- Hello! It's James from XRobots.co.uk.
This is part 35 of my
Avengers: Age of Ultron Iron
Man Hulk Buster-inspired suit,
which I've been building for over a year.
This is actually a costume
that you can climb into,
unlock all the joints,
go for a walk around,
and when you're bored,
lock up the joints again,
climb out, and leave you
standing there like it is now.
Lots of these pieces are animatronic,
which I'll be coming onto
in some of the episodes coming up.
Last time, I worked on
the mechatronic arms,
which are mechatronic from the elbow down,
so there's a joystick that operates those
in the upper arm for the elbow
movement, the hand gripping,
and the weapons which
pop out of the shoulder
and are concealed in the cuff there
with a piece of animatronic.
So we've still got lights and sounds
and a lot of that build to do.
We've still got lots of
panels to put on all of these
black parts, they're 3D-printed,
and the underlying frame is actually wood,
and I've used sheet
material to do these skins
made of floor mats and foam board.
So, we're gonna revisit the helmet today.
I did some work on this in
a couple of episodes before,
and as I've built out the
suit, and also watched
the actual movie to see
how that helmet folds away.
I think we need a bit
of a different design.
My T-shirt this week is my
Marvel Collector Corps t-shirt,
which came in my Marvel
Collector Corps boxing,
along with the mini Hulk Buster pop.
So scroll back in my channel
to see me unboxing that,
and see what else came in the box.
Here's the helmet I did before,
which is entirely 3D printed.
And the aim was that
this section was going
to flip back on the mechanism,
the sides were going to
hinge away around the back,
and then the faceplate was
gonna drop down into the body,
and basically, that's how
it was going to assemble.
These parts are quite heavy.
They were printed in PLA,
and they're in about 10% infill,
but they are quite thick parts.
So they're not too bad,
but it's quite a lot to hinge away,
And I think having made the other parts
in a 3D printed frame and
then start foam on it,
I'd quite like to redesign the helmet
or at least use this sort of design,
and make it a bit lighter and
a bit easier to hinge away,
not to mention the weight building up
on my shoulders as we go.
This is the mechanism that was
going to sort of hinge those.
So I have these hinge pieces here
which we're going to start
at the front of the hinge backwards.
And I've got this carriage that runs
to hinge the prongs up and down.
This is a bit wobbly and you
needed some more reinforcement,
but essentially that was going to be,
what would cause everything
to open and of course
the faceplate would
drop down into the body,
but I'm not totally sure
this is actually the right proportion now
I've built out the rest of the suit.
And, yeah, it's a bit
clutchy and it's not really
how the helmet hinges
away anyway in the movie.
So here is a bootleg on Hulk Buster figure
which I bought on eBay from China
for not very much money.
Basically what seems
to happen in the movie,
in fact, this one does actually hinge open
is almost what happens and it
seems to invisibly disappear
behind the suit, which
of course is impossible.
But basically what happens
is these side pieces,
sort of hinge outwards and lock in.
This piece disappears
into the faceplate and
the faceplate disappears
into the helmet, and then the helmet,
kind of disappears behind.
So we can do all of that apart
from the disappearing behind magically
'cause there's really no
way for it to fold up to.
But we can make the hell we lift up
and in fact, it wouldn't just hinge.
It actually sort of come
up and come up with over,
basically, a bit like the faceplate
on a normal Iron Man helmet.
We can make the faceplate
disappear into that hopefully.
The very end brim may
or may not do anything,
and then we can definitely
make these side panels
hinge in and outwards.
So we can have almost all of the motion.
You'll notice that the helmet
is quite actually tall and pointy.
This is not quite the right scale
but it's getting there and
the one I designed before
was actually half a sphere so,
or at least a quarter of
a sphere, but in profile,
it was a hemisphere, which is
pretty much the wrong shape.
So first of all, I'm gonna
3D print a simple shape
so we can offer it up to the suit
and see what it looks like.
I got the body down and
put it on the work night
so I can work on the head
without the ceiling being in the way.
So I've printed my hoop out,
and now that's kind of the
first rung on the ladder
to working out how this mechanism works.
So I sat down for several
days trying to plan it all.
And I realized I couldn't plan it
so I've done this very simple piece first.
We can roughly work out
where the top of the head
is going to be, which
I think is about there.
And that fits quite nicely
with the other mechanism
that I've put on for these
opening shoulder poles.
Check out the episode a
couple of episodes ago
to have a look at how that works
and obviously we've got
these weapons that pop out.
But we need to avoid
that, but that's fine.
So we can have this hinged
mechanism so the wooden chassis.
And I think it's just gonna have two arms,
which kind of hinge it back
like this and depending
on where we put them,
we can get different angles
obviously if we put them,
made them very short,
it would do this, which is not good.
So we actually need to hinge
that up and right backwards.
So I think like his arms need
to come right to the back.
And then obviously the faceplate
is on the front of here,
and that will hinge up inside,
as the helmet goes back,
and then the two side
pieces will flip in and out
to make up that sort of front
where the sort of jaw line is.
So I think this can go quite far forward
and this is basically the
top of the head in profile.
I think about that height,
I think that's about where it
needs to be not much higher
than the shoulders, but
I think that's roughly
the right sort of contour.
So I'll get the next piece printed
and then once I've got that hinge,
we can work on the actual faceplate hinge.
And then hopefully it becomes clear
what I'm trying to achieve.
So those parts are the two arms
and the back bracket in the back
which will bolt on so it can be removed.
And obviously, this allows this thing
to hinge kind of backwards like this.
So what we need to do
is put some stoppers in,
to halt it the right height
which I think is about there.
And then we need to think
about how the next stage falls into that.
Here they are.
I've added these pieces
which I've just screwed on.
So now that comes down
to the right height,
and we still got space on the
interfaces to put a hinge on
which basically hinges
the faceplate in and out.
The faceplate is quite a bit
narrower than the helmet.
It doesn't come out to the full size.
So that's what these phases are for here.
Obviously I should have
designed this all in CAD
and done in one piece,
but I feel much more
comfortable doing it as I go
and adding bits on, and
of course all the pieces
are made of ABS which is a
plastic Lego is made from,
so we can make simple whelms with acetone
as I have with these other big pieces
so that we can just stick
on more and more pieces.
And that's quite a good
way to visualize it.
Here's the CAD four we've
got so far so the blue parts
are the parts I've already
printed and the next part
is gonna be this green part
and the red blocks there
which is just going to fix on as they say
onto the initial bit of the mechanism.
And obviously that's gonna
hinge out on the holes
through the red blocks and
the green part of course,
which will be the faceplate
hinge, so not much to it,
but obviously that's gonna
then fold into the helmet
and the helmet will hinge
back at the same time
so it doesn't hit me in the face.
So we get those printed, and
then that's basically the basis
for the core mechanics
so then we can start planning the detail.
Here it is.
So we've got this piece
that now hinges out
which the faceplate will be mounted on.
It may be that it's mounted like this
or this may be slightly higher up
so it's just below the eyes.
Haven't really decided.
Obviously this folds up inside the helmet,
and this all sort of fold
out as it comes down like so.
So mounted onto these
pieces will be a little bits
that hinge in and out of the
sides to make up the rest
of the jaw and they may
be on four bar links
and they actually move
in this sort of motion,
a bit like an Iron Man faceplate.
And obviously, this will
then fit into the helmet
and if you can imagine that
being one complete dome.
So the next thing to think
about is how that gets actuated
and how I'm going to
actually make that faceplate.
I found this acrylic dome
which I used before to
form the shoulder bevels
and things by stretching
foam over them with heat.
And this is actually an
R2-D2 sort of size dome.
It's 45 centimeters in diameter
and the plan will be again
to form foam and the sheet
material over it by heating it
and stretching it over
so that I can make the
main pieces for this,
and this cunningly fits
exactly on the hoop
and it'll sit about there,
obviously mine will be slightly thicker
because it'll be made of
foam and multiple layers,
the same as the other bits of armor.
But that's a rough sort of size
to see how that's going to look.
And you'll notice that
commonly the faceplate hinge
fits right in that quarter as well.
In fact, it's kind of a
finger distance behind
so that means the faceplate
is correctly recessed
for the rest of the profile.
So I've added some levers to
the back here which are these,
so that I can hinge this back
and the idea is I'm gonna
put bungee cord on the
back here to counterbalance
the weight of the helmet.
I've also made these cams,
which are basically cams
with pulleys on it and the aim was
the ones the counter balancing is in place
these can just fit in each
side to rotate to lift this
and that could be with
pull cords that come down
each side which could go to
a motor that winches them,
or however a bit like the
world did the knee joints
with the pull strings that
pull the latches in and out.
But first of all, I need to
get an idea of the weight
that is gonna be on here.
So, let's try and form up
some of those sections.
I'm going to use my vacuum forming setup,
which I've got here.
And if you look back through
the last part of part four
of my BB eight progress actually
use this to make the head.
What I've got here is
actually a wooden box
lined with foil and a
heater in the bottom.
And it's a Colt patio
heater that only heats
what it shines on so
it uses infrared light,
rather than heating up the air,
and the foil basically allows us,
that light to refract all
the way around and diffuse
onto a sheet of plastic
that's held in this frame
and normally I'd go in and vacuum form
that down onto the table there
by sucking the air through
the holes of a Dyson,
and that would form over
the buck, or the mold.
In fact, what I'm gonna do
is make form over this dome.
The dome is much bigger than the table,
and the frame so essentially
I don't actually need
to vacuum download,
because it's just a dome
there's no recesses in
it so I can basically
just put the plastic in
the frame and press it down
as far as it goes
and hopefully we can
make various dome shapes.
We can then cut the contours
out to make the helmet.
So I've got some sheets of plastic there
which are half a meter square.
I'm also gonna try and do
this with foam floor mats
as well so we'll see how that goes.
Okay, my heat is heating up
and you can see that light
sort of diffusing around the foil.
So we should get a constant
heat over the whole surface
which is one of the main
issues with vacuum forming
and generally thermo forming
to basically heat that sheet evenly.
So let's put the plastic on,
and then we'll leave it
for about three minutes,
and then we should be to go
and form it over the dome.
Just set off a stopwatch on my phone.
So it's been about one minute 20.
I can see that plastic is quite soft.
Get a little bit longer,
and then we'll try and make the form.
Alright, now it seems just about ready
so we're gonna kill the heater
and squash this over here.
Push it down as tight as I can.
We'll see it doesn't quite
reach the bed for vacuuming
unfortunately with this dome,
but we have got a substantial
amount of dome there
formed in the plastic.
And this is my thing is
one and a half MIL hips,
which is high impact polystyrene sheet.
I haven't tried forming ABS
or other types of plastic,
but this works pretty well,
black plastic takes slightly less time
'cause it absorbs the
heat better of course.
So just leave that to cool down for a bit.
Yeah, that seems to be it.
There we go, we've got
one big plastic bowl.
So we'll do the others and
then obviously what we'll do
is cut out contours from
this, and that'll be the same
sort of contour for the
round of the helmet.
So I formed up three of these,
and as you can just see them there
so I've got three white domes
and those are gonna make
up the main contours,
and we'll do something
else for the faceplates,
but now it's time to
time to try some foam,
which of course will be
on the lots of layers.
So let's just take the floor mat
which I've cut down to fit in the frame.
Now I have no idea what's
gonna happen to here
or whether it's gonna burst into flames
or what's gonna happen so
I have to be quite careful
and the door's open so
I can throw it outside
if worse comes to worse.
Alright, so we'll start the clock
and see what happens I guess.
It's starting to dip,
so it's definitely taking the heat.
Okay, I had to stop it.
It's actually burning
and smoke is coming out
so I'm gonna still try
and do it anyway but
basically turn it over,
and keep heating it without
burning it hopefully.
Hopefully all my smoke
alarms won't go off.
Maybe I'll hold it a bit higher?
Normally do this with a
hot air gun which of course
just puts hot air on it,
and that works quite well.
And you can see it's changed
the surface quite a bit
and it's definitely singed it.
I think I could probably
press that over right now
and suddenly had, about too long,
let's give it one final
burst, see what happens.
As pull down the frame as you'd expect,
but let's try this.
We'll see the foam retains
his heat a lot longer.
So I've got a kind of dome piece there.
I'm thinking that's probably
gonna be okay to use.
And then we'll have to
cut slits for the rest.
I've put a couple of extra
bits in the assembly here
mainly this red piece
which is split in two halves for printing.
And this green piece which
attached to the lever
to the front of the helmet
essentially that lifts up,
and that obviously forms
the back of the helmet,
so I can put my bits of
foam and plastic over that
and that will give it some
support into the back.
Obviously my assembly
here is totally square,
whereas in reality the helmet
is gonna be round at the bottom.
But obviously we can only do so much
and you're not gonna see
the back much anyway.
But hopefully those leavers
are gonna be covered
by the back of the suit,
and that's something we have to revisit
at some point, but
obviously from a front view.
It's mostly going to look like a dome.
Brighter heat wave has hit the UK today
and it's really hot up here.
I'm really glad I did this
forming actually yesterday
and I pretty much sort of do a little bit
of these projects every day,
and I spend the entire two weeks,
making a hole buster video for instance,
and it's uploaded just
in time for Tuesday.
Anyway, here we go.
So this is the foam
piece, probably gonna make
some more of these or just
shape the foam by hand
over the dome with a hot
air gun in smaller pieces.
If you can imagine that
being spread over the back
of the head as the main layer there,
which is gonna make the
main form of the head,
probably like several
pieces cut out interlocked.
So that's the main structure,
then we've got our three
hips pieces that we formed.
It should come out quite well.
And those again are gonna be
cut up a piece for each one.
So we'll have one for
the very top of the head
with a widow's peak on,
and then we'll have two
on the sides, which make
up that kind of dome
all the way around, and
again we're gonna cut those
and either lay them on steps bits of foam,
or we're gonna have slits between them
that basically make up
the lines of the helmets
and we can stick 3D printed
bits and other material on top.
I also did another one which is this one,
which is far more rigid.
It's 3-MIL foam PVC board,
and that is going to be the faceplate.
So that is gonna stick straight
on that faceplate mechanism.
And there's enough gap there
we've got a 10-MIL gap,
and a 3-MIL bit of foam.
We can still line it
with some thicker foam around the edges,
but basically that will make
up quite a rigid faceplate
cut to the shape of the
faceplate from this.
And that will give us the
place obviously where we can
cut the eyes and mount
electronics and things
and that'll also be seen
from the inside of the back of the helmet
when the faceplate is flipped
up and the helmet is open.
So we need to put some details
on the inside of that that
actually looks like something,
and not just a ton of hot glue.
I've been thinking about
marking out that panel
for the faceplate and I was looking again
at the 3D printed one I did, which I think
is about the right proportions in terms
of where the eyes go at
least and where the front is.
So if you can imagine that on there.
Obviously it's too thick to fold it in,
but I think that's about where I want it
so I'm actually gonna
use this to draw around,
to make the template on that
curved piece of foam PVC board.
So here are these parts laid
on the foam PVC curve I did.
They fit quite well.
Obviously the faceplate
is only up to this region
and the widow's peak will come forward.
And obviously it will be wider as well.
There's sort of a square edge
on the faceplate I think,
but it's actually gonna be overlapped
by the rest of the helmet
with those other sections.
So in fact the edges don't
matter too much as long
as it still will retract into the helmet.
The actual contour of that
faceplace will be made up
by the overlapping sections and the pieces
that fold in from the side.
So I can pretty much
just cut this piece off
and attempt to work out where the eyes go,
and then basically roughly
cut a square on the side
and see if that retracts
into the rest of the helmet.
So I need to mark out a
line on the bottom here
which this would align with,
and then that contour will continue
to the size of the helmet.
So what I was gonna do is take this string
and put a pen in the loop,
like more on the middle
on the sheet on the back here,
and I was just gonna hold
the string and draw a line,
but as you can see the string
curves onto the sheet there
so we won't get an accurate
line and it will change length
depending on which
direction we're going in.
So instead, I'm going to put this back
against the work mate,
and put the string up here
and just hold it in the middle,
and then I can move my pen
across to draw a line, hopefully neatly
across in the middle there.
So let's just give that a go.
Just need to get the pen right in there.
Make sure that's in the middle,
and then I can draw a nice smooth line,
across here.
There we go.
So that will be the very
bottom of the faceplate,
and then I can align this to
it, and work out where the eyes
and the other features go.
So this is approximately what
I think it should look like.
I've drawn around those
other printed parts
and drawn in the eyes there.
So I'm not actually
gonna cut these out yet,
but I have obviously got
the, the bottom line there
and also drew a couple on the top
and I'm gonna cut the inner one,
and then we can offer that up to the suit
and see how it looks.
Obviously there are other
features on the suit.
We've got that very thick rim
around the bottom which will
be stuck on the outside,
and all the features and
of course we can make more
of these and layer up the
parts to give the detail,
or we could stick on 3D printed parts.
There we go, starting to take shape.
I'm gonna use one of my
cut edges as a template
to curve off the sides here
to get rid of those pieces.
So I'm just going to measure in as a point
from each of these corners on each side,
and then align this, draw
a line and cut along it,
give me a nice curve.
Alright, here it is.
So I've cut quite a bit off it.
It's still slightly too big,
and it's gonna be squashed
more sideways like this,
so that it fits inside and of
course the internal contour
is gonna be, this was molded
on essentially something
that fits on the outside,
which is why it needs to be squashed in
so the internal contour should be less,
but basically that will
flip inside and fold away,
and then it will fold out
and I need to take some more
off these corners, 'cause at the moment
that doesn't quite work.
It wants to go on the outside
and it needs to be squashed in probably
with another 3D printed
fraying party in the back,
which you know forms a T-shape
or something off of this piece,
so that that neatly
slides inside, like so,
and then we need to consider the outside,
and I'm not gonna cut
any more off this thing
or cut the eyes out
'til I've actually made
some more of the outside.
So basically, that's all I'm doing for now
but you get the idea of
how this is gonna work.
And this piece is really lightweight
'cause it's made of foam PVC board.
I really want to think
about this some more
before I carry on with
those other head pieces
and I need to experiment
probably with some tin foil
like I did before to make
contours by mashing it
into shape to make those pieces
on the outside of the head,
and basically where
that widow's peak comes
and how overlaps that faceplate.
I've already made one helmet
on one mechanism which I've had
to put to one side so I
don't want to do that again.
So I'm gonna carry on with
that in a future episode,
so don't forget to subscribe to my channel
for more updates on this
project, which will be many
and all my other projects
including my 3D printed life size
R2-D2 style drawies.
My BB-8 Droid and my
3D printed alien suit.
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Basically, so I can carry
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Thanks for watching.
