The Batmobile from the '89 movie,

Who doesn't like this car, an iconic redo of the classic TV car. I will be doing is up with bright orange pinstripes like the TV car.  My wife's niece who I had given one of these kits to built it up in her vision which was the orange/red strips like the TV car. . She is a high functioning special needs person with a great imagination. She's 22, yet has the mental capacity and understanding of someone between the ages of 8-12 depending on the task and complexity. I won't be bothering with the interior, windows will be tinted out.

So right off the hop the side panels need to be tweaked to fit properly.

The first pic is of Sara's build, my inspiration.

Love the idea of cross-over schemes. I agree that the interior is redundant with the closed cockpit set up. Looking forward to seeing this one.

Cheers guys.

A small up date, started block sanding and removing molding lines. Stripped the chrome changed up the kit front tire's for some parts bin tire's. Also started thinning the rims outer edge. This is one aspect of scale building that really kills a great looking build for me. There are so many great looking wheels/rims included in kits that have huge outter rings. They are either too wide or too thick or both. I've posted two pics of the same wheels for comparison in the light. I will let the rest of the pics speak for themselves. I also mixed up some paint for the pin stripping. I wasn't sure if the two brands would mix without reaction, no issue. Sprayed nice on initial testing, dried flat.  The paint looks more orange in life then in the pic, should work out for a close match to the red/orange used on the original TV car.

Thanks for looking in.

Small update.

4hrs of sanding a scraping the shell. I flat scraped the top of the fenders. Also reshaped the tail fins to give them a crisper knife edge, the hood trim/roof track was removed. Thinking about an omauge to the TV car by adding a hood scoop, very tiny. Block sanded the sides of the rear fenders, block sanded the top of the roof for an hour to pancake it. Filler will be the next step.
Also flat spotted the tire's, rounded the edges and dressed down the script

Wow lot of good work here Curt. I'm on board now.

Wot Al said.

Thanks fellas.

Nice careful treatment of the body panels. Your work will show up nicely on the finished product.

Thanks Mike.

Another small update. Two rounds of filler later and we still need more. I am hoping a final  round of filler then a shot of filler primer should bury these seems.

Hi guys.

I am pretty happy with how this is turning out.
I spent about 30min wet sanding down the filler primer with 500-600 grit foam backed sanding pads.

Yesterday while working on the house I would drop into my studio and shoot some filler primer. As per the instructions I wait at least 10-15min between coats.  All in all I think I shot about 14-16coats.

This stuff is sooo awesome, I can't recommend it enough. It can fill imperfections up to a 1/16" deep without shrinking or cracking. So for our needs it's pretty much perfect. I've been using it for about 8yrs with much success.

As you can seen it buffs up when wiped down with a cotton cloth. I'll have to scuff it up some before painting.

Great stuff Curt.

dublin boy wrote:Great stuff Curt.

Thanks Shay.

When are u going to get back on that Porsche? We need more WIP posts going on here.

You're right Curt, I'll get back to it.

Looking brilliant Curt.

Great development!  Also, thanks for the info about mixing Vallejo with Tamiya acrylics as I've been contemplating that myself, though I'm using air-brush specific Vallejo paints at the moment I'm hoping my future alchemical experiments won't result in a witch's cauldron of blobby goop.

Looking forward to the next steps.

Thanks for the interest guys.

KatsZenJammer wrote:


Great development!  Also, thanks for the info about mixing Vallejo with Tamiya acrylics as I've been contemplating that myself, though I'm using air-brush specific Vallejo paints at the moment I'm hoping my future alchemical experiments won't result in a witch's cauldron of blobby goop.

Looking forward to the next steps.

LOL on the alchemy. I tried vinegar and Tamiya acrylic recently, just to see, and it turned into a gooey glob.

This mix seems to be very stable, no sign of any reaction, although I did have to thin it with water and not alcohol. It needs to be thinned WAY down, almost the consistency of 1% or skimmed milk maybe even water. Any thicker and it won't spray evenly.

I look forward to your alchemy ventures.

In my quest to make this a collaboration of the Barris TV car and the Burton movie car I decided it needed a hood scoop. So in search of a donor hood scoop I went on a search into the stash and found an old Pro Street kit that had already been kit bashed.
The scoop was ripped down to a 1/4 of it's height shortened with the intake being beveled, then radiused.

To get the hood to the shape of the hood I tried a few large containers the it hit me, use the hood. So I taped some 320grit down and went at it. Not sure if I will add more shape to the intake to replicate the TV car or not.

Great stuff Curt.

Looking very good so far.

If you're looking for shapes for hood scoops, don't overlook the blister packaging of small items. They offer some great shapes for very little money.

Thanks for the kind words boys. Good to see you back around here Mitch.

Thanks Mike, I see inspiration in so many things.

Tonight's  progress.

Deciding to open the grills in the side body panels was the easy part. Actually getting them out took about 2hrs so far and I only have one side done. I thought about drilling and sanding the opening. A method I have used in the past. This tends to lead to a mis-shapened opening as I seem to always be chasing the desired shape from a bit too much over sanding.

I decided to shave the back out of the panel with the plan to just 'pop out' the grill.

This turned out to be ticked. The other side is well on it's way.

Very nice cuts.

Thanks Mike.