Third instalment of Sheldon Gilman’s journey as he strives to create the ultimate Iron Man suit.

Train2Game student Sheldon Gilman has been documenting his journey to build the ultimate suit, updating the gaming community on his progress through the Train2Game blog.

So far Sheldon has completed three entries to the Train2Game blog, two updates on his progress and an interview at his home, the interview was then featured in his local newspaper.

In this third blog post, Sheldon discusses constructing his workshop in his garden, completing his faceplate, his new 3D printed which he will use to create gloves and other aspects of the suit.

Sheldon Gilman: “I took a week off work last week for my four year wedding anniversary and to do a bit more on this build. So just a quick summery of what I’ve been up to these past few weeks.”

“Recently I’ve been clearing the garden in order to make room for my 14ft workshop and I have finished the faceplate on the Mk20 and begun work on the completing the rest of the helmet. I have completed 95% of the upper body in card stock some parts are missing as I need to fabricate them from scratch out of foam 3D Printed or made using Pepakura. And last but not least. My new 3D printer has arrived, which means once I put it together and collaborate it, I can get started on the hands.”

“So, just a brief mention about my workshop, I have been in desperate need of one for a while as tools and parts have been littered all over my living room for quite some time now and my wife would love to have her dining room table back. This also isn’t good when you have a small toddler who wants to grab anything and everything within arm’s reach. So a “modest” 14” workshop will be built at the end of the garden where I can make as much noise and use as many loud and dangerous tools as I want. But before this can happen, the entire garden will need to be redesigned.”

“Now, moving on to the more Iron Man related news, I’ve finished the faceplate!”

“It took me roughly two-three evenings to get it sanded smooth enough for me to paint it and it came out exactly how I wanted it. The paints I used were bought from Halfords. I used your normal everyday grey primer to first. This allowed me to better see any imperfections and sand them down. I sprayed it again in primer and left it to dry before adding 3 coats of Starburst gold. Most people would be satisfied at this point and leave it there; however I wanted that metallic shine so I added three coats of clear paint. This made the metallic flakes in the paint really stand out. I have now been working on adding bondo to the main part of the helmet. This is a larger area so can be hard to get completely smooth.”

“I have also added resin to the rest of the upper body. All these parts are ready or will be ready for fibre glassing in the next week or so. Most of these parts are small and have minimal detail, which makes the fibre glassing stage easy and relatively quick. The torso on the other hand is large, and extremely complex. All the Nooks and crannies will be a pain to get right. There will be a lot of late nights and possibly a little crying as I struggle to complete this part of the build but it will all be worth it in the end.”

“While I was fibre glassing the parts, I noticed the jaw was not symmetrical. One side curves inwards while the other side curves outwards and for me, this will not do.”

“As this happened while I was applying the fibreglass the part is pretty much solid. Therefore I pretty much have two options at this point. I could either; scrap the part and start again (This time making sure to add extra support), or I could create the part on my new 3D printer. The advantage of this method would be that I could add the teeth in.” 

“And this brings me nicely onto my next update… So lately I have been driven to distraction as my new 3D printer arrived!”

“It’s a Prusa i3 from SunHokey. I ordered it through and it arrived from china in about a week. I chose this particular printer because it allowed me to print objects 200x200x180mm on a heated print bed. I could also print using different materials too this was great as my previous printer was woefully inadequate for the task.”

“My previous printer was a Printrbot Makers kit 2014 edition with an upgraded print bed.”

“While this printer was great to learn on and was capable of printing small things, I needed to print objects larger than what this printer could handle and when you print larger objects; a heated print bed really comes in handy.”

“This printer came in parts which I had to assemble myself. This took me about eight hours, however I’m sure I could have cut that time in half but household chores and family duties kind of took priority, as I’m sure you can all understand. I’ve been spending the rest of the time trying to configure it. SunHokey do a great job making some universal instructions to make it easier for you to configure the printer in a short amount of time, however fine tuning is needed to get those prints perfect.”

“In the next update, I should have completed the helmet. And be well on the way to fibre glassing the rest of this suit.”

“Over the past month or so, more and more people have been hearing about what I am doing here. Just last week I did an interview and a short video with my local newspaper. The article was in an edition of The Herts Advisor. Very excited and nervous about it. So logon to their website if you can and take a look.”

For further details of Sheldon’s project, follow on the Train2Game blog

Train2Game, bringing City & Guilds to the Games Industry

Train2Game is a proud supporter of www.plasisgamesportal.com