Elbow and Knees, Redux

Yeah... there were a few problems with the first (let's call it's Mk I hee hee) version of the knee and elbow joints.

'Before'

'After'

The inside (concave) bend was fine... they both articulate beautifully... but the outside (convex) curve left gaps between the articulated pieces.
Derp. Turns out... the wood bugs are better at this than I am. The pieces were too slim and gapped too much when I bent the joint.
Back to the drawing board!
I pulled the units apart... and set to work.

(As a side note, try not to pull riveted things apart if you have an option... it's time consuming and you have shards of little metal pointy-bits all over the place. You'll find them all eventually - especially if you walk around in bare feet - but in the meantime, it's a bit of a chore to do... I guess that's why you have my handy-dandy guide so you don't end up making those mistakes, yeh?)
I extended the 'length' of each piece, but kept the sides the same measurement by simply retaining the angled edges at the bottom of each piece and simply drawing a straight line from top point to top point.

The line was (and the wedge was cut out from)
where the white paper shows through at the top of the piece.

I then sliced a small wedge out of the top line by measuring a half-inch down from the middle point and drawing the lines back to each top point. You can see where the 'new' pieces wre cut straight across (picture to the left) and where the wedge was cut out of the top.
WHY did I include the wedge-cut?
You'll figure this out pretty quickly if you rivet the pieces
together and don't remove the wedge - if you don't cut the wedge, the pieces won't be able to articulate smoothly, as the bend of the pieces causes the piece underneath to cram into the on on top of it.
Trust me... a half-inch wedge is all you need and it works well.







Next comes attaching the pieces...



Each piece will articulate with the ones above and below it, that part's pretty obvious... but there's  special way to do it... and once again, have a look at a wood bug / pill bug or armadillo. When they curl up their concave (belly) side must contract, with the plates sliding into each other (technically that isn't completely accurate, as they curl up to protect their softer underbellies, but I digress)...
So with the concave parts of the joint - to mimic this - the plates will be in a row, and the one above will be tucked behind the one below it in the chain.
Like so:



The trick here is that the plates slide over each other a little when the joint bends... moreso than they did when they were straight (as seen above).

As for the 'convex' side of the joint (the 'outer armor' of the armadillo, if you will) the exact opposite happens. The plate above sits on top of the one just underneath it... and each one in turn pulls a little away from the one above it.





As for how each piece fits to the other, you can rivet them together one side at a time, or one 'level' at a time... the difference is not really noteworthy, but be sure you make the pieces a) large enough that you can fit your body in them and b) small enough that they fit inside the armor.


I found this more problematic for the arms... there's a lot less room inside the bicep piece and I already had to scale it up to fit my arm... once I get to the armor arm pieces, I may change my
tune, but so far, I've kept them within both measurements (my arm and the armor)... they're tight on my arm, but I don't really plan to require them to be anything moe than cosmetic anyway.
... and as you can see, they have SOME range, but not nearly a full range of motion... about a 90 degrees or so of bend at the elbows, with a little more for the knees as they're larger pieces... so long as I can hold a tumbler full of amber-coloured alcohol to my lips, I'll be fine.  =)

My plan is to adhere them to adjustable straps which will buckle to a harness. Trust me... it'll work. The thought is to attach the joint units to the clothes underneath, that way there a lot less chance of anything slipping.

Stay tuned!

And the Meme Shall Set You Free - Iron Man(atee)!

Iron Man(atee)!

(Source: http://andthentherewerepuns.tumblr.com via http://pricklylegs.tumblr.com)

"Many Hands... err... Links... Make Light... Err..."

I'm mixing metaphors.
Do I know what the heck I'm talking about? Not at 2am I don't... not really...
But I DO have a point.
The armor's elbows and knees... to articulate like armadillos and pillbugs, there has to be both an inherent flexibility (as pillbugs and armadillos HAVE in their skins) but also many links.

Oh hey... check out that RED!
Mmm... shiny!

It stands to reason, really... the more links one has, the more bend it will have to be able to accomplish a greater angle... think of a chain... a big, thick chain with few links won't be able to bend around nearly as far as a thinner chain with more, but smaller, links.
So I popped the elbows and knees apart... yeah... I'm a bit crazy like that... but my 'reset' mindset has me thinking that if I'm going to do this project at all, it's worth doing well.
So I had the back-elbow links measured at 2" wide, and I shaved them down to 1.5" to match the inner elbow links.
The knees I have measured at 2" on the back of the knee and 2.25" on the front of the knee. I'll be shaving those down to 1.75" on either side.
WHY am I doing this? Picture my chain analogy above... it stands to reason that more links in the elbow or knee bend would allow it to have greater range of motion, and (this is what I'm aiming for) if that fuller range of motion is not utilized to its maximum potential, then more of the links will not 'gap' apart from each other and expose what lies underneath (me).
Trust me... it works in my head... so I'm going for it.
Until then, here's some pics of each of the elbow pieces... I've added three links (front and back) per side to make up for the width that was lost by shaving them down.

Here's a good contrast between the 'finished' red (left) and the 'primer' (right'.
Primer is important... as is sanding betweek coats. Don't ask questions.

Oh... and don't use a really flexible plastic (like ice cream tub lids) like I did unless you have them in the colour you plan on using already... the plastic lid material that I used turned out to be HORRIBLE at holding the paint. Scratched it off with a light breeze, it did.
So I had to re-cut ALL of the front-elbow pieces, but I did so out of a tougher plastic - plant pots! We happened to have a whole pile of them in our garden shed that were - literally - collecting dust. I'm using thicker ones for the knees.

Realistic Expectations

Yeah.
Unless something miraculous happens... there is no way I'm getting the armor done by May 4th.
There are just too many 'little' things, variables, real life expectations, and Bondo takes WAY too long.

In retrospect, I wish tere had been someone there to guide me along in a step by step manner... in a way that I didn't have to search for the answer through a ream of forums, email queries and approximation-estimations based upon educated guessing and/or blind-experimentation...

So... I shall endeavor to be THAT for everyone else.
This will be the blog that people can go to to GET that step-by-step information and not have to sift through other peoples' back-slapping congratulatory comments to find the answers you seek.

I'll compile a 'What I'd have liked to know before I started and subsequently made my mistakes...' list shortly.

Stay tuned!

PAINT!

Well no... it's just primer.
Settle down.

That said, though... I picked apart the inner-elbow bits (see the post on that earlier in March)... and riveted back and front together.

Elbows and knees, pre-primer.
Many plastic plant pots were sacrificed
in the making of these costume bits.

For the knee, I did the same, riveted back and front, but both back and front were cut the same way... only their orientation was altered... on the back, the pieces were inside the ones below, on the front, the pieces were outside the ones below.
I'll show more-detailed and up-close pics when I get to the actual paint job - probably in a few days.

I'm going to 'sand' them once with 600-grit 'sandpaper' (is it really 'sand' paper with 600-grit? My SKIN feels rougher... LOL) and give them a once-more-over with the primer to get into the cracks and crevaces - probably bend them to full flexion to gap the plates apart enough to get the primer in-between.

Elbows and knees, post-primer.

Then it's PAINTING time!  Silver for the knees, 'hot-rod' red for the elbows... although in the first movie, his elbows were silver to match his knees... anyone have an opinion on what would look better?
The gold spray paint I bought, however, is about as 'ostentatious' as I can get. It's pretty spiffy-shiny... and I can't wait to finally try it out...

It DOES feel like thinks are starting to move a lot faster... the psychological effect of seeing this level of progress is pretty amazing and really energizing!

Rapid-Fire Update! (I)

Well as 'rapid-fire' as I can squeeze three seconds of time together to be able to accomplish, anyway...
I plan to do lots of little ones as I can find the time in the next two weeks... so be ready... I plan to be moving at ball-flattening speed.
Yes, it's as painful as it sounds.

So here goes:
- Bondo layer #1 on the lumbar/cod/rib "torso" unit...
- Second Bondo layer sanded on faceplate, first Bondo layer on rest of helmet applied and sanded...
- inner-'armor' elbow articulation finished on one side... seems a bit too big to fit inside the upper arm and forearm, going to measure the other side (inside the arm) and cut appropriately...
- brace cut/glued and ready to be resined; neck pieces being cut to fit, will be ready by this evening for resin layer #1...
- I may have to redo the thighs and calves to fit them properly (in my haste, I may have made a few semi-critical errors in assembly that would take more time/effort to rectify than simply cutting them out again and rapid-fast resining them as soon as they are assembled...

Hang on to your helmets, kids... it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

Forced Restart!

Well no... not a complete restart... but parts of the armor seem to have not wanted to cooperate with me... and combine that with both a series of upcoming exams and little nit-picky things that just didn't want to go right, and you have a recipe for a really irritated (and irritable) and really scatter-brained me.
So scattered that I am WAY behind on my Friday 'thank you back-scratching' posts and behind in the pics as well.

Quick update:
I redid both boots... completely... from paper... and have resined them and applied the first layer of Bondo. I will sand that away by the weekend (at the latest... probably Thursday morning) and have

Just a teaser... boots all glued together!

the second layer applied by the end of the weekend... I will also slice the treads out of wood and insert them 'post-haste' (hur hur seewhatIdidthere?) and solidify them in with silicone caulking... seal the boot tread with the flap of resined paper and then use small wood screws to stick it down and to the Bondo'd sides of the boot. Oh yeah... my thoughts of metal plates on the tread were kaiboshed by my brother who reminded me that convention centers would frown upon my scratching the hell out of their floors with my metal boots.

So I found myself some rubber matting and will cut that to fit the tread, woodscrew it down to the wood treads. AT this point, it's about 'appearance' versus 'functionality'. Looking 'good enough' will have to suffice for now if I'm going to get this thing done in time.

The ribs/lumbar/cod piece has been resined together in one large piece... and I'm at a bit of an impasse with regards to whether I want to slice down the abs and fit them into the unit and have it a sealed piece, only opening from the sides... or have the abs as a separate piece?
They attach to the cod at the bottom... that's a 'fer sure'... and they aren't going to be moving much... so I might as well attach them permanently, methinks...
I think I'll print the bottom-most link of the ab section and slice it down and plunk it into the space where it will sit... to see if it looks good. If I can shape the ab pieces to appear so as their 'wings' are tucked in behind the ribs, it would look better, though... so I'm going to do that if I can... and give up on it in short order and resin the sliced abs into the full unit if I can't.
One layer of Bondo for the whole, then I'll slice it up similar to the articulation shapes between the lumbar and the ribs - down both sides.

Which reminds me, I should be keeping an eye out for small rubber lines or round lengths of wire... I will use these to contact cement them into the areas where I want 'lines' to be on the solid armor parts... I'll show more on this as I get to it... worry not... this one won't take any extra time. In fact, it should save be a fair bit of sanding time as I won't have to mess around with the tight spots between lines... in theory... /sigh