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I make toys for kids who don't want to grow up. I'm on the lookout for new projects. If you're interested in commissioning me to build something ridiculous, shoot me an email.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Ironman Costume Part 3: Making the Soft Parts

This is the third installment in my Ironman replica building series so far.  Here's links to the first two:

Part 1: Rapid Prototyping the Helmet
Part 2: the Hard Parts


The whole suit is supposed to look like it's made of metal (I know, a gold-titanium alloy).  So for me nothing detracts from an otherwise well-done Ironman costume like gaps around the joints showing that there's just a spandex-clad nerd inside.  

While I'm not about to go through the trouble of engineering a series of compression articulations for these areas, I still need to fill them in with something that I can convincingly paint to look the part.

This is why I needed to make the rubber bits:
 Fit Testing Neck 2

To see how I made these parts, read on...

Friday, October 18, 2013

Recent UFO Sightings in the Workshop

I apologize for not writing more, but it's mostly due to the fact that I've been scrambling on so many projects simultaneously.  I've just delivered a couple of them and should have posts going up soon.  The most interesting one can be seen HERE.

Since I haven't had the energy to generate a full project narrative lately, I'm just going to share another shotgun blast of UnFinished Objects I've been working on over the past week or two.

I've been making all manner of silly things.  Like these foam rubber stunt hammers:
Stunt Hammers Nearly Done

As I've mentioned before, I'm also working on the next Combat Garden Gnome sculpt:
Untitled

Since that's not keeping me busy enough, I've decided to begin work on the full costume for the Sith Stalker version of Galen Marek from Star Wars The Force Unleashed:
Smoothing Progress

That's a Pepakura-based project though.  Since that's pretty low-tech, I've decided I need to step it up by having Lopez get started on another Halo project.  This time I'm building the M739 Light Machine Gun (aka Squad Automatic Weapon or "SAW") from Halo 4.  Here's the desired end product:

For right now, I've got the pieces of the drum magazine carved out:
H4 SAW Mag Start
But Lopez is working nights carving out the main body of the machine gun while I work on other things.

On the subject of digital fabrication, I've been 3D printing a prototype for the Mark 33 Ironman helmet (aka the "Silver Centurion"):
Mk33 First Gloss Coat

I've also had Jarvis crank out the mount parts for the War Machine gatling gun so I've got something else to tinker with:
arm progress.

But all of the computer-based builds have had me feeling like maybe I'm losing my touch for sculpting things out by hand, so I sat down with one of the reject castings of the Mark 3 helmet and a couple of blocks of clay and modified it into the Mark 3 Space Armor from the Godkiller
 story arc in the Ironman comics:

Untitled
Once I'm done smoothing it out and sharpening the edges, I'll mold it, cast it, and make it wearable.

And lastly, there's still the Mark 3 Ironman build:
 Untitled

It's become the bane of my existence, but it's so very near to being done:
IM 3

I'll be writing more about all of these things as I get them completed.  On top of all that, there's even more projects lined up.  

Stay tuned...