Iron Man Project Foam Build

Hi everyone! I'm back with my next project for San Jose's Fanime Con in May. I decided to go with a Foam medium because it has become my favorite and it is a lot faster than cardstock ->fiberglass->bondo. Below are pictures of what I have done so far. but I also need some advice. I decided to bondo/rondo the foam helmet to get the details i want as well as make it harder, but I want to know how people have gotten acute angular corners cleaned out and detailed, is there a dremel attachment people use for that situation.

I'm not going for a completely movie accurate suit but a mash up of pieces I find easier to do and think look better, IE: Mark 7 biceps with Mark 6 forearms, the Helmet originally started out as the mark 6 but the rounded ears part became a pain so i decided to cut them out and put in the mark 8's ear design. as you can see the helmet has some acute and square corners so I need some advice on how to clean those out and keep them detailed.
I am also considering molding and casting the Helmet and would like some advice on a cheap silicone rubber for brush on mold and how much I would need for a helmet



Some gauntlet foam files were confusing to me so i decided to do my own version by modifying some pepakura files and piecing them together into one piece that came out as a nice way to transfer onto the foam.
Before anyone asks It is not a pepakura file that I made but it is just a thing i stiched together using the pep pieces, The Pink piece is the result of me piecing stiching together and then tracing onto a piece of paper the result giving me a base for the glove, The grey pieces are the raised pieces that go onto the pink base. If any one wants to, they can use the images below as a guide on how to make their own iron man glove,

Look very good and the helmet is very clean !!

Finished the chest piece and the other arm!

That is realy good ! When i saw the files I said to myself: wow its should not be good xD

But when i see your build ! Ouah it will be awesome !!!!

Oh and don't be worried if nobody answer into the thread .....

This might be the most amazing, clean foam work I have ever seen. Subbed!

HUGE Update Pic heavy!: It's nice to see the 405th back up so I will update this build to where I have it posted on therpf post. I managed to finish the bulk of the suit in time for Fanime 2013, and I still plan to refine it and replace some parts like downscale and make a new back piece.

using the tip of the hot glue gun i loved how i got such clean lines to pop out on the shoulders




Thighs got done


For shoes I took the mark 42 boot from jackieisrockin file and took a cheap thrift store pair of shoes and glued foam to it.



Anyways I didnt like bondoing over the foam helmet too much because every time i create a layer and sand it down the layer is either too brittle/cracks or the sanding takes it back down to the foam layer, this makes it hard to get detailing done on the helmet so I decided to try mold making for the first time and decided to go cheap and make a silicone caulk mold, 5 tubes later and i got this:


unforunately i screwed up on how i cut out the jacket mold and got very sloppy with the shell that the cast was warped and damaged a bit.



since i dont wanna take the time to remake the mold i recast another one and will fix that one best i can. this is the second cast

Here are the copies and the original

so now I will repair the one in the middle and get it ready for a final mold since my friend game me his extra mold making supplies for my birthday =D!
definitely learned from my mistakes for the next one so hope the next mold is better.

Update: Pic heavy. again this is taken form my rpf thread when this forum was down
Cut out the Face plate and did some bondo and sanding work



I decided to also try xrobot's painting plastic onto the foam method and see how that'll turn out for me

here are some update pictures







Im only going to partially coat the backpiece and only the fingertips of the gloves to give them more strength and reduce the amount I have to sand, The abs are going to be plasti dip ->mod podge -> primer -> Paint because I don't have time to sand that piece either plus it looks smooth and level enough on its own that it doesn't require as much detail work.
started painting

Update: Pictures!:
Well Fanime 2013 in San Jose California has come and gone, and i just barely managed to get my suit done, didn't have time to motorize anything but now that it's over I will continue to refine my suit. here are pictures and video of my walk on. compliments to the people that took the pictures!


so far this is one of my favorite shots taken




here are some fun shots from fanime:





Some comments: I usually like to take lots of detail pictures of work steps but as I got closer to fanime I rushed a lot of stuff and didn't have time, so I'll just write some comments on pieces that you can see on the suit. The ab section is entirely made out of Foam which is coated in plasti dip and mod podge and then painted, I kept the paint layers thing and surprisingly the abs as well as the cod piece, also in foam, came out very flexible with no cracking when it bent. The back piece is only partially coated in plastic cuz of time restraint and i just know not many pictures of the back get taken so time wise was worth the sacrifice. I also noticed the abs aren't as tall as they needed to be so Ill need to build another layer on top to hide my cloth shirt as it goes into the chest piece, understandable since this is the mark 6 abs with a mark 7 chest where the mark 7 abs connect to the chest and hide everything. After the con there is quite a few things I need to repair. Questions and comments are always welcome!

I just want to applaud... That is some great work and I commend you on your awesome final product!

Dude, sweet iron man! I'm also doing a foam iron man (trying the mark 6), and I'm basically a noob at detailed foam work. Do you have any tips for someone working with this stuff? (especially tips on the helmet) Either way, great job!

Deltalead38 said:

Dude, sweet iron man! I'm also doing a foam iron man (trying the mark 6), and I'm basically a noob at detailed foam work. Do you have any tips for someone working with this stuff? (especially tips on the helmet) Either way, great job!

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For the helmet mine was a mold and cast for the final product because the foam helmet may be nice but its such a flexible medium that bondo in thin layers on it will crack, so i only made it to be the base for my mold and cast. if you want to keep it as a foam helmet that's fine too but i imagine ud have to do somethign to the face plate to make it retain its shape if you separate it from the helmet. for hot glue that bleeds onto the surface of ur work out of seams, use a heat gun on it then wipe away the excess with a papertowel or something.

J326 said:

Update: Pictures!:
Well Fanime 2013 in San Jose California has come and gone, and i just barely managed to get my suit done, didn't have time to motorize anything but now that it's over I will continue to refine my suit. here are pictures and video of my walk on. compliments to the people that took the pictures!


so far this is one of my favorite shots taken

here are some fun shots from fanime:





Some comments: I usually like to take lots of detail pictures of work steps but as I got closer to fanime I rushed a lot of stuff and didn't have time, so I'll just write some comments on pieces that you can see on the suit. The ab section is entirely made out of Foam which is coated in plasti dip and mod podge and then painted, I kept the paint layers thing and surprisingly the abs as well as the cod piece, also in foam, came out very flexible with no cracking when it bent. The back piece is only partially coated in plastic cuz of time restraint and i just know not many pictures of the back get taken so time wise was worth the sacrifice. I also noticed the abs aren't as tall as they needed to be so Ill need to build another layer on top to hide my cloth shirt as it goes into the chest piece, understandable since this is the mark 6 abs with a mark 7 chest where the mark 7 abs connect to the chest and hide everything. After the con there is quite a few things I need to repair. Questions and comments are always welcome!

Click to expand...

Nice work, Can you tell me how many eva foam did you use to build this armor?

MonsterMask said:

Nice work, Can you tell me how many eva foam did you use to build this armor?

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I think I Lost count but about 12+ sheets because I did redo some stuff.