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Batmobile Forum
 1:18 mod thread |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/1/2006 8:45:09 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
1:18 mod thread Well, since I know there's n0o full scale 89 in my near future I got the Hotwheels 1:18 for Christmas. I wanted to take it apart and add LED's to the head and tail lights. As I was checking th emodel out I noticed they had to make a bunch of compromises in the construction. Fist off, I was only marrginally happy with the body and paint. The die cast part of the car (body) has a few rough edges and some paint blotches. As with all things doen overseas, there are parting lines all over. Anyway, I quickly realized that I wanted to try to make the car more screen accurate and more detailed. I thougth I'd take pics as I went along and keep posting them to this thread. I know a lot of people here have the 1:18 model and if you guys want to try some of these detailing ideas, I'll post a few little descriptions. Since I can't build a full scale one, this will have to be my contribution to the site. Hope you enjoy! _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/1/2006 8:49:17 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Here's the basic kit taken apart. Luckily they dont use glue, all of the plastic parts have pins that stick through the die cast body and then they hit it with a melting tool. So, if you want to take off parts, grab a soldiering iron and heat the joints and gently pull everything apart. 
I started with the interior and you can see that I removed the dash and shift cluster thing and the panel between the seats. _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: Justin
| Posted: 1/1/2006 8:50:40 PM
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"Tumbler"
Posts: 1355 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Looks like fun! Can't wait to see it done!! ------------------------ For more information on replica Batmobiles and "kits", check out www.thebatcave8k.com 
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/1/2006 8:51:54 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Here's the bottom of the interior. you can see the sloppy spots where they heated the pins to melt things in place. I removed everything except for the seats, which are a softer thermoplastic. (I didn;t want to fight getting the seats lose as thermoplastic will just melt and won;t keep it's shape as well as rigid plastic. 
Last Edited by 2wylde: 1/1/2006 8:55:34 PM _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/1/2006 8:54:49 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Here's the interior with all of the pieces removed. I painted the floor a lighter gray and then painted the seats and dash pad etc. with a darker gray color. Once the paint dried I added some white weathering powder (chalk) and made things look a bit sirty and worn - instead of like shiny plastic. The gray color will show up better as well. (Hey, I'm not going to go Onstar gray though!) 
_______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/1/2006 8:59:51 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Here's a pic of the shift sluster and the headrests. I cut the headrests off and hollowed them out (pain in the butt). I will add tulle fabric painted with the dark gray color to them. The shifter was a major piece of work. I removed all the parting lines and tried to make the levers look more detached from the base. I painted them to match the original car. The main lever is silver with a gold tip. I noticed in the pics that there is a silver piece that runs up the right side of the cluster, so I fabrictaed the part from styrene and sanded the cluster down and then glued it on. I then dry brushed the whole thing with silver to give it a more metal look and used a toothpick to very carefully add some white paint that will hopefully look like really tiny print! 
Last Edited by 2wylde: 1/1/2006 9:00:31 PM _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/1/2006 9:06:19 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Okay, the silver part they put in for the instrument cluster between the seats was way off, so I tried to fabricate one. I probably could have done better, but I'll be honest, I have no patience. I need to buy some on ebay. Anyway, I made a square to cover the spot where the old part went and then cut out the two parts that make up the panel. i drilled holes in those and then painted everything my dark gray color. Then I cut off some of the chrome knobs from the original part and glued them on the new one to simulate screws. I painted a piece of wire silver and cut very short lentghs. I glued those in my drilled holes to try and simulte the small toggle switches. I then hit the switches with a little white paint on the ends and tried to add more text by dabbing paint on with a cut down toothpick. Yeah, this was interesting... I looks a bit sloppy, but much better than the original. 
You can see I got the headrests put back togtehr and added back in. The hardest part was cutting the tulle to size and gluing it in. Major pain. The toggles help to add depth from the side: 
Last Edited by 2wylde: 1/1/2006 9:06:52 PM _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/1/2006 9:08:55 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread A few shots of the interior put back together. I'd like to redo the dash, but I'm not sure how to make it look good in such a small scale. I think I leave it as it is... 
Next project will be adding the LED's in. Hopefully I'll get that taken care of tomorrow night.... _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: Webmaster
| Posted: 1/1/2006 9:16:39 PM
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new GA owner
Posts: 1517 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Awesome 
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From: Jack
| Posted: 1/1/2006 9:20:06 PM
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Just Jack
Posts: 1947 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Wow that looks great. DH "New GA owner"? Do you have something to tell us? |
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From: Webmaster
| Posted: 1/1/2006 10:03:22 PM
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new GA owner
Posts: 1517 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Well..you'll know something's missing from your garage when I do become the new owner.
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From: timwylie
| Posted: 1/2/2006 11:02:59 AM
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Reticent Troll
Posts: 253 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Looks really good. It'll definitely be awesome once you get those leds in there. |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/3/2006 1:51:43 AM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Night 2. I concentrated on the side mechanics and a bit of the exterior stuff on the body. First thing was to cut the mechanics piece apart so I could trim off the part that connects the main pipes from the grappling hook part. I then finished the hook part off by sanding etc. I removed some of the parting lines from the pipes and tried to cut the casting a bit to make the parts look separate. I ended up cutting off the base part of the big pipe and making new bases from styrene. I repainted a lot of it and then added some more detail using fine guitar string wire (high E). I added a few "bolts" that werent there and then painted on screws and bolts as well. (here are the parts after they've been cut up and sanded down. You can see where the chrome is gone.) 
_______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/3/2006 1:54:10 AM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Finished side mechanics. I added some color as appropriate and added the labels on the main metal box thing. The chain is brass. 
The muffler looking part is actually tin foil on the matte side cut to size and perforated. 
_______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/3/2006 1:56:09 AM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread I also painted the silver piece on the body and painted a few of the screws on the speaker cover lightly. I dry brushed the speaker "wire" to look a bit silvery as well. 
I dry brushed the air intake grills with a bit of silver too. Under the right light they look pretty metallic. 
_______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: Webmaster
| Posted: 1/3/2006 1:57:10 AM
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new GA owner
Posts: 1517 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Looks really good. I especially dig the chain.
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/3/2006 1:59:48 AM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Just for kicks I reinstalled the interior and took a few pics. 
I added some light chalk to the treads to bring them out a bit. 
One last shot looking in: 
Now maybe I'll tackle those LED's... maybe. 
Last Edited by 2wylde: 1/3/2006 2:01:35 AM _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: Webmaster
| Posted: 1/3/2006 2:04:06 AM
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new GA owner
Posts: 1517 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread How'bout touching up and adding some black color to the machine guns?
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/3/2006 2:16:39 AM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Thanks for the comments. I am definitely palnning on painting the guns black. I was watching the DVD in freeze frame tonight and that was definitley something I noticed. If you watch the axis scene where the guns are blazing you'll see the guns violently jerking back and forth fron the recoil. I never noticed that before... Let me know of any other things I can do - I may not have thought of a few things! _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: cm2
| Posted: 1/3/2006 3:06:49 AM
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Need the car
Posts: 63 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Its looking good Matt. I just purchased a 1/18 scale on ebay yesterday. I want to start modding it just as you did. What did you use for the cross pattern in the head rests?
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/3/2006 9:59:10 AM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread It's a fabric called tulle. They use it for weddings and stuff. You can pick it up at fabrics stores or wedding stores or whever. it's pretty common. I just had some white on hand, so I painted it, but you can get it in black. That would save some time. Gluing it in the headrest is the hard part. Tweezers and patience
_______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: Dave
| Posted: 1/3/2006 12:27:48 PM
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Hot Wheels…
Posts: 89 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread This looks excellent! Where the heck were you when I had to build/ modify these for Toyfair at Mattel? I had the shop guys build some the early "first shot" models and ugh...they turned out horrible. I would have signed you up as a vendor asap. Now I'm starting to see how it SHOULD have turned out! Dave |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/3/2006 12:32:20 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Thanks Dave, your input means a LOT. I wish I was around back then! Being in manufacturing I'm familiar with all of the sprues and parting lines and I know that to make things cost effective you sometimes have to compromise on the ideal design. It's a sweet car and as soon as I get it done, I'm going to build a diorama to place it in. Maybe an Axis chemicals scene or just an industrial scene. I'll PM ya when I get the project wrapped up. Thanks! Matt _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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From: Dave
| Posted: 1/3/2006 12:43:01 PM
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Hot Wheels…
Posts: 89 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Matt, You would have loved to see the "high end" versions we built for the sales guys to try to sell into Sharper Image, Comic shops, etc. Basically we got early models (sometimes resin) and built these really complex dioramas. Hot Wheels has LOTS of money and talent so I think we came up with about 5 or 6 scenarios: Bruce Wayne working on the Batmobile in the batcave with computers hooked up. Engine was out and cowl displays were on. Repainted as the Returns car with snow and Batman figure. Battle damage version (MUCH nicer than that monstrosity they eventually did) Diorama in back alley with shields half-way up. Same car but extra "floating" parts. Batmobile on turntable display like in batcave. This would have been a beautiful round display box. The one I wanted to do was "behind the scenes" with 1/18 scale shop guys building the batmobile prop with the front cowl off and a Chevy engine in there. WB almost flipped when I suggested that one! Keep me updated please!! Dave |
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From: 2wylde
| Posted: 1/3/2006 12:50:32 PM
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GOTHAM MATT
Posts: 377 |
RE: 1:18 mod thread Dave, those would have been amazing to see! I have built a lot of buildings in 1:87, so I will have to scale up a bit for the diorama, but I'm looking forward to it! On another note, all of those pics of the original car came from you right? I saved a bunch off of the forum a long time ago and I thought they were the ones you took when you were looking at WB and working on the 1:18. Matt _______________________________________________ When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. |
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