Batplane
Polar Lights

 &

Batboat
Johnny Lightning

Built & Painted by
Jim Bertges

More Jim Bertges Models

Both kits were built for Mark Waid to his specifications.
Mark is the writer on several current comics series,
most notably, the latest run on the Fantastic Four.

First is the reissued Batplane by Polar Lights. This was painted Cobalt Blue
to get as close to the comic book color as possible, the tacky Batman and
Robin heads included in the kit were left out and a new cockpit was
scratchbuilt. No decals were applied, also to match the look of the plane in
the comics. The final touch was a coat of Testors High Gloss lacquer which
really gave the plane a deep shine.

1/64 scale Johnny Lightning BatBoat.
It was also painted to match the look of the boat in the comics and was given
the same Cobalt Blue finish as the plane. However, since the bat symbol was
already placed on the bow of the boat, I had to mask it off with liquid masking
medium before spraying. The difficulty whit this little kit wasn't its size,
but rather the seam that appeared in the back half of the hull after
assembly. I had to carefully fill the seam with epoxy putty then paint over
it while masking the rest of the boat from overspray. It finally worked out
and the rest of the details were added with tiny, pointed brushes.