Ironman Costume for 5yr old - LINKS on PAGE 1 - tips & important bits

Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

The non-stretchy cotton gloves didn't fit AT ALL, so I endeavored to modify the fingers to Mikey-Size (via hand-stitching). This fit his fingers perfectly, but left WAY too much material in the palm of the glove and a large (awkward) space between the thumb and pointer finger. The end result of this experiment was to convince me that the only way to get a pair of non-stretching material gloves will be to buy fabric and sew them myself.



I had similar problems finding gloves for my 3.5 yr olds Vader costume. In leather no less. I had thought of the magic gloves- but found really tiny leather gloves at a horse and tact store. Not sure if you want to go leather or not, but they are well constructed and have a black spandex material sewn in-between the fingers to allow some stretch. Just something to pass on incase you want to go that route. The magic gloves are a lot cheaper though. The ones I got for Nick were $20.00.
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

TK171 said:
I had thought of the magic gloves- but found really tiny leather gloves at a horse and tact store. Not sure if you want to go leather or not, but they are well constructed and have a black spandex material sewn in-between the fingers to allow some stretch.
Click to expand...

I'll definitely look into this -- thanks for the heads up!

Do you remember a brand or product name for those? I could probably find a horse and tact shop here in East Tennessee, but it might make finding a supplier on-line easier.

The big make-or-break test for the Magic Gloves that is vinyl/fabric paint. I need to have these gloves painted Ironman red as a base coat, and then detailed (by hand) with a ridged pattern. This will only show up in between the segmented armor plates of the gloves, but it's important for the look of the piece.

So, if the paint looks like crap on this woven material, I'm going to have to go another route... and your tiny leather glove idea might be a great option.

Thanks, again!
Jonathan

P.S. I LOVE the work you're doing on the Vader Costume! Very cool! :)
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

Thanks Jonathan!

Still had the tags, just to make sure they fit him and I didn't have to return them.

They are made by SSG gloves/Fargo trading. May make other styles or even colors, I don't know.

The ones I got are SSG pro show leather palm. Style 4000 in size 3. They go from size 2-10.

Tags says:
Thin and soft, Lycra between fingers insures comfortable fit, key areas reinforced, top grain leather. Again, a little more money, but I think you paints will work better on them and they should fit well if the right size. Because of the Lycra, the finger tips will work length wise and if a thicker finger the Lycra will allow for it.

Maybe even check eBay?.

Good luck. Fun watching this
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

Very nice. Your kid will be the envy of his peers. ;)
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

I'm TOTALLY taking my son over to the shop that sells the SSG leather gloves (probably this week), but while I had some time today around the house, I did a bit of experimenting with the glove materials I have on-hand. I started with a simple test of a spray vinyl paint I had some success with in an earlier test I did. Here is a pic of that earlier test where I sprayed thin rubber, hard plastic and flexible foam with this spray paint for fabric and vinyl.

Probably hard to see in this picture, but I also tested the clear-coat of the same brand - just to see if it brought a little more gloss to the final look. It didn't blow me away, but it definitely made it more glossing than without the clear-coat.

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Now, for the almost embarrassing results when I sprayed the woven Magic Gloves....

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Ok, I'll give you a second... go ahead, laugh... it's pretty funny. :)

So, with that tragic test ruled a 100% epic failure, I thought I'd try some hand-painted fabric paint on both the woven Magic gloves as well as the cloth gloves I had purchased. I'm not happy with either results so far, but pictures will have to wait until tomorrow when I get the final coat of paint on both gloves.

For now, I can provide you with pics of the 'heavily' modified cloth glove I have (pre-paint) and a shot of the Cod piece -- which is now fully fiberglassed.

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I hope you all have a Happy Easter!
Jonathan
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

Minor update... I spend an hour this evening with my handy-dandy dremel sanding all the rough edges and smoothing those thick areas of fiberglassed card-stock. It probably doesn't show in these pics, but it is MUCH smoother than before and that should make applying the bondo easier on the next step.

Don't get too freaked out with the black internal fiberglassing. Two of my old movie promotion shirts got 'retired' so I could have some material to strength the resin. There certainly, a couple symmetry issues I'll need to deal with, but I think it's coming along.

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And, lastly this fine Monday evening... I will share this cute picture of Mikey sporting a little Ironman reactor toy (2x $3.50). And while I'm sure he's having fun with it now, that little unit is destine to be pulled apart for it's electronics.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! :)

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Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

As promised here is a step-by-step look at how the cloth glove test looks as I am painting ridge-details that will appear between the armored glove pieces.

NOTE: These are very close-up pictures. For reference, the index finger I'm painting is just under 2 inches long. At a distance, the faux-ridges look pretty decent.

5661436576_52fbe59d6b.jpg


Disclaimer: I know I listed that last pic in the series as a 'Photoshop test', but just to clarify, that's the actual painted finger with an image of the movie-prop Ironman glove armor laid on top of it, so you can see what parts of the ridge lines will actually show up after I have the armor pieces added.

I also ran Mikey over to a Horse & Tact shop in town and picked up a pair of SSG gloves that I will probably use as the final glove build.

5661476700_92ff8622a4.jpg


Thanks, again, TK171 for the heads-up on the gloves - these might cost $20, but they are extremely well made, and fit very small hands much better than anything I've seen to date. The fingers on these particular gloves are a touch too long, but the fit is SO good around the palm and notch of his fingers that I will happily do a little hand-stitching to shorten those fingers up!

I've been fighting a nasty sinus infection this week, so I haven't done much else... hopefully, I can get back to some serious armor building this weekend!
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

Just got a new toy! I ordered this from Amazon for ~$12.

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Of course, my plan is to tear this apart and install it in Mikey's Ironman Helmet. The reason I selected this unit was not only for the crazy-low price tag, but also because it does several things I wanted.

  1. It has a setting to LOWER the source's voice - important as Michael has a 5yr-old voice and it's not very 'Ironman-like' naturally.
  2. It actually amplifies the source voice - I wanted to make sure folks didn't hear Mikey's voice... only the modified 'Ironman' voice and that requires some amplification.
  3. It's battery operated and compact enough to be installed in the costume's helmet.


After some testing (in my office with co-workers), I have to say I'm pretty impressed. For a $12 unit the thing works well. It should definitely add something cool to the costume (and something FUN for Mikey).

The only issue I initially see would be the fact that the output speaker is roughly 3 inches diameter. I could easily connect the system to a smaller speaker I have on-hand (and then install the full unit into the helmet). However, I think the bass responsible for much of the lower voice effect will be reduced if I use a smaller speaker. I might have to find a space in the Chest or Body of the Ironman armor to mount the larger speaker so I don't lose the low bass sound fx.

I'll definitely post more video (with audio examples) as I play with this install...
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

ust the electronics (once all the important parts are removed from the bullhorn plastic casing).

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The components are small enough to fit nicely inside the chin of the Ironman helmet.

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And then I made a quick video of the system working... but between the unmounted speaker and the crappy audio pick up on my phone, the audio sucks... Sorry, I couldn't do a better job of capturing it. Maybe after I get it installed, I'll have Mikey do a little talking through the system so you can hear the difference it makes -- it is pretty impressive considering the cheap nature of this kids toy.

YOUTUBE VIDEO
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

More old electronics have given their lives for the Voice System in Mikey's Ironman Helmet. :)

First up... An old gaming headset with a boom mic... I grabbed the boom mic and scrapped the rest.

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Next up... One of many battery-powered external speaker sets for ipads and such. It's got a small amp, but it comes with a power button and volume control. Circuit board and speakers kept -- everything else chucked!

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I spent last night installing the boom mic and then connecting it to the voice-changer board (and 9v). The speaker output from the voice-changer now exits to the external speaker board (which gives me power and volume control (while adding a little bit of further amp). All the parts are now wired and installed in the helmet - including a couple tiny recessed holes under the helmet chin for the on-off switch and volume roller.

Video Tour of the new additions: YOUTUBE VIDEO


*again, I have to apologize for the crappy audio... I'm not sure what's up with my EVO, but the mic has sure been jacked up lately. You can hear how bad my voice sounds throughout, so it's not just the cheap speaker I'm using in this demo... it's my camera phone's mic. :(


And lastly, I got a bit of sanding and more bondo applied to Mikey's waist unit (cod piece). Here are some pics in progress...

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I'm still fighting a nasty sinus infection, so I'm heading to bed... nite all!
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

Looks and sounds like this is coming together nicely, keep it up :D
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

Looking great! Glad those gloves worked out. I agree.. they are well made and worth the price.

I had a successful magic show this weekend for Jack's Bday, so now I can focus on the completion of his trooper and Keep cracking at Nick's Vader. Will have to see where my thread is buried and get some updates going as well. :lol

Hope that sinus infection goes away. NO good!
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

Lots more sanding...

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...and some glazing putty applied.

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I think I've got a couple places that still need some depth added (especially on the sides where I added the extra space). I haven't decided if I'm going to go ahead and hit this with a filling primer after hand-sanding the glazing putty tonight, or work another layer of filling bondo in first... I guess it will depend on my mood when I get home. lol


** I've also received the 3mm foam sheets I ordered via ebay. I had originally tested some Hobby Lobby 1.5mm sheets specifically for areas of Mikey's suit that definitely NEED to be flexible (neck collar, abs, etc). But I've been SO impressed by Graphic Jordan's work in 4mm foam that I'm now hoping I can get the collar to come out decently in 3mm, so I can justify working more with this material. For example, I'd LOVE to do Mikey's Arms and Legs in foam; however, I really need to prove to myself that I can adequately work in this material before I feel comfortable enough to move that much of the build to foam.

/crosses finger
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

The key is to get one of those Exacto hand held matt cutters to make perfect 45 angle cuts.
 
Re: Halloween Iron Man Costume for my 5yr old

Graphic Jordan said:
The key is to get one of those Exacto hand held matt cutters to make perfect 45 angle cuts.
Click to expand...

Do you have a picture of the one you use? I see online that there are LOTS of different types. I'd don't mind picking up one or two to try them out, but I'd prefer to start with a unit that I know works well for working on this specific material and type of project.

Also, do you just need 45 degree angle cuts, or would a cutter with a variable angle blade work better in cases where you need something more or less than an exact 45?
 
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