(The) Batman was dreamed-up in 1939, by writer Bill Finger, and the character was drawn by Bob Kane. Since then, he has evolved in appearance (but has not aged). As a child, young Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of his (very) rich parents (as they walked unprotected through a seedy part of town? That's smart!!), and vowed to become a crime-fighting vigilante. His determination drove his training, his inherited wealth funded his concept and a chance encounter with a bat spawned his disguise. Lacking any superpower, he relies on physical strength & agility, detective prowess, gadgets and luck. Among his gadgets are his varied modes of aerial transport. Batman has used a bat-glider, a bat-copter, and a bat-plane (but not a bat-jet-pack, yet). These have evolved over time, always utilising the latest technology. This jet-propelled one is Batman's second bat-plane.

Scott's preview is pretty good, and I can't improve on it, so I won’t try. This kit came in a robust lid-and-tray box that housed 18 black parts, 1 clear canopy, and a 2-part clear stand. 12 parts complete the airframe. I viewed the other 7 as optional (but more on that later). I bought this kit from a second-hand kit dealer because it was cheap. I started it for a 'TV & Movies' category in a local competition, because its few parts and single colour, suggested a quick build.

The build had no sub-assemblies apart from the wings. Each came as an upper wing with a lower insert. The problem was the huge underside crevasses that separated the parts. These required multiple heavy-duty filling sessions to eliminate them, though I left some unfilled as they delineated the control surfaces. At the same time, I worked-on the complex single-piece cockpit-plate part that formed the head and shoulders of Batman and his sidekick, Robin. It needed careful removal of lots of flash, and Batman needed more-prominent ‘ears’. The figures suggest that this model is 1/48-scale(ish). Brush-painting them was the trickiest part because I stink at figures, so I'm grateful that they hide their faces. I thinned the lips of the two side intakes and added blanking plates inside them to stop the see-through effect.

The heads/cockpit piece was trapped between the fuselage halves, requiring props below it to elevate to the correct level. The fuselage was stitch-glued, then the halves of the fin had to be forced together to be glued. First the wings (which have drooping tips), then the tailplanes (ditto), were glued-in at right-angles to the fin. Now came the fatal decision. I could not ascertain why a designer of such a high-performance aircraft, would put fixed undercarriage under it (= too dragy). So, by logic, I left-off the 7 undercarriage parts, and filled-in their locating sockets, and while I was at it, I filled-in the slot in the belly for the stand – first with plastic, then with fillers. Finally, I glued-on the nose-spike and the canopy. The back-end of the canopy needed filler, then the canopy was masked (leaving a frame where there wasn’t one).

This was easy - several coats of SMS jet-black. The difficult bit was seeing where I had sprayed. This was easy over the grey Tamiya & Mr.Surfacer fillers, but harder on the raw plastic (hence the several coats - to be sure, to be sure!!). On the advice of a car modeller, I misted Tamiya clear blue over the black to impart a bluish hue to it.

There were only 4 decals - 2 large for the tops of the wings, and 2 small for the sides of the tail fin. They went down onto puddles of Future, then over-painted with more Future to lock them in. I squirted SMS clear gloss over it as a final coat, but it 'aint too glossy. There was a textured bat-head on the nose, which I left in a flat tone to differentiate and highlight it.

For an unknown reason, I could not find the tailpipe. In desperation, I tried to scratch-build one by rolling a strip of textured/grooved plastic sheet into a tube. This failed because the small diameter put too much tension on the join. Luckily, I had to take my dog for a walk (he insisted). When he dropped his ‘bomb load’, I had to detach a ‘doggy bag’ from the roll, because I wouldn’t leave it for someone to step-on (a mutt mine?). It was the last bag on the roll, and I suddenly noticed that the bags had been rolled around a plastic tube that was exactly what I needed. True, the Batplane’s tail needed widening (a bit - with a drill bit) and the tube needed painting in a gunmetal. The down-side is that I have to be thankful to my dog. He got an extra biscuit. But, my Bat-plane is complete.

Because I chose to omit the fixed undercarriage, I just KNEW that I’d have to mount this model onto a base in an in-flight mode. The plan was to mount this model atop a clear rod, so a hole was drilled into the Centre-of-Gravity, in preparation to receive it. I found the CoG by balancing the model on an east-west rod. A length of brass tube, cut to a precise length, was inserted into the hole and anchored internally, with 5-minute epoxy cement. The other end of the rod was to be anchored into a vertical hole I drilled into a piece of wooden plank. Both ends were filed into a slight taper to make insertion that much easier. However, the size and weight of the model made the balance risky. The obvious answer was to build-up/thicken the base to better-support the lower end of the rod. And to get around the need to drill straight down into a 60mm/2.5” block of extra wood, I elected to make a block around it, out of scrap wood.

But that block looked pretty lonely all by itself. So, in a lightbulb moment, I decided to add more blocks to the base, to make it resemble a city/district seen from altitude, at night. First, I painted-on a few roads, then I positioned the (building?)blocks just off them. It all goes to show that I’m NOT an architect or a town planner. A little dot or line of white paint represents that a few lights are on (and provide some scale). Each was placed into a hole/groove on the surface of the block. I discovered that the secret to a good ‘window’ was to make a SHALLOW groove with a small screwdriver or (better yet) a small chisel. See, a deep mark may not let the paint get down into the lower reaches, and you end-up with a black window with a white frame. A touch of misted-on paint and a little dry brushing delineated the ‘buildings’.

As anticipated, this was an easy build, hindered by the mass-filler requirement, but enhanced by the low parts count. It resembles the jets drawn by us boys (who weren’t listening to the Teacher) when I was in primary school. It is a large model (for me), and a nostalgic build, but hardly a show-stopper. This does not concern me because I build models for fun - not trophies (and THAT is MY excuse for not having any!!). I’d recommend it (with reservations) to all builders. I do not believe that any modeller could make wheel wells for the undercarriage (because the wings are too thin). Others may wish to jazz-up the cockpit.

PS – Years ago, when my young son was telling me all about ‘Batman & Robin’, I feigned ignorance, and told him that I only knew of a Fatman & Puddin’, a Ratman & Goblin, a Flatman & Ribbon, and a Sadman & Sobbin’. This earned me ‘THAT look’ from my Lady.

George Oh

2 July 2026

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