Most people wouldn’t dare attempt making a life-size iron man suit for real – only in movies perhaps. Anyone can daydream about it, but building an Iron Man from scratch is a mission impossible for most. POSCO Newsroom sat down with the man who took on the unthinkable.

Meet Min-Soo Kim. He has his own YouTube channel called NAKK where he illustrates his work process in detail. He recently quit his job to go all in: dedicating his time and energy to building a collection after collection with iron and steel. What brought him to this project and why?

┃“Drawing Connections Between Iron and Life”

From a very early age, Kim had a knack for making things. He was dexterous and didn’t mind getting his hands dirty while creating things with his bare hands. During his university years, he studied Automotive Engineering, enthusiastically involving himself with such extracurricular activities like building cars and fixing broken stuff. After graduation, he worked in a field closely related to his university major, maintaining ship machinery.

“The more I work with iron, the more I find myself drawn to the material. With iron, it’s hard to predict the outcome as it’s always different. The whole process feels incredibly similar to our life. In life, everyone looks as though they’re living a life almost identical to each other, but deep down, each of them is living a life of their own. I’m not that talented – I just happen to be slightly more dexterous than others, and I enjoy building things out of nothing, especially with iron.”

To build these life-size Iron Man models, he is exclusively working with 1.2T steel plate. T denotes the thickness of a steel plate in which 1T equals 1mm. He uses 1.2T-steel because, when considering all the procedures to finish the model, the plate requires a certain level of thickness. 1.2T steel plates also have just the right amount of weight, so it is the best material to work with, he says.

“Any thinner than 1.2T will leave too many holes during the welding process. I am not yet adept at handling various sizes of plates. That’s why I’m sticking to 1.2T steel plates for now. Aluminum is the most difficult to work with – it’s expensive, and I would also need a different welding machine.”

┃The Mark VII, Seven Months of Hard Work

Kim’s workroom is filled with the collections he’s worked on so far. Among them, Iron Man Mark VII and MARK I stand out the most.

It took Kim nearly seven months to complete the Mark VII. He recalls, “I still had my day job then. I remember having the hardest time trying to get the right balance between left and right, especially on the calves of the Mark VII. When the proportion is off, the mistake is really visible, and it looks ugly. So I tried very hard to make the whole piece as symmetrical as possible.”

“As for the Mark I which appears in the first Iron Man series, I wanted to revive the original ruggedness of the iron, so I didn’t paint it and made the welding lines more prominent. Making a life-size Iron Man is challenging of course, but that’s where I get tremendous joy out of – building it the way it was meant to be” he continued.

Besides the Iron Man, Kim also built several other collections: bust art sculptures of both male and female, and other pop icons like Gundam from the Japanese animation series. It was while assembling these series that he decided to go all in. Kim eventually left his day job to horn his craft further and dedicate to his passion projects 100%.

“There is a tremendous joy in working with steel plates, through which my imagination becomes tangible. I know there are many others out there who really know their crafts, and I would like to put my skills to good use creating things that are one-of-a-kind. There is a part of me who wants to live a unique life and be extraordinary. Just recently, a TV crew from SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) came over to film my studio”, he chuckles.

┃The Journey to Build Superheroes: To Be Continued

When Kim first started building Iron Man, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Even as he printed out free design templates off the Internet and started the actual work on the steel plate, he wasn’t sure whether he could pull it off. The uncertainty led to vexation, but he didn’t stop.

“I can feel my skill improving each day at every step. If the opportunity arises, I would like to take on bigger projects. Personally, I like working with big chunks of material where the scale is so vast the end product literally wows me. The bigger the piece, the more energy I feel.”

The title of Kim’s YouTube channel, NAAK, is his nickname, which means joy or delight in Korean. Why? Because he wants to create his own NAAK.

“The idea of ‘fitting-in’ isn’t all that appealing to me. I want to be extraordinary. I don’t pay too much attention to what others think because I create my own NAAK.”

Kim, a young man of 29 years old who grew so attached to iron and didn’t think twice before jumping into the opportunity to go all in to create his own destiny. What’s next? Only time will tell. As he mentioned, his skill is growing at every step of his creative process, and he’s not stopping. His journey continues.

Over the years, Game of Thrones has become more than just a show, but also a cultural movement, as fans have fallen in love with everything Game of Thrones related. As a result, HBO has partnered with numerous breweries to create special-edition beers, and the show’s jewelry designers even opened up their own online store. Another surprising consequence of the show’s popularity is the increasing number of people taking up an interest in blacksmithing to make replicas of their favorite swords and weapons from the show.

The Blacksmiths of Today

Although blacksmiths are rare to come by today, in the 18th and 19th centuries, they were a vital pillar of society. Blacksmiths hand-produced everything made of iron and steel, from pots and farming tools to swords and shields. They forged life’s necessities out of the hot metals, right up to the industrial revolution.

Traditionally, only young men were eligible to become blacksmiths once they completed a 7-year paid apprenticeship. Apprentices worked for established blacksmiths who would in turn house, feed and train them. Today, women can also become blacksmiths and there are various training and education programs available for aspiring blacksmiths.

Today, women are also eligible to become blacksmiths. (Source: Vietbao)

Modern blacksmiths do not hammer away to produce tools and weapons out of necessity, as machines are far more capable and efficient. Instead, they turn out beautiful pieces of art such as sculptures and unique knobs and bolts. And, the growing popularity of Game of Thrones has more young people pursuing the art as a hobby and a profession.

The Artist Blacksmiths Association of South Australia has reported a growing number of young adults who want to take up the art as a result of the show’s growing popularity. Most of the props in movies for war scenes and superheroes are crafted by hand, and fans want to replicate their favorite characters’ swords, shield and armor.

Blacksmithing for Dummies

So, for all you Game of Thrones lovers, or just plain ol’ steel junkies, here are the basics to get started in the craft. Get a piece of iron or steel, heat it, pound it into shape and cool it down. It sounds simple, but it takes a whole lot of sweat, patience and know-how to do it right.

Heating

Having a good source of heat is vital for blacksmiths, and most opt for a coke or propane forge (or oven). Steel is heated repeatedly to make a single object, so blacksmiths have a forge that is always hot and ready. Blacksmiths also commonly use an acetylene torch to apply heat to isolated areas to achieve specific designs.

A traditional coke forge. (Source: The Rookies)

Holding

An anvil looks like a big block of steel, and its the bedrock on which blacksmiths create their masterpieces. The quality of the anvil will affect not only the quality of the final product, but also the amount of physical labor required by the blacksmith. Tool steel is one of the best kinds of anvils available as it is extremely hard. Instead of absorbing energy from the blow of a hammer, it forces the energy back up the piece of metal being worked.

An anvil serves many different functions. (Source: The Consumer Dabbler)

Besides providing a flat surface, or face, for blacksmiths to pound away on, an anvil has many different features and functions. Blacksmiths also use the anvil to cut, shape and hold the piece of steel being worked along with tongs and clamps.

Hitting

The actual “work” entails a lot of hitting, but in a very calculated and practiced way. Blacksmiths use different types of hammers to pound the metal into various shapes. The 3 most basic techniques are drawing out, upsetting and peining. Drawing out a piece of hot steel means to make it longer by hammering the sides. Upsetting refers to adding force to one end of a hot piece of metal to add volume. Piening means to hammer the piece of steel to move it in a particular direction or to spread it out thin. Blacksmiths use tongs or other specialized tools to hold down the hot steel on the anvil while hammering and working the steel into shape.

Blacksmith hammers come in all different shapes, sizes and weights. (Source: Etsy Studio)

Quenching

After countless cycles of heating and hitting, the blacksmith will end up with the desired shape. The final step is to dip the work into a bucket of cold water to cool and harden the steel.   

Dipping the hot steel in cold water to cool and harden the steel is the final step. (Source: Horse Journals)

With the above basics, and all the accompanying safety gear, anyone can pick up the craft as a hobby to create unique pieces of steel art, or replicas of the greatest swords of Westeros.

Cover photo courtesy of Time Magazine.