bittersweetcrafts: Secret Santa Iron Man

We (DOC) had a secret santa exchange for the Christmas of 2010, but everyone's schedules were all over the place, so we were never able to get together. We still weren't able to get together, but a few of us exchanged anyways.

The Christmas before, I made a paper Spiderman for BJ. I wanted to make something again for this Secret Santa exchange, but then I went shopping with Kevin, and he convinced me to buy something instead (our limit was $5 btw). BUT since this exchange was so delayed, I got bored and made something anyways.

I was Jaime's secret santa, so of course whatever I'd get him would have to be some kind of super hero... i.e. Iron Man or Green Lantern. I decided on Iron Man, and made that light thing on his chest.

I was inspired by the Target ad for the Iron Man costume during Halloween time.

So I dug up my push light.

And based my design off this toy.

Here's my game plan

The light was more complicated than I had anticipated. Had it not been rounded, it would've been easier. I was trying to work mathematically, but the fact that it was rounded threw me off. So a lot of what I did was by guessing and checking. My pictures will skip steps here and there, because I wasn't always sure of what would work.

I started by drawing and cutting out some pieces

And painted them with my good ol' silver nail polish.

I had to do this part in pieces, because of the fact that the light was rounded and my paper was not... if that makes sense. By doing it in small pieces, I was able to glue them on and mold to the rounded shape if needed.

After gluing all the pieces on, and letting them dry, I fixed the edges with the knife to make a more perfect circle.

Making the center piece was the hardest. It took a lot of guessing/instinct, but I managed to make one that fit perfectly. I am still very surprised with how I did it.

I taped the center piece temporarily so I could estimate the placement of the outer pieces.

When it looked about perfect, I glued the pieces on.

And then trimmed the excess with my knife.

I worked from the outside in, this provided guidelines for the placement of inner pieces. At this point, It kinda looked like I was about to make the Deathly Hallows sign.

I skipped a bunch of steps here, but I finished the center. Here, I added paper and tape to prepare for painting.

In the 10th grade, a few of my friend and I made a cardboard phone booth for our geometry teacher. SUPER TRANS! So I had a lot of red paint left over. Perfect for this project.

I painted two coats, because the first coat was streaky.

It dried dull looking, so I added clear nail polish to give it a shiny, plasticky look.

Next step was to make pieces for the sides. The circumference of the light was about 30 cm, so I cut two 15 cm strips of paper.

And again painted with my silver nail polish.

As that dried, I continued to work on the center.

Then while the top dried, I went back to the bottom and made those little square ridge things. I made myself a paper guideline so I could ensure that the space between each ridge was the same.