In the mid '60s the campy TV classic Batman was all the rage. Tapping into this enthusiasm, Aurora Models produced a series of kits inspired by the show and the DC comics. One such kit was the Batplane. Not produced since that time, the kit's rarity and value continued to rise for the next 30 years. It took a company called Polar Lights--an homage to the old Aurora name--to resurrect this kit. The pictures here are of the recent reissue of this cult classic.
As one might expect of a kit first produced more than 30 years ago, the fit and details are not particularly good...but in a way, that's part of the charm of building one of these nostalgic subjects. The most telltale example of the fit issue would be the seams on the bottom side of the wings. Unlike most airplanes the wings don't separate along the beltline, but rather, have a top piece that continues around to include the outer edges of the lower half. Inside of this another piece is inserted...leaving a gap of about 1/16" all the way around it. Part of this seam can be retained as the joint line for the flaps--the rest have to be filled. Another detail issue is the fact that the wing cross-section does match that of the wing root on the fuselage. There wasn't much that I could do about this issue other than try to fill and blend the seam with some epoxy putty and just accept the results.
Rather than painting the kit the obvious Gloss Black I chose to use a Black Metallic. The images here don't show the metallic finish nearly as well as seeing it in person. Another detail was borrowed from seeing a picture of another person's build up--the addition of the red trailing edge detail. Characteristic of the classic Batmobile from the TV show, the red adds a punch of accent to the scalloped wing shape. Once painted and decalled the entire model received a coat of Future Floor Finish.
The model includes a funky texture on the nose of the craft in the stylized shape of a bat head. Rather than sand this off, I chose to mask around the shape and paint it a flat black. The base was painted from the underside. The same red that was used for the wing detail was used to pick out the globe detail and then the whole was painted with the same Black Metallic as the plane.
In the mid '60s the campy TV classic Batman was all the rage. Tapping into this enthusiasm, Aurora Models produced a series of kits inspired by the show and the DC comics. One such kit was the Batplane. Not produced since that time, the kit's rarity and value continued to rise for the next 30 years. It took a company called Polar Lights--an homage to the old Aurora name--to resurrect this kit. The pictures here are of the recent reissue of this cult classic.
