1966 Batmobile Reissue by Polar Lights

trekriffic

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"DADA DADA DADA DADA DAT! BATMAN!!!"

I bought the reissued 1/32 scale 1966 TV Batmobile a while back after Polar Lights reissued it. I had the original Aurora kit as a kid.
Since then Polar Lights has come out with a larger 1/25 scale version in both a snap together and glue version. I've been tempted to get it too but right now I'm husbanding my modeling funds to buy the aftermarket parts coming out for the 1/350 scale TOS Enterprise kit which is on its way to me now.

Anyway, I started this build on the Monday after Thanksgiving as a simple build straight OOTB... yeah... right...

The box is made from sturdy heavyweight carboard and looks much like the box I remember from my childhood.
One nice thing PL has been doing with their reissued kits is to glue a peel away sheet on the underside of the box with additional artwork and a one word blurb describing some defining characteristic of the vehicle along with a paragraph or two about its capabilites and mission.

Here's what was on the underside of the Batmobile box:
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The back of the instruction sheet also has a two page background story about Batman and Robim and their spectacular nuclear turbine powered Batmobile:
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The first thing I did was attach the grill to the front of the body.
I must be more discerning now in my middle years because I don't recall this piece being so ill-fitting when I was a boy.
I must've spent a good hour puttying and filling gaps with AVES and Tamiya polyester putty before sanding and brushing on a coat of Mr Surfacer the next morning:
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Several parts on the chrome parts tree had to be soaked overnight in Super Clean to remove the plating.
The seats for one are meant to be black leather along with the attached center console.
Same for the steering wheel although I will need to paint the center of it silver.
The dashboard, rollbar beacon, and turbine nozzle are silver (but not bright chrome) with red and black accents components.
The plastic is black under the chrome so I will go back in with aluminum and red enamels after spraying them flat black after a shot of Taniya grey lacquer primer.

Here's the car body after priming:
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You may (or may not) notice I cut off the blade from the front of the grill. Most of the photos on the internet show the car without the blade and that's how I remember it so... it just looks better to me without it.

Moving along...

Did I say I was going to build this one straight from the box?
Sorry. Couldn't do that with the rocket lauch tubes.
The kit part tubes are a one piece solid chromed plastic affair which just doesn't look right so I cut three sections of hollow aluminum tubing which I'll need to glue into the three holes behind the cockpit individually once the body is painted:
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The Batman and Robin figures had to be assembled; Batman needed his arms glued on and Robin came with an upper and lower torso that needed to be glued together and puttied. Both figures had to be files and sanded along their sides to remove parting lines from the molding.

Here they are after priming:
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Batman was the first figure I finished painting; Robin is still a WIP as he has more colors to his costume:
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I printed a picture of Burt Ward and Adam West in their costumes off Gooogle images and am using that as a guide:
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Closeup of the Batman figure:
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The figure is small but I was able to "dot the eyes" and give his cowl the characteristic grey "eyebrows" as seen on West's Batman.
To do the eyes I painted the whites first, trimmed a toothpick to a fine point, and dipped it in black paint before using a light touch to "dot" the pupils. Then I painted the cowling, cape, gloves, and boots with a mix of dark blue and purple enamels being careful when painting around the eye openings and eyebrows.

That's it for now.

Tune in tomorrow ... same Bat Time... same Bat Channel...
 
Today's update...

Finished painting Robin:

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The Dynamic Duo:
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I painted the rest of the parts too. Once they are cut from the trees they'll need a little touchup:
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The rocket launcher tubes were glued in with CA.
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I also glued inthe dashboard with steering wheel and the parachute packs:
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More to come!
 
Today's pics from the past few days...

Tires were sanded where the seam halves joined then brushpainted with Testors flat black:
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The dashboard and sterring wheel were glued in:
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The seats were glued in:
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The lower chassis and body were glued together with Batman behind the wheel:
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The clear canopies were masked and the tape edges sealed with Future to minimize paint bleed:
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The canopy frames were brushpainted with Testors aluminum enamel after a prior coat of Mr Surfacer:
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The Batbeacon and rollbar were glued in place:
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The backend with Bat chutes, Bat turbo, and Bat license plate painted:
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Tune in later to see more exciting Batmobile developments!
 
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Man this brings back some memories. How I loved the reruns of the series in my youth. Driving the batmobile. Fighting crime. Scaling walls. Pure magic that was.


Awesome job on the Batmobile. Love the satin finish. Great detail with the rocketlauncher tubes. Looking forward to the finished car. Before you know it you can chase the riddler.
 
FAUST said:
Before you know it you can chase the riddler.

Gooly gee whiz yes Batman!
We'll be out and about with some old friends...

CORRECTION!

FIENDS!!!

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Batman: "It's time to get the dogcatcher Robin."
Robin: "The Dogcatcher Batman? Is that a new arch villain?"
(Robin smacks his hand with his fist)
Batman: "No Robin... this time we need the REAL dogcatcher..."


Pug sings Batman theme
 
I gave her a nice coat of Future last night followed by a good shot or two of Glosscote clear lacquer at lunchtime today.
Man is the body SHINY now! The only areas left dull were the cockpit and seats. I want the seats to look a little like worn leather rather than shiny vinyl. Also the treads of the tires will remain dull. The tire sidewalls will be unpainted.
Next step is applying the decals for all the pinstriping. Then she'll get another shot of Glosscote to seal followed by a final coat of satin semi-gloss.
 
Batmobile's coming along nicely.

Not crazy about the pose on that Robin figure, but the car itself looks great
 
Quaralane said:
Batmobile's coming along nicely.

Not crazy about the pose on that Robin figure, but the car itself looks great

Yeah. Robin is supposed to be gripping the windshield with that pose. He looks rather monkey-like though.
 
The decals were less than satisfactory. They fragmented terribly even after I coated them with liquid decal film so... today was pinstriping day with Testors Italian Red and a 5/0 brush.
For the long straight stripes on the top of the fins and the midline on the sides I used Tamiya tape.
All the curves and scallops were painted freehand:

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Stripes finished :
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Still need to glue the rims to the tires and the canopies to the cockpit.
Here are the canopies with frames painted Testors Aluminum ready for attachment:
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No photos but the bat emblems decals on the doors and rims have been applied and are drying.
Tomorrow I'll give it a gloss coat to seal the decals.
Then I'll shoot Batman and Robin with flat.
I'm thinking of a semi-gloss for the final body finish.
 
Made the teeny, tiny Batphone yesterday...

The real Batphone:
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I found cutting the end off a piece of the leftover chrome sprue made a pretty good base for the phone:
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I cut the handset from a piece of thin styrene sheet using scissors and an exacto knife:
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Then I cut the handset in half and glued it to the top of the base:
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Once the glue had set I took a toothpick and made the ear and mouthpieces out of dropletes of CA. Then I filed and sanded to shape. I painted it Italian Red:
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The Batphone installed in the cockpit, glued to the center console with CA:
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The Batmobile was given a coat of Testors Semi-Gloss over a coat of Dullcote giving it a nice sheen. The Dynamic Duo, the seats, the Batchute packs on the rear, and the tires, are all left flat matte.
 
Here are a few quick pics as she stands right now. I glued the canopies on with Elmers clear glue and painted the black plastic tire rims with chrome silver...

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I still need to glue Robin into his seat but I had to touch up the yellow on his cape first. Turns out Robin leans forward with his right hand gripping the canopy frame thus exposing more of his back than I'd anticipated so I had to finsih painting his lower back where I'd left some of the cape unpainted for gluing purposes.

More pics to come once I set up my "studio" in the garage this weekend.

Stay tuned for the next exciting update! Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel!

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