89 Batmobile colour question

Correct. At 1/25 or 1/18 the "right" finish just looks muddy because of the pearl. When I worked on the Hot Wheels Batmobiles I spoke to a few people that worked on the set in England. Many commented that the car was intentionally lit to appear more "black". Burton was not a fan of the finish....hence it was just semi-gloss black (repainted) for Returns. I still love this car!
 
Autoprops: oh the irony! After all that thinking, comes back to simple semi-gloss black with some gun metal mixed in. Or is it, gloss black with some gun metal followed by a satin top coat?

Robi: I had no idea of this scale effect. Learn something new everyday!
 
I would just add some gunmetal (or silver pearl) into the semi-gloss black paint. I've always skipped the clear coat since its just another coat that could fill in details. Just spray a test coat as you add to the black slowly.

If you want something more accurate then look at some Honda black paint finishes. You can buy touchup cans at many auto parts stores. Many of their metallic blacks actually have blue, silver, red, etc pearls mixed in. Also when they are sprayed out of a can they usually have a semi-gloss finish because of a lack of clear coat. I painted an RC Batmobile with a paint like this and it looks right on. Haha....very beetle-like. :thumbsup
 
@Autoprops713

If you don't mind, could you please tell me what brand of paint Hotwheels used on the 1/18th scale Batmobile? I'm sure you know as well as I how a semi-gloss paint can vary in sheen from brand to brand. Some are glossier.

Thanks. :)

Best regards,

-Spencer
 
Ok, when I get home today I'll look it up. You're correct though getting the right sheen will either make or break this Batmobile. For the final production paint master, I believe the black was actually an engine paint out of a can. I bought it at Pepboys and sprayed it myself that night. The Honda black metallic (which was not approved by WB, and would have cost us a bit more) was also a can from the same store.

Ps....no more high gloss black 1989 Batmobiles please! Every time I see one (including full-size versions) I think Bat-limo. :lol
 
Having seen the real car at the Warner Museum on the Backlot, it's satin black, nothing else was added to the paint.

Dex
 
autoprops713 said:
Ok, when I get home today I'll look it up. You're correct though getting the right sheen will either make or break this Batmobile. For the final production paint master, I believe the black was actually an engine paint out of a can. I bought it at Pepboys and sprayed it myself that night. The Honda black metallic (which was not approved by WB, and would have cost us a bit more) was also a can from the same store.

Ps....no more high gloss black 1989 Batmobiles please! Every time I see one (including full-size versions) I think Bat-limo. :lol
Click to expand...

Thanks! I can't wait to find out what paint was used. :)

Even though it is just black, I think you absolutely NAILED the sheen at Hotwheels.
 
For the paint master at Hot Wheels I used Dupli-Color Engine Enamel DE 1634 Low Gloss Black. Nothing fancy we just shot it right out of the spray can. Remember though that China then reformulated this color for the plastic and die cast parts. We instructed the factory to wipe over the complete cars with a slightly abrassive rag to shine up just the edges a bit. The real prop had this from constant wiping on the set. From the photos that WB gave us it looked like they almost wiped some sort of polish/silicone on the body panels to play around with the reflections. This is why it looks kind of patchy in certain shots in th film.

Also, WB approved the color for the Batman Returns batmobile around the same time (we were going to release both). That color was also a Dupli-Color Engine Enamel. DE 1635 Ford Semi Gloss Black. It has a bit more sheen but is far from straight gloss. No clear or satin coats for either blacks. You should be able to find these at Pepboys, Autozone, etc.

Hope this helps. :)
 
When I spoke with the archivist at Warner, Mr. Leith Adams, he said this car was used for Batman and stored away, it was not repurposed for Batman returns. Once something is in the archives, very rarely do they let it out to be used for anything again. In recent years Warner has been trading and buying pieces back that they let slip through their fingers.

While the car looks satin, that's just my impression. It could be a semi-gloss paint that was very low gloss. Leith said that they wanted the car to soak up the light and not reflect so it was very stealthy in the film.

It's not flat, it has a slight sheen to it, but Mr. Adams used the words Satin and even went on to say it was a type of primer instead of a paint that was polished somehow to achieve the light sheen.

Now I'm no paint expert and I can guarantee you that Mr. Adams is not either, but that car they have on display is so perfect it make me drool to think about it.

I can say that it's got zero color added to the paint in any way to change colors like flip flop paints. I've seen several replicas that have uneven paint jobs or even look splotchy, but this car is slick as hell and perfect in every way, almost to perfect.

Anyway, I hope this helps and if you live in CA, go see the car when they have them out in the Museum on the Backlot tour. Ask for Mr. Adams and I'm sure he will be happy to answer all your questions.

Dex
 
When we documented all of the Batmobiles at the archives we found that all were repainted. None had the original 1989 paint finish. The hero car was repainted with that terrible Onstar grey but a couple of others (including the interior buck) had that low gloss Returns black finish. Almost all of the info we were given by WB archives was incorrect. Most of my pics are on chicks love the car.

If you want an accurate 1989 finish however you need to add some metallics to the black. As I've mentioned adding colors can be tricky but adding a bit of gunmetal pearl works awesome. We short-cutted on this detail a bit in Hot Wheels.
 
so many opinions and views lol. Someone get a scraper and lets go find the hero car and scrape a chunk of the paint off and see what's really under there!
 
Or contact Harvey at Trakon for the scoop...

Harvey Ledesma
Trakon Inc.
(586)739.0200



Well looks like the site or maybe they are GONE... Anyway they are the folks that repainted the original bats.
 
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