Building the Munny Spinner
A custom vinyl Munny based on the 'Spinner' flying car from Blade Runner.
I started out sketching directly onto the Munny to try and plan where everything would go. Once happy with the layout, I started planning the formers for the armature. The formers for the tail fin were then cut from polystyrene sheet and glued into place. I also started filling a few of the sharper angles on the figure to try and make a smoother outline, while keeping the form recognisable.
The tail fin was built up in Milliput and sanded smooth. I wanted the shapes I added to match the existing Munny shapes, so the fin shape was kind of based on the ears. I also smoothed the neck joint to give me a nicer area for painting the cockpit. Next I started adding the light bars. I tried adding little domes for the top row of lights as well, but it was just too fussy and stopped looking like part of the Munny. It was a constant struggle against the urge to make it is accurate as possible to the source material.
On to the wheel pod construction (I don't know if they're actually called wheel pods, but it sounds good). Again, the pods were made using polystyrene formers and then built up with Milliput before being sanded smooth.
With the main contruction complete, the whole thing was repeatedly primed and sanded until smooth, before being airbrushed with blue acrylic. When painting detail in the cockpit I tried to compensate for the curved surface by painting a slight distortion into the figures. I was trying to make them look as if they were actually below the painted surface, so that they'd look right from all angles. I think it kind of worked.
I designed a set of decals and printed them on plain decal paper. In the end I didn't use many of them, as I felt they either made it look too busy or I preferred the look of hand-painted versions.
Once the painting and decals were complete I applied multiple coats of acrylic lacquer to build up a high gloss. The finished model was mounted on a wooden base using steel rods concealed by cotton wool columns intended to look like jet exhaust. Photos here.
