When I started this project there was very little doubt who I was going to cast for the role of Orion, Dog of War. With movies like Good Fellas, Casino and Cape Fear under his belt, Robert De Niro showed me that he had the temperment of Orion. Having met Mr. De Niro last summer, I'm more sure of my decision since he not only had the attitude, but also the body ... the guy is huge up close and personal.

For details of the head sculpt, click to the following page. It's kinda interesting to note how different De Niro looks with a orange hair, and less shadows/ washes on face.

The helmet was made in the following manner. I casted the head in polyurethane resin and sculpted a helmet directly over the cast. This allows me to make the helmet as small as possible and still have it removable .... aka avoid bucket head syndrome. My first few attempts involved molding and rotocasting, a method in which you pour in a small amount of resin into the mold and rotate it around until the resin cures, forming a hollow cast. Vinyl kits are produced in this manner. The problem with rotocasting is that unless you have access to expensive rotary machines, you usually get uneven thickness. It took me about three tries to determine how much resin to use and how fast to rotate it in order to achieve a decent uniform thickness. Being the idiot that I'm, I didn't consider the fact that such a tight fit, while aesthetically pleasing, would create surface friction between the helmet and head, thus scratching up Orion face over time. My next step was to vacuum-form the helmet. Since Jimbob Stelling had great article on vacuum-forming, I decided to give it a try. Vacuum forming gave the helmet a very smooth look with uniform thickness, but surface details and undercuts weren't replicated as well compared to molding. Fine lines like that of the star and gold bars on the helmet didn't show up very well using vacuum forming. In the end I settle for a thin rotocast and lined the inside of the helmet with an ultrathin layer of silicon rubber. The silicon acts like a cushion to prevent surface friction while providing a tight fit. Another option I've considered is ordering some PVC like resin (Smooth-On C1515) and using it for my rotocast. The resin would give the cast some flexibility and minimize surface friction.

The body is a modified Type 2 FC body. I made the body before I decided to adopt a strict 1:8 scale system (I think I started this project back in June of 99 .... quick and efficient I'm not :-) As such Orion is only 9.125" which translates to 6'1" .... I think Orion is listed at 6'4" or 6'5" in the DC Universe guide .... grumble, grumble, grumble. I added Magic sculpt to the inner thighs, quadriceps, waist and biceps to improved the musculature and proportions. I altered the shoulder joints to increase the range of movement. Note that Orion can rest his arms to his side, something FC bodies can't do. I added a ball neck joint but the range of movement is somewhat limited due to his neck collar. I gave him new hands. The boots are Dardevil's. I painted it with Latex paint to preserve the flexibility and make it durable enough for rough play.

Orion wouldn't be complete without his golden chariot. I've seen various interpretations of the chariot by different artists, but the Wizard JLA Special (above) was most appealing to me. The golden chariot (or whatever it's called) was made from various pieces of plastic (a shampoo bottle, saline solution bottle, styrene) with sculpted parts from Magic Sculp. The hose was made from a copper phone wire. I etched each individual groove using a wire stripper ... a pain in the a$$ task that I won't be repeating anytime soon. I used a dark wash to bring out some of the contrast in the tubing grooves, but it's still hard to see this from the picture. The hose can be removed for those scenes where Orion walks, but still has the shoulder harness on. His right cannon was made from a lazer pointer. You can press the button and pretend that Orion is blasting evildoers :-). Hey it sounded cool when I was planning this project.

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