Scooter's Custom Batcave

More Lake Work

2008-10-06T02:46:00.003-04:00

Jumping back a little to before we mounted the boat bottom - 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 (real cavers don't say "spelunking" by the way) 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.

Like 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. 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. THIS type shown here by Woodland Scenics 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 EasyCast, 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, 24 hours at a time:

Back to the Lake

2008-09-20T23:20:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the big gap in writing here. We HAVE been working on the Batcave diorama sporadically though. We decided to finish off the bottom level first, as we thought that creating the "lake" would be a pretty challenging, time intensive, yet fun job.

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 backstory 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.

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 hammerred 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 st the batboat model in its place. Well it was a great idea that we didn't think through completely. More on that in the next installment (which won't be another 5 months away)

Moved Batmobile Video and News to new blog!

2008-02-27T10:41:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-02-13T12:01:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-02-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-02-08T13:37:00.001-05:00

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.

Our bat base are belong to us.

2008-01-10T13:20:00.000-05:00

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.

Back to work.

2008-01-03T13:33:00.000-05:00

After a long break, we are back in full force for the new year working on the batcave project. Alex draws up some plans for the chem lab tables.

1:25 1966 TV Batcycle

2007-06-07T11:27:00.000-04:00

We picked 1:25 scale for this diorama. That is my favorite scale for modeling and I have some nice pieces done in that scale. It does offer some challenges however. There has never been an officially licensed 1:25 Batmobile model . (In fact the only Batmobile model ever released officially was the 1966 Aurora one that was in 1:32 scale.) Nor was there ever a Batcycle, Batcopter or Batboat until very recently. There was a Batcycle in 1:19 scale and a Batboat in 1:32 (again made by Aurora in 1967) There was never a Batcopter made (though one was planned)

That may seem like a plan-killer but as custom modelers, we usually make what we need anyway. And over the years some garage kits have been offered to fill in the gaps. We'll talk about all the vehicles separately. Up first - the Batcycle. Nobody has ever bothered to make a garage kit Batcycle, I suppose they figured that the Aurora 1:19 was nice enough. But we need one much smaller than that so it's time to scratch-build.

I've known Mike Stutelberg for years. He's a great artist and craftsman and has designed many bat-models for Horizon and Polar Lights etc. over the years. If you have the Polar Lights Batmobiles or the smaller Johnny Lightning bat-vehicle diecast kits, he designed many of them and the box art as well.

Mike has built his own batcave before though it doesn't feature all the TV acoutrements that we're trying for. I knew he had a 1:25 handbuilt Batcycle that he never finished. I contacted him and he graciously lent us his master to possibly have molds made and get cast. We are cleaning it up and will hopefully get it out to the caster soon.

The cave has a home.

2007-03-01T11:12:00.000-05:00

We decided to build the diorama in this large glass store display case. We found this case fairly affordably ($200) from a local used store fixtures supply warehouse in Pittsburgh. It came with existing lighting but we mounted new mini fluorescents to the interior ceiling. We are testing out a floorplan and getting a working base floor out of pink building styrofoam in there to make markings.

Then there were gadgets...

2006-06-08T10:38:00.000-04:00

I met Roman Schelling 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 peices for the batcave and he was enthusiastic and offered his very gracious 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!

Comics vs. TV?

2005-09-02T22:16:00.000-04:00

The 1966 TV Batcave is the thing that Ialways thought was cool. Mainly because it was REAL. You could see it in 3D twice a week on TV. The comics batcave, while interesting was never the same thing twice. It wasn't real.

That being said - it had some cool things the TV cave didn't. Giant penny, dinosaur, joker card, bat gyros... the list goes on.

We decided to blend the best of both versions of the cave. We're going to try to utilize the best-known aspects of the TV batcave - but we want it to morph into the comic book batcave as well. I have no idea if it will work out.

It started out innocently enough.

2005-08-04T09:30:00.000-04:00

For years I had mused about building a full-on TV Batcave in my favorite 1:25 scale. It seemed like a great way to display and showcase my various handbuilt 1:25 Bat-models and it would be a chance to do something nobody had done yet - model the TV Batcave.

But it also always seemed like a huge project that would take forever and so I never got around to starting it. Years later, I thought it would be a great project for me and my son Alexander to do together. We had already built a few mini dioramas together and this seemed like a nice big multi-weekend project to tackle. But we kept putting it off.

Then in 2004 I saw this model on eBay. I thought it looked great and was amazed to find an atomic pile already existing in 1:25 scale.

I won the auction over a holiday weekend when everyone must have been traveling and I got it really affordably. When it arrived, I was amazed at the build-quality: Welded metal struts, cast resin pieces, multi-media texturing. It was VERY nice. I then realized that this was how the big batcave could possibly get built - by supplementing our own modeling with other pieces by other craftspeople. It would still be a huge, time-consuming folly, but it just might happen.

I decided I wanted to get one that wasn't anchored already to a diorama so I contacted the builder - Jim Graham and he told me he could make me another, freestanding Atomic Pile.

And so, a Batcave - That's it. It's an omen. We shall model - a Batcave!