War machine wip. Rancid

[Rancid Musk]

So I have been building Ironman for a buddy of mine and it is progressing nicely however I am getting kind of jealous on that fact that it is for someone else. I decided to build War machine for myself so that my buddy will not take all the glory for my hard work.

I always like war machine better. On with the build.

I started with the helmet. It took me 2 tries to get the scaling right. War machine is bulkier that ironman and I messed up. I used my head size and added a inch for padding. It was too big and I got the dreaded "Booble" head effect

I got it to where I was happy. My ears are touching both sides so I don't want to go smaller.



On with the resin


And the bondo

 

[mawrTRON]

Looking pretty smooth, good start.

 

[Snortellini]

Looking sick.

 

[Rancid Musk]

I Started the Chest. Looks like I need to revisit the Scaling Sticky. The effect was comical.


I re-scaled and it is better but it is HUGE in the back. That may be a good thing. I have to yet work in the mounts for the weapons.



I scaled up the shoulders to round out the look better. It took me 3 tries until i was happy with it.


Next I addressed the collar bone weapon pods. They were too high and limited the helmet movement.
The right is the original model. The Left I dropped down about 2".

 

[glasscutter]

Are you sure its not the helmet size being too big? I'm still new to building armor but the helmet seems really big.

Edit: Never mind I just read where your ears are touching the sides.

 

[Rancid Musk]

Yeah The head is too big. I did it twice and though I could get away with the second one. My ears are cramped inside and I don't want to go any smaller.

 

[Chernobyl]

Yeah The head is too big. I did it twice and though I could get away with the second one. My ears are cramped inside and I don't want to go any smaller.

Probably a bad file, then. Granted, things -look- OK on their own, but when combined with the rest of the set... crikey, that think looks huge.

 

[Rancid Musk]

I have moved my attention to the Legs and deal with the Chest and head later.

Got the legs Pepped and Hardened


Finished the Bondo work. It is finally warm out. I have to adjust my working time. I got lazy with the cold weather and forgot how quick bondo cures.

I added the detail lines back into the thighs. Some one asked me about it. I do not use a dremel for detail lines. I use a triangle jewels file. I first pencil in the lines.


Then I lightly scratch the line with my file just enough to sctrach off the primer. Once the line is there I go deeper in shallow digs. Eventually the line is a grove the size of the triangle file. I try not to go too deep. If I hit paper I stop and fill the paper with super glue.

 

[Mr Wilson]

Yay! Update! Hope you didn't get hit with that freak sleet storm yesterday (and of course Virginia is bi polar to today is 60 degrees) :/ Can't wait to see this complete!

 

[Rancid Musk]

Far better or worse I decided to complete the helmet. I may do a smaller one later. For now I want to get something done.

I did the classic black silver paint with light battle damage.



Next I did the eyes. I did a variation on the eye slit method. I took poly carbonate sheet and cut the eye shape into the plastic like a prizm. Then I lite the edges with LEDs.



Installed white LEDs in the same manner



I may go back and make the eye shape bigger to fill out the space better. The down side is it will cut my peripheral vision.

 

[colbs]

Heads a lil big isn't it?

 

[Mr Wilson]

Heads a lil big isn't it?

He already said that since he said, 'I may do a smaller one later but i just want to get something done' which acknowledges this. You really should read the whole thread before commenting, especially criticism.

 

[Rancid Musk]

Moment of truth: I wanted to see how the head size fits in proportion with the rest of the torso.

I am torn if I should do a smaller helmet or not. The servos fit right in the jaw and the video display I plan to add fits right into the faceplate without compromising vision. If I go smaller it may not all fit.

Honest opinion, head too big or ok?

 

[Rancid Musk]

Ok so the feedback I have received is that with the armor the helmet is fine. Granted I have problems lifting my arms but it looks cool.

Now that I am keeping the helmet I have new found motivation to work on it. The thought of starting over was heavy.

I worked out the servo controls and was able to mount everything in the jaw. The foam pad the protects my face is bent upwards so you can see the electronics.
There is a small limit switch to activate the faceplate.

 

[Spartan1313]

that is so awesome! I am always impressed by people who put electronics inside of their armor. I am just a little confused though, how to you activate the faceplate to actually slide up while wearing the helmet? *Does not know what a limit switch is*

 

[Rancid Musk]

I have not quite figured the switch part out yet. Right now it is a little switch as seen in the lower right of the picture that I touch with my finger.
I want to do it hands free and also the ability to switch my eye color on the fly.

The plan is to use my face. I salvaged some small pcb switches from an old printer. They are small and very light to activate. I want to attach it to my right cheek foam pad and then activate it by pushing on the inside of my cheek with my tongue. I will report back if it worked or not.

My friend wants me to run wires to my hands but running cable down the bicep and forearm and armor fingers seems cumbersome.

 

[Rancid Musk]

So I ran into a problem with the switching. I had two controllers for 2 servos. Both were connected to 1 switch. There is something called debounce. In a nut shell 1 switch, one servo would move but the other ignored the signal or trailed the other. I ended up ripping one of the metal gears.

I abandoned my dual controller and found this little baby. Adafruit trinket. It is a 5 I/o programmable micro that cost $8.00 bucks.

The learning curve from 1-10 was about 5. I had help but in the end I was able to control both servos reliably and also drive my eye LEDs and switch color on the fly.

 

[Rancid Musk]

So I had these video Glasses lying around for years but never used them. I rather watch movies on my Ipad.


I stripped them down and was able to integrate it into the faceplate. There is just enough room.


Next is figure out which camera to use. I bought a rear view auto camera for 10 bucks. It works but since it is a rear view, everything is mirrored in front of me. Talk about vertigo. I am considering the Apple PI package but it is pricey. also I am considering some sot of video record/picture since I have the video feed. Problem is cost and power. Unless I actually build an arc reactor, I am going to chew through batteries like crazy.

For now I am happy with an alternate mean of seeing other than slits under the eyes.

 

[Russett]

Woah, that's crazy, you're crazy! The whole thing just blows my mind, I'm seriously drooling rainbows all over the computer screen right now! Fantastic work!
Question, are those glasses stereoscopic 3d?

 

[Rancid Musk]

Thanks for the excitement. The glasses are 3d sort of. The menu screen is 3d however the video feed comes in as regular 4:3 or 16:9. If I could feed a 3d video signal in it may work. Right now I am limited to camera quality and power.