[Barry]

Fabricated a push-rod from some aluminium round bar. Servo push-pulls it fine. It's a bit squeezy in there so I bent the bar to contour my cheek a bit better.

[Barry]

Here's the idea constructed in some cardboard to see if it's going to work. I've located the point of mechanical advantage, done the calculations on the servo's torque and load to move. This might actually work!

There's just enough room along the jaw to fit the servo sideways but I'll have to put something between the armature and my cheek, lest I rip out a few of my designer facial hairs.....

[Barry]

Now I've got the colours right, I've sanded down the helmet again to prepare for the colour upgrade. Before I do that, I want to improve the faceplate hinge animatronics. I visited an engineer friend of mine and he gave me a solve, but it's something that needs to be done in a machine shop with precision lathing and milling.

Whilst that's great, it departs from the theme of being achievable in the average blokes shed, so I am opting for a solve of my own, repositioning my servo motor and using an aluminium push-rod.

Until then, I'm going to hold off re-painting the helmet.

[Barry]

FINALLY!! I found a gold paint that satisfies!

[Barry]

Got into some serious finishing today. I bought a can of paint that had a GOLD lid, but the colour label said ORANGE. I asked the paint salesman which was correct and he said the colour of the lit was correct.

Looks like he was wrong.

[Barry]

Lots of concurrent bits to do while waiting for the filler to set on other parts.

The internal chest/back brace only needs filling and sanding where it shows so I'm not wasting any more bog where it doesn't need it. I will, however, put another layer of fibreglass matt on the inside to make it as rigid as I can.

Where I have used foam around the waist, today I used a wood-burning soldering iron to melt in the joints between the rib plates. I placed a big elastic band around the whole piece to see if I can pre-shape it a bit before I put some heat into it later.

Getting some more sanding and detailing done on the chest/back. The back is very detailed and has a lot of raised and sunken sections to negotiate with body-filler and the sanding block.

Finally got onto a finishing sand of the abdominal plates so I could give it a paint. The ankle and achilles control surfaces are also on the painting block.

[Barry]

I got nearly a whole day to myself today and with no observatory to build anymore, it was off to the workshop with me!!!

One of the problems I've had with the suit is in the scaling and fitting. The suit is not anatomically correct for a human being, so even if you get the right height and width, some parts just narrow down far too much.

The waist is as such.

The rigid sides that go from lumbar armour around to abdominal armour have been sitting very uncomfortably over my hips and are about 2 inches in diameter too small so it's very tight.

To solve this, I cut the rigid sides off and replaced them with foam rubber mat.

Once I got that done I did a quick test fit. Now that's done I can move onto the cod piece and widen that around the waist too.

[millicat]

It's looking great. You will be the best dressed Iron Man away from Hollywood

[Barry]

Progress is being made and it is looking really good.

Thanks you sir!

[Barry]

It's been a while since I've had any time to work on the suit, but today I had a little time to put all I've done so far together on the tape dummy to see how it all sits.

I have some major adjustments to do on the waist/cod piece. I'm thinking of cutting the rigid sides off the waist/abs and replacing them with roam rubber. For the cod, all I need to do is cut and extend it slightly to give it a bit more diameter around the hips until the hip-pods are vertical.

At least it's still in the paper stage so that's not difficult.

[Barry]

I started working on the headlight reflector today to go behind the front face of the arc reactor. There looks to be a 50/50 chance I might like it or throw it away.

Gave the collar plates another application of filler, sanded than painted. I think I'll keep going until they are smoother, but they are looking ok so far. Getting it made is easy. Getting it perfect.... well that's another story. It's harder than you might think.

I've been having trouble articulating the elbow joint. It has broken already in two places. Fibreglass is hard, but also brittle. Now I've fabricated some reinforcing aluminium bar to join the upper and lower arm. It's a lot of fiddling about.

[millicat]

Yes but it might be for the USA not Australia. America has to have the 'super power' and Iron Man is that lol.

[Barry]

Lucky you got out of the army, you wouldn't have had time to do this.

It's coming along nicely. Once it is completed and ready to be worn in public, I had better look out for you on the news! I am sure you will get some limelight from it.

If I was still in the Army, perhaps I would be building this out of aircraft-grade aluminium for defense?

[millicat]

Lucky you got out of the army, you wouldn't have had time to do this.

It's coming along nicely. Once it is completed and ready to be worn in public, I had better look out for you on the news! I am sure you will get some limelight from it.

[Barry]

What a great project you are doing here.
Well over my head but it is great to watch this grow.
One smart cookie.

Ta mate. I've always been of the opinion that art is 10% talent, 90% patience.