Good Morning/Evening everyone! I'd like to start off and say that I feel very fortunate to have stumbled across this site - simply awe inspiring; a lot of stuff here is simply amazing! I've always had an interest and appreciation for prop/costume making, but didn't know that it wasn't strictly expensive molding/casting... I didn't know paper could be used for such things! lol I've spent probably the better part of 10 hours going through this site and others, looking at incredible things - the saying is true; where there is a will, there is a way!
Recently I've decided to restart a costume/armor project I've been 'working on' for the past few years. The easiest way to describe it would be a hybrid between the Nomex Survival Suit (from Batman Begins) and the Mark III Iron Man Suit (specifically, the suit's under structure), but this project is inspired by various different designs and concepts. Several months ago I finally went beyond the thinking/concept/sketching phase and actually produced something. Since I had no experience working with molding and casting, I had limited options, but I knew I needed some sort of casting of myself in order to get the ball rolling. Rather then a single piece suit of some kind, I figured the best thing I should do would be to separate the body into individual sections (legs, arms, torso, head, feet, and hands) and then connect them in some manner. I'm not entirely sure how I decided to do this, but I started taking regular sheets of paper (8.5" x 11") and dutch tape, and started to form the sections that I needed. The legs and arm sections went by without a hitch, and felt confident enough to do the head, but when I got to the torso section I hit a brick wall and have put it off to the side ever since.
The recent Iron Man 2 trailers has got me back to drooling over the suit and its mechanical structure lol and I would like to finally have a costume/armor for an anime/comic convention/ halloween event, so I decided to give it a shot again. The Mark V (?) used in the trailer, that transforms from a briefcase (uber cool) astonished me with its design, and for the past week or so, I've been looking for images of that suit, and the original Mark III suit - found a lot of gems actually, which was very helpful, but during that process I came across a lot of armor made out of paper, which eventually led me here lol
The original 'casts' I made from paper and dutch tape
------------------------------------------------------
The head,legs, and arms allow full mobility when worn.
Some stuff I've done in the past few hours
------------------------------------------------------
I decided to start a basic 'frame' for the feet, while actually trying to maintain some sort of geometry, which in my previous 'builds', I did not. I began working on the forearm, based on the ironman under structure. I'm fairly happy the way it came out, although it does need some minor modifications. It was a great learning experience though, more then anything. It helped me understand the geometry involved a lot better, and the pain to try and obtain a certain type of shape lol I'm going to play around with this type of construction method for now, before I jump into the whole pep design/file scene. I actually have experience doing 3d modeling and working with 3d studio max, but its not something I do very often so my skills are comparable to a newbie in certain aspects. On the bright side, I have a new reason to go back to modeling so I can create a pep for my specific design - Although I have seen some really cool designs out there that I wouldn't mind building.
Speaking of designs - I mentioned earlier that the best way to describe it was a hybrid between the nomex suit and the mk III under structure. For the time being, the under-structure to my suit is the only thing I have a firm concept of; I'm still looking for that right look and feel to the outer armor. I'm just going to focus right now on creating the arm and leg sections, based largely around the mk III under structure.
So far, I've gathered that this is the process:
- get armor shape formed with paper and glue/tape/etc
- use bondo to add detail and/or create smoother surfaces
- finish off with resin layers and paint (I'd rather not mess with fiberglass)
I'm already planning a trip to home depot/walmart when I wake up later this afternoon, but idk, it all seems to deceptively simple and easy lol I saw this video of a kid using nothing more then paper and elmers/super glue to build working parts!? If for instance, I needed a piece that was 1/2" thick, would I just stack and glue paper until it was 1/2" thick? The usual method I see here is that the folds in the paper create the desired geometry - now that I'm thinking about it, I think I'm missing a step between formed armor shape and using the bondo. I'm now assuming that there is a method to harden the paper before applying bondo in light layers? Although, I have been using regular paper, not the card stock I believe it was called. Is that paper hard and sturdy enough to handle the bondo, which looks like a clay-like substance? The idea of being able to fabricate parts with paper is very appealing to me lol Another question I had was can epoxy be used instead of resin? I use loctite instant epoxy mix at work when putting together RF chokes with ferrite rods - and from what I can tell they both do the same thing?
Well, at the moment I'm pushing it on being up for 20+ hours, and I'd like to wake up when home depot/walmart are still open, so good night to you all. I'll be picking up some card stock, bondo, and resin when I do get up and I'm very much looking forward to messing around with it!
Recently I've decided to restart a costume/armor project I've been 'working on' for the past few years. The easiest way to describe it would be a hybrid between the Nomex Survival Suit (from Batman Begins) and the Mark III Iron Man Suit (specifically, the suit's under structure), but this project is inspired by various different designs and concepts. Several months ago I finally went beyond the thinking/concept/sketching phase and actually produced something. Since I had no experience working with molding and casting, I had limited options, but I knew I needed some sort of casting of myself in order to get the ball rolling. Rather then a single piece suit of some kind, I figured the best thing I should do would be to separate the body into individual sections (legs, arms, torso, head, feet, and hands) and then connect them in some manner. I'm not entirely sure how I decided to do this, but I started taking regular sheets of paper (8.5" x 11") and dutch tape, and started to form the sections that I needed. The legs and arm sections went by without a hitch, and felt confident enough to do the head, but when I got to the torso section I hit a brick wall and have put it off to the side ever since.
The recent Iron Man 2 trailers has got me back to drooling over the suit and its mechanical structure lol and I would like to finally have a costume/armor for an anime/comic convention/ halloween event, so I decided to give it a shot again. The Mark V (?) used in the trailer, that transforms from a briefcase (uber cool) astonished me with its design, and for the past week or so, I've been looking for images of that suit, and the original Mark III suit - found a lot of gems actually, which was very helpful, but during that process I came across a lot of armor made out of paper, which eventually led me here lol
The original 'casts' I made from paper and dutch tape
------------------------------------------------------
The head,legs, and arms allow full mobility when worn.
Some stuff I've done in the past few hours
------------------------------------------------------
I decided to start a basic 'frame' for the feet, while actually trying to maintain some sort of geometry, which in my previous 'builds', I did not. I began working on the forearm, based on the ironman under structure. I'm fairly happy the way it came out, although it does need some minor modifications. It was a great learning experience though, more then anything. It helped me understand the geometry involved a lot better, and the pain to try and obtain a certain type of shape lol I'm going to play around with this type of construction method for now, before I jump into the whole pep design/file scene. I actually have experience doing 3d modeling and working with 3d studio max, but its not something I do very often so my skills are comparable to a newbie in certain aspects. On the bright side, I have a new reason to go back to modeling so I can create a pep for my specific design - Although I have seen some really cool designs out there that I wouldn't mind building.
Speaking of designs - I mentioned earlier that the best way to describe it was a hybrid between the nomex suit and the mk III under structure. For the time being, the under-structure to my suit is the only thing I have a firm concept of; I'm still looking for that right look and feel to the outer armor. I'm just going to focus right now on creating the arm and leg sections, based largely around the mk III under structure.
So far, I've gathered that this is the process:
- get armor shape formed with paper and glue/tape/etc
- use bondo to add detail and/or create smoother surfaces
- finish off with resin layers and paint (I'd rather not mess with fiberglass)
I'm already planning a trip to home depot/walmart when I wake up later this afternoon, but idk, it all seems to deceptively simple and easy lol I saw this video of a kid using nothing more then paper and elmers/super glue to build working parts!? If for instance, I needed a piece that was 1/2" thick, would I just stack and glue paper until it was 1/2" thick? The usual method I see here is that the folds in the paper create the desired geometry - now that I'm thinking about it, I think I'm missing a step between formed armor shape and using the bondo. I'm now assuming that there is a method to harden the paper before applying bondo in light layers? Although, I have been using regular paper, not the card stock I believe it was called. Is that paper hard and sturdy enough to handle the bondo, which looks like a clay-like substance? The idea of being able to fabricate parts with paper is very appealing to me lol Another question I had was can epoxy be used instead of resin? I use loctite instant epoxy mix at work when putting together RF chokes with ferrite rods - and from what I can tell they both do the same thing?
Well, at the moment I'm pushing it on being up for 20+ hours, and I'd like to wake up when home depot/walmart are still open, so good night to you all. I'll be picking up some card stock, bondo, and resin when I do get up and I'm very much looking forward to messing around with it!
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