[Barry]

Amazing Barry, where the hell do you find the time for these projects mate..........being a Spiderman fan would of made things easier lol.

Lol! You are probably right Colin, but you would be amazed at the attention to detail folks are putting into spider man costumes of late...

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.

[Barry]

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!

[Barry]

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.

[Barry]

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

[Barry]

!


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.

[Barry]

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....

[Barry]

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.

[Barry]

First night out in the suit (top half) a raging success. Hanging out with Mr Riddick and the Green Lantern, among many others. Lots 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.

[seaslug]

If you hurry you might be able to sell the concept to the English cricket team.

[Barry]

Two minutes of fun with the camera and Iron Man's new ride.

[Barry]

Finally made a start on my new METAL Iron Man suit. Found an old aluminium sign about 2mm thick. Tracing up templates now.

The plan is to fit card templates over what I have built so far, then flatten them out and trace them onto sheet metal. Cut slots into key points in the sheet to facilitate the most curve, weld them shut, then use an egg-mallet and other shaping tools and hammers to fashion the shape better.



Getting ready to transfer templates to the next gen of Bazza's Iron Man build onto metal plate armour.



Ready to start cutting and shaping. Insert mad scientist manic laughter here...



Next cardboard template to be traced onto sheet metal. Anyone in Canberra got a TIG welder?

[Barry]

1. Metal cut out and ready to beat to death with a peening hammer. This will be fun. I've done all kinds of metalwork before, but this is new to me. Let's see how we go.



2. A few minutes with the peening hammer on a wooden block.



3. 1/2 an hour of metalshaping and it's looking promising. Certainly a lot quicker than the pepakura/bondo/fibreglass method.



4.
Looks OK. In hindsight, I would not cut the slots to help shape the crown. Aluminium is malleable enough to form a bowl on it's own. The hazards of learning for yourself.

[millicat]

It's coming along nicely. oh and Riddick .. and he looks as droolworthy as Riddick / Vin Diesel ... and I am sure many of my fb friends would agree lol.

Love the helmet and the bike .. very cool look indeed. Will have to do a shout out to my friends in Canberra, if they see a dude wearing Iron Man gear .. that's Barry !

[Barry]

Trialling a right boot in foam first.

Boot #1 completed in foam. Identified trouble spots and room for tweaking. Next to make one from card, improve design and articulation before final construction in aluminium.

[Barry]

Second boot done in card. All good so far. Just going to study articulation on the ball of the foot, then start the aluminium boot.