Moved Batmobile Video and News to new blog!

As this blog was created to chronicle our batcave work- I started a new site for Batmobile products and info. It can be found at:

http://www.pimpmybatmobile.com/

To the Batcopter!

As with the Batcycle, for years I've been searching for a suitable 1:25 scale Bell 47G helicopter model or toy to modify into a Batcopter that would go with the car and boat models I have. (see those articles in the archives)

The classic Revell M*A*S*H helicopter kit that everyone (including me) uses to convert into the Batcopter is 1:35 scale - way too small. I have modeled the Batcopter in 1:8 (Mego Scale), 1:35 (near aurora batmobilel scale), 1:64 (Matchbox, Corgi Jr., Hot Wheels scale), and 1:48 (roughly 1:43 Corgi scale) based on various kits that have been offered over the years. But I could never locate a suitable 1:25 scale starter. It wouldn't be impossible to model from scratch but - it would be a lot more work than a conversion.

I had pretty much decided to order one of the wooden Bell 47G models that many of these aircraft model makers sell on eBay and the web. They seemed like the right size. They're usually about $85 - $100 but they are all wooden including the cockpit so I would have to vacuform a clear cockpit from their existing shape and I wasn't sure how it would hold up to the process. I've seen vacuforming destroy a hard resin buck before and I didn't want to spend that money and then still not have a usable copter model.

Then I found a newer RC Bell copter that loads of Hong Kong vendors are selling on eBay. Called The Twister by Imex, it is a cheap RC style helicopter. It sells for between $95 and $128 but I got a sale deal on mine and paid $90 to a US vendor. My big concern was the scale. Toys aren't known for their accuracy in advertising lengths. The real Bell 47G fuselage is 374 inches long which would equate to 14.96 inches in 1:25 scale. This one was listed as being 16" long so that was too close to not take a chance on. Plus it had a clear cockpit so we'd be further along already.

I was very pleased with the copter when I got it. It is almost perfectly in scale for the project. The motorworks will come out easily. And the customization is all very doable and minimal: Make some motor parts like exhaust pipes, Remove and replace the fuel tanks, add a tailfin, cut out the doors, model an interior, rework the landing struts and add a step, add the batwings and a paintjob and voila - Batcopter.

Here it is nose to nose with a Revell 1:35 conversion to illustrate size difference.

Bat-Buddies to the rescue!

I put the word out on a few message boards that we could use some more reference shots of different parts of the batcave. Wow, did we get photos! Thanks to Scott Sebring, Andy Garringer and the relentless John Haig for all their great collected and more obscure shots.

He blinded me with bat-science.

We had a really fun time figuring out how to model the chemistry set. We had a few parts put aside that were left over from the 50's Polar Lights Batmobile model. But we wanted to make two lab tables (see reference cave photo below) and needed a bunch more tubing and glassware.

We cut several clear sprues into smaller tubes and then molded some beakers and larger pieces by using a hot glue gun into a bowl of ice water and sort of sculpting the shapes we wanted. Colored potions were provided by using Tamiya clear color acrylic paints and we mixed a couple of our own as well. Additionally in this table we used: A christmas tree light bulb, a small fuse, an end to a guitar string, paper clips, scrounged bases, wire, a part from a star trek set and a glue container lid.