- Member since
February 2016
|
Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet
I have been wanting to model Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet for a long time. I am not a fabrication wizard, though, so it has proven to be an elusive dream. I've been forced to resort to available model kits The closest I have been able to find is Hasegawa's rare 1/32 scale all-transparent Sabrejet. (If only they had given this treatment to their Starfighter!). And that was only the BEGINNING of the scavenger hunt. I needed a similar scale Wonder Woman. The best I could do was a 3 inch vinyl figure (closer to 1/25th scale, I guess, but she's an Amazon, right?) of the New 52 WW. I wanted a more classic costume on her, so I needed to carve off some bits and putty in some other bits and repaint her. I fashioned new gauntlets and a belt out of pinstriping tape, and used a vintage letraset sheet of rub-on transfer symbols for the stars on her costume. Her golden lasso is real 14kt gold jeweler's wire.
The jet was pretty straightforward to build...no paint required and no putty possible...although working with the clear plastic could be challenging. I rapidly grew tired of canopy glue and acquired a low-vapor CA glue, which worked much better. The spindly and brittle landing gear are still frightening. I doubt I will ever take this model anywhere. The next owner of this house can have it.
I decided that the Hall of Justice would make a nice background, and then it occurred to me that there might be other interesting super vehicles parked there, too, so I picked up Polar Light's 1/25th scale '66 Batmobile (The most iconic of the batmobiles, and more or less contemporary with the Sabre) and a vinyl Batman. They required less custom work to make right, although I did replace the phone cord of the Batphone with a more realistic curly one fashioned from very fine wire, replaced the opaque grill work with some brass etched mesh and substituted a wire aerial for the plastic one. Batman just needed some shorts painted on. (It was not until he went Hollywood that he lost his shorts, which would probably not be the first time something like that has happened)
Custom made wheel chocks and a ladder and a concrete apron made from foamcore and sandpaper tied it all together, along with the background art, which I drew myself.
Overall, I am happy with the result, although if anyone ever finds an all-transparent F-104 or Panther (or XF-90, but that seems pretty unlikely) in 1/32 scale or better, let me know. You will instantly become my new best friend. (I tried to convince a talented maker of a 1/32 resin Panther kit to cast a copy in clear resin, but he said the molds were not suitable for that. Sigh...so close)
Anyway, here's a few pix...
|