Being a superhero is more than just a dream for Keanu Rust ‒ he has the Iron Man suit to prove it.

The 22-year-old personal trainer from Queensburgh designed and built his own fully functioning Iron Man suit in the garage of his home.

He only had minimal engineering knowledge gleaned while working for an engineering company after matriculating in 2020.

He said his dream began when the first Iron Man film was released in 2008.

“From that moment, I was hooked. I was really fascinated with the design and features of Iron Man specifically, and personally felt like the most realistic armour to replicate.”

“I’ve always been artistic, since I was a little kid.”

He started building his suit in 2022 in his free time and took two years to complete.

What had started as a life-size mannequin spawned into a fully functioning suit after many trials of suits built from hand.

“The first prototype was made with a cardboard frame because it is cheap and easy to manipulate and adjust sizes.

A full-length view of Keanu Rust’s built-from-scratch fully functioning Iron Man suit. Picture: Shelley Kjonstad Independent Newspapers

“Then a final template with exact dimensions was made from plastic, and parts were sent for laser cutting out of aluminium, then bent and shaped by hand. The most difficult part was the electronics, and designing to make the weapons which were also all built from scratch.”

Besides the many hours of labour, building the suit did not come cheap.

“It took about R40 000 to build. I saved most of my salary each month to pay for everything I needed.”

Its most extraordinary feature is that it could be adapted to fire real bullets ‒ but will not because of strict gun licensing laws. The replica guns are mounted on the back and arms of the suit.

“The weapons were constructed out of a combination of steel and aluminium components and took more than a month to design and make.

“This suit was made to fire blanks so I don’t run into legal issues.”

This specific prototype is just going to be displayed permanently and not used for anything.

“Most people thought I was joking when I spoke about my plans. They thought it was going to be like a toy until I finished it, then they were shocked that it turned out to be a legit suit.”

Rust has his sights set on building a heavily modified and refined version that could be picked up for military use and to expand into other areas of technology and gadgets.

Rust said he had no plans to take his Iron Man suit to the upcoming Comic Con in Johannesburg.

#superhero

Iron Man lives his dream in Queensburgh