[P Plates]

A long project but worth it Barry. Hope your son wasn't frightened by it.

[Barry]

Have to share this with my friends .. congratulations on the article ... you are famous once again .. first the observatory and now Iron Man.

Thanks Anna!

[millicat]

Have to share this with my friends .. congratulations on the article ... you are famous once again .. first the observatory and now Iron Man.

[Barry]

Good story Barry and quite prominent. Well written by the journo.
.

Thanks Terry.

[Barkly]

Good story Barry and quite prominent. Well written by the journo.
.

[Barry]

Canberra Times article. It will be in Sunday's paper. Hopefully with more pictures.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nati...0150711-gi924p

[Barry]

Wow it's looks fantastic and so close to the end !!

A long way to go yet mate, but thanks!

Went to the powdercoaters today with the suit to come up with a plan. Basically because of the filler I need to use to smooth out imperfections and the temperatures required in the powder coating ovens, I can't powdercoat and must go to the auto-paint option.

Bummer. He was prepared to powdercoat for free as long as I paid for the powder.

[millicat]

Wow it's looks fantastic and so close to the end !!

[Barry]

Today I had little time during lunch so I just added the toe recesses. I cut the rectangle out of the front of the toes, then made two small trays the same size as the hole about 5mm deep and tapped them in for a snug fit. I then set the MIG to low wire feed and enough juice to penetrate the .95 sheet and fuse them together.

A quick grind and you get the idea. More refined clean-up later.

[Barry]

Here's two pictures showing the hand plate in the open and closed positions. I still need to refine them, take the inside corner off and pad them underneath, but the hinge will have a switch under it that activates the hand repulsor illumination when it is pushed back by the back of the gauntlet.

There will be a return spring tacked on the inside as well to bring it back to the closed position snug against the back of my hands.

[Barry]

[Barry]

Thanks to my friend Shane again, for making such a big effort to be my J.A.R.V.I.S tonight.

The suit was a little easier to move in, but we identified more places for improvement. This time it took an hour to suit up, photo-shoot in every angle, with and without flash, then de-suit. We are getting better!

The gap between the top of the legs and the bottom of the codpiece is much less now which just looks great! The arms now just clip on instead of having to screw together both at the elbows and at the shoulder bells. The trimmed-down neck allows for head movement now bus still needs a little more off it. The cuff on the right arm needs reshaping slightly to get my thumb joint out. Took a little skin off tonight, forgetting that when you heat up, you expand.

Lighting in the chest is fine, but it is quite obvious that the eyes are FAR too bright so will need resistors or a total rethink. Shoulder bells keep slipping below the edge of the shoulder at the torso, so I will be welding on a couple of flat hooks for them to hang off, yet still pivot from.

Back profile - Some big gaps in the armour here to be covered with either coloured foam or shiny red leather layered plates.

The hand plates and the achilles flight-control flaps need spring tensioners to return them to the closed positions once activated.

2nd full suit test fit and walk around. Better. Much better proportions in the legs to torso now.

Walking is OK, need to practice to get used to it but the arm movement is limited. I'm not sure what more I can do to fix that. Might just have to live with it.

[Barry]

Flapdisk work on one arm all done. A bit of fine work in the corners to get to with the die grinder then it's ready to putty and paint. I've also sorted the pivoting points for a solid attachment that can be separated with effort but not come apart unintentionally.

[Barry]

Got a heap of grinding and clean-up done on the arms and shoulders at lunch time today. Also had a good look at articulation of the elbow and shoulder pivot point and was able to design a simple solution. More on that later.

[Barry]

I finally started cleaning up all the welds and seams today. Most of the grunt work I'm doing with a 40 grit flap-disk. When the disk is new it can get into the long corners, but once it's worn it's just good for the raised welds.

I'll get into the hard-to-reach spots with a die-grinder.