With Matt Reeves’ The Batman coming out soon, merchandise is finally starting to hit. I saw this 1:18 scale Batmobile by Spin Master in the store for $29.99 and was blown away at the quality and heft for the price. It is super sturdy and has rotating rubber wheels, lights & sound and even an included Batman figure! Even without any customizing, this is a great Batmobile toy for the price.
Despite being so solid - it can always be better! Out of the box there is no paint and the flames are permanently attached, so I decided to repaint and modify the Batmobile. I wanted to see what this great sculpt looked like with high quality paint, additional details and removable exhaust flames.
The first step was disassembly, sanding and washing the parts. Even though there was no paint to start, sanding and washing will help make the new paint stick much better. Since the body’s plastic is very soft, the sanding marks are visible even with a coat of paint, but it adds character if you ask me 😎
For the car body and doors I used Tamiya TS-40 Metallic Black lacquer spray paint. For the engine block and exhaust pipes I used Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf lacquer spray paint. For the front bumper I used Tamiya TS-38 Gunmetal Grey lacquer spray paint.
I didn’t want to remove the electronics since they were glued in and had some solder that seemed delicate. In order to spray the rear body I wrapped the electronics in saran (plastic) wrap with scotch tape. That way I was able to spray the body, paint the details and then clear coat without risking the integrity of the electronics.
For detail work I used several different Vallejo and Games Workshop paints, including Glaze and Thinner mediums to help the consistency of the paints.
There were several passes of base coats, washes and dry brushing to get the detail out of the hood, tail lights, bumper and (admittedly soft) engine sculpt.
I also used Tamiya Weathering Master Pigments to add exhaust burn visuals.
After painting all the details on the hood, engine, the exhaust ports, dashboard and console and other small pieces, I sprayed them with clear coats. I went with a glossy clear coat for the engine and exhausts to give them a nice contrast from the matte-coated body.
The last pieces to be painted were the wheels and some small random bits for consistency once assembled. Some brush-on clear coat was used and the painting was all done!
The final step was glueing magnets on the inside of the exhaust ports and on the bottom of the flames so they could detach easily. The rear flame can’t use magnets since it has a light-up feature, so I removed it from the permanently attached interior part and added a bit of hot glue so it can peg in.
The top exhaust flames now attach with magnets and the rear exhaust flame plugs in.
Spin Master did a stellar job with this vehicle, especially for the $30 price tag. A bit of paint and custom work makes it look even better. Now that I’ve got an awesome looking 1:18 Batmobile, I’m hoping we can get a higher quality 1:18 version of Robert Pattinson’s Batman to go with it! Thanks for reading and as always, check out my customizing Instagram!
Final product