The Iron Pony

I'd been thinking about a foam-based Iron Man/My Little Pony mash-up cosplay for a long time. Started with high hopes of a full suit of armour, with servos controlling the faceplate and control surfaces etc. - but kept picking the project up a week or so before a convention, and inevitably giving up before convention time because it just wasn't going to come together in time. Finally took a (slightly) more realistic approach, and finished the helmet (in a super-rush!) the week before the Bronydays MLP convention in Nantes this year. Unfortunately, it was still a rush job - so that meant no servos, and a majorly bodged mechanism for the faceplate ("I'll just keep gluing magnets on until the thing stays open!"). I also had to adapt my prototype helmet to accommodate a steampunk theme at the con this year - so it ended up being an Iron Man/My Little Pony/Steampunk costume! That said, I think the combination of elements worked well, and was actually very pleased with the look of the faceplate, with steampunk-inspired reflective green eyes and filament bulbs and a rounded pony nose/muzzle. The afterparty was a bit challenging though - all I could see was 2 filament bulbs about 3cm in front of my eyes... but you don't need to see to dance, right?? Oh, and taking it in my hand luggage on the plane was a bit stressful too!

The build itself was made from 7mm closed-cell foam sheet, which I cut into panel sections (roughly based on paper cut-outs from a Pepakura file for a standard MKIV helmet, which I then modified by eye for the pony shape) which I moulded with a heat gun and fixed together with hot glue. I used car bodywork filler on the faceplate to get the smooth finish I was looking for, but this meant LOTS of sanding, and a more brittle surface - so less robust for bumping into walls/people/more walls at cons. I primed the foam with PVA (James at Xrobots has a great video tutorial for this process) and then attempted to coat it with rotary cast resin (very thin resin that sets fairly fast). This didn't go so well, and required a fair bit of sanding/pasting over with car bodywork filler to save the helmet. Then sprayed it with a few coats of Plasti-Dip primer (it's flexible, sort of like rubber when dry - to allow for the flex in the foam without the paint cracking), and finished with a few coats of metallic spray paint. For the eyes, I hot-glued some lenses from an old pair on sunglasses into the back of the faceplate, and glued some filament bulbs between the lenses and the faceplate. Wired the bulbs up to a micro-switch in the nose which closed when the faceplate was closed, to simulate the thing "powering up".

Got some very positive and generous feedback at the convention too, which was a really great feeling Maybe I'll attempt a full suit for a future con?

I'll try and get some better/more pictures up soon.