Now that may not seem like a big deal, but the original 2003 Batboat kit only included a scaled up version of the Aurura decals, which while being fun and nostalgic – were actually very inaccurate. For some reason the oval bat signal emblem that goes on the fin was too small, cartoony and much darker than it should have been, making it hard to see on the model. Additionally, the hull flames were incorrect and Aurora never included anything to help the builder get the white parts of the hull or fins detailed.

Round 2 has changed that with this model. The decal set includes most of the original 1967/2003 art but adds corrected fin bats, white fin scallops, and much nicer flames, with or without the white hull sections. Plus, a few extras like a brand new oval base nameplate option that is pretty cool. R2 has again added pinstriping, like they did with their 1/32 Batmobile release which seems impractical as a wetslide option – but I applaud their efforts and for including the option.

I’ve always thought that one of the genius moves that R2 made was to scale up the original Batboat kit from 1/32 to 1/25 . This is particularly noteworthy this year, as they get their 1/25 Batmobile ready for production. If you’ve never built that 2003 PL Batboat kit you’ve got in your to-be-built model stack in the closet, or if you never picked it up the first time – this model is worth the $19 for these decal upgrades alone! Now, who’s got a good, retro 1/25 scale trailer?

(Thanks again to Tim from TPM for the decal scan)

Re-Released without too much hoopla or fanfare for 2010 – the Polar Lights Batboat kit in 1/25 is out now. “Based” on the original Aurora Batboat kit from 1967  it differs in some significant ways. First, they scaled it up from the 60’s 1/32 to 1/25 so it’s a much bigger Batboat. Also, the interior cabin and dash details have been tweaked to reflect a better level of detail.

No news yet what differs about this 2010 release compared to the 2003 version. But for sure, the box is a different format. Instead of the long, retro box that came out in 2003, it looks to be more like the AMT squareish box. And tere are subtle changes to the printing and art as well.

Full review when we snag one!

I’ve modeled the 1/32 older one, both from the Aurora kit and from recasts. I had planned to build one of the PL reissues, but had never gotten around to it when Jim Apitz alerted me that he might be willing to sell one that he had built. Well, being the huge fan of Jim’s work that I am, I purchased it.

Clearly, I didn’t want to do what we did with the less valued Robin’s Seadoo – which was to embed it in the clear resin water effects.BUT – we did want to give the floating effect to the boat. So here’s what we came up with. we took an extra PL Batboat hull, wrapped it in plastic-wrap and vaseline and mounted it via a clear thin tube (that would hopefully disappear)  to the bottom of the lakebed.

The extra Batboat hull, wrapped in plastic and mounted to post

The plan was to then fill the lakebed with the clear water resin, and when it had cured, pop out the hull, leaving a perfect negative space to gently lay the finished Batboat in. Great plan.

Boat hull mounted to lakebed

Unfortunately, we forgot to glue on an exhaust. So after we poured all the resin, let it cure and popped out the hull and cleaned up the release material – we tested the ‘hero’ Batboat in the space only to find that it did not fit due to the exhaust!

This was solved, albeit a little clunkily, by Dremeling out a slot in the rear of the resin so the exhaust could fit. It wasn’t as snug a fit as we were hoping for, but the boat still looks pretty good in the water AND is easily removed from the lake.

More to come.

After resin was poured and cured. Carved out a notch for the exhaust.

Testing the Batboat in "the water"

After we added the foam putty to fill in seams that the foam layers created, we hot-glued real river pebbles to the base of the grotto floor.  We then spread more foam putty down and shook out various sizes of model railroad  “ballast” pebbles to give it a cave lake feel. Again, we were going for NorthEastern US Limestone cave lake. I have actually been caving all through Pennsylvania and the cave streams I’ve crawled through are pretty green-covered and cold.

We then added some suede spray paint for a mossy look and added some putty and our own water effect techniques to create a wet area. Decals were added to the drainage pipes and set with micro-sol, then weathered.

As I mentioned before, this is not just the 1966 TV cave, so why not expand the aquatic transportation options? We thought Robin should get his own watercraft. I used to own and ride a big 3-person Seadoo so we thought that would be great to sneak into the cave. Alexander drew and colored many designs. We ended up with a color scheme similar to his 70’s motorcycle.

I wasn’t concerned about getting this model back out of the clear water resin later so we just mounted it on a clear rod to the lake bottom.

Then we clamped up the side openings with wood and plastic tape, and started filling with water. Well, clear resin. We tried several brands and types on some test surfaces. Some cured too slowly, some had an incredibly bad chemical odor as they degassed. Some were made for floral arrangements and cured as a soft, jello-like consistency. The Woodland Scenics product was the absolute worst. It was basically thinned down water-based polyurethane. Absolutely useless for anything but giving the whole bottom a wet look. We needed volume. After finding a great but expensive One-To-One ratio 2-part epoxy product at Michael’s, called  Easy cast, I went online to try to get it in bulk, cheaper. Success! I found gallons of it for a bit more than twice the cost of the tiny samples they sell at Michael’s. I highly recommend this clear casting epoxy for all water effects.

We still had to pour the lake in half-inch thick increments. As we did, we mounted small fish, crayfish and a few other items to give the area some action and depth. It is very hard to see in photos, but we’ll try to show some of the depth later. Here is our workspace as we added layers of lake, .25″ and 24 hours at a time.

Our goal is to mix elements of the 1966 TV Batcave with some of our favorite comics stuff and some of our own inventions as well. So -

The TV Batboat is super cool but never lived in the Batcave on TV. They had to drive to the marina to get to it. That seems unlikely and awkward to us. Just slightly less goofy than having the Batmobile actually trailer it. (a la the Corgi gift pack) I always loved the idea that the cave housed EVERYTHING. So we are borrowing from the comics the idea of an underground Grotto that is a tributary to Gotham harbor. Our back-story is that perhaps Batman expanded an already existing grotto to his needs.

In the diorama – I wanted this far enough away from the center TV Atomic Pile area so we are placing it to the far right. And since that’s our cave exit, we needed a bridge for the Batmobile. And a grotto or cave lake for the Batboat that could actually handle real depth.

We started by creating a light but rigid base for the lake out of slices of pink insulating styrofoam (home depot) and used Project Glue for Foam to put them together.

Then we needed to seal it up to be able to actually support our “water.” We used these great products to seal up the seams and then provide some underwater lake effects.

We decided that the Batcave grotto would be a typical East Coast limestone based cave lake and so most of the ballast (rocks) got the grey/green mossy treatment that we see around PA a lot. It was a challenge to remember and plan for all this to be sealed underwater. We also decided that perhaps the Atomic Pile would need a cooling system so there are intake and outake pipes in the lake walls. Made from trimmed pieces of silver cable hiding hoses and then weathered and decals added.

Grotto/Lake bottom with coolant pipes and drainpipe

We built the bridge after a design that Alexander drew. I liked it because it was a little Burton-esque yet not unrealistic. We made it out of balsa, painted it silver with hammered aluminum for the texture and then weathered it and added the big rivet bolts and the non-skid surface. We dropped it into place and then foam-puttied around the struts.

We planned to fill the lake bed with clear railroad water effect resin. I wanted the Batboat to be immersed realistically in “water” but I also did not want to permanently embed my Jim Apitz-made batboat model in clear resin. So we decided to grab a spare Polar Lights Batboat hull, and mount it in the lake bottom, seal it with plastic wrap for easier removal later, then pour the resin in around it. The theory was that when we had the right water level and it had hardened – we just pop out the spare hull and put the Batboat model in its place. Well it was a great idea that we didn’t think through completely. More on that later.

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 in the scale I favor.
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.

RC Bell 47G in approximately 1:25 Scale

Then I found a newer RC Bell copter that several Hong Kong vendors were selling on eBay. Called The Twister by Imex, it is a cheaper 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.

Imex copter nose to nose with 1:35 Revell Batcopter conversion

Closer up nose to nose.

Alex draws up some plans for the chem lab tables.

Exploring the garage options.

Finished chem-lab table.

We decided to build the diorama in this large 6ft long glass store display case. We found this case fairly affordably from a local used store fixtures supply warehouse in Pittsburgh. It came with existing lighting but we mounted new mini fluorescent lights to the interior ceiling. We are testing out a floor-plan and getting a working base floor out of pink building Styrofoam in there to make markings.

The tricky parts of this (other than, you know – actually creating all the little bits) is working within the space contained by this display case and working front to back until we get ready to turn everything around later. We wanted a platform base to give elevation for a grotto for the batboat, and to hopefully house electrical parts.

We tried to drop in a full-length base platform but I realized it would be better with two smaller ones so we can have flexibility and maneuvering room. Here we are laying out the new floorplan and test-fitting the underflooring. You can see our markings for where the grotto will be.

Marking the Batcave floor.

Laying out some goodies for a test fit.

More gadgets placement.

Editor’s Note: The following post has been migrated over from our now defunct Batcave Blog and dates originally from June 8, 2006:

I met Roman Schelling from Germany through the Custom Batman forum where he was showcasing a beautiful Wayne Manor he had modeled for a film. I approached him about possibly modeling some pieces for our Batcave diorama and he was enthusiastic and very graciously offered his help. He made these pieces by hand using balsa wood, cardboard, and Sculpy polymer clay. When they arrived, we were very excited. The plan is to modify a few of them and add to them. Believe it or not, though he made a TON of pieces, we still don’t have all the familiar Batcave props. What a great head start though! Thanks Roman!

Roman Schelling Created These Gadgets for our Batcave