The Iron Man Ablative Armor statue by Skogsnegl

Okay, let’s talk about the primary piece of the site. The one and only 1/6th scale, 12” statue of Iron Man’s Ablative Armor in existence. You know what, take all of those numbers away, because I think we can all be relatively sure that it’s the only statue of the Model 23 in existence period.

So, why does it exist? Why spend so much money on a custom? To answer that, you have to understand obsession as much as possible. Some people’s favorite Harry Potter character is Colin Creevey. Why? Dunno. Some people can’t get enough of Star Wars’ Momaw Nadon (Hammerhead); sure, he’s cool and is amazing creature design, but why choose that particular Mos Eisley cantina character to focus on? Again, dunno. Why is the Ablative Armor, Axol, my favorite Iron Man armor? Dunno, but I wanted a statue of it!

Axol’s Artist

Meet Skogsnegl. Here’s her Instagram page, you should check it out. She does incredible creature design, which is why I stopped by her booth at an art fair about two years ago. She combines horror with whimsey amazingly well, and her attention to musculature is impressive.

I bought a dragon head from her, followed her on Instagram, purchased a larger piece a couple months later, wrote a book about the dragon head (you bet I’ll let you know when that gets published), commissioned a full body of the same dragon, and then…

“I Have a Strange Commission For You”

If I had an obsession with any other Iron Man, I probably wouldn’t have commissioned Skogsnegl. Don’t get me wrong, she’s done some amazing work painting Super Sculpey to make it look like metal. (Honestly, her MTG Nicol Bolas is a masterpiece, go check it out.) But Iron Man armors are super smooth, and most of what she does has a considerably more organic feel to it. So when I told her “I have a strange commission for you. At first you might be like ‘huh?’ But I hope you'll eventually say ‘oh, I get it.’”

When I told her about the Ablative and how it worked, then sent her picture, she understood. The organic look and the idea of polymer tiles made her the perfect artist for this commission.

Axol Design

Axol (though not yet named) took a few months, as all communication was via email and a lot of weird stuff happened during that time (global pandemic, anyone?). She had the idea of the “come at me, bro” stance. I think she suggested battle damage as well, and while I’m not usually a battle damage fan (going all the way back to my 1982 Empire Strikes Back Micro Collection Snowspeeder), I readily agreed because it showed off the concept of ablation so well. The tiles have to go somewhere when knocked off, so I really wanted the discarded tiles at the base.

The base of the Ablative Armor Iron Man’s base, signed by the artist.

Speaking of the base, it was actually the first thing designed. Since Tony Stark designed the armor to study asteroids and the like, we settled on a metallic-looking rock base. To see the sculpture from beginning to end, scroll down about halfway on this page.

Working on this project made me study the Model 23 like never before. There’s only one good image of the back of the helmet, for instance, and so I had to send that along. Some lines of the armor never terminated in an obvious way, so she had to improvise. In the end, I’d say we used the first panel of Axol from issue #416 for about 80% of the inspiration.

How Many Tiles?

Oh boy, this was the toughest part to decide. As I discuss here, the armor is never shown with every tile visible. Artists get tired of drawing thousands of tiles (for some reason). While Skogsnegl offered to do every tile, we eventually both agreed it would look too busy. When I came up with the justification that the space between the tiles has to compress and expand so that the wearer can move, the “snake chain theorem” was born.

Painting and…Done

Painting has been about the easiest parts of both commissions I’ve done with this sculptor. She paints, I have a couple thoughts, and it’s done. I seem to be much more of a stickler for the design, and then she paints it and it’s suddenly perfect. Into the mail, and Axol arrived safely.

Well, that’s how I chose Skogsnegl to sculpt the one and only Iron Man Ablative Armor statue out there. Go check out her other sculpture and get an eyeful of amazing creature design!