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AMT 1989 Keaton Batmobile


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I know a modeller has done a great job when I look at their build and I say to myself "I want to do something like that." And this is one of those occasions. Well done on your progress to date. It's always a pleasure to see a kit that has some rough edges in places, e.g. the rear wings, turned into something smooth and beautiful. Well done.

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Cheers guys.

I'm playing around with the lights at the moment, trying to find the right look. Once I've done that she'll be pretty close to being complete. I'll post up some pics soon of my progress on the dash lights, exhaust flame, etc.

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  • 1 month later...

Apologies to anyone who was waiting on updates for this build. I've had quite a few delays due to work, life, etc. I also bought a copy of Star Wars battlefront and spent wayyyyy too much time playing it but it's out of my system now and I've gotten back into modelling :).

 

I've been completely humbled by this build. just about anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Some of the problems were due to the age and design of the kit and some were due to my inexperience and making rookie mistakes in planning and execution. Anyway onward and upwards. I'll try an explain the rest of the build as best i can.

 

I used a potentiometer to adjust the brightness of the tail lights. This worked very well and gave me a lot of control when trying to find that sweet spot where the lights are visible but don't look like they're breaking.

 

WIP 1

 

WIP 2

 

WIP 5

 

 

I used the same technique for the red, blue and green LEDs which lit the dashboard fibre optics. This was my first mistake. I originally wired the three LEDs in series with the potentiometer in front, controlling the voltage. The problem with that was the LEDs were different colours and had slightly different max voltages so when I got red looking just right, green was way to bright. If I got green looking good, red would turn off completely. I ended up scrapping the potentiometer and wired the LEDs in parallel, using different strength resistors to achieve a brightness level I was happy with. The fibre optics themselves were a mix of 0.25 and 0.50mm.

 

WIP 7

 

 

I painted the windshield glass with Tamiya clear smoke. This was the next problem. I've never had an issue with any Tamiya product ever but for some reason it reacted with the plastic and frosted up leaving a nasty, sandpaper like texture. Luckily I painted the inside and it isn't too noticeable from the outside.

 

WIP 3

 

WIP 4

 

 

Next were the headlights and I had problems here as well. The shape of the headlight openings are slightly curved but the clear lenses are dead straight and slightly too small to fit the openings properly. I ended up creating recessed headlights by making a couple of small light boxes (with an extra frosted lens inside to diffuse the light) then fitting the lenses behind the original kit bezels. I used 3mm white LEDs and painted the bulbs with a few coats of clear yellow. It's not very screen accurate but I think it works well enough.

 

WIP 6

 

 

Next up I started working on the side air intakes. The kit supplied intakes have a moulded in mesh screen at the front of each intake which just don't exist in any version of the car anywhere. I puzzled over how to re-create the funnels even to the point of trying this...

 

WIP 17

 

I tried several different methods but ended up using a couple of cake icing pipe ends. I placed them into the intake openings, marked them with a pencil then cut them to shape. This worked quite well save for one exception. the plastic was that horrible stuff that burrs whenever cut with a saw (even a razor saw) or sanded. I cleaned the parts up as best I could then gave them a coat of semi-gloss black followed by a few coats of Alclad Steel. They're not 100% but close enough for me and definitely better than having a moulded in mesh grill.

 

Scoop 1

 

Scoop 2

 

Scoop 3

 

 

By this stage I was just wanting to finish the model. It had taken a lot longer than expected and it was starting to feel more like a chore than a fun hobby. This was entirely on me and I realised my own perceptions were to blame... not the process. I worked out what was left to do then set about finishing and enjoying it at the same time. I assembled all the sub components and double checked the lighting still worked. All that was left was to attached the chassis to the body and create the flame for the exhaust. The chassis was a real struggle to fit (due to my own bad planning) but I managed it by epoxying and clamping small sections at a time. I used a small bit of cotton wool painted yellow/red for the flames and was very happy with how it looked in conjunction with the flickering orange LED behind it.

 

Anyway, I'm calling this one complete. As I mentioned earlier, this build ended up being a huge learning experience for me. Probably the most important lessons learned where to test fit EVERYTHING at every stage and be a little more careful when planning custom work.

 

I'll post up some proper completed pics soon. Cheers and thanks for looking :)

 

WIP 11

 

WIP 16

 

WIP 10

 

WIP 9

 

WIP 12

 

WIP 15

 

WIP 8

 

WIP 14

 

 

:):):) 

 

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So glad to see you back to finish this off - I'd been following over the new year then.... nothing and I wondered if you'd given up on it. 

Well worth the effort you put in; the model looks superb and the LEDs take it up to a whole different level. I really like the colour you settled on and it's inspired me to pick up the same kit and build it up for my brother, who's a Batman nut. Cheers. 

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5 hours ago, directorcass said:

Looks fantastic. I'm glad you finally finished this off. I also lit this kit years ago. Those headlight lenses, what were they thinking????

 

LOL Yeah I know... The mind boggles.

 

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12 hours ago, rockpopandchips said:

That is just so cool.........

 

I have just sprayed some model car windows using the same tamiya smoke and have the same finish. I sprayed the inside of the windows as well, so it dosnt look to bad but I thought is was odd.

Yeah,  i forgot to mention... After the problem with the wind shield,  I thought I may have just used the air brush incorrectly so for the two round side windows I just hands brushed them but the results were even worse.  I ended up having to black them out completely. It's confusing because the other clear colors went on fine. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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