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Figuring that I may want to restore DaFoe's Platoon (Sideshow Toy) head back to its doll body someday, I did not
remove the "hair" or "headband" (just sculpted vinyl) from the head before casting it. So each time I want to make
a Jesus or other DaFoe character, when I cast the Platoon head, I need to do lots of dremeling every time.
After smoothing out the head, it was time to build it back up again with long hair and a full beard. For some reason
I did the beard with Apoxie Sculpt, a two-part clay, and the hair with Super Sculpey. Resin can be heated, so all of
the hair could've been sculpted with it. Habit, maybe?
The sandals are bits of thin leather, glued with Fabri-tac. Last year my church held a silent auction for charity,
so I donated this figure. It sold for about $200 and was apparently given to the Sunday school teacher. Prior
to leaving my house forever, I showed it to a Baptist coworker, who described it as "Our Lord and Savior." Me:
"Actually, it's a plastic representation of an actor playing Jesus for a movie." I felt that she needed to be aware
of the difference.
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I kept forgetting that Willem DaFoe, of all people, has played Jesus, and in The Last Temptation of Christ,
no less. I finally rented the controversial movie and appreciated what it was trying to say, but felt that it probably
had too many controversial theories in it. Plus the film's version of Jesus was really a wuss.
Nevetheless I was "inspired" to customize a Willem Dafoe (from Platoon) figure into the founder of the Christian
Church. That or make a Norman Osborne, or recreate exciting courtroom scenes from Mississippi Burning.
Some folks have commented on his "stern" expression. I simply left the original expression from the Platoon
head as is. If you read the Bible, you'll notice that Jesus wasn't big on levity and hugs for all, but gave serious
speeches and often chewed out people (mostly hypocrites). So I have no problem with the look.
In the film the plain robe you see was pretty much "it" for Jesus, except for a couple of scenes where he had a maroon
shawl. No belt or anything. In closeups the seams appeared to be hand-stitched with thick thread (for authenticity,
one assumes), so I used slightly darker thread and sewed the seams so the thread would be visible. Unfortunately these
pictures don't show that.
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