This is my ideal version of Iron Man - a variation on the 'extremis armor' used during Marvel's "Civil War" & "Dark Avengers" story arcs.

:::Recipe:

-ML 'House of M' Iron Man (body)
-Marvel Select Extremis Armor Iron Man (Shoulder Pads, Rocket-smoke base)
-Custom Headcast of Movie Iron Man head & Resculpt using Aves Sculpt
-x2 Neonium Magnets
-Gel Type Superglue (for affixing pieces)
-Krazy Glue (liquid-style glue, used for sealing areas prior to Vallejo Varnish)
-Sanding sponge
-Vallejo paints (Rojo Red, Flat Red, White, Black, Yellow, Cobra Leather, Flat brown / various combinations)
-Citadel Washes (Sepia, Flesh wash, Black Wash, some tweaked with a watery citadel Red acrylic paint)

Something that bothered me about most figures that have armor was the lack of durability / posability having shoulder pads causes. To solve this, I dremmeled out a small section on the underside of each shoulder pad, and super glued a cut section of flexible cape-style plastic to it. I then drilled holes into the shoulder sections, and super glued the now-dry shoulder pad/flexible anchor so that the pad was flush with the shoulder.

The result was fantastic - no hindrance in movement, and very durable. :)

I sculpted the face using Normal Osborn's version of the 'Iron Patrior' Extremis Armor (the only reference I had handy at the time) using Aves Sculpt and my hobby knife.

Using a hairdryer, I super-heated the hands, and repositioned them using my favorite pair of needle nose pliers. I then super glued the right hand into a punching-fist shape, and the left hand's fingers together (allowing for a 'repulsor blast' style pose, without the thin girly-robo-fingers happening).

I removed/dremmeled down the strange fans/pegs present on the House of M Iron man's behind, and resculpting his robo-underwear in the process using Aves / sanded it down using a sanding sponge.

I installed one Neonium rare-earth magnet in the base, and one in the figures left foot, allowing it to pose on it's right foot peg, or with both feet attached. Extremis Armor IRON MAN can also stand well without use of his base stand.

I loved the paint job on the original 'House of M' Iron Man armor, so I paint matched as closely as I could the desaturated red (using Rojo Red/Flat Red, and various dry brushes of red/black), and custom mixed a yellow-brown to match the original yellow-brown-gold-ish color. In keeping with the original color scheme, I used Citadel washes to bring out detail.

The base was base-coated with the last of my Acrylic Black spray paint, and touched up with Vallejo Black paint. Each layer of color (grey and white for smoke, yellow, red, mixed for two shades of orange for the flames) were applied.

All joints and areas where rubbing or 'play contact' (chest, face, fists) were sealed using Krazy Glue.

The entire figure was finally sealed with Vallejo matte finish varnish. :)

I displayed this figure on his base atop my booth's cabinet at the recent FAN EXPO 2009 in Toronto, Ontario, and he drew many positive reviews. ^_^ I hope you enjoy this figure as much as I do.

Cheers,
-Blayne