flexible. Still, I want to rebuild it in aluminium and have it bolt together for cosplay.
6. Will re-do the neck piece in RED eva foam, instead of trying to paint blue EVA with red vinyl spray. It still cracks and flakes.

Aluminium suit.... here I come.

 

[Harri51]

The suit is looking top choice man. Keep up the amazing work. Can't wait to see more.

 

[JayOneSeven]

Sorry to hear about the issues you're having with articulation! I'm just now putting together the chest piece so I'll have to see if there's any way I can get around it. I think the suit will be more of a shock-and-awe piece anyway that you just pull out once at a convention or party, walk around for a while, meet and greet, then head back up to your room to take it off and have a secondary more... simple... costume after that. Perhaps just a Tony Stark costume underneath, with the Arc reactor Tshirt, maybe shave a goatee, wear some scumbag shades lol.
Either way, I think I'll still continue on even with the movement issues in mind, and I'm glad to hear you're doing the same thing!

 

[Bio Customz]

First night out in the suit (top half) a raging success. Hanging out with sidekicks Mr. Riddick and the Green Lantern. Lot's of good clean fun.

A few things I learned that are very useful:

1. The suit, while difficult to move my arms, was very comfortable and kept me quite cozy in the cool night air.
2. Visibility in the helmet was difficult in the dark so they will need work. Helmet was very comfortable and having a hinged faceplate was fantastic.
3. The upper body is too bulky so the next one will have to be tailored in under the arms to allow arm movement.
4. Need to find a better way to attach the arms to the chest-piece.
5. Very happy with the waist setup. Easy on , easy off and flexible. Still, I want to rebuild it in aluminium and have it bolt together for cosplay.
6. Will re-do the neck piece in RED eva foam, instead of trying to paint blue EVA with red vinyl spray. It still cracks and flakes.

Aluminium suit.... here I come.

i have loved this thread from the beginning... great work looks amazing!! how much would you guess you have invested as far as money goes? and alternatively how much would you guess the aluminum suit will run you

 

[BuildsByBaz]

i have loved this thread from the beginning... great work looks amazing!! how much would you guess you have invested as far as money goes? and alternatively how much would you guess the aluminum suit will run you

I reckon they would be on par. I actually find metal easier to work with than this complicated method. Fibreglass, body filler and paint are all expensive and it mounts fast!

The problem with the pep/fibreglass method, is once you have hardened it, it's very hard to make adjustments. Metal can be trimmed, shaped, bent and folded. You can drill and bolt straight into it to join pieces and add accessories. I think once you have bought the material (large sheet) and you have your own workshop with a few basic hand and power tools (and I do) it would be very cheap and I think quicker.

A lot less smelly and dusty too!

Time will tell. I've seen a lot fo people come and go and go on about what they are going to do, so I won't get into it too much just yet.

SB