Building the Road to Gotham City

When we last saw the Dynamic Duo, we learned how to convert a 1956 Lincoln concept car, the Futura, into the world famous 1966 Batmobile™. Our favorite crime fighters were now equipped to chase down the bad guys at turbine-charged speeds. But wait! There was no Batcave to race out of or remote highway leading to Gotham City. Holy interstate, Batman! Our completed 1/25th scale Batmobile certainly appears fabulous sitting on the bookshelf, but wouldn't it look even more cool if displayed in an action diorama depicting a scene from the classic television series? You bet, Boy Wonder! In this installment we're going to discover an easy method to model the rocky hillside entrance to the Batcave. To the bat poles, Robin!

More Bat-History Most TV trivia buffs know the urban environment of Los Angeles, California stood in for crime-ridden, fictitious Gotham City. They shot at four studio locations during the run of the series: the 20th Century Fox studio in Century City; at the Fox lot on Western Avenue; at the Culver City Studios and at the Warners' Burbank Studios, mostly for exteriors. Frequently the Fox studio administrative building was cast as Gotham City offices and a few establishing shots of downtown Los Angeles were used. A real problem surfaced when the production wanted to take the show away from these comfortable backlot locations. George Barris' custom built Batmobile was not certified as street legal in California (the car lacked some safety features - like windshield wipers) and could not be driven on public streets. The production staff obtained permits to shoot a few scenes at the Redondo Beach pier and a short stretch of private oceanfront road. These became stock footage and were frequently reused over the three years of prime time broadcast and the 1966 feature film. Batman's crime-fighting lair, the Batcave, was filmed at two widely separated locations. An elaborate interior set was constructed at Fox studios in Century City. Scenes of the Batmobile roaring from the Batcave were shot miles away at famous Bronson Canyon in the Hollywood Hills. This movie location has been dressed and redressed more times than any other spot in history. It appeared in classic silver screen films of the 1930s and '40s, countless low budget sci-fi movies during the '50s and '60s and still used by location directors in the new millennium. The cavern at Bronson became the Batcave's entrance. This tiny cave is only a few yards long and barely wider than the Batmobile. The stunt driver was forced to "race out" of the cave at less than twenty-five miles an hour or risk wrecking the car. Undercranking the camera, which makes the on-screen action appear faster, made the Batmobile's exit more dramatic.

Making a Bat-Plan If you survived the nerve-racking tedium of converting Revell's Futura kit into a Batmobile, you'll appreciate the change of pace by making a diorama base to display your efforts. This is more of a craft project and a lot of fun to do. Fred DeRuvo and I decided before the Batmobile was built that a scene depicting the crime fighter's wheels roaring out of the Batcave would be a great subject for this diorama. Research was a perfect excuse to enjoy viewing the 1966 film on video again. Plenty of Batmobile stock footage permeates the movie, including that classic shot of the car exiting the cave. The model car's scale determined the diorama's size. It needed to be large enough to not crowd the subject, but not so large as to prohibit display on an average bookshelf. Unusual shapes make for more visual appeal, so I chose a 12"x20" oval wood plaque sold at crafts supply stores. A half-hour spent scribbling designs yielded a workable plan and I was ready to jump into the project.

 

Climb a Bat-hill Breaking out my indispensable Dremel table saw, I cut down the oval slightly to accommodate the back of the hillside. Following design sketches, I then penciled the hill outline on 3/32" thick micro plywood. This material is found at radio control model airplane stores. The irregular hillside shape was cut out on a Dremel scroll saw and test fitted to the base (Photo 1). White glue attached the wood sheets to the base and strips of basswood were added to reinforce joints (Photo 2). An arched cave opening was cut through the hill backside and the edges smoothed with a drum sander in a Dremel motor-tool. This was done to allow viewing of the Batmobile's rear bumper after permanently fixing the car exiting the cave. After sweating over so many details on the vehicle, I didn't want to hide anything. Originally I wanted to leave the Batmobile unattached so it could be displayed separate from the base, but discovered that handling the model risked damaging the delicate paint finish.

Florist's foam makes for very lightweight landscape features and I frequently incorporate it in my projects (Photo 3). Easy to find at the craft store, it can be quickly sliced with a sharp hobby knife and shaped with your fingers. This foam core is covered with a paper mache product, such as Cellu-Clay, or plaster of Paris. Attach the foam shapes to the base with white glue, epoxy glue or, in this case, a hot glue gun. Railroad modelers have a fast and effective technique to depict stone-faced hills. They cast them in plaster using flexible rubber molds made from finely detailed real rocks. You can make your own molds out of latex rubber; however, there are excellent rock molds available from Woodland Scenics. They are relatively inexpensive and last for dozens of castings. Most railroad modelers use Hydrocal plaster for casting rocks, but I prefer a home improvement product called Durham's Water Putty. Durham's is a fine, off-white powder that is mixed with water to make a plaster-like material that dries hard, strong and does not shrink. Its main advantage over plaster is its sculpting life, during which it sets, but remains leather-like and workable for about an hour. Powdered cement colors can be added to color Durham's and it paints easier than plaster, which tends to soak up more paint than necessary for coverage. I poured up a variety of rock shapes, including a few extra castings in case I needed them (Photo 4). The parts were ready to be popped out of the molds and used in a little over an hour, but it's wise to allow them to cure overnight because it makes the castings harder. The rock castings were then hand fitted and hot glued to the foam hillside (Photo 5). Seams and gaps between the rock parts were patched with mixed Durham's (Photo 6).

Once the patches dried, I scraped away excess material and added texture to match the surrounding areas (Photo 7). Wood carving tools or dental instruments are handy for this step. Although the water putty was colored an appropriate stone gray, I custom mixed paints for the hillside (Photo 8). A dark brown wash was spread over the stone face, flowing into the deep cracks and recesses (Photo 9) followed by a mossy green wash. After this dried, I dry brushed a lighter shade to highlight the rock texture (Photo 10).

Planting the Bat-Scape A wide variety of natural and synthetic landscaping products are available. Static grass, field grass, dried lichen and natural plants plus shredded foam turf and weeds (Photo 11). All are easy to work with and can be attached to the diorama terrain with either white glue or acrylic matte medium. Some colors of shredded foam products are too uniform in color, so I custom mix different shades for a more realistic effect. To attach foam weeds and turf to the base, first brush on a thin, even layer of white glue, and then sprinkle on a generous quantity of weed material. Lightly tap the weeds in place with your fingers. Allow the glue to set for a couple minutes then gently shake off excess material over a sheet of newspaper. Save the excess weeds to use later. I like acrylic matte medium instead of white glue because it dries without visible gloss marks. There are two methods for attaching tall grass and low shrubbery. The traditional method for installing tall grass, which is to drill a series of holes and push fiber into them, is a lot of work. I prefer to spread a little white glue in the area desired, then use a scissors to cut a small tuft of grass material and press the end into the glue. Add more tufts until the area is covered. The same technique can be used for attaching small lichen bushes (Photo 12). After the glue has dried you can go back and trim the tall grass to realistic irregular lengths with a small scissors. A section of paved road was fashioned from sheet styrene. In this case, I used plastic with a pebbly surface texture, which suggested coarse asphalt. It was painted an off black with dirty white lane lines. The guardrail and end-of-road barrier were created from scrap plastic strip and sheet, as was the signpost. If you have access to a computer installed with a draw program, you can create terrific signs (Photo 13). This is more realistic and easier than hand painting.

Holy Ghost Car, Batman! When I placed the Batmobile on the completed diorama base, I came to a startling realization: there was nobody driving the car! Silly me. I was so involved in doing the Futura conversion and the Batcave diorama, I completely forgot about this important detail. After spending two fruitless afternoons searching hobby shops and toy stores for suitable figures, I decided to create Batman and Robin from parts box leftovers. I managed to find enough 1/25th scale human body parts to rough out two figures (Photo 14). Since the lower legs were hidden from view beneath the vehicle's dashboard, there was no reason to fashion them. Thin sheets of A+B epoxy putty provided clothing details, masks and capes (Photo 15). At first I felt these figures were a bit crude, but when painted in acrylics I was satisfied with the results (Photo 16).

In the cockpit of the Batmobile they looked great! (Photos 17 & 18). "Atomic batteries to power!" Turbines to speed!" Our favorite crime fighters are roaring to save the day!• Reach Hilber Graf via E-mail at: uncreepy@gateway.net •

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