1966 Batmobile with Robin

I'm 49-years-old, and this was to be my first model I was going to glue together (I was oddly excited). That said, I followed the instructions to the TEE, and was first met with the obstacle of the decals disintegrating in the water that I was instructed to soak them in. The next hurdle was the fact that the plastic poles where the wheels are attached softens when used with Model Master Liquid Cement. And lastly, after putting the engine together and assembling the kit for the bottom of the car, the engine doesn't fit. I literally had to cut the engine support brackets in order to make it sort of work. (I also had to cut down the height of the air filter in order to get it under the hood. It's a really cool model in theory. Unfortunately, they didn't get the design right.

I'm not a big fan of building model cars, but I'll make an exception for the '66 Batmobile. I'm halfway through the construction on this model, and can tell you this is one detailed kit. You build the entire engine and suspension/exhaust systems, details which would be ignored in a lesser kit. So far, the pieces fit together well and my initial progress is promising. Two words of caution for potential builders... First, there are over 100 pieces but (I think) only six panels in the assembly instructions. So its easy to get confused on how all the pieces fit in. More seriously, I've found small but significant errors in the painting guide. If you rewatch the TV show carefully, you'll spot these and they're easy enough to correct. The figures of Batman & Robin look awesome, but as cast in resin, so be prepared with CA glue and separate paints if you want to include them.

This was a fun kit to build. Brought back memories, had to watch some episodes for color details. For the most part pieces fit together well, I had a little trouble squeezing the engine into place but I made it work. All the striping, all the dashboard controls, logos on the battery and aforementioned extinguisher, the computer were decals - 45 of them. Many places rounded, very challenging. When I test-fitted the Batman figure his head stuck above the canopy so I didn't bother to assemble him. All in all a I liked building this model and enjoy showing it off