Ironman Mark V Foldable Foam Suit

captaincaliflour · Jun 3, 2012

So with my Spartan III relatively complete, and the Avengers dropping to massive acclaim, my friends and my concious have demanded that I make a newer, better Ironman suit (my last one being Ultimate Ironman)

After a brainwave I decided to make the Suitcase suit with a neat little twist:

It should hopefully compress into a size roughly carriable via a suitcase.

To do this, the suit will be held together with an elastic rig, with long elastic pieces running vertically, and each individual plate attached to itself via smaller elastic pieces. The small plate nature of the armor itself means that (should things go well) I can put it on like a giant elastic suit.

Example:

The plan will be to start with the hands, head, and feet, as these will be the anchor points to the major unfolds. Below is a prototype helmet I made for a friend, jus to see if I can build it to the quality (in foam) that I'd like.

I'm personally satisfied with the result, so I'll be continueing. Finally, reference shots:

onmi shift · Jun 3, 2012

thats going to be alot of work. hopefully it comes out good

spartanx360 · Jun 3, 2012

i wish you good luck, because that won't be simple

captaincaliflour · Jun 3, 2012

Thanks to you both for your encouragement

It's definitely going to be a lot of work, since it'll require cutting out each individual plate of the armor. However, this thread http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/35552-Iron-Man-2-MK5-Suitcase-Foam-Build/page13?highlight=ironman+pepakura

Has given me hope that at the very least all the little plates can be well done in foam.

From there the design SHOULD just be rigging it all, which should be put on like a wetsuit or one of those rubber bdsm suits from mythbusters.

Psquiddy · Jun 3, 2012

I think someone has been holding their head too close to the plasma rifle... Good luck.

captaincaliflour · Jun 6, 2012

ha thanks for the vote of confidence psquiddy

So work begins on the official suit, beginning with the helmet because it was fresh in my mind...ran into a few new problems that means it doesn't line up perfectly, but this one has a moving faceplate. The rigging of the helmet is done, so I'm going to move onto the arm tomorrow. And now progress:

The helmet up

And because foam is not very conducive to an actual servo rig, I used elastic as shown:

this keeps it taught to the face but still lets me move the faceplate up and down.

Later on I plan to install EL wire in the visor and lenses which will allow it to have glowing eyes like in the film.

drack · Jun 6, 2012

Looking good so far man. One bit of advice for you. To make your pieces abit smoother don't cut the lines that curve the foam pieces. For example. On the top of the face plate there are 2 cuts either side. If you are heating the foam to curve it these are not needed. I believe you may have done the ones under the eyes too, these don't need cutting either as the lines are there to help form a curve with card. Foam can be heated to shape the same curves with out those lines cut. Sorry if a bit of a negative but we have to help each other where we can

So how big is the case going to be? I know there is a guy that made a collapsing MK V and he couldn't get it to fit in a briefcase the same size as on the movie. I am going to make a case that just sits next to the suit when displayed in my office. It will have a working briefcase inside it ofc

thorn696 · Jun 6, 2012

Looks great:cool Love the concept.

captaincaliflour · Jun 6, 2012

drack said:
Looking good so far man. One bit of advice for you. To make your pieces abit smoother don't cut the lines that curve the foam pieces. For example. On the top of the face plate there are 2 cuts either side. If you are heating the foam to curve it these are not needed. I believe you may have done the ones under the eyes too, these don't need cutting either as the lines are there to help form a curve with card. Foam can be heated to shape the same curves with out those lines cut. Sorry if a bit of a negative but we have to help each other where we can

no problem dude any suggestion helps

I've tried heating the foam like you suggested because I noticed the same problem, however I've run into the issue of pricing...I can't find a heatgun for less than 20-15 bucks anywhere, so I don't have one

drack said:
So how big is the case going to be? I know there is a guy that made a collapsing MK V and he couldn't get it to fit in a briefcase the same size as on the movie. I am going to make a case that just sits next to the suit when displayed in my office. It will have a working briefcase inside it ofc

Yes I saw his too

I tried seeing if anyone else had done a folding one before, and his rig is quite different than mine. His has solid plates with foldable joints, so the whole thing collapses like a Star Wars battle droid. Mine will collapse down into a shape resembling scrunched pants, and then I'll place a homemade briefcase around it

I plan to incorporate putting it on as part of a masquerade display so I gotta have a suitcase, even if it is oversized for the film.

drack · Jun 6, 2012

Shame you can't get your hands on a heat gun they make all the difference. That's the problem with these builds the tools are the costly part of it. Maybe it can be something to save towards

I can't wait to see this all finished. Hopefully you will be able to get in to it faster than that other guy, I am sure you will though from how I have imagined your suit will turn out.

Keep up the good work,
Tom.

Psquiddy · Jun 6, 2012

drack said:
Shame you can't get your hands on a heat gun they make all the difference. That's the problem with these builds the tools are the costly part of it. Maybe it can be something to save towards

I can't wait to see this all finished. Hopefully you will be able to get in to it faster than that other guy, I am sure you will though from how I have imagined your suit will turn out.

Keep up the good work,
Tom.

Right? If you were in the Orlando, Fl area I would lend you my heat gun. What I can suggest is going to "Harbor Freight Tools". I think they have a website, but they sell you licensed clones of bigger-brand items. Basically the same thing, just a whole lot cheaper. I bought my heat gun from them 6 years ago, and it still works amazingly

`

captaincaliflour · Jun 6, 2012

Psquiddy said:
Right? If you were in the Orlando, Fl area I would lend you my heat gun. What I can suggest is going to "Harbor Freight Tools". I think they have a website, but they sell you licensed clones of bigger-brand items. Basically the same thing, just a whole lot cheaper. I bought my heat gun from them 6 years ago, and it still works amazingly `

Yea I've heard of them got my caliper from them! it's great...sorta. has it's weird moments. But yea I'll look into it. they're like an hour away from here though so only as a last resort, maybe when I get to some of the other big parts like the abs and such. For now I'm working on the hand/arm so I'm more concerned about the individual detailing on the moving plates

captaincaliflour · Jun 9, 2012

So after 3 days of work (mostly because school got in the way..damn that school) I finally feel like I have enough to show.

This is the basic idea of my design, using elastic to replace the little connector bars in his armor:

I've had to break from the official movie design slightly because the movie can't seem to decide if the hand is attached to the wrist or not...when he first extends his arms as he's putting it on it seems to be, but after it's all assembled he can freely move his hand without the forearm armor following it...So for the sake of simplicity and ease of use I went with the wrist connected to the hand method, which means that instead of lining up inside and outside tony's arms, they line up alongside, primarily mirroring the bones in my arm.

And obligatory pics of the rest:
The right hand of doom

or for those of you who are familiar with toonami, Krillin the right hand of justice

and the repulsor housing. Still working out how I'm gonna do it, either LEDs or EL wire, but really it'll be decided by whichever is smaller

Added ratchet strips on the interior of the fingers because it made more sense to me that they would have a dual action system to open and close, and trying to make perfectly meshing rings that small and attach them would be very difficult without machine help. This way it looks more industrial I think, like those automated factory arms that have the rail strips following it as it moves

Also I can't seem to get the pics smaller, sorry they're so massive

Recently ran into a few problems with the folding, which means I'm gonna have to go back and change the arm...I'm planning to use .25" neodymium magnets as auto claspers so that I can disengage the armor and fold it up, then have them close when I pull it open

captaincaliflour · Jul 9, 2012

Well after a month I haven't gotten anywhere near as much as I wanted done. Major problem was the folding...which doesn't work at present (namely because I can't fit thru it when it's folded up...) gonna fix that up by using some velcro and neodymium magnets I got on order. Till then I'ma continue work onto the chest

Progress:

You can see most of the details, but the forearm looks a lot thinner than it actually sits. When I wear it it fits to the width of the elbow joint, which is an actual rotating joint

Even added elastic tendons to help it close and open.

And of course the underside, so you can see how it dips to fit under my arm. the bicep is actually full width foam while the forearm is half width (I cut one piece and then cut it in half to get both sides) it gives my arm proper width because I have no upper body strength

Everything so far:

I'm probably going to redo the faceplate entirely once I get further along.

Well that's what I got done so far. Hopefully I can pick up work now

Seneschal · Jul 28, 2012

Wow, an ambitious plan! I look forward to your next update.

Mstruvmgc · Jul 29, 2012

Lookin good so far

Spartan 010 · Aug 7, 2012

Looking great! Cant wait to see the finished product

Animagmus · Aug 7, 2012

Fully foldable, man that is dedication to the project. Brilliant idea using the elastic in place of the connectors. Can't wait to see the finished product.

captaincaliflour · Aug 8, 2012

Thank you all so much for your encouragement! nice to see that someone is actually seeing this thread xD I've run into a few problems sadly, still can't get magnets delivered (bad mailing here on campus) and school's starting up again soon. gonna do what I can in the meantime though. I've got the rough patterns for the chest RT and pectoral array cut out, and I think until the magnets arrive I'm just gonna get all the chest patterns cut. That way if this all goes to **** and I can't fold it properly then I won't waste as much foam...

Mstruvmgc · Aug 9, 2012

Well i hope everything works out better for ya

will be watching

Ironman Mark V Foldable Foam Suit

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