Step by step

 From an initial thumb nail sketch with only very rough ideas I was able to take my favourite parts of the original sketch, the high collar, fold back communication antenna, and the general mask design and refine them into a full armour concept. From here I ditched the second collar, took some design elements further and then designed a concept for what the rest of the armour would look like based on the styling of the limited amount seen so far. Again many parts of this armour concept appealed to me and they are what led me to the decision to take the design further.

In the design I incorporated some of the ideas I had developed around joint flexibility with panels visible at the elbows designed to slide over and under one another to remain flexible whilst providing upmost protection. I decide that the second high collar would be mostly pointless, and made the wearer look like they had abnormally long shoulders. The fold away antenna took me in the direction of having many essential gadgets be able to fold away. There are parts on the side of the lower leg, the ribs and also the collar that would eventually become deployable jet nozzles for use in flight. I was very aware how similar to Iron man this concept could become and so I was keen to keep a safe distance whilst simultaneously not deciding to do things differently simply because Marvel did them first. With this in mind, and the fact that I wanted my suit to be more realistic, I wanted to stay well away from jet boots as a form of propulsion and palm blasters as the main weapon. It was the separate arm cannons  that actually led to the most interest and change as I took my concept the next step forwards.

I had drawn the cannons in a way which made them look very detachable, almost like they could be removed and swapped out for a different weapons load depending on the suits use and mission. Having added these modular weapons I also opted to add some slots on the thigh and shoulders like these would be the receiving bays for other weapons or add-ons. This was a very interesting idea to me, as I think it is very similar to what the real military would actually do. Not every mission needs the same kit, nor every soldier, so they are given different weapons and equipment but with the same base protection and uniform. My suit would be that base, and the modular accessories would make it useful in a variety of military theatres. I wanted to take this idea further, and also to add some complexity to the somewhat plain armour, as such I began developing the same suit with a few alternative parts.

As I began adapting the armour I made the decision that the pop out jets that I had designed were somewhat impractical and also a little too futuristic, I wanted to take them back a step. I replaced the parts on the ribs and collar with a jet pack and swapped the legs for small modular jets. This facilitated the collar being significantly reduced in size, so that it was much closer to the neck. The only other major change was to the thighs and biceps. The thighs were adapted to look like they could handle more flexibility and both parts were increased in complexity to add a better aesthetic quality. The design as a whole had small elements added to it, these make it look more like many smaller armour plates, and make it look more like it actually has a function and could exist in the real world. 

Upon finishing this design I knew it was the design I was going to make, and I could finally move from pre-production into production. Time to get my hands dirty in ZBrush

Getting closer...

Having gone through all of my previous designs and picked out my favourite elements I decided that I was quite happy with a number of the helmets which I had drawn but there were hardly any full armour concepts I liked. This isn't to say I disliked everything I had drawn, merely I wasn't happy with any of the full armours that had been drawn up. There were elements I liked, and designs with a small amount of armour roughed out that I wanted to explore further. As such I set out to take the best concepts and draw them up in full suits of head to toe armour. However I would make sure to concentrate on the body and not the head, as I had already drawn many, many helmets and didn't need to design any more. As such most of the below helmets are only place holders and may be replaced later.

With this in mind I set out to explore one full concept or design in each suit I drew. I started with a suit that was meant to provide maximum coverage with minimum restrictions to movement (top left and centre). I used a lot of the research I had done when creating the paper armour to figure out how to try and solve the mobility issues. The idea was basically to have all of the panels be able to slide over one another to keep things covered but also flexible. 

The next concept I tried working with was a more basic and realistic (top right), for this I went back to the tried and tested method of having larger plates over some less protective but more flexible under armour. I particularly wanted to show the roughness of this design with the large fastenings, basic panel shapes, and the use of current weaponry and extra armour.

The next set of designs I worked up were based on armour concepts I had drawn in the previous round but wanted to see as a full suit. The first design (bottom left) was based on a drawing showing the suit from the waist up, and I particularly liked the arms and shoulders of this design as well as the large panels on the hips. I set about continuing the style of my favourite parts across the whole suit, designing legs and redesigning the chest and abs of the suit.

Next up was a much more futuristic design that ended up being a little too sci-fi with not enough grounding in reality (bottom centre). The original design had been almost full body, but had been around a feminine form, I decided to redraw it over a male body as I am more familiar with the body shape and so that it was more in keeping with the other designs. The design is sleek and futuristic but also doesn't appear to offer the level of coverage and protection I am after.

Finally I worked up a design which had previously only been the shoulders and head of the suit, but I had really like the helmet a lot. One of the main features of the previous design had been a large double collar around the head, which I liked but wanted to reduce to a single layer. When I drew the collar onto the base figure it became apparent that only a single collar would fit in place anyway. I expanded the style of the design to encompass the whole suit and developed something that ended up with a great middle point between futuristic but realistic too. I decided that this design should have built-in weapons mounted onto the forearms, but that they would be modular, so they could be removed and swapped out as the mission dictated. This lead to the design being covered in these modular slots, so many weapons or extra armour could be added.

Eventually I decided that this was the design that I liked most and that it would be the design that I wanted to continue with. However there were still some things I wanted to tweak before I was ready to start sculpting it. Nearly there....