Alright Guys, it's about time I start my own thread!
I've been lurking around this Forum for a while now. I almost started a Master Chief suit from Halo a few years back but the whole Pepakura ordeal was not possible for me as was still a student back then. It was just too time consuming and expensive so i gave up on that.
Now since I am a huge comic and movie geek I pretty much soak up everything I can. So it is no wonder that I am an Iron Man enthusiast. And when the time for Halloween came (yes, it has gotten a bit popular in Germany too)... I decided to go as Tony Stark. My idea was to get the Arc Reactor done and wear it under a shirt.
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As you can see it is far from movie accurate but it did the job! It is basically a LED-taplight put into a sinkdrain housing. I used tinfoil and a reflector to diffuse the light in the back. in the front i used a small piece of tube and speaker wire plus an old air refreshener (yes it was a miniature tire rim) to create something resembling the arc reactors pattern. Under the shirt it looked like this:
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After that was done I got a little more enthusiastic and wanted to build at least one arm and the hand repulsor, inspired by Robert Downey Jr.'s outfit at ComicCon. Since time was pressing i decided to go with foam. I used 3mm EVA foam which is called "Moosgummi" here and can be bought at every little crafting shop around the corner. So i got the edited Zabana glove files from JFCustoms thread an went at it. I then went for the foam edited versions of DancingFools lower and upper forearm because I liked that one the best.
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The next step was painting the whole thing... not too much of a task... so i thought. But I had no idea what I should use to make the foam paintable and I had no idea what the German equivalent for PVA was. Plastidip wasn't available here either (so i thought) and time was running out. So i stumbled over a german forum where they explained that one should always use a certain german brand. I went to the local hardware store... they recommended the same... That stuff (Pattex Kraftkleber) was horrible to work with and made for a very disappointing surface texture on the finished pieces.
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Just ignore my roommate... or not.
So as always:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XFWeoxrhbE8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you do your research right and take your time you will find what you need and you will be better educated than the "professionals" in the local hardware store.
But since I had no time left it had to be good enough. At least the paint made it look a bit better Here a few shots with the LEDs for the repulsor installed
![]()
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So, after the big Halloween party, where some people told me how cool the costume had been (as the host I had the whole Tony Stark act down too) I thought: I can do better! So my goal is to get the whole costume done in time for the big opening night of Iron Man 3. I will be using Foam because it is easy to work with, less expensive and less toxic than the whole resining stuff. I have some ideas that I haven't seen anywhere else yet and maybe that is because it isn't going to work. But I'm stubborn and sometimes I need to learn from my own mistakes even when other people have tried the same before and failed. But sometimes that is a good thing :rolleyes
As for the templates: I am going with a Mix of files from JFCustoms thread. Just whatever works together and suits my taste. I also highly recommend Drack's thread for people that are new to "Foampeping" or working with foam. It helped me soooooo much. Thanks to all the guys who share their knowledge and experience so that we can have fun and enjoy doing this. Stealth, Robo, Drack, JFCustoms, Dancingfool and so on.
Ideas are:
- Using bearings for some joints like connecting the upper and lower forearm so that when you twist your lower forarm, the piece will move with it without the elbow joint being being twisted and so on.
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- use small bearings instead of Chicago screws in some joint areas to prevent friction on the foam parts.
- creating an undersuit so that there is no cloth shining through the spaces of the costume pieces.
- using rare earth magnets to hold the pieces together for easy assembling.
-Maybe using the German color scheme (Black, red, gold) for the final paintjob.
... and finally... make that thing fly for real! J/K of course.
These are some ideas I had to contribute to the already very detailed database of building the Iron Man suit (out of foam... or paper). If you have some ideas on what might (not) work go ahead. I appreciate your input. And if you are German and need some help with the things needed to get into foam building. I am more than happy to share my knowledge.
I've been lurking around this Forum for a while now. I almost started a Master Chief suit from Halo a few years back but the whole Pepakura ordeal was not possible for me as was still a student back then. It was just too time consuming and expensive so i gave up on that.
Now since I am a huge comic and movie geek I pretty much soak up everything I can. So it is no wonder that I am an Iron Man enthusiast. And when the time for Halloween came (yes, it has gotten a bit popular in Germany too)... I decided to go as Tony Stark. My idea was to get the Arc Reactor done and wear it under a shirt.
As you can see it is far from movie accurate but it did the job! It is basically a LED-taplight put into a sinkdrain housing. I used tinfoil and a reflector to diffuse the light in the back. in the front i used a small piece of tube and speaker wire plus an old air refreshener (yes it was a miniature tire rim) to create something resembling the arc reactors pattern. Under the shirt it looked like this:
After that was done I got a little more enthusiastic and wanted to build at least one arm and the hand repulsor, inspired by Robert Downey Jr.'s outfit at ComicCon. Since time was pressing i decided to go with foam. I used 3mm EVA foam which is called "Moosgummi" here and can be bought at every little crafting shop around the corner. So i got the edited Zabana glove files from JFCustoms thread an went at it. I then went for the foam edited versions of DancingFools lower and upper forearm because I liked that one the best.
The next step was painting the whole thing... not too much of a task... so i thought. But I had no idea what I should use to make the foam paintable and I had no idea what the German equivalent for PVA was. Plastidip wasn't available here either (so i thought) and time was running out. So i stumbled over a german forum where they explained that one should always use a certain german brand. I went to the local hardware store... they recommended the same... That stuff (Pattex Kraftkleber) was horrible to work with and made for a very disappointing surface texture on the finished pieces.
Just ignore my roommate... or not.
So as always:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XFWeoxrhbE8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you do your research right and take your time you will find what you need and you will be better educated than the "professionals" in the local hardware store.
But since I had no time left it had to be good enough. At least the paint made it look a bit better Here a few shots with the LEDs for the repulsor installed
So, after the big Halloween party, where some people told me how cool the costume had been (as the host I had the whole Tony Stark act down too) I thought: I can do better! So my goal is to get the whole costume done in time for the big opening night of Iron Man 3. I will be using Foam because it is easy to work with, less expensive and less toxic than the whole resining stuff. I have some ideas that I haven't seen anywhere else yet and maybe that is because it isn't going to work. But I'm stubborn and sometimes I need to learn from my own mistakes even when other people have tried the same before and failed. But sometimes that is a good thing :rolleyes
As for the templates: I am going with a Mix of files from JFCustoms thread. Just whatever works together and suits my taste. I also highly recommend Drack's thread for people that are new to "Foampeping" or working with foam. It helped me soooooo much. Thanks to all the guys who share their knowledge and experience so that we can have fun and enjoy doing this. Stealth, Robo, Drack, JFCustoms, Dancingfool and so on.
Ideas are:
- Using bearings for some joints like connecting the upper and lower forearm so that when you twist your lower forarm, the piece will move with it without the elbow joint being being twisted and so on.
- use small bearings instead of Chicago screws in some joint areas to prevent friction on the foam parts.
- creating an undersuit so that there is no cloth shining through the spaces of the costume pieces.
- using rare earth magnets to hold the pieces together for easy assembling.
-Maybe using the German color scheme (Black, red, gold) for the final paintjob.
... and finally... make that thing fly for real! J/K of course.
These are some ideas I had to contribute to the already very detailed database of building the Iron Man suit (out of foam... or paper). If you have some ideas on what might (not) work go ahead. I appreciate your input. And if you are German and need some help with the things needed to get into foam building. I am more than happy to share my knowledge.
