1:18 mod thread
Batmobile Forum
 Batmobile Home          Batmobile Builders     Calendar     Who's On

Welcome Guest ( Login | Register )
        


12345»»»

1:18 mod thread Expand / Collapse
Author
Message
Posted 1/1/2006 8:45:09 PM


Forum Guru

Forum Guru


Last Login: 3/25/2022 5:22:19 AM
Posts: 581, Visits: 421
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.
Post #41168
Posted 1/1/2006 8:49:17 PM


Forum Guru

Forum Guru


Last Login: 3/25/2022 5:22:19 AM
Posts: 581, Visits: 421
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.
Batmobile

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.
Post #41169
Posted 1/1/2006 8:50:40 PM


"Tardmonkey of the Year"

"Tardmonkey of the Year"


Last Login: 9/6/2011 12:10:05 AM
Posts: 3,367, Visits: 4,625
Looks like fun! Can't wait to see it done!!

------------------------
Design and sell your own custom t-shirts, on your existing MySpace page, for free! Download the AP Product Labs app from the app gallery, today.
http://www.myspace.com/approductlabs
Post #41170
Posted 1/1/2006 8:51:54 PM


Forum Guru

Forum Guru


Last Login: 3/25/2022 5:22:19 AM
Posts: 581, Visits: 421
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.
Batmobile


_______________________________________________
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.
Post #41171
Posted 1/1/2006 8:54:49 PM


Forum Guru

Forum Guru


Last Login: 3/25/2022 5:22:19 AM
Posts: 581, Visits: 421
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!)
Batmobile


_______________________________________________
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.
Post #41172
Posted 1/1/2006 8:59:51 PM


Forum Guru

Forum Guru


Last Login: 3/25/2022 5:22:19 AM
Posts: 581, Visits: 421
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!
Batmobile

Batmobile


_______________________________________________
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.
Post #41173
Posted 1/1/2006 9:06:19 PM


Forum Guru

Forum Guru


Last Login: 3/25/2022 5:22:19 AM
Posts: 581, Visits: 421
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.

Batmobile

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:
Batmobile

Batmobile


_______________________________________________
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.
Post #41174
Posted 1/1/2006 9:08:55 PM


Forum Guru

Forum Guru


Last Login: 3/25/2022 5:22:19 AM
Posts: 581, Visits: 421
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...
Batmobile
Batmobile

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.
Post #41175
Posted 1/1/2006 9:16:39 PM


You reap what you sow

You reap what you sow


Last Login: 9/19/2023 12:52:32 AM
Posts: 7,314, Visits: 29,372
Awesome






Post #41176
Posted 1/1/2006 9:20:06 PM


Has NO LIFE!!

Has NO LIFE!!


Last Login: 10/27/2014 6:30:59 PM
Posts: 4,811, Visits: 18,798
Wow that looks great.

DH "New GA owner"? Do you have something to tell us?


Post #41177
« Prev Topic | Next Topic »

12345»»»

Reading This Topic Expand / Collapse
Active Users: 0 (0 guests, 0 members, 0 anonymous members)
No members currently viewing this topic.

Permissions Expand / Collapse

All times are GMT -5:00, Time now is 3:21am


Execution: 0.219. 10 queries. Compression Disabled.

Batman (1989 Version)

CLTC Club Shirts




1989 Batmobile Kit 1989 Batmobile Kits
1989 Batmobile Builders Batmobile Kit
Batmobile Kits 1989 Batmobile Builder





Batman and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and DC Comics and WB.
Use of anything related to "Batman" on this site is not to infringe upon the copyrights of DC Comics or WB.
The purpose of chickslovethecar.com is to foster positive discussion about one of the greatest vehicles of all time.
This site does not sell or build any related cars or kits. © 2004-2012 chickslovethecar.com "Chicks Love The Car"
Images linked courtey of cltc.co.

You can contact us by clicking here.