Hot Toys - Iron Man 2: 1/4th scale Mark V Collectible Bust

[robbiethepainter]

i believe wolverine's claws and blade's sword were both chrome...now they need to start doing more chrome...

Wolverine's claws were metal.

 

[Biojex]

Maybe they're saving all their chrome paint for the 1/6th figure.

 

[robbiethepainter]

It looks good but like the 1/6 sculpt that we saw it has those two "boot sole" pec pieces. I would think those will be the hardest thing to translate into sculpture form. They really need to flex and move to get articulation. Im wondering how HT plans on accomplishing that. They also look too thick. Good luck Hot Toys.

 

[villainsfan42]

Wolverine's claws were metal.

no, they're not. it's been gone over and over, and in hand, you can tell it's not metal. they're plastic, painted chrome. it they were metal, they'd be heavier, colder, and probably sharper.

 

[The Josh]

Damn nice! Gonna be ordering this bad boy!

 

[vodoun]

Wolverine's claws were metal.

Adamantium. ¬_¬

 

[wookster]

no, they're not. it's been gone over and over, and in hand, you can tell it's not metal. they're plastic, painted chrome. it they were metal, they'd be heavier, colder, and probably sharper.

I'm assured by folks at HT they are metal.
And the suit in the movie looks steel, not chrome. Chrome is a specific finish that in my opinion actually looks 'over' shiney.
When I think of hi-tech engineering I always think polished or brushed steel, never chrome. Chrome belongs on bike handlebars from the 70's and cars bumpers from the 50's.
Just my opinion.

 

[plasmid303]

Yeah it should not be chrome. That doesn't mean it should stay as it is. I can understand why HT doesn't use a more metallic, reflective paint on a figure, but this is a bust that won't be subject to constant touching and prodding from our destructively oil-covered human fingers.

 

[Theokan]

Chrome is just a term for a multi step painting process to get actual real reflections in a paint job which silver paint lacks, any kind of brush metal or steel paint job effect would still require chroming to achieve. So it doesn't neccessary have to be the overly shiney chrome metal effect like the ones on chrome wheels that you're thinking about. Check out the Sideshow T-800 chrome paint on resin to see what I mean, it looks pretty much like real metal:

If HT can get accesss to factories with multi step chroming tools, we would get insanely cool 1:6 metal like figures for T-800, Mark 2, Mark V, etc. With HT always innovating and raising the bar, I still have high hopes that chroming will be one of their next break through

 

[Rock83]

Another one?They should make a 1/6 figure of the Mark V,a very different look that deserves more than just a bust considering it was allready made a IM2 bust right?

 

[robbiethepainter]

I'm assured by folks at HT they are metal.
And the suit in the movie looks steel, not chrome. Chrome is a specific finish that in my opinion actually looks 'over' shiney.
When I think of hi-tech engineering I always think polished or brushed steel, never chrome. Chrome belongs on bike handlebars from the 70's and cars bumpers from the 50's.
Just my opinion.

I agree. If they "chromed" the parts, it would be like the comparison of the polished brass parts on the Museum Replicas Mark 3 helmet, it wouldn't look right. It should be bright and have a luster but mirror finish I feel wouldn't look right.

 

[dedguy]

Chrome is just a term for a multi step painting process to get actual real reflections in a paint job which silver paint lacks, any kind of brush metal or steel paint job effect would still require chroming to achieve.

No it's not. Chrome means the metal known as chrome (well chromium). Chroming is the act of using a chemical bath and some sort of charge usually to adhere the chrome to a surface. It's most often used on cars but is also usually what they do to the die-cast parts on die-cast toys that aren't painted. Chromium doesn't rust/oxidize and this is mostly done to protect steel/iron parts from rusting. Chrome is also what makes "stainless" steel alloys rust resistant and this is why they are sometimes referred to as "chrome steel" or "chromium alloys".

Vacumetal which I think might be what some people are talking about is a similar process in which a metal foil is formed over a plastic (or anything else really) shape.

Painting is just painting and there's some /really/ good metal paints out there. The "metal" parts on all the Iron Man film suits that are "real" are painted. It's just a matter of cost, availability, and HT just being comfortable with using them I'm sure.

edit: sorry not trying to come off as a know it all or argue or be a jerk or anything. I just like talking about metallurgy from my limited layman's knowledge.

 

[Theokan]

Keep in mind the whole point of chroming or using vacumetal or other methods is to get that raw unpainted metal look onto a non metal surface, in this case the silver metal panels on the Mark V. The red paint job looks just fine, it's the silver color that could be improved. The reason why the Museum Replicas Mark 3 helmet looks awkward is because they used red chrome for the red part, when they should have just painted it red or used normal red paint on top of the chrome. Their mark 2 helmet on the other hand is chromed and it looks quite believable as an unpainted metal helmet. Better yet take a look at SSC T-800 bust, looks just like unpainted steel, you won't even be able to tell that it's actually a resin cast.

You can't get that same unpainted metal without actually mixing metal compounds via chroming or vacumetal or other alternative methods. "Metal" colored paint only changes it's hue to look like metal, the property (light reflection, light distortion, etc.) of the material itself remains the same, hence plastic toys with metal colored paint still looks plastic-y, and red paint on metal still looks like metal on the film Mark III suit.



Edit: I checked the "Making of Iron Man" video and it does seem that the suits are not made of metal, but the silver parts are spray chromed.

Edit: Not trying to be a jerk either, it's just fun debating these kinds of things sometimes

 

[dedguy]

The MR mkIII helmet does just use red paint for the red sections. It's a metalic flake red paint but it's just red paint and actually matches pretty close. It is the gold that's way off. Likewise I don't think the mkII looks right either. It's way too shiny. It should be a brushed aluminum look.

The actual Iron Man film suits are not made of any metal at all. They are all flexible polyurethane mixed with rubber and a few other materials painted with a special metallic paint. You can get paint that looks just like metal... they do it all the time in movies. It's very rare for anything to actually be made from metal in film. Even with LotR most of the weapons and all of the armor, while originally made in steel/brass/etc are eventually made in plastics for what's usually used on film.

None of the Iron Man stuff was /ever/ made from actual metal.

 

[Theokan]

I just looked at "the making of iron man" again, if you check the link below, at 6:01 he says that the mark II actually uses a spray chrome metal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlmK9n_l6k8

You have to remember there's high quality chroming and low quality ones. It will also require artist enhancments to make the chrome finish look less like chrome and more like brushed metal. In the end of the day the Museum Replica chrome doesn't look super great because they used a low cost chroming process without tweaking it to look like brushed aluminum. Look at the film Mark II suit as well as the SSC endoskeleton and you can see what a good chrome with some artistic enhancments can do.

There is no silver paint that you can just spray it and get an authentic metallic shine, you always have to chrome it first then tweak it with brush strokes, and/or rainbow effects, fake rusting etc. to get the type of metal you're going after, whether it be brushed alluminum, steel, or otherwise.

 

[dedguy]

They're just refering to the fact that it's a chromium based paint. Any metalic paint usually has actual metal in it. I believe metallic paints usually have aluminum in them. Chroming, the chemical process is totally different. They also mention in that same doc that the pieces remain flexible which if it was actual chroming wouldn't be possible. It has to be metal suspended in a tinted adhesive compound (ie paint) in order for that flexibility to be maintained.

This guy used paint to repaint his 18" NECA Terminator. As you can see through the paint and sanding/polished he did to it it looks like metal. Not sure if it's the same guy but back when I posted on the Spawn forums someone did this using a metallic spray paint and then a lot of polishing and sanding afterward.

https://custom-workz.blogspot.com/2009/05/18-inches-neca-terminator-2-t-800.html

A quick google search resulted in finding this automotive grade chrome paint.
https://www.kustomrides.com/chromepaint.htm

 

[Theokan]

The flexible piece in the video is not chromed, it was simply painted red. If you look at the chromed pieces they look very strong and sturdy and looked like it's got quite some weight to it.

Using chromium based paint is just a poor man's way of chroming, they both try to do the same thing which is spraying the object with chromium to get that metallic shine. Here's a cool video of a chroming process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHeMuJuUkn0


The point is that the film Mark II suit has a chromed finish, it doesn't matter if it had actually been chromed or not. Even good chrome paint, such as mirra chrome, is a multi step process paint which is very similar to the actual chroming process. It's not just something you can just paint it on and expect an authetic metallic shine.

The 18" NECA Terminator customizor indeed uses hyper alloy chrome finish, and not just metallic paint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euhC0ErlFnQ

 

[dedguy]

The distinction you're drawing is very fine. There's a huge difference between actually chroming which is a metallurgical process of bonding one metal to another via chemical bath and electrical current and any sort of chrome-like finish whatever you want to call it.

That's all I'm trying to say. Calling it paint or a multistep finish is just semantics and Hyper Alloy themselves call it "chrome paint" because it's not actually chroming.

 

[Theokan]

There is a huge difference between actual chroming and using chrome paint, but it doesn't matter because both methods work just fine to get a metallic finish since the results are so similar. What doesn't really work is silver or "metal colored" paint job, which was the whole point why chrome was brought up multiple times on this thread.

The point of all this is that HT should look into doing chrome paint and tweak it to get a brushed metal effect, like how the film Iron Man used chrome finish with brush strokes for their Mark II to get the metallic look.

 

[Wanderer]

Wow are you two visitors from a how to chrome correctly forum? Sweet Jebus change the record boys. Guess what? Who cares!