06.29.2005 » Concepts and Building

So my next project is the brand spankin' new 1/35 scale Bandai EX Batmobile from Batman Begins. I got it in the mail on Monday and just had to start on it right away. As a consequence, my other projects are on hold for a little bit. I'll be painting it mostly stock and probably weathering it up as well since it's a pseudo-military vehicle. I'll also be making a custom base and since the kit didn't come with a figure, I might convert a 1/35 scale soldier into Bat-Man. Fun!

Anyway, I got the kit on Monday and started cutting and sanding sprue nubs. Tuesday I went to an amusement part with the family so did nothing. Today (Wednesday) I finished cutting and sanding, skewered the parts, primed, and am now ready to start painting after 2.5 hours of work. Does this mean that I'm really excited about this kit? Well, I am, but it actually means that this isn't a very large or partsy kit, has well hidden and/or easily sanded sprue nubs, minimal flash, and only one problem spot on the whole kit. NO SEAMS! Well, there was potentially one, but it actually got hidden by the rear wheels so no worries.

When you open the box, the first thing you notice is a lack of anything, aside from tires, that would resemble a finished Batmobile. This is due to the plated nature of the vehicle where angular armor plates cover and jutt from the entire vehicle. There are 3 sprues of dark blue-gray parts, 6 tires, and one sprue containing 2 clear dark smoke colored window parts.

I began cutting the parts out while following the mostly Japanese, but well illustrated and detailed instructions. Most of the pieces, including the tiniest ones had 3 sprue attachments each. However they were thin attachment points and sanded down easily. Other sprue nubs were well hidden. One particularly happy nub placement was on the clear parts which required no clean-up work at all. While the armor parts were virtually flash free, the small detail parts had a thin raised line in the center of each where the molds met. This is typical with most injection plastic kits and was actually thinner and easier to deal with than most armor and aircraft kits. A few of the small piston parts in particular were so thin that I accidentily bent one cutting it from the sprue. That's more of a compliment than a complaint as I like to see small realistically scaled parts that are not made larger for the sake of children or big clumsy fingers like mine.

As I mentioned before there is only one piece on the entire kit that needed extra clean-up work and that was the large rear spoiler piece. The underside of that had four injector pin marks. For those I merely added a drop of Mr. Surfacer 500 primer (from the jar)and sanded when dry. The thin primer filled the marks and sanded smooth.

Anyway, I primed the parts with Tamiya White primer and am waiting for it to cure. Meanwhile, here's some pics:

06.30.2005 » Painting & Base and Figure Construction

Last night I painted all of the parts for the Batmobile. I went with a silver + gunmetal for the greebles (instead of the gold on the box kit) and a Flat Tamiya black + white + field blue for the main car color. It's a really dark charcoal with a very faint hint of blue. Think cool gray. I went and high-lighted (kind of max-techniqued) some of the armor panels with that same color plus a few drops of white. Subtle but it looks great. Next I need to go and hand paint all of the little details such as pistons, headlights, etc...

Today I started on the base. I want a Bat-Cave road look to it so I started with a liece of 1/4 inch plywood and cut out my section of roadway. I need the road flat since the wheels will not move on pistons or what-not to make all lay flat on the base. I took scrap strips of that same plywood and made risers to have the roadway sit up from the base.

On the underside of the roadway I smathered on Bondo Automotive putty to make the cave-looking ridges. I used the Bondo since it hardens in about 10 minutes and it saved me a lot of time. I didn't use it elsewhere since it's like working with cake-icing. Since the underside of the road will be barely visible, it was perfect.

On the top of the road I spread joint compound on to give it a smooth rock look while keeping the roadway flat. For the rest of the cave I used rocks and celluclay. I stippled the wet celluclay with a cheap plastic brush to give it a nice rock texture. This is the first time I've tried this after seeing it in Amazing Figure Modeler #33 and it worked great! I'll be using this a lot in the future. The foil in the pic is so that I can lift the road from the base later to paint the underside and do the water under the bridge.

Finally, I've been converting a 1/35 scale soldier to be Batman. I'm using Magic Sculpt (MS)for this part. I separated the head from the body and added the mask a little at a time. MS dries enough in about 2 hours to have a firm base for adding more details. To make the cloak I added a very rough buldges with the MS. When those dried I started adding the head and neck, shoulders, ridges and folds. Currently I'm adding the curvy bat-cut of the edge of the cloak. Like I said, I'm adding a little at a time as to not destroy detail I've already done. Here's where I'm at so far in the pic. I have a lot more cape to add and a lot of clean-up to do but I'm happy with my progress.

07.02.2005 » Car Paint and More Figure Modification...

I got the rest of the cape done on Batman and did the cleanup. As you can see in the pics I did the cape a little at a time. As each section dried, I added more creases and edge to the cape. I then took steel woll and smoothed him out andgot rid of most of my fingerprints. The rest of the clean-up I did with Mr. Surfacer 500 from the jar. I dabbed it into the gaps and recesses and instead of sanding it away, I learned that 91% alcohol can be used to smooth it away with a q-tip or paper towel. Worked like a dream!

Once I did the clean-up the last thing I added before the first test primer was the horns. I don't wanna accidentily break them off while sanding so I figured I'd do them last. Didn't matter anyway though as right after I primed him I broke both of them off. Now I'm waiting for the primer to completely cure so I can putty up the cracks left from gluing them back on. Regardless I'm very happy with how he looks. I'll post pics of him fully primed after I do the clean-up of the horns.

I also finished the bulk of the painting. I washed in the panel lines with thin black oils then drybrushed with white oils. WHITE? well, since I'm drybrushing it doesn't look white on the kit. It blends to a lighter version of my base colors. The metal portions are done too. I drybrushed the gunmetal + silver parts with gold + silver rub-n-buff. the result is a nice tarnished metal look. I gave the car its a flat coat Maybe I'll do a little more drybrushing if needed after building it and adding a little dust on the tires and undercarriage.

07.03.2005 » Final Update

I finished the kit the past few days and thought I'd elaborate on the figure and base painting and weathering of the Batmobile.

Figure: After the figure was cleaned up, I first primed him with Duplicolor dark gray sandable primer available at Walmart. Next I airbrushed on the same charcoal color as the Batmobile. I took a bit of that color and added some black and Future Floor Acrylic to make it less opaque. I then sprayed the shadows and folds of the cape. Next I did the same thing with the base color and Future, but added white and sprayed where the light would hit on the top of the head and shoulders and the ridges of the cape. For the face I brushed on a mixture of white and burnt sienna oil paint and shaded with burnt sienna.

Batmobile: After my painting was done I gave all the parts except the tires and windows a coat of Future Floor Acrylic to seal the paint. I then gave the parts a wash with black oil paint and a drybrush right after with white. The white oils went on thin enough to not be too stark of a contrast and blended with the base color. Afterwards a satin coat of Future was applied. The tires were dusted with Mig Pigment powders (light dust + europe earth) and then wiped so that only the crevases contained grit since most of that dirt would wear off as the car drove in the cave, through puddles and on asphalt.

The Base: I primed it with Duplicolor dark gray sandable primer first. When that dried I drbrushed on lighter shades of gray, brown, and white Americana Acrylics. Finally I drybrushed on some glossy Future Floor Acrylic to give the rocks a moist/smooth water-worn sheen.

Check out the final pics in the finished kits section!

Project Time Sheet:

Out of curiosity, I want to know just how much time I'll spend on this project. This part will remain at the bottom of my in-prog page. The times will be rounded to the nearest quarter-hour.

Estimated Concepts: 1.5 Hours
Total Cutting/Sanding: 2.5 Hours
Total Skewering: .5 Hours
Total Priming: .25 Hours
Total Painting: 1.75 Hours
Total Masking: 0 Hours
Total Clear Coating: .5 Hours
Total Weathering: 2.75 Hours
Total Decaling: 0 Hours
Total Construction: 1 Hours
Total Figure Modification: 5 Hours
Total Figure Painting: 1 Hours
Total Base Construction: 2 Hours
Total Base Painting: .75 Hours

Grand Total 19.5 Hours