The Iron Man project part thirteen
And here we thought we were finished.
The first problem is I found my upper arms weren’t really working well and wanted to redesign them so they wouldn’t rub against the chestplate as much but would give me greater range of movement. I came up with these.
A little scoring on the back to help it bend better
Added a hole and some layering to give more of a circular hinge look to it. Once velcroed to my shoulder it fits nicely under my shoulder pad and actually fits far better. Looks better than the prior pieces as well!
The thing is I really Really wanted a helmet for this costume.The probelm with the helmet is the mask could make or break this costume…it’s already straddling the fence a little hard and I really would have preferred a straight movie helm…and that’s something I couldn’t adequately create. I had an idea though. Let’s try it with the visor up…that way, it’s still my face, I have full visibility and no one is really looking too hard at the faceplate to see if it’s movie accurate or not.
I started with an old helmet from the dollar store. it’s too small for me, but I always had it in mind to build it up a bit. The first thing I buit was the chin area.
From the front it actually looks a little like the helmet’s In the movie before the CG is added. Going to put on some round “Ears” to attach the chin to.
Some foam around the back.
I like the ridged look, it gives texture. Some bling too and a faceplate on the top made out of some of the kid’s construction paper. I tried this out for the first time at last years Zombie Walk in Amherst.
This worked fairly well, but I still wanted something I could wear this with complete anonymity. I found this mask at the halloween store for five dollars and it fit better and more snug than any of the movie accurate halloween masks I saw, I mounted this on to the existing helm becoming the final result. It doesn’t open or close. That’s a drag, but one I can live with!
The Iron Man project part twelve
I’ve got it.
Remember last month how the mid section didn’t work out on my suit? The solution isn’t a long solid piece…no, what we’ll make is a sort of metal cage, using the existing bikini bottoms and abs.
The first thing we do is build up the back side, create something to anchor those new pieces we are creating.
Next we create a set of “ribs”. The cage to go around me. Enough space that it’ll, give a little but never really hit the top piece. Done over a red shirt it’ll all blend in and you won’t see the gaps so much.
Attached to the torso from the back and the briefs, we have our cage. The strips attach under the abs with velcro and are adjustable. Time for a test run.
Perfect. The last piece of the costume is in place! I spent the first few appearances just like this, no mask, just sunglasses and a goatee.
You’ll still see me pull it out for special occasions. I’m proud of it, but it’s horribly awkward to wear, and I have to have a handler when I do because it renders my hands useless!
I wonder what we’ll try next year?
The Iron Man project part eleven
Time to give this chest piece a coat of paint! Things are finally starting to look right….
I added the center piece into the breastplate. I’d love for it to light up, but that may be an addition for a later time. Right now, I just want to get this done. When I tried it on I found the shoulderpads were actually bigger than i had anticipated. They fit, but not underneath the chestpiece. In fact, it ended up being easier to just mount them to the chestplate itself.
Speaking of things that don’t fit….crap.Remember that midsection I created?
It does not slide under the chest plate. It butts up against it. To make matters worse, it’s too tall – after all, I expected the top to over lap it, hide a portion of the top.It’s not going to work. Well, perhaps not all of it. I ripped the ab section out and glued it onto the metal underwear. It will slide under and perhaps I can attach some velcro to the underside to the breastplate.
It’s not the look I wanted, but there is some precedent for the whole “T” shape in Iron Man costuming, but it pushes me a lot further into comic look and further way from the movie look than I wanted to be.
Maybe I can fix it.
The Iron Man project part ten
Despite being the largest piece of the costume, the breastplate is still really only going to be two pieces – three if you include the collar.
We start off with eh big breastplate, a couple of strips jutting out to go under the arms.
We score it inside diagonally and bend it into shape. This is going to have kind of a puffy angular look, similar to the armor in “The Ultimates”
I’m also cutting out a smaller strip for a collar. This will hide my neck and cover the seams where a mask will eventually rest. I’m leaving the collar open at the front though, suspecting my chin will need the clearance to come in and I doubt you’ll really notice the extra space anyhow…if it’s too obvious, I’ll wear a turtleneck underneath and solve the problem that way.
Teh back is actually designed to fold over and overlap the top of the front. It starts out with a “v” cut, but we’ll round that out once it’s attached. 
After the parts are created it’s a simple task to put them together, and add a hole in the middle along with some Hard Drive bling in the corners. I may wait until after I paint this red to add the back for the arc reactor. We’ll see next month!
The Iron Man project part seven
We have a special edition of the Iron Man project today.
Sometimes people will see me in the armor and ask if it’s hard to get into.
Yes. It is.
The real issue is you have to get into the outfit in a specific order, otherwise you can’t move, or you can’t reach the next part. If I have my gloves on, I can get my arm bands on (besides, the foreams wouldn’t fit over them anyhow). If I have my breastplate on, I can’t bend enough to get my shoes or lower legs on…ect.
So here’s the process. It starts with yellow sweatpants and a red Tshirt. It’s a T because the costume gets hot. I want light cloths under it. The fact that it’s a flash T is just ironic.
The yellow top is just so I have sleeves. It’s made from a pair of yoga pants so I have loops around my hands. This helps kept the sleeves from creeping up under the armor. I want yellow arms to go with the yellow gloves. Now we need to pull up the torso and attach the sides.
Legs are next, while I can still bend to take care of things. Upper leg, lower leg, then shoes. It HAS to be done in that order.
Breastplate next. It’s hard enough to squeeze my normal arms through those arm holes, with the armored limbs it would be impossible nad the paint would all scrape off.
Arms are slid on before the gloves. Upper then lower. Then the gloves. I usually end up having to pull at least one of those gloves on by my teeth.
And that’s the process. It takes about ten minuets on a good day (when I have help). I can manage to get a helmet on while wearing the gloves, but that’s about it. Next month we’ll go back to the process of making the suit.
The Iron Man project part nine
The task of creating shoulderpads isn’t an easy one. I have to create something round out of flat surfaces.
It’s all going to be in the layering. I start by cutting a notch in the pieces so they can fit together better and bend after they are glued.
I spent a little more time than intended on these, adding that strip across the pad and cutting more of a pattern in the inner part of the shoulder pad. These are embellishments I hadn’t really intended to do, but I’m glad I executed them as they occurred to me. The pieces look much better for them.
I also added a little elastic to the bottom to keep them together. I plan on sliding these on and tucking them into my breastplate.
A little paint and we’re done. I considered doing the whole thing red, but I’m glad I changed my mind and kept the white patches on the sunken parts. It’s one of those extra details like the yellow gloves that give the suite more character.
I think it’s high time we did the chest piece, don’t you? Joins us back here next month as we create the largest part of the costume!
The Iron Man project part eight
So now we need to make a torso, something that will slip under the chestplate . We start off with abs.
We take this beveled ab piece and attach it to a long piece of foam that will wrap around me, connecting to the other side of the beveled ab plate with velcro.
Time to add some ribbing. We start by scoring the abs with a razor in a tech pattern. Then we go over it in ink. Paint will sink into it but just a little of that ink will show through, creating an artificial shadow.
I’m digging in some canals and inserting real wires from a burnt out power supply here. Something to give patches of technical imagery and a kind of c-3po look.
A few more details on the back, some bling from a dead hard drive. I’ll paint more details on after we have a coat of red paint on here.
Wrapped around. It’ll be a littel snug ,but it’ll also push in some of my girth.
Almost ready for the breastplate! But first, I think we’ll tackle the shoulderpads next month.
The Iron Man project part seven
Before we get into the metal bikini bottoms lets take a quick moment to to the upper arms. This is another soda bottle and some foam.
We wrap the foam around the bottle and voila! arms done.
Next metal underwear. This is two pieces, the back with the foam g-string, and the front brace that glues to the back in two places, a seam at each hip, and some metal bling scavenged from an old hard drive.
This would really look better wit ha coat of red paint, don’t you think?
In fact, while we’re at it, let’s just paint up everything that we’ve made so far…..
I’m actually quite happy with it so far.
With the briefs done, it’s time for the mid section. I’m envisioning it kind of like the middle of a storm troopers outift. We’ll see how that works out next month!
The Iron Man project part six
More hand work today.
Once all the joints are created they must be painted BEFORE they are attached and glued on. We also wanted to create the palm with a circular port for the repulsors.
Finally we add a few red strips to the top (as opposed to the blast shield we see in the movies – it leans more towards the comics, but in the end is more practical)
Next month we’ll work on something really exciting! Metal underwear! but for now, remember, there’s new Violent Blue tomorrow!
The Iron Man project part five
Today we tackle the gloves. I wanted robot looking hands with joints so I cut pieces out of thin foam for this.
Each joint had to be created seperately. most had four pieces. Some of the ones towards the base of the hands had three. The tips of the fingers had five pieces.
I bought a pair of yellow gloves to glue the fingertips on to. I had decided on yellow insted of red because I’m not really tryign to replicate teh movei costume, but rather an amalagam of movei and comic armor. The yellow actually serves to give more detail where as the red would just blur the look of the joints.
I can tell right now I won’t have any dexterity in these things. I might be able to do basic things like pick up a glass or open a door, but anything with fine motor control, turning the page in a book or putting on my sunglasses..that’s going to be next to impossible.
We’re not done yet. We still have another month of glove creation. Of all the parts of this costume, the gloves were the single most difficult part – the most pieces and longes make time. but for now, remember, there’s new Violent Blue tomorrow!
The Iron Man project part four
A quick job today. Forearms. We start with some foam shapes and an old two liter bottle that used to hold soda.
Cut the top and bottom off the bottle and glue them together. This part is easy. It’s the next part that’s going to take some time.
In the meantime, lets throw a coat of red paint and some bling scavaged from an old broken hard drive to make this look nicer.
Next month we’ll begin the arduous task of creating the gloves. but for now, remember, there’s new Violent Blue tomorrow!
The Iron Man project part three
Today we need to finish that leg. The leg is actually only three pieces. one trifold, similar to the lower leg, a round piece going around the back adn one long piece for the side.
I really wanted some round whorls on the side, something to give the suite some texture and look a little more like the comic legs.
These strips have varying thickness and are glued onto the side panel of the leg. That side panel is attached to the front.
Finally we wrap a long flat piece of foam from one end to the other creating a leg piece. These cover the thighs and sit above the calf boots we created back i npart one.
Next month we start work on the arm! but for now, remember, there’s new Violent Blue tomorrow!
The Iron Man project part two
The shoes for irom man actually fit over my real shoes. They have no bottom, just a littel elastic, so we had to first create a kind of outer shell to know how big they needed to be.
Detail work comes next. A strip along the bottom, some ridges on the back.
Finally a few finishing touches, in particular a triangular shape on the top that fits in places with the blast shield on the lower leg.
Next month we’ll work a little more on the leg and build the upper part. but for now, remember, there’s new Violent Blue tomorrow!
The Iron Man project
Last year we spent about eleven months walking step by step through the creation of my Pinhead makeup. I may still return to that subject and create other cenobites as well as armor, but for now, I have other fish to fry.
You probably saw pictures of me in my Iron Man armor last year, but did you ever wonder how I created it? This year’s oddessy will be the step by step creation of the suit, mistakes and all.
It started with the legs. The calves actually. I knew I couldn’t create rounded edges with the material I had and the subpar sculpting skill of mine. So insted we went with sharp edges and curved angles. These are the sides.
I then created the front of the leg, one piece of foam scored in two places on the back and then bent into a shape with three sides. I attached the previous two pieces to this.
Finally we need to create a blast shield at the bottom, a way for the leg to move at the ankle without there being a huge gap over the shoes.
Finally, I need a little helper to test it out! Obviously Lydia wants to be Iron man some day. Next month we’ll show you how we created that shoe! but for now, remember, there’s new Violent Blue tomorrow!
Argo City Comics 