1/48 BatPlane, 1942

by Alvis 3.1

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Silly Week 2009

 

As war engulfed the world, America's Crimefighting Detective was drawn into the arms race. Facing the Joker armed with Stukas, the Penguin flying gyroplanes, and Catwoman armed with a Panther tank, Bruce Wayne had Wayne Enterprises modify a stock P-40 into his latest piece of high tech crime fighting equipment. Scalloped trailing edges allowed for a quieter flight, a radar absorbent paint coated the plane to allow for stealthy approaches, and an uprated engine allowed for even faster speeds and climbing rates. Soon, Gotham was looking upward, watching as Batman battled high above their city to preserve their freedoms and liberties, and crush the nazi-crime syndicate menace! 

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What do you do with the Hobbycraft P-40? It has some serious shape issues, and realistically, it's a tough build to make into a truly accurate P-40. So of course, I picked it to Whif. Besides, I could justify the whole wing-fuselage "problem" as the modification done by Wayne Enterprises! Now, as for the build, it was pretty well out of the box, except for the trailing edge scallops, which I built up with sheet styrene cut to shape, and strengthening ribs from strip stock. The decals were made on my inkjet printer. Oh, the Batmobile! I almost forgot about it. It's the 1942 Ford Sedan that Tamiya makes (Yes, I bought the P-51 just to get this car..who knew it was coming out a few months later?) It was built up stock as well, with the wheel opening faired in and the enormous fin made from sheet styrene. The Bat Face Bat-ering ram was made by carving a master shape from balsa, then heat forming the mask with hot sheet styrene. 

Now, to make a 1/48 Joker Blimp to go with this.....

Alvis 3.1

Photos and text © by Alvis 3.1