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:
 

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

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:


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


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:


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:

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"):


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:


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:

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:
 

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


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...

Mortar Launcher Gnomes in Stock

For those of you who've been waiting for an opportunity to add some more firepower to your garden gnome squad, I've finally managed to get a handful of these guys painted up:



Loading a round into the M120 Mortar Launcher, this little guy is ready to rain deadly fire on gophers and squirrels alike from a safely entrenched position behind your planter boxes or across the lawn:

You can pick one up at http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli.  They sell pretty fast, so don't delay.

On the off chance that the mortar doesn't provide heavy enough fire support for your garden pest problems, I'm also working on a radio gnome so your squad can call in air strikes:


More to come.  Stay tuned...

Unseaworthy Vessel of the Week: Sun Cruise Resort and Yacht in South Korea

Back in 2006 I was sailing as 3rd Mate on board a hydrographic survey ship.  One afternoon we were cruising along the coast of South Korea when I came up to the pilothouse to take over as watch officer.  When it came time to get an appraisal of the shipping traffic in the area, I couldn't help but notice this particularly unsettling ship in the distance:

This is Sun Cruise Resort and Yacht, a hotel designed and built to look like some implausibly horrific maritime disaster.  We were in the area for a few days and I still couldn't help but be weirded out every time I turned around and saw this hotel which was clearly designed to look like something left behind by Godzilla.  It was just as bad at night:

Many folks might ask why someone would build such a thing.  Not me.  I figure it started with some absurdly wealthy South Korean going on a cruise and getting seasick.  Then they thought, "this would be great if only it would stop moving."  A few years later, there it is.  Problem solved.

If it was up to me, the next step would be setting it up with wheels so I could back it into downtown Seoul every month or two just to see how much destruction it could cause.  It's things like this that should make the world glad I'm not a billionaire.

If you get bored, check out their website for some fascinating Engrish.  Especially if you'd like to make reservations for a "romantic propose," so you can come to "the special resort for making your impressiver love confession."

Tell me that doesn't sound like a good time.

Ironman Costume Part 2: Making the Hard Parts

A while back I posted about making a Mark 3 Ironman helmet using my 3D printer named "Jarvis."  I'm very pleased with the finished piece, but being me I couldn't be satisfied to stop there.

Since I still had some amazingly detailed digital models for the rest of the suit, I decided it was time to go ahead and build it. 

Here's a "during" shot from that last post:

Of course, there's been an awful lot of progress since then:


If you'd like to see more progress pics as well as a description of the process involved in making the rest of the armor, read on...