Project Batvan

[Quandry]

Last Xmas I got my daughter a Lunchbox so that she and I would have a project to work on together. We built the 'Lunchy' and she did really great putting it together! but instead of box art colour scheme, she was interested in having a Batman colour scheme.

Not one to bow away from a challenge, I ran through google image search and came up with some inspirational pictures. You may know that Batman has had many different styles and colours through the years. I wanted to go with something modernish and so I chose these three pictures as design input for Project Batvan.

[Quandry]

I made a start by getting my 'artistic' buddy Sam to do a mockup of the paint layout on the Lunchy shell. Using a pencil, Sam sketched out a design based on my chosen pictures to get a rough idea of how it would go together. The idea was not to make a replica of the car in the pictures, but just to come up with something unique and cool looking









I then took a good few pictures around the shell, rubbed it down with a scour pad and put on a few solid coats of Humbrol primer to get ready for colour.



Sidenote: This project is quite a list of firsts for me.. First Lunchbox build, first hardbody shell, and first multicolour themed paint job!

[Quandry]

Being a first ever attempt at a masked paint scheme I learnt a few lessons during this project. My approach was to paint on the yellow via a brush, mask the shape I wanted and then spray over the top. This worked OK at a rudimentary level although the brush strokes do tend to show through over the top layer if you look closely or the light hits it in a certain way. It would have been better for me to spray the whole thing yellow and then mask out shapes from there.



I also found that I had to make a few changes on the fly regarding the way the paint was layered - quite a learning experience! and of course plenty of practice with the faithful Tamiya masking tape.



Preparing for the Silver feature on the top and rear door of the Lunchy...

[Quandry]

It was then time to start cutting some masks for the Batman symbol and also the Gothem mural on top:





Once a significant amount of hand cut mask was put in place, I lined up the Lunchy for the matt black coat of TS 6 spray.



In order to leave time for proper drying I applied a few solid coats over several days. It was still looking quite disjointed, but starting to show some promise!



I then left the Lunchy for a few days so that the paint was properly hardened and then it was time to apply a reverse mask over the matt black area, remove the mask over the 'gloss' target area, and fire on a few coats of TS-40 Metallic Black.



I pretty much used the whole can of TS-40 to try and get a good solid colour, I also found that the more paint went on, the more the yellow underlying brush strokes were dulled down. I have to say it's always enjoyable painting with the Tamiya spray. You pay a premium for the paints but they are really worth it.

The next step was removing the masks to check out the handywork...



I found a few issues in places that were rectified with a few gentle touch ups using a brush - quite the advantage of using a hardbody over polycarb!

[Quandry]

I then installed the glass, chromepack, and a few of the kit stickers and hey presto - here is the Batvan



It's kind of hard to see from the pictures, but under the bat line is metallic black, and above is matt black

[Quandry]

I landed up doing some rework on the roof, the main building did not stand out well enough so I masked out a full yellow outline and also painted in some grey windows to show that it's part of a city. My son thinks that the roof has a giant Pacman painted on there but I think the moon looks pretty good in silver?



I was happy with how the back doors turned out, I traced the bat shape from a Halloween book and then hand cut the mask with an exacto knife. I just need to figure out a good custom number plate though...

[Quandry]

Some simulated action shots:






Next steps
While you probably read through this thread pretty quick, the whole painting process shown here took a couple of weeks! I guess now that I have some experience on it I could maybe go faster next time and have a better finish, however despite all of the time invested there is still more that can be done.... I may yet look at Smoking the glass a little more, although I guess I could install a Batman figure as a driver and light set - the options are endless with the Lunchies - what a great kit!!

Until then, Batman will be cruising the streets of GOTHAM ready to take out the trash... watch out baddies

[SteveU30]

Being a massive Batman fan I'm absolutely loving this, personally I would have painted the 'eyes' white but either way it's a stunning paint job and you should be very proud of yourself!

[Quandry]

Cheers Steve!!

[Percymon]

Nice idea and execution

[IBIFTKH]

Very cool. It's hard to come up with something fresh and original (especially with a Lunchie because almost everything that can be done has been done already) but you've done it, and made a really nice job of it too.

[mr crispy]

Very nicely done and a great looking lunchie. You are gonna cry the first time it rolls tho

You can't stop there, it needs a matching Midnight Pumpkin in Joker or Riddler colours to chase around

[Quandry]

Thanks guys - A Joker Pumpkin would be pretty cool alright !!!

Before I came up with this, I did a search on google images to see if there was any other Batman Lunchboxes to draw inspiration from but this is all I could find:

Pretty sure I had one of those when I was 6!

[mongoose1983]

That is a FANTASTIC idea! I always wondered about some possible connection between RC cars and super heroes. There's reproduction heads available for the old mego/palitoy super hero figures, and I've thought in the past about trying something special. I just haven't done so yet.

Anyway, your work with the Lunchbox is totally awesome!

[Nobbi1977]

Sweet

Might look at a scheme for my Hornet now. I never thought about going off box.