Papa's BrATMOBILE

[papabash]

I've been a huge Batman fan since I was a kid (and that was a looong time ago) and when the Dark Knight Trilogy came out, it was immediately my all-time favorite movie series. Because of this, my son gave me a Dark Knight action figure for Christmas back in 2012 to use as a driver in a future scale build. The figure is a little smaller than the usual wrestlers, so I needed to find a body that was the right size to match him. I have always liked the Tamiya Brat builds, and had a new body that just happened to be the perfect size.



Fast forward a year, and I present to you the humble beginnings of the BrATMOBILE. I've been working on this for a couple of months now, but hadn't started a build thread because I didn't know whether it would be a 1.5 or a 1.9. Even though the 1.5s would be more scale, I finally decided that Batman's rigs are always over the top, so 1.9s would actually be more appropriate. This is my first try at styrene work, so it won't be a showcase build, but hopefully it will have enough custom touches to keep it interesting.

[papabash]

The first thing I did was assemble one of DinkyRC's "Cheap Seats" and trim Batman's cape a bit so he would fit in it properly.



He has good articulation, so will look right at home behind a steering wheel.

[papabash]

My son had won a Toyota interior from KLDesigns as a door prize a couple of years ago, and donated it to the Brat.



I was very happy to find that it fits the Brat body perfectly!





Of course, Batman would never go wheeling in a bench seat, so I made a few modifications to the interior. I started by cutting part of the bench seat out so I could insert the Dinky bucket seat into it, and then used styrene to cover the rest of the interior and make it a one-seater. It will eventually have a nitrous tank, lots of guages, a shotgun, rifle, etc. It's not finished yet, but here's what I have so far:

[papabash]

Work on the body began by shaving and filling the door handles and gas cap (Batman would have something like voice-actuated doors) and shaving off the Subaru emblems on the front fenders.



Then I cut the cowl from a Wraith hood and grafted it onto the Brat hood:



While I was at it, I sprayed the cowl with some Lexan paint so I won't have to worry about adhesion later:



You can also see the bat on the grill, along with some high-caliber gun barrels sticking out of the grill.

[papabash]

Anyone that knows me knows I'm a huge MRC fan, and I've been wanting to build a scaler based off one for a while now. I bought a used TCS L-Trail chassis from the FS section a couple of years ago and I already have a bunch of MRC stuff laying around, so there was no question what the running gear would be. The axles have all the usual upgrades: DLux LCC conversion in front, BWD bomb-proof link/shock mounts in rear, Traxxas overdrive mod, metal lockers. The axles are pretty much identical to what's on my mini comp rig.



Transmission got the metal gear treatment of course.



And one of Don's beautiful motor mounting plates teamed up with a Novak Mongoose I had in the drawer.

[papabash]

Next step was to make a new skid for the L-Trail. I wanted to be able to use Axial SCX10 bumper mounts, so I had to make one that was just a bit wider than normal. I also milled it out to set the transmission lower and save a bit of weight.

[papabash]

While I was in the machining mood, I made a servo mount. This rig will primarily be used for trail runs and having fun, so having the servo mounted on the axle doesn't bother me AT ALL. I know some of you guys think that a scale rig isn't scale unless it has a CMS, but I just don't see the necessity here.

[papabash]

The Brat has a semi-dropped bed, and I didn't want to hack holes in it so the shock towers would clear, so instead I hacked the rear shock towers off of the L-Trail.



Then I made some shorter ones that clear the bottom of the bed.



Since the towers are shorter, I had to go to shorter shocks as well. I ended up using Losi Mini Late Model shocks (part no. LOSB1289). I don't like the way the tops of them are just drilled holes in metal tabs, so I modified them a bit. First I cut the stock mounting tab off with a hacksaw, then used a flat file to smooth it up. Then I was able to screw the caps on from the MRC Pro Roller shocks that they replaced. While I was at it, I also replaced the tiny shaft ends with the ends from my donor Pro Roller shocks.

[papabash]

Made some bent lower links from Delrin:



And here are a couple views of everything put together so far:

[Tzi]

Very cool... Subscribed!

[sgtbham]

Love it! Watching this one!

[papabash]

Originally Posted by Tzi

Very cool... Subscribed!

Originally Posted by sgtbham

Love it! Watching this one!

Thanks guys!

[papabash]

I cut both the front and rear bumpers off and then I covered the tailgate to make it look "armored". I figure Batman would have bullet proof glass, but needed a tailgate that could stop lead also. It will eventually have a large bat logo on it, probably out of diamond plate.



From the side:



Then the fun really started to crank up as I decided to bob the bed. As I stated earlier, I have never really worked with styrene before, so I was a little worried about how it would turn out. After a couple cups of good strong coffee, I pulled up my big-boy pants and started cutting. I took 5/8" out of the bed, which looks just about right to me.



Not sure yet how I'll handle the floor of the bed, but I'll disguise the ribs somehow... or maybe just leave them and not worry about it.



I also opened up the fenders a bit:



Everything is still a bit rough right now, but it shows the direction I'm heading.

[papabash]

Made a little progress on the interior today; the roll-cage is finished and installed:

[papabash]

Made a bit more progress on the interior today, first I grabbed some scraps of styrene and made a GPS unit:





And then the all-important "bat" steering wheel:

[fallin apart]

Originally Posted by papabash

Made a bit more progress on the interior today, first I grabbed some scraps of styrene and made a GPS unit:





And then the all-important "bat" steering wheel:

Looks good Grandpa!

Really love the bat logo on the steering wheel! Also what material did you use for your cage?

[papabash]

Originally Posted by fallin apart

Looks good Grandpa!

Watch it there young'un... you won't be my favorite adopted son anymore if you keep talking like that!

Really love the bat logo on the steering wheel! Also what material did you use for your cage?

I was pleased with how it turned out, took me 2 tries, but worth it.
The cage is made of styrene rod. I'm trying to keep weight down to a minimum on this rig since it's based on MRC running gear.

[papabash]

Finished the interior today; Batman seems to be pleased with it.

[papabash]

Also did a tiny bit of work on the body... I didn't like how the floor of the bed is all goobered up with mounting holes and whatnot, so I built a box to hide it.

Before:



After:



It's just sitting loose in there now, will fit tighter when it's glued in place.

[papabash]

Body with interior sitting loosely inside just to give a little preview: