Animatronics

[shirk]

I just started dabbling in some Arduino stuff, this is pretty cool hobby stuff you are working.

I bet you build yourself a wicked Halloween costume.

[Honus]

Thanks! The reality is I spend more time working on friend's costumes than my own... My kids will have some really cool costumes when they are older. :)

Got the shoulder rockets installed in the Iron Man suit. Pretty tricky to do since there isn't much room in there- the deepest part of the shoulder cavity is only one inch deep. Still need to do a bit of cleanup/detail work but I'm really happy with how it came out. The movement of the two panels opening up and the rocket pod unfolding is really nice.

Now you see it-


Now you don't-


This pic gives a good idea of what it will look like when worn-

[Honus]

I got most of the gauntlet done as well. Here's a couple of forearm missile compartment construction pics. The sides fold down and the missile pod moves back and up. The missile will extend forward and retract. Still a bit of detail work to do on this. We're trying to get the costume finished in time for opening night of Iron Man 3.

Open-


Closed-

[hokoman]

Jerome, I would have rather bought a costume rather than an engagement ring from you... Don't tell the lady though. I am going to email you, need that matching wedding band soon. :)

[Honus]

Jerome, I would have rather bought a costume rather than an engagement ring from you... Don't tell the lady though. I am going to email you, need that matching wedding band soon. :)

No problem- just let me know and I'll get going on the matching band.

Here's a video of the gauntlet opening-

[Honus]

Here's a clip that shows the missile extending/retracting-

[Honus]

Just finished up a animatronic Predator backpack/cannon build for the Monsterpalooza show this week. I only had a few nights to build this system so there were a couple all night build sessions! Jamie Hall, the nephew of Kevin Peter Hall (who played the original Predator in the first two films) will be wearing this for a special Predator tribute event at the show on Saturday morning. He's going to wear the full Predator costume and will be fitted by members of the original film crew. For a geek like me I just couldn't say no to my friend when he called me and asked me to be part of the project.

[Honus]

Here's some pics from the Monsterpalooza show. Jamie is having the suit put on by former members of the Stan Winston crew that worked on the first Predator film- getting him set up just like they did with his Uncle. Pretty cool. I received a very nice thank you email from Jamie the day after the show- he's an incredibly nice guy.

[Honus]

Couple more pics and test video of the cannon-

[Honus]

Just finished writing a tutorial for the Predator build- Building a killer Predator costume

That was a lot of fun!

[xjoex]

You made Hack a Day!
Predator suit for Monsterpalooza includes over-engineered shoulder cannon

-Joe

[Mike Mcdermid]

the man Honus might like these

[Honus]

Wow that is awesome. I've seen some test videos of quadrotors flying through thrown hula hoops before but nothing like that.

[Honus]

The Iron Man suit is almost finished so this beauty is next on the list. For Stargate fans this is sort of the Holy Grail of movie props. I made a Stargate Horus helmet a while back but it was a low budget Halloween costume piece and certainly not an accurate replica by any stretch of the imagination. Now thanks to a friend I have a set of screen accurate Horus helmet castings- something I never, ever thought I would have due to the rarity and expense of such an item. Yes I am a big scifi geek...

A friend of mine owns many screen used Stargate pieces but was missing a few key items in order to make a complete set of screen accurate helmet castings. As luck would have it he hit pay dirt when he was commissioned to restore an original screen used piece and was given permission to pull molds for the few missing items. My friend contacted me to build the animatronics for his helmet and in turn provided me a set of castings so I could build my own. The result of many years of work has now produced a truly accurate set of helmet castings- some of these parts are cast from the original movie molds and some are cast from molds pulled from movie production pieces. Some of the molds made for these new castings were even made by the same person that made the original movie helmet molds.

The original movie helmets are pretty complex. The helmet is made in several sections that are hinged together and the entire assembly rotates on a Kaydon bearing that sits on the neck collar- which is kind of silly since they have very few degrees or rotational movement. The eyes even have a mechanical iris. Very cool stuff.

The first helmet out of the molds is being painted right now and I've already been sent a set of castings so I can begin work on the mechanics.

[BestRings]

These are really cool!

[Honus]

Just finished this Predator AVP cannon display piece for a friend. The animatronic sequence is motion activated using a ultrasonic sensor.

[Honus]

Finally finished up the animatronics for the Iron Man suit and I've been working on the tutorial write up. I'm posting a build log right now on Hack A Day Projects here-
Animatronic Iron Man MKIII suit • Hackaday Projects

Here's a video of the suit-

[xjoex]

Holy shit! That is amazing.


-Joe

[Honus]

Holy shit! That is amazing.

-Joe

Thanks Joe! I'll have the full build on Instructables soon. :)

[Honus]

Finally finished the complete tutorial- Animatronic Iron Man Mk III suit

Also did a very brief interview with Sparkfun- https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1475