The making of Iron Man

This is the process I used for making Iron man from start to finished and painted final.

I first started with a very rough sketch made out of home zen wax.No armature which is one of the cool things about working with wax.It looks very crude but I am quite impatient and I just want to quickly get a feel for the pose and attitude-the gesture.

When I'm happy with this pose I work it up.Developing the main forms.

At this stage its important to not concentrate on details which is why I took these pictures to check the silhouette.

For the next stage I needed to make a waste mould of this rough to transfer to a harder wax called TMS wax.This harder wax allows me to now work on details which the grey wax isn't that good at (its too soft or sticky) The proceeding photo's show my mould making process.The figure is cut up and each piece is moulded separately.I've always used lego bricks to build a container around the piece into which I pour the silicone rubber.This is the first time I've tried using a cheaper silicone rubber (TOMPS value range _hard shore).

cut open the mould with a sharp scalpel.

comparison of zen wax with TMS wax cast.

Once I have all my TMS wax casts, I begin to work in the details,refine the anatomy and smooth and polish the surfaces.

comparison of zen wax with TMS wax final

TMS wax work in progress

getting there

Once the figure is completed its time for the master final mould to be able to create resin casts from it.

preparing to be moulded

the final resin casts using Smooth-Cast 310

The five pieces are assembled,holes and seams filled with Milliput (fine).Sanded,primed with standard acrylic grey primer spray used for cars and then sanded again to achieve as smooth a finish as possible.

Now for the painting process.I read up about spray painting using Alclad chrome laquers.There are several steps.

1) first coat with gloss enamel black ( I used the little tins of Humbrol diluted with cellulose thinners)

Its important to get as glossy a finish as possible so the subsequent layers look shiny and chrome like.

stealth mode?

2)second coat with Alclad chrome laquer.

war machine?

Now to spray the red using Alclad enamel candy red laquer, but first I need to mask off the yellow bits.A great tip I picked up was to use Silly Putty to mask off.

silver centurion?

Almost there.Mask off the red again with the Silly putty and spray the Alclad candy golden yellow enamel.

Some bits might need touching up after but that can be done with a small paintbrush and red or yellow colour applied direct from the bottle and it's done! Finish off with a nice wooden base.

Finished!