CultTVman: George Belknap's Little Batcar

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	In comic books and various films, Batman has had dozens of specially modified vehicles. Commonly known as Batmobiles, these high tech cars assist the Dark Knight in his crusade against crime. Probably the best known is the 1966 Batmobile. Featured in the 60's tv show, this ultimate muscle machine was customized from the Lincoln Futura concept car.


	Jimmy Flintstone has come up with a 1/64 scale, multi-media kit. (photo 1) The kit is made up of resin, white metal and photo-etched parts. I used Model Master and Tamiya acylic paints and CA glue and 2 part epoxy in assembling this kit

Start off by cleaning the resin parts with a good degreasing cleaner. This will remove any mold release that main remain. Using a sharp #11 blade, I removed the webbing over the cockpit opening in the body. (photo 2) Use some 400 grit sandpaper to clean up any remaining seam lines. I gave the resin parts a light coat of primer to check for any casting imperfections. This is where I decided to start test fitting pieces. Taking the body, interior and chassis I dry fit them together. Here I discovered that it was not a tight fit. Two mounting lugs on the body, one fore and one aft need to be ground down. The interior tub had a resin plate on the bottom that must be removed. (photo 3) You'll also want to cut a notch in the back of the interior tub so it will clear some chassis obstructions {photo 4)



		Once satisfied I gave the body, chassis and interior tub a coat of Model Master flat black. (photo 5) With the black dry on the body I started the painstaking task of painting the red striping on the body. On a larger model I would have sprayed the red first then masked that and sprayed the black second. On kit this small though, masking those stripes would have been an exercise in frustration. I figured it would be easier to just hand paint the stripes. Of course painting red over black meant having to hand paint each stripe 3 times to get the red to cover the black. I used Model Master Italian Red for the stripes Once the paint was dry I gave the whole thing a light coat of Future floor finish. I then sealed it in a container to prevent dust settling until the Future had a chance to dry. A day later I came back and placed the bat emblem decals on each door. This was followed by 2 more light coats of Future for the final finish. (photo 6)

I took the aluminum tube supplied with the kit and polished it with #1000 grade steel wool. (photo 7) I then used 4000 to 12000 grade sanding pads to achieve a chrome like finish on the tube. This was then cut into 3 pieces to form the rocket tubes behind the aft canopy. The holes in the body for the tubes were a little small. I enlarged these with a pin vise and drill bit. Drilling at an angle so that the tubes would be angled when inserted into the body. (photo 8) Once in place I epoxied them from the underside.


	With the chassis painted flat black I dry brushed on Model Master aluminum over the raised details.(photo 9) You could actually go nuts here using various metallic shades to represent the exhaust system and suspension parts. I decided to keep it simple for a kit this small.

While the other parts were drying I removed the flash from the clear resin canopy. (photo 10) I then painted the frames with Model master aluminum. I gave the beacon light a coat of Tamiya clear red then dry brushed aluminum over the beacon's frame. When those were dry I cave the whole thing a coat of Future. The final touch was painting the roll bar flat black. (photo 11)

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	©1997-2006 Stephen J. Iverson. Other material copyright of original owner. No material (images or text) may be reproduced without permission of Stephen Iverson and original copyright owner. Additional copyright and legal information