Iron Man for My Little Guy

This is my first attempt at building a Halloween Costume from scratch. Sorry I should have taken more construction photos but I got too involved with building. Overall it about 25 hours and about a thousand metal filing cuts on my hands. The outfit is not movie accurate and my son is 2 years old so he didn't care. The funny thing was that my wife pointed out about half way through construction is that he wants to SEE Ironman NOT be Ironman. So unfortunately this is the only time we wore the costume. He was supposed to be wearing black but I got so excited when he wanted to put it on that I didn't waste time waiting for him to change his mind. My 3 year old daughter actually wore the costume on Halloween because I think she felt sorry for me. Once again sorry about the jumping photos but I was not thinking ahead.

Step 1:

I started out purchasing red tin, a rivet gun, rivets, tin snips and paint. Then I proceeded to jump right in. I built the chest piece as a one piece unit from very basic measurements (ever try to measure a two year old). Once that was riveted together I built the shoulder pads and stomach wrap. Once completed I tried to put it on him and to my dismay ran away so my 3 year old daughter became the measurement model (she is such a trooper and daddy's girl). After some trial and error such as cutting the neck wider to no avail I realized the chest and back had to be a two piece unit. 

Step 2:

I then constructed the arms, this time I used cardboard and completely built the arm on my daughter out of cardboard once I was satisfied I disassembled it and used the pieces as my tin template. The led lights I bought at Home Depot and were for once exactly what I was looking for. The are 3 led disc lights that each have about 4 ft of cord that plug into a USB hub. This shot is me running the light as a trial to a standard 9 volt battery.

Step 3:

I was scared to death to start the helmet as metal usually only bends one way and a helmet is a dome but I once again made the helmet out of cardboard with a removable face. I made it removable because if my son was to ever wear this suit then he would have to be able to see very well (little kids don't like poor visibility for some reason). Then of course in my excitement painted it. I then added a rivet hinge on the inside to raise and lower the mask manually.

Step 4:

The next step was to add the chest piece led which went in rather easily.

Step 5:

The legs were molded and hinged at the knee. Unfortunately not too much detail was added as it was crunch time to Halloween. With the costume complete I added 1/2" foam to the inside for comfort and to prevent shifting.

Step 6:

Suiting up my little man for the first and last dress rehearsal. I added bungee cords to the arms to keep them from falling down.

Step 7:

Putting on the chest piece and arranging cords.

Step 8:

The back Piece was built with three storage packs, one for the USB hub, one for the on/off switch and cables and the battery pack. The batteries used were 9 volt and 4 in total 18 volts the pairs were wired in wired in parallel  then in series. I did a better job hiding the wiring after the pic was taken.

Step 9:

Ironman complete with face up.

Step 10:

Ironman with face down.

Step 11:

Ironman standing, lit up, face up

Step 12:

Ironman standing face down, lit up. In total about 200 rivets were used and the end cost including the tools i had to buy was around $100.