Batmobile 1966 19

Three metal rocket launch tubes are installed in the rear deck of the Batmobile behind the canopy. I cut these from 3/16" aluminum tubing. Three holes drilled in the model's deck were shaped to ovals with a round file to allow for the rearward slant of the tubes. With the tubes positioned in the holes, the portions of the tubes inside the body were glued together in a sandwich of plastic spacers. This turned the three tubes into a single unit, which allowed them to be removed while the body was painted and reinstalled with the correct alignment.

The '66 Batmobile model has done well in competition. At the 1998 IPMS Nationals in Santa Clara, CA, it won 1st Place Custom Auto. The next year, 1999, I entered all my Batmobile models, including the '66 TV Batmobile, in the collections category at the IPMS Nationals in Orlando, FL, where the collection won an honorable mention.