Iron Man 2.0 Update 2

So today is, and has been, a very busy day. I finished the outter stomach ribs and the spine cover for the lower back (what some refer to the ab section)

After a break to make dinner, and then eat (looks good, huh? Chicken Parm!)...

... And then, its off to start cutting out and planing the lay out of the waist piece.



So whats the plan for the stomach ribs and lower back cover? Well once they are hardened up, i will cut some slits into the edges of the parts so that I can thread some elastic bands through and then stitch them shut to keep them from coming off. this will provide a sort of "One-Size Fits All" solution to correct fitting of that particular part, and should hold in place the actual Stomach Plate once finished.

Iron Man 2.0 Update

Well it has been a good while since I posted some major progress, so without any further ado, here are pictures! If you have been following along, you'll know that there were some issues with the .torso set I had started - This was due to lack of bracing on my part. See the pictures  below!

This is the top of the back piece. It warped up pretty bad as you can tell.

 This is the back piece from a strait on shot. Sorry its really bright, but my camera started wigging out when i took this picture.

 And here is the waist and stomach section. Warping took the worst toll on this part.

The chest piece. This was not as warped as the other parts but it is still quite noticeable. Let this be lesson; Always use bracing when fiber-glassing!


At any rate, enjoy the new upper torso parts - complete with bracing!

Its a great day for some more IRON MAN!

So after a few days of screwing around trying to get my printer to work again, we're back to building! I had to restart progress on the torso, AGAIN. I Wont go into details but needless to say, its going to be hell getting back to where I was just last week.

Movie Review: Green Lantern

So here's the scoop on this one. This Uber-baddie called Parallax was once a Guardian council member and the founder of the Green Lantern Corps. That is until he tried to harness the power of Fear.

Basic plot is there. So that's a good thing right? Well, I'm not too sure about that. Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is in constant fear of being in fear. That's something I think we can all relate to. But this guy is a WHIMP when it comes to things like romance. Lets mix a pinkish/purpleish alien with a magical green ring and a dime store throw away lantern that not even the most tasteless of individuals would want, shake well and serve for 160 minuets or until the audiance gets bored.

The Green Lantern is one of those stories that you can only tell so many times before it gets stale, and the good folks at DC, who have a habit of beating dead horses, ran this one through the ringer yet again. The sub-plot and the main story really were not very well presented, and it just felt like Green Lanter: First Flight all over again with a hint of The Emerald Knights thrown in for filler. While I like the franchise a lot, if for nothing else as a story of how one very scared man turns that fear into a strength, this movie leaves little to be desired. It seemed like one gigantic waste of time and energy as it was basically one huge CG shot after another.

While this movie isn't completely bad, I can't really say it was entirely good either. It drags on until maybe the half-way point (that being generous) leaving a whole 45 minuets to develop the rest of the story, give really no supporting character development or any real development to the main character other than how scared he is of committing to any thing, especially a woman.

It kind of feels like a service movies for hard-core lantern fans, and at the same time I can't see the direction of this one doing any justice to any facet of the original story.

Effect wise this movie was great. Lots of CG action shots, lots of big expensive CG, and did I mention lots of CG? I mean EVERY thing except for a handful of extras, Hal Jordan's head and some supporting cast members were CG. in an almost two hour movie that's a lot of money in the tubes,green screen, and no real props as even the Lantern Battery was CG. If you all want to know why ticket prices at the box office were climbing so high its simply because of this movie and the expenses they were going to need to cover it which the collection had probably started back in 1997 when movies saw their first major hike in price, from I think it was six bucks a pop to twelve.

The acting on this one isn't too bad either, so I can't take any points off from that. Only wish I had shelled out for the 3D because it would have been bitchin'.

So if you are going to waste a few bucks to go see this, you may as well get your money's worth by paying extra for the 3D show, and if you got it, extra for the reserved seats. Till next time!

The Iron man Project: Part 2

Well I don't have too much to update right now other than there is now a complete left arm to match the right and will soon go to fiber glass this week. Not much got done last week as it was pretty busy, and there wasn't too much time to build.

As it stands, there are only the hands, feet, and legs to build at this point for a total of eight parts out of twenty-one. I haven't yet had a chance to complete the chest plate, back, or lower torso, but that will soon be completed. I may have to re-do the helmet which stinks, because the helmet I had built is really nice... But live and learn, right?

No pictures yet of the two arm files yet, but feel free to take a look at the Work In Progress photos on my Facebook page, which is linked to the right.

'Til next time, stay frosty!

Frank D Out

Review - Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Now I'm sure that there are many good reviews out there for this movie. By good I mean to say that there are some well worded and opinionated works, so here is just my two cents.

This movie is gold.

Is that it? Not by a long shot! There were many references and throw-backs to the original Generation 1 series as well as some tie-ins from more recent Transformers mythos.

From the start, the movie revolves around a team of Autobots on a mission to find, and revive, Sentinel Prime, the leader of the Autobots before Optimus Prime. Now from here on in there are a few spoilers so if you want to be surprised, don't read on. Otherwise hang on for some action!

Sentinel (Voiced by Leonard Nimoy) turns out to be working with Megatron and the Decepeticons to use Space Bridge technology to bring Cybertron into Earth's orbit. If you recall Nimoy also voiced Galvatron in the original 1986 animated Transformers: The Movie.

Some other tie-ins to 'formers past comes in the form of the Wreckers, a team of elite Autobots who are the best of the best at taking out 'Cons and other covert Autobot missions.

Meantime, a Decepticon wristwatch, was a throw back to an experiment that the Decepticons did with Sunstreaker and a human in one of the many comic book series based on the Generation 1 story line.

And the final spoiler here for you all. Laserbeak changes himself into a photocopier at Sam's new job. As a Co-worker of his is hitting a button and saying "This is really going Japanese" a snippet of the original transformers theme song can be heard just before Laserbeak transforms and starts shooting the office to bits.

While it was (in my opinion) the best Transformers film to date, excluding the original, the lack of any Decepticon leader or General by the end was kind of a let down as the Micheal Bay series has yet to see what most of us fans want - Unicron. will we see Astrotrain gather up his fallen comrades and scurry away to Char or Cybertron to lay his master and other higherups to rest only to be intercepted along the way? Or will this mark the end of the Chronicles of the Cybertroians? Eitherway I'm fairly certain that Hasbro wont let this one die out any time soon as there are quite a few stories that can come from the rich universe of The transformers.

To close, if you have yet to see this one, do it! Do it now!