PREVIEW: Building the Dawn of Justice Batmobile by Jim James

Jim James shares with us this preview of the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Batmobile.   The kit is due in March 2016.

This is a nice kit but it does have a few challenges but nothing severe (except the rear wings – see below). Scaled at 1/24th, it measures about 10” long and is molded in gray. There is a well-appointed cockpit but no Batman figure. The big tires are rubber and well detailed. There are no decals. It’s a big car/model – much bigger than the Tumbler or Keaton Batmobile. The real car probably needs two traffic lanes and a double parking space.

The kit comes in a tightly packed box that is almost impossible to repack. The instructions are concise and describe a good assembly order.   The paint guide is on the last two pages but you may want to write in the color call-outs throughout the assembly steps for reference. Although some assembly steps are not clear, the part drawings do a good job showing part orientation. Test fit every part before gluing. Sometimes you’ll need to juggle a part to make it fit. The sprue stubs are a little hefty and will need sanding.

The paint guide calls for two main colors – dark gunmetal gray and flat black with details picked out in semi-gloss black, yellow, red, steel and silver. I used a mix of 50% Testor’s Model Master Gunmetal and 50% Testor’s Metallic Gunmetal (Buffing).  This will give you an almost flat metallic dark gray which you can spray with Testor’s Semi-Gloss (Testor’s Dullcote works quite well too). Note that the kit is molded in gray so every part needs painting to avoid those awkward gray patches visible after assembly.

Assembly tips

• Much of this kit can be built in sub-assemblies. Read through the instructions and you can quickly determine what these are.   Building this way helps identify where seams need to be filled.

• Follow the assembly instructions through step 2 but stop after you’ve assembled the bulkheads (parts 65 and 66) and the inner side panels (parts 17 and 18).   This is a good point to paint the chassis flat black. Before that, fill and sand the very visible seam on the front and back of the transaxle housing. See FIG. 1.
• Dry brush the engine and transaxle housing with steel to bring out the details. There are several areas elsewhere on the model that benefit from dry brushing with steel or silver.

• Put off adding the wheels until last. This will allow you apply the recommended semi-gloss finish without having to mask the tires.

• If desired, rough the tire treads with sandpaper to give them a more used look. When assembling the wheel hubs and tires, refer to the tire tread pattern on the instructions to ensure each side matches. See FIG. 2.

• Mask the windshield, glue it in place and paint the canopy. Use the completed canopy (with the masking still in place) as a mask for the cockpit tub.

• My usual Tenax doesn’t work well on Moebius plastic. Plastruct cement is better but you might be better off using CA.

The Rear Wing Assembly

Although most of this kit is easy to assemble, the rear wings are intimidating. The instructions suggest assembling most of the structure before gluing it into place but the exact angles of where parts join isn’t very clear. Here’s what I did:

1. Make sure the upper body assembly is in place and secure.

2. Glue together parts 9, 56 and 57 and position them so that the down rods go in the inner holes by the exhaust and part 9 rests in front of the engine top. Make sure the horizontal rods on parts 56 and 57 are pointing towards the front. See FIG. 3.

3. There are two dimples and a hole on the main spiders (parts 51 and 52). These match two pins on parts 56 and 57 and the shaft from part 9.   An easy way to ensure the spiders are positioned right is to first place the down rod in the other hole by the exhaust and the long shaft into the hole on the back of each engine compartment bulkhead. The other long spider legs set in recesses inside the back of the upper body. Press the spider on to the center bar shaft. Apply drops of CA around the main joint, where the long spider shaft touches the bulkhead and where the spider legs set in the upper body recesses. I did not position the inner wing struts (parts 10 and 11) at this time.

4. Complete the rest of the model. You may want to leave off the guns, front and hood wings until you’ve finished the rear wings to avoid parts breaking off.
5. The holes in the wings are not as deep as the pins on the braces/struts. Shorten them by about 1/3rd for easier placement.
6. The first wing is the easiest because you can see under it from both sides. I did the right wing first. Cement the inner wing strut (part 11) in place. It should snap securely into place. Check the angle by positioning the right wing before the glue dries.

7. Glue the right coilover (part 8) and forward wing brace (part 55) in place. Note that the coilover plugs into the hole on the side of the right spider and the wing brace points forward. Check the positions by positioning the wing – again, before the glue dries
8. The tricky part now is getting all five brace points into their respective holes in the wing. I suggest positioning the two outside brace point first, holding the wing in place and position the coilover. Apply glue to these points and let it dry. See FIG.4.
9. Using tweezers, position the remaining two braces and glue. Let dry before starting on the other wing.

10. The second wing is a little trickier because the first wing obscures some of the mounting points. Use the angles from the right wing as a guide and glue all the braces in position (parts 10, 7 and 54). Use tweezers to position them and glue braces to the wing as before.
11. When dry, add the guns, hood wings, front wing and headlights.