Progress Build: My IRON MAN helmets (and WAR MACHINE) and armor

Status
Not open for further replies.

THE EVIL TW1N

New Member
I started this stuff back in July (2010). I'll post the older stuff and then get to where I'm at (which, at the time, isn't all that much farther ahead).

After seeing how cool this pepping stuff was, I decided to give it a try. I found an Iron Man helmet online and just started building it. Going in, I knew I would probably mess it up... And it was a total failure! LOL About halfway through the build, I read through the whole tips on pepping stickies. And it helped out, but it was too late. That, and I'm not sure the design I was trying was the best either (it wasn't from a member here).

I did learn a whole bunch tho.

On my next build, I felt much more confident. When the HD War Machine was first posted, I jumped right on it. But I changed the way I decided to pep it. Rather than super glue it together, I decided to just tape it. Not only that, but I also cut ALL the tabs clean off. This helped in save time in not having to meticulously cut around each separate tab and then use an exacto blade to get a clean score. Taping and cutting the tabs off cut the amount of time in nearly 1/2!! And not only that, the model was EASIER and also came out MUCH more accurate! The only drawback was that the structure does come out a little bit weaker, but the benefits of taping and cutting the tabs are MUCH more worth it.

warmachinepepped.jpg


After finishing it, I then primed it.

warmachineprimed.jpg


This is where I noticed I may have created another problem. As you can see, the tape showed through. I had hoped the primer would help hid the tape a little, but it didn't do much. At this point, I was hoping once I resin'd it it would flatten out. I went to TAP Plastics and bought this epoxy.

epoxy.jpg


I'll continue on a new post.


EDIT: LIST OF FILES USED THROUGHOUT THE PROJECT


HELMETS:

ARMOR:
Left Bicep Robo's file unfolded by THE EVIL TW1N
Fingers Robo's file unfolded by THE EVIL TW1N
Forearms Robo's file unfolded by THE EVIL TW1N
Handplate Robo's file unfolded by THE EVIL TW1N
Left Palm Robo's file unfolded by THE EVIL TW1N
Left Shoulder Robo's file unfolded by THE EVIL TW1N
 
I then made a couple of mistakes (which I should have known better, I did work at a Home Depot paint department for over 5 years at one point). My first mistake was to use a foam brush to brush on the epoxy. It just created a bunch of bubbles, I should have used a bristled brush. The second mistake was that I rushed it. Rather than do one part at a time slowly, I did the outside as a whole, and then the inside. This caused the epoxy to drip, which made sanding that much more fun later. Also, the tape still showed partially through, causing small ripples that needed sanding. Anyways, after epoxying it I bondo'd and sanded. The end product looked fine, but if I had taken my time in the epoxy faze and would have taped only on the inside, It would have saved me on time (and manual labor) on the tail end.

warmachineepoxied.jpg


Halfway through pepping it, I knew it would be too small. But I kept going with it anyways since I knew I still had more mistakes to make when it came down to epoxying it. The helmet came out very strong, and I only did 2 coats on the inside and two on the outside. I got about 2/3's of the way to completing the helmet and then moved on to what I really was making all these learning mistakes for: to build an iron man helmet!

I used the HD Iron Man that was posted at about the same time the HD War Machine was. This time, I used a tester helmet first and then started building the HD Iron Man. This time, I made sure to tape only on the inside portions. The helmet was very difficult to make, but it turned out great.

ironmanpepped.jpg


But, again, the helmet came out too small! I still completed the pep, but I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it. It's too small on ears. Maybe I'll cut the ear portion off and make that part stick out a little. I don't know.


Continued on the next post.
 
I then started on an older (less intricate/detailed) Iron Man helmet: The Sharkhead / Dungbeetle / Dubean33 design. This one had less of the details that I felt were not important in a pep. I was able to pep this one in nearly half the time!!

ironman2pepped.jpg


It came out great, but guess what.... I bet you already guessed..... and if you did, you are probably right.... this one came out too small too!!! LOL but I think it's workable. And since it took like half the time, I'm comfortable trying to make the ear portion if better (cutting it).

Rather than prime it, this time I decided to try PlastiDip on it (I know I'm not the first to try this). I sprayed black PlastiDip on it and it looks awesome. VERY clean!!

ironman2plastidipped.jpg


This is the point I'm at right now. I just finished spraying the inside of it. I'll let it dry while I'm sleeping, I just got off work a few hours ago (I pep by day, fight crime by night). I'll update when I can. I'll eventually get to the armor, but the helmet is most important!
 
Looks great man, you are having some awesome progress. However, on the note of the helmet being too small; Almost ALL of the Iron Man helmet models will be difficult if not impossible to put on when they are scaled to the regular size. So, what you have to do is cut off the back ear portion and hinge it somehow so that you can fit you head in.

Hold on and I'll link a video that explains what I'm saying a little better and has a good fix.


Edit: Here ya go, a great video by Ithica, the helmet part is a little into it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Looks great man, you are having some awesome progress. However, on the note of the helmet being too small; Almost ALL of the Iron Man helmet models will be difficult if not impossible to put on when they are scaled to the regular size. So, what you have to do is cut off the back ear portion and hinge it somehow so that you can fit you head in.

Hold on and I'll link a video that explains what I'm saying a little better and has a good fix.


Edit: Here ya go, a great video by Ithica, the helmet part is a little into it.

that was a good vid, thx. The magnets were a great idea, I was figuring on using velcro.

I figured I would have to make the back part of the head it's own piece. The problem, though, is that it narrows down too much where the ears go. So that part may have to be cut off and extended outwards somewhat.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ok, the real update.

I did three coats of epoxy resin on the outside of the helmet today. I ran into some more stupid mistakes on my part.

On the first coat, I figured there had to be a way to spray it on. I went to home depot and bought a $5 Preval sprayer. Their website said it sprays epoxies. When I went to spray it, it clogged instantly. DUH. I figured it would do that. Me being the genius that I am, attempted to thin it out, so I used just a little bit of acetone. Still didn't work. Instead of making a new batch of epoxy, I just brushed that on. BIG MISTAKE. It took over 12 hours to dry!!! I was figuring I was just going to have to dump the helmet before it dried.

Also, the epoxy had a difficult time grabbing onto the PlastiDip. Could be that it was thinned with acetone too though. LOL

I then read through some of the stuff from Tap Plastic. They recommended that you microwave the epoxy to make it easier to apply, but then also to accelerate the hardening time. They recommended 15 seconds. So that's what I did. BIG MISTAKE. The epoxy hardened up into a ball of gell/plastic in like 2 minutes! the usual pot life is like 30-40 minutes and 5-6 hour dry time! It did that right when I was applying epoxy to the face mask, so it streaked pretty bad. DOH.

So i had to wait a few hours to make sure that it was really dry to apply the true second coat. The second and third coat went on uneventfully.

Between coating the helmet, I also primed the HD Iron Man helmet. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it though, it may never leave it's current state. I also started pepping yet another helmet as backup.

ironman2epoxiedandironmanprimed.jpg


hope some could use the information (my failures) I've posted as help in what not to do. There hasn't seemed to be much feedback.
 
Sounds like you're trying to take some shortcuts and its not working out. I've been tempted myself but I hold back and take my time. I'm working on my first attempt at war machine armor, trying to make it somewhat decent. I'd say hot glue the tabs together, coat the outside with resin, then fiberglass or rondo the inside, sand and bondo the outside, and finally sand, prime, and paint. Patience is all I can suggest.
 
well, the hot glue and tabs aren't needed, as I have shown that. The peps come out great and are spot on! And in near half the time! If anything, they are more accurate this way because you don't have any tolerances stacking up that are inheritantly there with folding. It's a technique that very much works.

Right now, I'm just trying different things when it comes to making this thing solid and posting what does not work. I'm not afraid of a little bit of failure if it helps the community. I've found that plastidip is not a good idea, preval sprayers do not work as advertised for this application, and heating up the epoxy, as was suggested by the kings of plastic themselves, does not work for this application.

I wouldn't really call what i've done to be "shortcuts", I was just trying to improve the process for this application. A true shortcut would be paying someone else to do it.
 
I layed down a layer of glass and resin'd the inside of the face mask. Came out rigid enough for sanding now. Im laying a layer of glass inside the helmet now. I'm going to switch to a different resin, I'll let you guys know how it turns out! I'll try to post results in a couple hours.

ironman2glassinginside.jpg
 
hi - i'm really impressed with your progress... it's so daunting doing the pep in the first place.... do you have any tips on building the pep paper printout? i'm trying to make one for my son (3yrs old for halloween) so i'm not bothered with details... but everytime i look at the printed sheets of my pep... i get dizzy! lol
 
Best thing to have when you're peppin'is time.

Take your time to cut. (use a sharp (!!!) knife)
Take your time to pre-cut or score the folds (be carefull !! when you pre-cut!!)
Go slow when you glue the pieces together.
Store your pep in progress somewhere safe!!
Not that's it's likely to be stolen but my peps have had some extra folds while waiting on supplies to continue. There's nothing more frustrating to happen to you when you've been really carefull about cutting and glueing and have that result damaged.

Enjoy the process and keep us posted !
 
hi - i'm really impressed with your progress... it's so daunting doing the pep in the first place.... do you have any tips on building the pep paper printout? i'm trying to make one for my son (3yrs old for halloween) so i'm not bothered with details... but everytime i look at the printed sheets of my pep... i get dizzy! lol

I would just build it the way I have. But then again, I'm biased. I don't think enough people have tried taping without tabs to really comment on it. But I have tried gluing, and I feel taping without tabs is 100% the best way to go. Also, use good scissors.

The one issue I have read about taping is that it comes apart when you resin. This MAY be true if you use polyester resin, but I use epoxy and it does not mess with the taping whatsoever. Also, I prime before using the epoxy resin. Another bonus of epoxy is that it has an extremely minimal odor. I can epoxy indoors in the kitchen no problem.

I'll post my progress in the next day or so. I have been extremely busy at work (wayyyy too much OT), but there has been progress. I have not forgotten about this thread.
 
Update:

Ok, finally got around to updating. I haven't worked on the helmet much since the last posting on it. I did cut the glass cloth and used double sided tape to hold it. I then epoxy resined the inside and it came out great. I haven't done the sides of the inside of the helmet, only the center portion.

I did start pepping some of the armor. I'm using Robo's files, but I didn't like the unfolds used. I pepped one bicep, but it was split into more parts than it it really should have been. So I've been using my own unfolds now. The newer bicep with my unfold came out great, so I'm in the process of personally unfolding all the parts. I unfolded and pepped the left shoulder bell, left bicep, left forearm, left handplate, and complete left hand. After pepping, I primed them.

fullleftarmprimed2.jpg


fullleftarmprimed1.jpg


I haven't started resining these yet, I'm probably going to jump back onto the helmet and try to complete that first. I've also unfolded the neckseal, collarplate, and mark VI brace. I'm also in the process of unfolding the chest plate during downtime.

If you guys want to try my unfolds of the the peps, let me know and I'll post them.
 
I'm blown away just by your pepping. This is so so awesome. I to was disappointed with the unfolds on about all the files.. I myself have redone the shin, and am working on the thigh.

Your arm looks so intense! ahh i love the mk VI armor so much
 
I'm blown away just by your pepping. This is so so awesome. I to was disappointed with the unfolds on about all the files.. I myself have redone the shin, and am working on the thigh.

Your arm looks so intense! ahh i love the mk VI armor so much

Thanks! I'm tellin you, pepping by cutting off the tabs and just taping on the inside to hold the pieces is a good route. it's faster, easier, and more accurate!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top