O.H.E.Orhun Habib Erdogan

B-02 · Dec 2022 – Feb 2023

Iron Man helmet

Fully 3D printed, with a faceplate that lifts itself. About 50 hours of printing.

B-02 · Inspection
The finished red and gold Iron Man helmet photographed on a plain grey background

Every engineer has an Iron Man phase. Mine came with a print queue.

The whole helmet is 3D printed: shell, cheeks, faceplate and the mechanism parts. Around 50 hours of printing in total, plus more sanding than I’d like to admit.

The mechanism

A 360° servo drives two arms that lift the faceplate up and over the top of the helmet. The code is honest about how simple it is: one while loop that keeps the servo moving until the faceplate hits fully open or fully closed. It doesn’t need to be clever. It needs to stop in the right place.

Finishing

Sand, prime, sand again, gold, mask, red, then sand off whatever went wrong. The gap between “3D print” and “looks like a prop” is mostly patience.

Fig. 6 — Faceplate test, pre-paint
Raw white 3D printed faceplate and cheek parts held in a hand
Fig. 2 — Straight off the printer
Servo, battery and breadboard wiring for the faceplate mechanism on a desk
Fig. 3 — The brains, on a breadboard
The helmet in grey primer next to a pair of spoons for scale
Fig. 4 — Primer. Spoons for scale.
Assembled white helmet with a green LED glowing behind it
Fig. 5 — First full assembly
The finished helmet on a white shelf at home
Fig. 7 — On the shelf, where it lives now
Next drawingB-03 X-wing