Miniature Ironman Helmet
As part of an advanced CAD and manufacturing course at UPenn, students were tasked to create a small object to be 3D printed on an SLA machine. Using the opportunity to learn the surfacing tools inside Solidworks, I was inspired to recreate a functional Ironman helmet with a motorized faceplate and glowing leds to serve as a nice desk display model.
A small pololu gearmotor and some bevel gears drive the opening and closing of the faceplate.
A microcontroller was used to run the motor for a predetermined time. Eventually, I fitted limit-switches to the ends of travel to prevent damage to the mechanism and motor.
A small aluminum base plate and mount was machined. Two buttons trigger the automated opening and toggle the LEDs in the mask.
The entire model can be powered by a 9V battery or a barrel jack can be plugged in from a 9V source.
The model was printed on an Objet SLA in roughly 1:10 scale.
Despite the great surface finish straight from the printer, a significant portion of the project was spent on sanding surfaces and filling gaps from printing defects before it was ready for paint.
I dug deep into prop replica forums and found a behind-the-scenes book from the original movie in order to find the exact automotive paint used.