The Saga of the Golden Age Bat-Mite Part II

The 1949 Kurtis Racer

Man, I have fallen in love with the Kurtis Midget Racer and damn, do I hate yellow paint.  I did the body shell of the Golden Age Bat Mite in Tamiya spray and it took forever and a half.  The red is also Tamiya, with a shot of dull coat over it.  Every day this week I did another light coat and by Friday I had the yellow I wanted.

The 1949 Kurtis.

The dashboard was a mix of photo-etched metal, decals, and more plastic.  I also used the optional photo-etched steering wheel, which added a lot to the quality of the scale replica.  You can just make out the blue under body, which was painted in (yet another) Tamiya spray.

The next job was to figure out the front end of the car.  Sadly, the Golden Age Bat-Mite is the only car not fully pictured on the cover of WORLD'S FINEST.  Ahh, who can resist a challenge?

The Golden Age Bat Mite (R. Aikins).

A quick call to Pops and the man set down to business!  He came up with a proposal for the front grille design, which omitted the Bat symbol from the hood.  

It's brilliant.  

Pops kept all of the genre intact by using the bat-shield idea and placing bat eye inserts into the face. I also liked his idea of working red into the body.  The main problem?  He removed the bat symbol, citing concern about clutter in the design.  He may be right, but it's on the cover of the book, so...

The Bat Mite, v2 (R. Aikins).

Take II: A fully rendered image with the symbol back in (gotta love a man with time and pens!).  I love it and this is my goal to re-create in pulse-pounding 3 Dimensions.

Tune in next week.  

Same Bat Time,

Same Bat Channel!