Iron Man Suitcase From Iron Man 2

Hey there, random fandoms and fellow enthusiasts! Every Marvel fan has a longing somewhere deep inside them to have a super suit. Most commonly, we want an Iron Man suit. But for most people—and especially teenagers—Iron Man suits are too far out of reach. So I decided I wanted to make the metal briefcase suit that we see in Iron Man 2, so I could get in on the Iron Man action. Sadly, there is no armor in this case, but it looks cool!

A cardboard briefcase (Mine used to hold coloring books and markers.)

EVA foam floormats (or some EVA foam about a half inch thick)

Craft foam sheets (the really thin kind)

EVA foam in a medium thickness (mine is

Contact Cement

Plastidip rubber-base spray coat (This will make the foam more durable)

Red spray paint

Silver spray paint

Red and Silver acrylic paint for touch up

Black acrylic for weathering

Masking tape

Paper

Pencil

Exact-o knife

Dremmel tool with sanding head

Reference image

The first step I took was to locate a reference image. This was pretty difficult for me, as the case is seen in basically only one shot, and it’s from a distance. I instead used a picture of a model of it. My friend later got to see the prop on display in a museum, so I have included her picture here as well. Looking at the picture, I broke the case down into levels, did a drawing, and made patterns. The basic levels are: Upper corners and middle section, cut from the thickest foam; the lower corners cut from the medium thickness foam; and the little trapezoid-ish shaped sections at the top and bottom made from the thinnest foam. Given that all of these pieces are flat, you shouldn’t need Tony’s hologram table to plan it out. Pencil and paper will do.

I laid out my patterns on the foam of the correct thickness and cut them out with an exact-o knife. I must stress that fact that you should write on your patterns how many of each side that you need to cut, because I made multiple mistakes on this, such as cutting out three right corner pieces and only one left when I need two of each. It’s also a good idea to mark each piece with which side will be glued down, as I made that mistake at least four times in this whole process. Once you have all of your pieces cut out, do some tests, fitting them together like a puzzle on your cardboard case. This will help you catch any errors in cutting.

For some reason, I am incapable of cutting foam without getting really messy edges, so I sand all of my edges with a dremmel tool. Please note, the dust that comes off the foam is not good to breath in or get in your eyes. I wear safety glasses and a handy dandy COVID-19 mask when doing this. I would highly recommend a respirator for this, but I don’t have one, so I make do with what I have. After sanding, do some more test fits. If you want to take this a step further than I did, you could bevel the edges of your foam pieces, especially the thickest stuff. It would look more screen accurate and less boxy if you did that.

Time to put it all together! I took my case outside where there would be airflow, and wore a mask while working with the contact cement. Again, I highly recommend a respirator. Read all the directions and safety procedures outlined by the glue company (I looked up some of the safety procedures online). For me, these procedures included working in a ventilated space (what’s more ventilated than outside?), wearing a mask or respirator, wearing gloves, and keeping your hands away from your face.

To actually glue the pieces together I followed the directions by putting glue on each surface, waiting for the glue to dry (15 minutes) and then carefully lining up the pieces and pressing them together. To prevent the piece from sticking in the wrong place, I put a piece of paper between the piece and the case and gradually pulled it out, pressing the piece down as I went. Repeat until all your pieces are glued on. Then trim any excess.

After gluing, I used a ruler and an exact-o to cut some details into the trapezoid sections and the middle piece. These are basically all just little straight lines, and are easy to do. I just copied them off my reference images (see step 1). I then went over the lines with a dried up ball point pen to widen them. A heat gun would also work for this.

The next step for this project is, of course, a show-stopping paint job. As a base coat, I sprayed the entire case with black Plastidip. This closes the foam cells, so it doesn’t just absorb the paint like a sponge, and it provides a protective layer. Remember to tape off the latches and handle of your case. Follow all safety procedures on your can. I also took to the internet (this fine site was helpful) to find some tips for working with Plastidip. The best suggestion I found was to put the can in warm water before spraying, to help it spray more evenly. Make sure you follow the instructions on the can and wait for the correct period of time between coats, and again, remember to follow all safety procedures!

Now it is time for the silver. Also now is the time to notice that I made another mistake! If you look at the reference images, you can see that the middle stripe and the bottom trapezoid section are painted silver. Not the upper trapezoid section! I taped off and painted both, and I didn’t realize my mistake until the end of the project when I was doing touch ups. Learn from my mistake and look carefully at your references!

In Iron Man, Tony Stark tells JARVIS to paint the suit “hot rod red”. I did my best to find a color that matched, but it ended up being way too bright. To fix this, and to fix the upper trapezoid section, I used a darker red acrylic paint to paint over the red. You can see some brush marks, so it would probably work better if you used a sponge to paint it on.

I used a little bit of black paint to dirty up the seams and the little detail grooves in the trapezoids. This is not entirely screen accurate as the case appears brand new just before the fight and is completely wrecked by the end, so you could leave this off if you wanted. I think it makes the details look better, so I did it.

Your case is finished! Hide a speaker in it and play some AC/DC as you walk into your next business meeting. Or use it for your Halloween costume, like I did. Either way, it’s a cool prop for display or even as an actual briefcase. If you make this project, please show me in the I Made It! section. Thank you for reading, and I love you 3000!