I sculpted the Tom Cruise head as a favor for a friend, but it never occur to me to use it for Nightwing until I saw this DC Direct Nightwing statue.

Dick Grayson looked just like a comic book rendition of Tom Cruise especially with that chiselled jawbone. You can read more about the Tom Cruise head sculpt here.

Since Dick Grayson is quite the acrobat and martial artist, I felt that extra articulation was needed for this figure. The first thing I did was modify the shoulder joints so he could rest his arms to the sides. I also added midbicep joints as well as increasing the range of articulation on his knee joints. The swivel joint came from a K'Nex keychain man. I cut the bicep in two, dremeled holes in bicep region and inserted the joints. It was reinforced with Magic sculp.

As for the knee joints, I cut some of the plastic from the back of the knee.This allows his lower leg to hinge about 135-145 degrees; FCs can only hinge 90 degrees without clothing on and about 60 degrees with clothing. However, this modification wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, so I created a "synthetic skin" to cover it up. The skin not only had to be thin (less than 1mm thick), but also flexible and durable. I made mine out of Dow Corning silicon rubber. This is also the same stuff that phone companies use to insulate underground lines so you know it's durable. I added a flesh color dye to the rubber compound, but unfortunately, the rubber reacted with the dye resulting in a more pinkish color than I had hoped .... oh well, live and learn. Granted all of this is kind of an overkill since Nightwing's knees aren't exposed, but it's always a bonus to learn new techniques. I'd like to experiment with double hinged knee joints (ala Dragon and Max Steel) but that's something way down the road.

The figures is 8.75" high, which converts to a scale size of 5'10". I believe this is Dick Grayson's height according the DC guides. I also increased the musculature and body proportions using Magic sculp.

I got lazy and made the forearm and calve bracelets (or whatever those things are called) out of 2mm thick foamcraft. I really don't like foam craft as a customizing material because it's not very durable and has tiny pores. I'll probably replace it with resin castings in the near future.