Dan Thompson’s 60’s Batmobile
1960’s – The TV Batmobile has to be the representative of the ’60’s. As I mentioned before, I converted the Revell Lincoln Futura kit. The conversion is simple in some ways, but not easy either. Both the front and rear grills on the kit have to be removed and replaced with a flat mesh. The headlight shrouds have to be redone and a scoop built for the hood. The fins have to be extended forward to almost the front edge of the doors and extended and sculpted on the rear ends to produce the “batwings.” The wheel wells have to be opened and the flare added. The kit wheels have to be replaced (I used wheels and tires from a ’57 Chevy kit). The rocket nozzle at the rear is scratchbuilt. And there are numerous changes required in the cockpit. There are more details, but this gives an idea of the scope of the job.
Dan’s Batmobile collection at the 1999 Atlanta SF Model Con
As for future projects, I’m currently in the process of building a collection of Batmobiles. This is the proposed collection:
1930’s – I haven’t built this one yet, but plan to use a resin body from Jimmy Flintstone that is an unauthorized version of the Cadzilla show car (he calls it the “Leadstone”). In the Elseworlds graphic novel Batman: Dark Alligiences by Howard Chaykin, Chaykin draws an ultra-sleek Batmobile that is amazingly similar to the Cadzilla (I would bet money that he used the Cadzilla as the model for his Batmobile). There is some modification required for a subtle “bathead” on the front and the fins need to be changed to create the scalloped “batwing” trailing edges, but the basic shape is there. UPDATE: I’m not using the Flintstone resin body for the ’30s Batmobile. Once I got the ’51 Chevy Fleetline, which I’d planned to use for the chassis and interior, I saw that it would be easier to modify the plastic Chevy body than the resin body. So that’s what I’m doing. It’s coming along nicely and is nearly finished.
1940’s – the conversion from the Lindberg ’40 Ford coupe. You saw the picture at my Blackhawk website. It wasn’t a difficult conversion, compared to some of the others. The “bathead” on the front was made from a plastic Easter egg and sheet styrene. The fastback and the fin were also made from sheet styrene. Otherwise, it’s pretty much out of the box. An article on it’s construction will appear in the Car Modeler Annual, due out in March.
1950’s – the Horizon resin kit. An excellent kit that goes together fairly well. It is a complicated kit but the end result is worth it. This Batmobile is my favorite design, probably because it’s the one I remember from when I was reading comics as a kid in the late ’50s and early 60’s. The only thing I added to the kit were the yellow plastic lenses for the eyes in the “bathead.” It’s shown that way on the box art, but there is nothing in the kit to do it. I found a piece of plastic in my parts box that was perfect. It even had the diamond reflector molded into the back and the right curve. Unfortunately, it was from a kit that is very rare now (the Ragnarok atomic bomber).
1970’s – This is the one in progress. I’m basing it on a picture from Batman #234 which shows a discreet roadster. It was amost immediately apparent to me that it was a combination of a ’66 Mustang and a ’67 Corvette. I grafted the front end and the rear fenders of the Corvette on to the body of the Mustang. It makes a very sleek looking car, rather reminiscent of a Ferrari Daytona from that same period. If the paint dries, I may have it finished for the Nashville IPMS model show this weekend. UPDATE: I did finish the Corvette/Mustang kitbash for the ’70s Batmobile. You saw it at Atlanta and it is in the picture of the collection. It doesn’t draw much attention because it looks like an ordinary car in among all the radical Batmobile designs, but that was the whole idea.
1980’s – I intend to use the Horizon resin kit for this one. I didn’t buy the kit when it was initially released because I thought it was a fairly ugly design. But when I decided to do a whole series of Batmobiles, I had to get this one for completeness. The upside is that if it is like the Horizon 1950 kit, the quality will be excellent. Also for the ’80s, I include the kit from the first Batman movie from Warner. I have this finished and it turned out nicely.
1990’s – I have a design from a comic around 1991(I don’t remember the issue right now) that shows a car that looks very much like a Lamborghini Countach, so that’s what I’m going to use. It won’t even take much modification – a few new vents, a couple of fins, and some bat emblem decals. Also for the ’90s, the kit from the movie Batman Forever. I have this one finished and I modified it into an “armor mode” version in which I covered all the slots in the body with “armor” panels, because I liked the basic design but thought the slots showing the internal components were silly and amazingly impractical. UPDATED: And I’ve decided not to do the Countach conversion, at least not for now. Once I complete the Fleetline conversion and build the Horizon ’80s resin kit, I think that will be enough Batmobiles for quite awhile.
Once I have the whole collection finished, I’ll photograph it and build a website showing all the models. I will add some other Bat models as I complete them. I have a ’60s Batplane nearly finished (and plan to do a series of Batplanes as well). It’s a conversion of a 1/72 F-101 Voodoo, based on a picture in 1968 comic. The two Batcaves shown on your site have inspired me to try that also. I want to build a Batcave around my 1/72 scale Batplane and the TV Batcave around my ’66 Batmobile.
Dan Thompson
