Iron Man Project

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dsbass09

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Hey guys. So, my last project failed miserably. I got sick, missed the deadline, and scrapped the whole thing. Now I'm turning my focus to an Iron Man suit. I know a lot of people here are tired of Iron Man because this site was started for Halo, etc. But I know a lot of people are interested in Iron Man also, and, quite frankly, there is no specific site just for Iron Man, or at least none that I've found.
Anyway, I've been working on designing this suit for almost a month now. I hope for it to be the most realistic, functional, and comfortable suit yet. I want comfort and realistic motion and detail to be top priority with this build. I have plans for almost everything. I'm still working out a few things, but I want every piece to move like it does in the movies. I know it's going to be expensive and time consuming, but I have no time limit or deadlines, and I can worry about costs as I go.
So here's the basic outline of the suit. Iron Man Mk IV, fully functional everything, as close to movie specs as possible. I want all ab and neck plates to move so that range of motion is not disrupted. When I bend over, I want the abs to slide under one another; when I stretch I want enough extra plating so that the undersuit is never seen. When I move my neck, the plates should move with me. I want deployable air flaps in the back, arms, and leg areas just like in the movie. I know the 'deploy flaps' scene is of a Mk III suit, but I am making modifications to accomodate the Mk IV.
Believe it or not, I have a system worked out for almost everything on this suit. The foot/leg assembly will interlock with working joints so that 'strapping' isn't neccessary and weight pulling down on the cod/chest isn't an issue. All weight for the legs will be distributed by the hinges, making a much more comfortable suit. As far as the hands go, I have a prototype nearly completed which allows almost full range of motion (i can make a fist, move each individual finger, move thumb into center of hand, etc.) with no exposed undersuit.
I have plans for a mechanical-looking undersuit that will be exposed in some places. for example, around the underarms and upper chest/lower neck, small bits of mechanical plates and wiring can be seen, and when the air flaps are opened, there will be hoses and metal rods, etc. I plan to make this as movie accurate as possible.
I do have a few questions and thoughts that you guys could help me with. For one, I want the foot pieces to support my weight fully. My plan is to fill the bottoms of the feet with some material that will support my weight and not wear out easily. Does anybody have suggestions for that? I saw somebody plan to use 'Great Stuff' foam or something similar, but I never heard any results. I plan to modify ski boot liners to fit inside the foot pieces for comfort (if I can ski on them for hours on end, walking should be a breeze.) or possibly just an old pair of shoes.
Also, I would like to have working weaponry in the arms. When I say working, I don't mean firing; I just want them to pop out of the armor. As I said before, this will be a Mk IV build, but I'm not sure if I like the four pop-out plates that come out of the Mk IV arms. I like the Mk III's weapons better, where the forearm plate splits and up come the weapons. Do you guys think it would look strange with a Mk IV suit with Mk III forearms? Would anybody really know?
My plan is to work up pep armor, and model patterns to be transferred to metal. Let me explain myself. First of all, I have a grandfather who is an ex- FBI, NASA, FAA, PanAm aeronautic investigator, fabricator, designer, and mechanic. I mean this guy eats, sleeps, breathes, and dreams metal work. So as far as forming metal goes, I've got the resources, tools, and advice I need, not to mention the numerous useless broken parts and pieces lying around his hangar I could use for the mechanical undersuit. One sheet of metal (i'm thinking aluminum due to its flexible, rust-resistant properties. Or maybe galvanized steel...) is thinner than cardstock layered with fiberglass resin and matting and bondo. This ensures a slimmer fit and less weight. If you bend metal, it simply bends. You shape it back, re-paint, and you're good to go. Bend fiberglass and bondo? Crack. Re-pep, re-resin, re-bondo, re-paint. Also, you scratch metal, paint comes off leaving a nice shiny realistic metal look. Scratch bondo, you get grey, green, red, whatever color your bondo was. I'm not bashing bondo, I painted cars for a long time, so I love the stuff. It works wonders. I'll probably be using tiny amounts for detail anyway. I just think metal plating is a better option for me.
So there's my project. Like I said, I've almost finished some prototype parts, and I intend for this build to be very pic heavy. I'll keep you guys posted pretty regularly. I have seen some pretty decent Iron Man armor, but it seems like attention to specific detail was missing, something that I am a bit OCD on. I want this armor to rival anything else out there, because anything worth doing is worth doing right.
 
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