A man has gone viral after building his own operational Iron Man suit.
As a fan of the franchise, Alex Burkan set himself the challenge of creating the iconic suit – spending the past six years on the venture.
The suit looks similar to the one worn by Robert Downey Jr. in the films, with an identical mask and metallic finish, created by a 3D printer.
It even has the trademark ‘repulsor blaster’ in the hand and ‘artificial muscles’, with the suit powered by a whopping 18,650 batteries – which Alex says he sourced from Tesla cars.
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The 32-year-old has documented the journey on YouTube, where he has almost 950,000 subscribers.
“The suit is powered with 18,650 batteries from Tesla cars,” Alex, from Russia, told What’sTheJam.com.
“The batteries are made of electrolysers which generate oxygen and hydrogen.
“It gives fuel gas for the ‘repulsor blaster’, which is located in the hand.
“The electrolyser also works as an electrochemical compressor and can generate any pressure that the system can withstand.
“I use this pressure to power artificial muscles and blast [the] repulsor in cold mode, without ignition.
“The suit is also provided with a gas management system, hydrogen tanks and a control system for all gadgets.”
Alex estimates the suit is worth between $20,000-$50,000 (roughly £16,000 – £40,000).
He said: “It is quite hard to estimate the true price of six years of work and research.
“But I think the most expensive parts are unique technologies that I made to manufacture different parts.
“[This includes] the DC electrolysers, composite armour, gas management system, method of 3D modelling and electroplating and so on.”
Alex has documented the creation of the suit on his YouTube channel, recently sharing the moment he 3D-printed the Iron Man mask.
In the clip, he explains how he will be 3D printing parts of the suit, and shares how different sections of the suit are put on the body.
For the mask, he shows how it is 3D-printed using real metal.
He then sands it down and puts the mask on, mimicking the real Iron Man.
The clip has gained over 45,000 likes so far, as well as thousands of comments from fans.
Kermen said: “Thanks for being an inspiration to engineers all around the world.”
Someone else commented: “This guy is probably one of the most underrated YouTube creators ever!”
Missi added: “So sick.”
Juan wrote: “What a hero man! Congratulations on doing such a big, inspiring and insanely hard project on your own. Keep up the good work man!”
“Good job with all these amazing things!” said Mark.
“Bruh I don’t care about iron man suit. I’m just amazed at your attention to detail and creativity,” wrote one fan.
“Best Iron Man suite on the internet,” commented someone else
“This dude is basically a legend,” said another follower.
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