Lincoln Futura and Batmobiles

[Joe Handley]

I’m planning on finally building a my Revell Futura and Polar Lights Barris Batmobiles, starting with the pre painted Polar Lights snap kit with the figures that will be box stock and a Pro-Touring Futura on Pegasus 23” Hella’s.

Here’s most of the Batman related kits plus my second Futura kit.

I’m going to start with the Pre Painted Snapper, I just need to brush paint some small parts and glue the wheels to the axles and figures in their seats and it will be done.

Next up is the Pro-Touring Futura, it’s going to be slammed over the Pegasus 23” Hella’s.  After getting the body pieces put together, I now understand why clamps are your friend with these kits, I had 7 on it waiting for things to cure!

All taped together with the rolling stock test fitted.

the pile of parts, took this to show a friend what I was dealing with, parts wise.

How it sits completely slammed, though I may have to do some hackery to get it a hair higher.

 

The rest of kits will probably be as follows…..

One of the other Polar Light Barris Batmobile kits will be done as with more of a Dark Knight bend, like the Burton/Keaton car on the bottom right of the top pic  as well as the Animated Series from the 90’s, the Tumbler from the Nolan/Bale movies, then the Snyder/Afflec and the new Reeves/Pattinson movies.  It’ll be more of an aggressive, matte back finish and I’m not totally sure what it will get for rolling stock or if I’m going to use the other snapper or one of the glue kits.

The other Futura May get built along the lines of the Lamborghini that gets destroyed in the Dark Knight movie, kind of the car he might take to the office or to a “social event” that somebody like Bruce Wayne may have an obligation to attend.

The other 2 kits will be done more along the lines of “What If” like the Turbine Car build I have planned as a couple of Kustoms as though the car actually went into production and that are loosely based around what changes Barris made to the car for the TV show, but remove the mods that would identify them as the Batmobile.  
 

The Burton/Keaton movie car will likely be built as the Batmobile, I though I had a second one and thought that would be interesting build that as a land speed car if I do, or end up buying a second if I didn’t have another.

Finally, I’m not sure if I want to build this from one of the other Barris car kits or get another one of those or another Futura but I was thinking about cutting one down to fit a ‘55-‘57 T-Bird chassis as either a a Lincoln version of the T-Bird and/or a Kustom based on the same concept!

[Joe Handley]

Ok, got the stance set, now it’s just body and paint work………..wish me luck

[Oldcarfan27]

Lookin' good so far!

[Joe Handley]

23 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Lookin' good so far!

Thanks!

[customsrus]

Interesting ideas. Can’t wait to see what you do with them. 

[bisc63]

Ambitious amount of work ahead!

[Joe Handley]

1 hour ago, bisc63 said:

Ambitious amount of work ahead!

Yeah, it is.

 I’m kinda surprised that the Futura body turned out as good as it has so far though, I was expecting more of a fight from it.

[bisc63]

2 minutes ago, Joe Handley said:

I was expecting more of a fight from it.

Same here, I had one started and well on its way to becoming a Batmobile when the newly tooled kit was announced. Ain't that the way?

[Joe Handley]

32 minutes ago, bisc63 said:

Same here, I had one started and well on its way to becoming a Batmobile when the newly tooled kit was announced. Ain't that the way?

That had to be frustrating!

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Cool! Looks great on those wheels.

 

[bisc63]

47 minutes ago, Joe Handley said:

That had to be frustrating!

You know it! Too far along to revert back to a Futura stock build, no real point in finishing with a more accurate choice on the shelf now...

[Joe Handley]

Figured I’d post these here, it’s in the purple dip right now to strip the factory paint off it, but here’s that Barris Batmobile Kustom I posted in the Mock Up Thread recently.  It’s going to be a friend hat if Kustom as though maybe instead of becoming The Batmobile, it was customized later in life with some of the Batmobile mods, but not the Bat specific ones at the same time. In this case, the molded chrome and bumpers, flared wheel openings, extended hood scoop remain, reshaped fins on the doors are all staying the same, but the bay wing scallops on the fins, split grill and “septum” on the hood scoop, turbine exhaust, launcher tubes behind the cockpit, and extended headlight shrouds are all gone. I’ve also decided to ditch the rearmost part of the canopy for headrest bubbles and pull the raised area on the back side of that section of canopy mating surface in between them as well as slightly lower it and change to some 17” Hollies that have better fitment that the Radir wheels and oversized tires that are sucked in too far to actually look good.

These are what I posted on the mock up thread, but here’s the updates, plus the Futura, Batmobile and this car in 1 shot!

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Joe Handley

[Joe Handley]

Getting ready to chop up another Polar Lights Batmobile to try and get it to fit the chassis and interior tub of that Revell/Monogram’57 T-Bird underneath it. Also want to get rid of the wheel opening in the back to be more like the real car was before Barris did this to it, so the 1” strips of tape circled in blue are roughly where I want to cut it to shorten it in the middle, but don’t know exactly how to deal with that rear overhang and make it more like the T-Birds, so I am open to suggestions if you guys have any!

 

[Kah puts]

"Holy shortened wheelbase Batman " ? that thing's going to rock. 

[Joe Handley]

7 minutes ago, Kah puts said:

"Holy shortened wheelbase Batman " ? that thing's going to rock. 

Thanks!

Funny thing too, that T-Bird is a 1/24 kit and the Batmobile is 1/25, I tried a 1/25 AMT ‘57 T-Bird, but it was smaller in width and height too. I want to do that with one of the Revell Lincoln Futura kits I have too, but that’s undersized compared to this and their snapper Batmobile kits, so that AMT T-Bird kit should be workable to do this with the Futura, once I get around to it.

[Kah puts]

A Ford Falcon Futura would  also be doable wheelbase  wise and a cool footnote. 

[Joe Handley]

Here it is mocked up on the T-Bird’s chassis, interior and suspension without any cutting on the body so far.

 

And then one with the T-Bird body stacked on the Batmobile on the T-Birds chassis.

[bisc63]

The Lindberg/AMT '53 Ford would have a chassis very close to correct for the original Futura. Pretty nicely detailed, too.

[Joe Handley]

1 minute ago, bisc63 said:

The Lindberg/AMT '53 Ford would have a chassis very close to correct for the original Futura. Pretty nicely detailed, too.

Thanks, and I appreciate it,  I’m trying to make it more of a T-Bird sized roadster, which is why I’m trying to knock an inch (+/-) out of the rear half of the car.