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Fall 2002, and I'm in major bust-building mode. Bing, bang, boom, I have three different Batman busts, all painted up and ready to go.

The last bust I finished was this one, Shapeshifters' Batman: War on Crime. It's a terrific sculpt, definitely the most realistic Batman I've ever seen. That's to be expected, of course, as the sculpt (by the extremely talented Mike Hill) is based on Alex Ross' ultra-realistic Batman in the Batman: War on Crime graphic novel. You have to get close to really appreciate this one, from the realistic folds in the cape to the eyeballs-showing cowl (complete with Michael Keaton-esque black mascara around the eyes).

Being a bust, there wasn't much assembly here; all I had to do was attach the fins to Batman's gauntlets. Actually, this was a bit of work, as I had to Dremel out a "trench" in each glove to insert the row of fins. Also, this kit had a couple of really big holes in the resin that needed patched; no other puttying or sanding to speak of was required. 

The fun with these busts is the painting. I used a different color scheme on each of the three busts, according to the look I was trying to reproduce. For this one I wanted realistic, and since I figured Brucie's cape was leather, I started with a gloss black. Unfortunately, the gloss was too glossy (the shine liked to put your eyes out!), so I covered the gloss black with a coat of flat black. The combination of flat over gloss had the unintended effect of creating a kind of semi-gloss black, which I found appealing.

Bats' tights were a fairly dark gray (Delta Creamcoat Hippo Grey); the oval-less chest insignia was flat black. I painted his eyes Liberty Blue, with black irises (of course) and white eyeballs. I went with a very dark gray over black for the mascara part of the eyes, and then covered that with another very light coat of black. His face was Delta Creamcoat Medium Flesh, drybrushed with a dash of Dusty Mauve.

And that's all there is. It's a great looking bust, easy to make look good. My kudos to the sculptor on this one!