Showcased here is a painted Hawkman hardcopy. The hardcopy is cast in a green urethane, commonly referred to as dynacast. The colors are incredibly vibrant as the piece is entirely hand painted. Pictures simply don't do this piece justice as you lose the feel of how heavy this piece is. The wings are also urethane, which makes the Hawkman substantially heavier than most figure hardcopies.
Hardcopies are produced using a silicon mold (this mold is created from the original wax figure sculpting). Once it is removed from the mold it may serve a number of purposes. It might remain unpainted and ultimately be used to create a negative epoxy "hardmold", which is used in the cutting of the steel production mold. This negative epoxy mold is essential since one cannot pantograph from a positive object to yield a negative mold. The process must be done from negative to negative. When used for this purpose, the hardcopy is referred to as a "tooling master" or "tooling hardcopy".
Extra hardcopies are also poured as a precaution, should something happen to the tooling master. These extras would remain unpainted as well. If a hardcopy is not destined for tooling or backup, then it will more than likely be handpainted for use in catalog photography, trade shows, or as a paintmaster. Most hand painted prototypes for the Super Powers line are cast in a milky white protomolded plastic (commonly referred to as internal first shots), however a few like this Hawkman have been found in resin.
The above photo affords a view of the hardcopy partially disassembled. The wings are not removable since they appear to be glued where the dowels attach them to the rear torso. I've shown the head and legs removed to illustrate how the hardcopy is constructed. Collectors may also wish to view the matching Hawkman internal first shot paintmaster and non-production color first shot featured on the site.
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