First layer of bondo done

Today I got some time to sand the first layer of bondo on the helmet. It's looking pretty good, I haven't applied bondo all over just the main sections.

I also gave it a quick coat of some old spray paint to show some of the detail.

Jon

Smoothing edges

Today I spent some time using a rasp to remove some of the edges of the Pep. I found some of the card came away where I had tape on the inside, I'm not worried about this as the plastic has held fine everywhere else.
I've found some sections where it was warped, but I think I can sort these out using a heat gun.

Jon

Helmet enforcement done

Today I got the inside of the helmet re-enforced with polyurethane plastic. It's now rigid enough to sand the outside to make it smooth and begin applying car body filler.

Jonathan

Pep almost complete

I've been assembling the new Iron Man helmet over the past week, it's almost done. Just need to fill some of the gaps then I can re-enforce the inside.
The Pep is being sold by Fierfek on TheRPF, informations in the link below.
Fierfek's Premium Pepakura Files

The size is pretty close to my previous one, if not slightly bigger. But that's good because I'll have more space to work to install servos etc.


Jonathan

I'm on Facebook!

I've decided to link a Facebook page to my blog so it's easier for people to leave feedback.

I haven't worked on the Hylian shield in a while, but I'll get back to it at some point. I've started on working on a new Iron Man helmet from the third movie, released next year.
The new armor was shown at SD Comic-con so there's already a bunch of people starting to make replications. So here's a picture of what I'm aiming for.


Jonathan

I had some time after work today so I spent a couple of hours adding a little more reenforcement to the chest and then started on the car body filler work.

I made some outlines in marker to help seperate the areas so I can focus on one area at a time.

Jonathan

Back complete and chest re-enforced

I've now finished the back and managed to re-enforce the chest today.
I first glued a wire hanger into the chest so it would keep it's shape. This worked out really well.

Next step I'm taking is adding the detail to the chest using car body filler.
Hopefully get some done during the week.

Chest done onto back.

Okay, so I've finished the chest and at first I thought I'd need to rescale it as it didn't seem to sit right. But after referencing some images of the Mark VI I found I was just holding it too low, once in the correct place it looked good.

So I've not moved onto the back and done a fair bit, starting from the spine, moving downwards then upwards. I'm about 40% there and hopefully I can finish it before the weekend.
Pictures to follow.

Jonathan

Mark VI has begun!

I've been waiting for a Iron Man VI Pep to come onto the scene since watching the first Iron Man 2 trailer and finally one has arrived.

robo3687 on the siwdat.com forums has provided a well detailed set of Iron Man armors which cover the Iron Man 2 movie suites. These can be found here

So I'm almost done with the Pep work, although I spent a couple of hours prior to Pepping sorting out supports so it would keep its shape during the re-enforcement stage. The total Pep time is going to come to 7 hours and hopefully I can re-enforce it this weekend.

Well I missed a few blog posts :S Sorry!

Well I did eventually finish off the mold and have successfully cast a few helmets. Can you spot the difference?
Next step on the helmet front is to make a nice copy for myself and install a set of light up eyes like I did for the master and an electronic system for the faceplate.

If you've not seen the light up eyes yet then check my Flickr photo stream here

I've started moving away from Flickr, and towards Picasa so I'm removing the Flickr gadget on the right because it seems to make the page take ages to load.

Keys!

Today I got on with more silicone with thixo and then finally applied the keys. The silicone keys just stick on with a bit of the thickened silicone.
These keys are important as they help align the fiberglass jacket I will be making.

As always check the Flickr stream for more pictures.

Jonathan

-- Post From My iPhone

Yay for Thixo

With the print layer done I started on bulking it up so it would become stiffer. Problem with this is that silicone is too runny. The solution to this problem is thixo. Thixo is an addiive you can add to silicone to thicken it up.
As always check the Flickr stream for more pictures.

Jonathan

-- Post From My iPhone

Rubber Time

It's been two weeks since I finished Iron Man so the laquer's had good time to fully harden. So I thought why not begin the moulding work. Last night I had a bit of a play with the silicone rubber to make some keys for later. I had to check the the modelling clay I was going to use wouldn't stop the silicone from curing as some clays contain sulphur which does. Anyway all the keys set fine so today I began.
I started with prepping the helmet with clay and creating a skirt for the silicone to run onto.
I then start the moulding by mixing 200grams of silicone and painting it on. First dabbing the silicone in then using a circular motion to rub it in.

As always check the Flickr stream for more pictures.

Jonathan


-- Post From My iPhone

It's done!

It's done! It's finally done!
Got a bit of a late start today because I crashed at a mates house last night. But things began well, sprayed a few final coats.
Then masked off the gold chin section, and wrapped a plastic bag over the rest so there was no accidents. I then spray red over the chin, to stop any gold bleeding. Once dried I spray the gold on top, again about 4 coats.
When those coats were drying I was cutting up some screws so I could glue the heads onto the face plate and helmet. I then used the dremel to make some dimples for the screw heads to sit in.
Once all the screw heads were glued in I then sprayed some more spray paint on top.
The last bit of painting was the black paint on the jaw. To do this I sprayed some black spray paint into it's lid and then used a paint brush to apply it.
Once all done I applied three coats of laquer to protect it.

Now for it's public reveal.
As usuall check my Flickr stream for more pictures. I'll take some more of different people wearing it and upload them soon.


Jonathan

Paint time

Been a miserable cold wet week this week, so I haven't had much time to work on the helmet.

Today I finally got the chance to work on it and it's gotten on very well. Got it finally primed and ready for the paint. Starting with the faceplate I found using these car spray paints takes some patience. You have to spray from a good distance to get a nice even coat. It also looks strange going down as I think it has metallic pieces in it which look like they fizz when they touch the surface.

After a few nice even coats it's looking very close to being done. I still need to dremel some holes for the bolt details but then that should be it.

Check my Flickr photo stream for more photos.

Jonathan


-- Post From My iPhone

Details details details

As the title says details was the job of the day. The eye is in the detail, and this is especially true of every piece of work I make. This meant that I didn't finish today, but I'd rather finish later and have it the way I want then rush it.
I bought a tube of car body scratch filler thinking it would be easier to use then the two part filler, boy was I wrong. This stuff doesn't harden like the two part filler, and it doesn't sand at all well. Unfortunatly this took up some time.

Jonathan


-- Post From My iPhone

Day off

So I got some spare holiday days at work so I thought I'd take today off. So I got up kinda late, but got a good 4 hours ish of work done on the helmet. I was mainly focusing on the circular ear pieces to get the layered look around them. I found one side was shallower so I had to build up that side with filler, then sand and mold. After a decent amount of sanding and dremeling I sprayed another coat of primer.
Check out my Flickr photo stream for more photos.

Jonathan


-- Post From My iPhone

Jaw's almost done

Continued on the jaw a bit today. Got the dremel out to grind down the inside of the thick side to balance them out.
Also worked on smoothing out the rest of the latest filling. Then a dust and wipe down before another primer coat.
Check my Flickr photo stream for more pictures.

Jonathan

-- Post From My iPhone

Jaw time

I find sometimes that I can't be bothered to work in the evenings when i get home from work, yesterday was not one of those days.
I got some work done on shaping the eyes better, and fixing a gap on on side of the jaw. This gap happened because the jaw warped and I had to fix it to make it symmetrical.
Anywho check the updated pictures.

Jonathan

-- Post From My iPhone

Hello world

My first ever blog post!

So after showing friends and collegues some of my previous projects they said I should keep a blog showing my progress. So here it is :D

To see some of my previous projects and see my natural progression check my Deviant Art page @ http://awaken-benihime.deviantart.com

I'm currently working on an Iron Man helmet, from the movie.
Here are the steps I've already done, followed by the steps I still have to do.

1. Find a Pepakura model of the helmet you want, print, cut and glue it together.
2. Once assembled resin the outside to help firm up the card.
3. Fiberglass the inside to give it strength.
4. Use car body filler to build up the detail on the outside, in layers.
5. Sand between layers.
6. Spray with primer, this helps bring out the imperfections and you can also draw on some of the details.
   

To be done:

1. Use body filler to build up the detail, using files and sand paper to shape.
   
2. Primer the whole thing, followed by further sanding with high grit sand paper.
3. Mask off and spray the colours.
4. Spray a protective coat of laquer.

Here are some pictures of it from yesterday.

So I got a lot of work done yesterday, but today the weather has taken a turn for the worst. When it's wet I can't get any sanding done :(
Let's hope for better weather.


Jonathan