The inner mouth details of teeth, gums, and tongue were sculpted, molded, and vacuum-formed in thin plastic to help with our overall strategy of saving weight wherever we could. Tubes were set into the nostrils, allowing fine powder to be blown through them for nostril snort. The more intricate details of the rhino's head -the mouth and nostrils, eyes and surrounding areas, and the ears- were all sculpted, molded, and cast in foam latex, affixed to a lightweight fibreglass head form -cast from the taxidermy form- and mechanized for the remote control animatronics: eye movement, eye blink, mouth open/close, nostril movement, and ear wiggle. Inside the rhino, in the mid-body, rib area, we attached aluminum rods on pivots, so they can be pushed in and out for a rhino 'breathing' effect. A tail was fabricated and attached to a mechanism to swing it back and forth as needed. Gaps between these sheets were patched and blended together using foam latex with a special curing agent added, so they could be cured with regular hair driers and textured as they dried. Large 'rhino skin' texture sheet forms were sculpted up in clay, then molded in plaster, cast in slip latex and glued over the broad forms of the foam. Rhino Textures Skin - Subtle detail refinements were added to this soft foam covering, like the rhino's ribs. ![]() These retractable supports also came in handy on set for the performers to drop down from inside, giving them needed breaks from supporting the bulky rhinoceros suit. Retractable aluminum tube support stands in front of each leg area were built into the aluminum box frame, allowing the body forms to be worked on and measured against the taxidermy form at the Rhino's full standing height. Thin steel bands were riveted to the box frame in order to round it out and provide a light, flexible support for the pre-shaped soft foam forms, which were then glued all together and fitted on top of the box frame and banding. Two inch thick, open-cell, soft foam was placed into the open face forms, quickly cut to size, darted and formed to fit within the Rhino's body mass. Rhino Muscle Suit - The opened up taxidermy form also aided rapid and accurate fabrication of the soft foam 'muscle suit' body elements. ![]() Two backpack frames bolted to this box frame allow the performers to 'wear' the rhino suit and move it's huge, twelve foot long mass as efficiently as possible, leaving their hands free for manipulation of inner controls. We opened up the fiberglas form lengthwise, allowing us to quickly decide on the best position for each performer to stand inside and to also quickly and accuratly construct a lightweight, aluminum speedrail box frame to support the body and neck mechanism. This particular form provided us with a variety of advantages. ![]() These taxidermy forms can be very helpful in our business not for molding and casting -lacking all the exterior skin detail and subtleties of real animals- but for accurate measurement and optimal placement of performers inside the suits. Walkaround Suit - To help solve the tough short schedule of this job, we were fortunate to locate an accurate, full-sized White Rhinoceros fibreglass taxidermy buck that had just then become available.
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