Make an Iron Man Full Metal Chestplate + Arms

Want to show off to your friend your building skills and originality? This instructable could be great for you! I will show you how to make a full metal chestplate and arms that make you stand out of the crowd, literally! You can make the Iron Man Mark II arm(s) (raw test flight arm or armoured version) out of sheet metal, basic hand tools and a drill. It took a long time to build and plan it out and a put a lot of effort into it, I hope you will all like it. Happy Halloween!

The tools and materials you will need for this project are as follows:
1. Around 70 nuts and bolts
2.Metal snips/shears
3.Sheet metal -I used stainless Steel
4.Drill -Can be a handheld one or a workbench one (I used a pillar drill)
5.Vice

You don't need these tools but they would be useful:
1.A means of sanding, belt sander, bench grinder, etc.
2.pliers

Note, the battery is so you can see a rough scale of the nuts and bolts.

First, you will need to cut out a big square of metal that roughly fits your chest, and size it down so it looks like the one in the picture. Drill all the holes as shown. Once you have made the holes, if you have a vice bend the sides like I have done. It makes a lot more interesting and 3D in my opinion.

After you have made the main chestplate body, you will need to make the add on parts that add to its iron man shape and appearance. Look at the pictures carefully, so you can get the best look. I would recommend grinding and smoothing each part out, to make it look a lot smoother and make the metal cuts look a bit cleaner. You can do this with a bench grinder or a sander, but I didn't have the time for that or the means. It's important that you get all the holes to match the corresponding holes on the main chestplate, otherwise you will have trouble fitting and have to re drill the holes.

For this step, you will need to cut 4 20"x2" (this depends on your personal size, so it may vary) and for 2 of them drill 2 holes at one end, and for the other end just one. Then for the other 2 strips drill a hole at each end. Also on the strips that you drilled with two holes, drill another hole about 3" down from the holes. If you find this too confusing, just look at the pictures :D

The reason you use two bolts on two of the strips is so it doesn't bend the whole thing you walk and to strengthen the subframe. Next bolt all the pieces together.

Next you need to bolt the two metal strips that go over your shoulders to the chestplate, and it should stay securely on your chest. If it doesn't attach properly and the two pieces don't stay secure, you can brace a small strip of metal across the point where the shoulder braces attach. I included a picture of that incase you don't quite know what I mean.

Note: It's a good idea to secure the bolts with some pliers or a wrench, so it doesn't accidentally come unloose.

For this part it follows off from my last instructable which shows them without the Chestplate (if you haven't see them, take a look at them I think you will like them!) You can either make the arms with the armour like the mark II suit, or you can leave them uncovered so you get that cool, raw look like the flight test suit. For the purpose of the instructable I made both for each arm, so it's up to you which arms you want to make (personally I think the "raw" arms look better and more interesting).

Both the armoured arm and the raw arm use the same frame. For the forearm the first thing you will want to do is cut out x2 10"x1" (the length of your lower arm, obviously it varys) You will also need to drill 6 holes into them as shown in the picture. Then cut out 4 5"x1" (a bit longer than the width of your arm) and 1 3.5"x1". Drill holes on the ends as shown in the picture to match the opposing hole on the long metal strips. It should look something like the pictures.

Next for the forearm you will need to cut 2 6"x1" (again this varies depending on your size) as shown in the picture. Then you will need to cut 3 4"x1" and 1 4"x1" and drill holes as shown in the picture. Again assemble it and compare it with the picture. It does not have to be exact, just similar. When you have assembles it add 2 longer bolts to the end hole for both sides, and attach the end hole on the forearm and secure it with a nut. It should articulate with ease. If not, try adding another nut to them.

If you plan on making the arm with armour, you don't have to do this step. But if you want that nice, raw look (which personally I think looks more impressive than the armoured version) then follow this step. It's a good idea to start warming your glue gun at this stage. What you want to do next is get your old wires and find a cool look for them on your arm. You can braid them (if not pre braided) or just leave them how they are. You want not too many, but not too little I would say for the best results. As well as wires, you could make some various shapes with that mesh look, that would look good. You could even go as far as drilling lots of small holes into a piece of metal and attack it to your arm. Glue gun the wires together, or if you don't have a glue gun you might get away with taping them.

If you have enough resources, I would recommend making two of these arms. Just do another arm the same way you made the first one. For the armour, it was actually simple attaching it to the basic arm frame. All I did was cut a rectangle of metal (slightly longer than the width of your arm) and drill holes into them at the edges. It the should with a bit of luck slot in the the bolts from the main frame of the raw arm, as shown in the picture. Next if you want to make that compartment at the back of the arm (in iron man 1, it holds a micro missile launcher, you must make a small articulating frame as shown in the picture. Finally add the metal with bent sides and bolt it to the articulating frame. If you want to go a bit further, you could even make it look like a real missile launcher, haha :D

This step is pretty simple. Just do what you did with the previous step, by drilling holes into the sides and bolting them to the frame. It should look like something similar to the picture. Almost there!

At this stage you are pretty much finished. All you need to do now is (optionally) polish the stainless steel/aluminum so you can remove any fingerprints and finalise the metal.

If you liked this build, feel free to comment below or maybe even vote for it in the halloween contest. A lot of hard work, designing and effort went into making this and the instructable and it would mean alot to me if I got a place in the contest winners. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, just comment below and I will do my best to answer them for you :)

Have fun, and happy halloween!