Pimp My Batmobile!

Posts Tagged ‘jason napper’

Quick update on the steering wheel and some other parts news:

1. Futura wheel. I was pretty happy with the wheel I had devised. Until…  Three days ago I dropped in a test decal and then conformed it to the concave bezel using Micro Sol. Once dry, I dropped in a smaller central metal ring to function as the actual speedo rim. Then I augmented the gauge lights with some epoxy colored paint for a raised effect. The final piece of the puzzle was after I added a few drops of  ‘crystal clear’ watch cement. The effect was amazing – the clear liquid glue magnified the depth and detail of everything in the center of the wheel and it truly looked stunning. I added some clear epoxy later and left for the day. When I go home I was dismayed to see the epoxy had clouded! (it was old) so I had to pry out the epoxy, which of course brought up the decal with it. SOoooo – I printed out a slightly different center hub decal and started over. This one is not as good because it isn’t using our real decal, but it gives you an idea of how it looks. This time I used clear resin for the center. The hanging turn signal pods are next.

2. New Upgrade Parts Set Clarification. Several people have emailed me to ask about the parts and decals being sold on ebay and wondering if they are ours as they look very similar. First – they are NOT ours. Ours are not out and won’t be for a little while yet. And when we sell on ebay it will always be under the PimpMyBatmobile user ID. The parts on eBay are being sold by Jason Napper. Jason created a resin 1:18 batmobile kit 2 years ago and is selling the parts he made for that batmobile on ebay.  As you know – the Hot Wheels Batmobile is really 1:19.5 scale. Which is smaller than true 1:18.  Jason made a very nice resin kit and his was based off of a 1:16 kit originally. Which is that much bigger than 1:19.5  So much in fact, that many of the parts made for his kit are out of scale for the HW car. They are good parts and we started our set with a few similar base parts, but the reason ours are not out yet and why we are not just using the same parts is because ours are being specifically tailored to the specs of the new Hot Wheels Batmobile. Jason’s are not. If you can’t stand the wait and don’t care about the size discrepancy that much – Jason’s part set is a pretty good, quick upgrade set. If you can wait a bit longer – ours will have some pretty nice features. Like clear red parts and black urethane parts for example. Here’s a peak at the beacon we’re working on, cast in clear red. Easily lit, easily painted silver around the parts you want to leave red. 

Also a note on the decal sets: The wetslide decals Jason Napper is selling are very nice. They were designed by the same person who designed our decals – our partner – Andy Garringer. However – Andy has resized our set to actually fit the Hot Wheels Batmobile. Jason’s were sized for his larger model kit. Again – a great set if you can’t wait. Some will work better than others. But our set will be correctly resized by the original designer for the Hot Wheels Batmobile.

We wish Jason well with all his endeavors. We hear he is working on a 1:18 Futura kit at the moment. That should be a nice compliment to the Hot Wheels Batmobile when he finishes it.

I was aked to do a PRE-review of this kit. Jason Napper is attempting to put out a true 1:18 scale Batmobile kit with many features that the best 1:25 scale modelers would envy. Chrome parts, clean lines and high accuracy levels by two of the leading Batmobile modelers have turned out a formidable model. I was sent an early casting of the body, primed grey, a set of seats, 2 parachute packs and 4 chromed wheel hubs. The rest of the kit is due out any moment now and I will update this review when it does.

The first thing we should examine is scale. Collectors of the popular 1:18 scale die-cast cars have long wanted a Batmobile to go with their other beauties.  The #1 Batmobile was 213.75 inches long. That tranlates into 11.8″ long for true 1:18 scale. In 2003, Kevin Bessey and Tony Mariano (of T&T fame) released a very limited run of a Batmobile kit that many people referred to as 1:18. The model was 13″ long which puts it far over the 1:18 sizing and closer to 1:16.4. A small run of those kits were sold before the makers  stopped making them. There is a model on the market now by Giink which, to my eye and from all reports  is a version of that same model with a handful of tweaked parts. I have no idea if Gink bought the molds or why this model looks so much like the other. Going on the photos available on the internet – it’s essentially the same 1:16 kit.

Seen above is a 1:25 Siderio body, the new JWCM 1:18 body and the Bessey/Mariano 1:16 body for scale comparisons.

Here is the Bessey/Mariano 1:16 body next to an Ertl 1:18 Dodge Charger. Note the obvious scale discrepency. There are certainly collectors for the 1:16 scale models. But some people seem to toss the 2 scales around as if they were interchangeable where clearly, they are not.

Here is the new JWCM 1:18 body next to the same Ertl Charger. The JWCM model is accurately scaled for 1:18 at 11.87″ Note the clearly similar scaling.

(forgive the bad photography, the batmobile model is not warped, the photographer is)

Here is the underside of the JWCM 1:18 car compared to the Bessey/Mariano 1:16. Now we will talk about the pattern’s clean lines and molding. One aspect of the new JWCM kit is that it is very thick-walled. I can guess that this was to ensure straight, non-warped castings because they are VERY straight and level. I sat the body on a desk with absolutely no wobble or air gaps. The seats sat inside on the desk and came flush up to the correct spot. Notice also the attention to clean detail on the unseen underside of the model. This is rare and a breath of fresh air.

Comparing the model to the older 1:16 car, many details of the JWCM body seem much more accurate to the original car. Seen here a comparison of front fender flares. The JWCM is much smoother.

It is never a good idea to cast the top dash area as part of the body. It sinks and is hard to keep straight. The new JWCM has flawless shaped openings for the canopies and dash parts to fit into. Also notice the lip that follows the countour. This is something that will make canopy placement much more precise and true to the real car.

Same thing with the rear lines. The casting of the 1:16 was pretty rough and the surface was riddled with pour lines, and a mottled texture. The JWCM kit is extremely clean right out of the mold. Plus – compare the preciseness of the rear vent lines.

A couple nitpicks, to be honest and fair: On the body I got – the rear points to the fins were dulled and one was broken. I am fairly sure this was due to it being a Beta model. The scribed lines for the trunk lid seemed a bit rough and crooked. The walls of the car are probably too thick to easily facilitate opening the doors, trunk or hood, and the grilles in front and back are not open as we have come to enjoy from the 1:25 kits that are out there. While many of us can live with non-opening doors etc, most modelers  are going to want to open the grille ports up for placement of the PE grilles so that’s a small disappointment. All these problems are easily fixed. Just more dremel work on an otherwise labor free kit.

The plusses so far vastly outweigh the few minuses. the bodylines are clean, the shape is perfect and the surface is 95% ready to prime and paint as is. It will benefit from a little 400+ sanding after a couple small pits are filled before first paint – but that’s for super sticklers. It COULD be painted as is. The seats look great. Finally we get the full metal bracings! The chutes look fine too.

I have a small concern that the wheels are too big diameter-wise. They are gorgeous, chromed accurate Radirs and deep set as they should be – but they do seem a tiny bit big for the car. Remember – the batmobile had undersized wheels. I’ll hold this final verdict until I see them with their tires and on the car in person. I could easily be wrong. I am unsure what the undercarriage/pan method is going to be. The way the Batmobile sits on it’s wheels can make or break a scale model.

In discussing the larger scale models with Andy Garringer, Jim Apitz and others, we have often made the assertion that, based on the amazing levels of detail that have been achieved with the smaller 1:25 scale versions, in this easier-to-work-with larger version – there are no excuses not to get every little thing just as right as you’d like. Better base parts in the kit go a long way to help that and Jason has made a great effort so far. The days where we discarded everything but the base body are over.

In addition to Jason’s modeling work, Andy Garringer is designing the Photo Etch detail parts and if history is a lesson – they will be outstanding. Jason is working feverishly to get  all the other parts for this kit ready for the rabid market. If you’d like to get more information or put yourself on the first run list now, you can email JW Custom Models HERE.

And watch this review area for the complete kit review soon.

-Scooter 8/31/05