!/24th Scale Police Spinner (Fujimi) with Lights

Avanaut

Well-Known Member
A few years ago I purchased a 1/24th scale Fujimi Spinner to save for a rainy day. I hunted down a PE set to go with it a little later and put it all in a box. A couple of months ago I dug it up and just began building.

First I worked out a plan for lighting the thing. I did not want to just light the dashboard and some spots here and there, I wanted it all. So, I spent days figuring out how this could be done, the biggest questions being the front wheel covers, top dome lights and the lit yellow slits on the sides. Then I drew a plan.

One thing I wanted to accomplish was the way the lights on the roof and bottom flash properly. It's not an on/off thing, it's more complicated than that and I did some research. The full size car used old fashioned rotating flash reflectors (top domes) and they give an appearance of gradually brightening and diminishing flash. Leds don't do that unless forced to. I found a seller who had led driver boards with simple stepper program simulating an old incandescent light brightness pattern on, say, a railroad warning light posts.

I do not know how to calculate resistors, ohms and all that stuff is alien to me. I needed a lot of help with that and I got it. After many mails I knew what I needed and ordered three boards, two of them specially tweaked for a faster than stock flash rate. The boards are still in mail and I should expect to receive them soon.

Having cleared the boards I ordered a set of nano leds from a UK based doll house shop I've used several times. This purchase wasn't all that straightforward as with the earlier builds. The driver boards I had ordered had resistors on them, the regular order from the doll house shop has resistors prewired, but they left those out from the ones I needed for the boards. I only hope I can solder the little buggers on, the wires are thin as hair. It's convenient when placing the leds inside the model, but not that convenient when you try to solder them.

Dome Lights.jpg

Wheel Wells.jpg

Meanwhile I worked on the model. First, I cut the dumb plastic tires off the wheels and sourced my spares box for proper replacement tires. I found an old (from 1980's) set of four Goodyears. I sanded them down and carved the insides bigger to accommodate the Spinner wheels.

Wheels.jpg

I didn’t want a Deckard or a Gaff figure in the cockpit, I'll just use a 1/24th scale driver figure from an old Fujimi garage staff kit found in the spares. It’s perfect for this.

Driver.jpg

For the cockpit I made some minor tweaks. I added some tubes on the photoetched rear wall to liven it up. Nothing dramatic. The biggest change was on the front center console dome for which I simulated the lit tube on top with a clear piece of styrene sheet wedged in a sawed slit. It is lit from the inside with a blue nano led. I left out the similar tubes on top of the main instrument compartment, it was too big a challenge for me to tackle. Another small compromise there.

Rear Wall.jpg

I wasn’t sure I could fit a power source inside the build, it was hard to estimate how much room everything planned would take. The flash boards are small and I only need to fit two in the back, one goes in the front. I decided to give it a go and if everything goes well, this will be a self contained fully lit model that can be displayed in action without any wires on sight.

Concealing the power switch was another tough call. There has to be one since this model will carry the power souce within, I think I found a cool solution for that. See, the Spinner’s wheels are designed to be built glued on, they don’t rotate. Except on my Spinner, one of the wheels does just that; it rotates. I plan to glue one wheel on to a rotating switch placed inside the chassis. By turning the wheel I can switch this thing on and off. This way I do not have to carve a visible hole for the switch anywhere on the fuselage. Magic!

Switch.jpg

At this moment I am almost ready for airbrushing the blue main coat on the Spinner's body. It needs to be painted before assembling due to the roof light arrays. There is a marching order that must be followed; paint first, prewired dome light support on, wires in through a pre-drilled hole, solder them on to driver boards inside the chassis, glue the bottom and top halves together... It's a frightening puzzle to put together and I'm not sure at all I can keep in track with all the thin-as-hair electric wires. I've never soldered anything like this and it's going to be horrible. Fingers crossed.

Tbc.
 
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In the movie the full size Police Spinner sports orange/blue lights on the roof. Seen here in this screengrab:

blade-runner-movie-screencaps.com-7001.jpg

Today, the restored Spinner has different domes, they are red/blue, as seen in this photograph I took a couple of years ago at the EMP museum in Seattle:

Spinner EMP.jpg

Now, the Fujimi Spinner kit supports the latter configuration, no orange domes at all, only reds and blues. The kit does inexclibably come with two clear domes, however, and I decided to make mine a *******. Instead of red/blue/red/blue/red arrangement I'll go with orange/blue/red/blue/orange, it's closer to the movie version with the difference of the top center dome being red instead of orange.

I carved the insides of the domes clear from the mounting tube they came with. To clean the toolmarks I painted the insides with clear enamel, it smoothed out some of the scratches. Then I dipped the clear domes to Tamiya clear orange and mounted all domes on white plastic sheet. I cut the edges clean and covered everything with bare metal foil to prevent light leaking through the dome floors.

Roof Domes.jpg

In the above photo you also see the installed nano leds. There is still one to add and then it's time to hide the wires under the support structure. The Paragraphics Spinner PE set came with corrected support for these lights but I did not use it due to the amount of wires I need to put there. I doubted I could have done it without twisting the brass piece. It looks correct but it's really thin.
 
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This German site sells simulated rotating light circuit boards. They don't simply brighten and dim the LEDs, they also have an optional mode where they briefly flash the LED at full brightness, just as a rotating flashing light will have the bright flash when the dish points straight towards you.

https://www.leds-and-more.de/catalo...p-2027.html?osCsid=14hcp2ulk2pqsapg5tbms5jt57

OK - I've just looked at your link and they have multiple LED rotating flash simulators. Those look cool if you have space for the SMD LEDs.
 
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Love the work you are doing with the kit Avanaut, I've got one in my stash so ill be following along closely to see how to tackle things.

Don't know if you have come across this video on youtube before, but its by a great modeler called Teslabe who has done marvels with his roof lights on the spinner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQd2ve110q4
 
This German site sells simulated rotating light circuit boards. They don't simply brighten and dim the LEDs, they also have an optional mode where they briefly flash the LED at full brightness, just as a rotating flashing light will have the bright flash when the dish points straight towards you.

https://www.leds-and-more.de/catalo...p-2027.html?osCsid=14hcp2ulk2pqsapg5tbms5jt57

OK - I've just looked at your link and they have multiple LED rotating flash simulators. Those look cool if you have space for the SMD LEDs.

Thanks! I spent days looking for the driver boards. I probably could have used these had I found them. Bookmarked the page for further projects just in case.

The boards I use are small and the leds to go with them are super small nano leds. They fit well in all the places I need them to go, it's the wires that trouble me.


Love the work you are doing with the kit Avanaut, I've got one in my stash so ill be following along closely to see how to tackle things.

Don't know if you have come across this video on youtube before, but its by a great modeler called Teslabe who has done marvels with his roof lights on the spinner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQd2ve110q4

My goodness! I'm glad I didn't see this video earlier, I could have been discouraged to even try my build. Those lights are incredible! I had to subscribe to Teslabe's Youtube channel, lots of interesting tech stuff there.

I had my Spinner in box for years, I almost sold it at one point thinking I'd never build it. But it has been a lot of fun tackling the lighting and how to make it all sparkle. One of the big challenges left is the driver. I never was good at painting figures and with lots of clear glass around, this one can't be hidden in there. I am considering Tamiya smoke to darken the windshield a bit because of this. It depends on how well the driver comes out.
 
Test fitting the painted rear wall to the cockpit. No glue yet, it's not even exactly on it's final position. Also, no seats yet and the driver's dashboard can be glued on only after installing the driver figure.

Interior Test Fit.jpg

A couple of things worth noting. The overhead PE dashboard piece does not have the Paragraphics support, I replaced it with solid brass rod. It's not because the PE piece was wrong in any way, it's because I tried to light the dashboard and I needed something more rigid to support the tweaks. Eventually, it did not work quite as well as I'd hoped for, but there is at least some lights on it. The wires you see going in, bundled along the support rod, are bare optic wire. The light does not leak through the sidewalls of the fiber much, a couple of layers of paint is enough to block it. Light source behind the rear wall. In the end, I realized that you have to know exactly where to look in order to see the lights, they're not easy to see due to the angle and positioning of the dashboard.

In this photo you'll also see the center console slit lighting piece, the transparent thin line on top is lit from within that dome. Not in this photo though, later. Still need to paint that one panel white and add some detail touches here and there.

I know the blue is less intense than in the real car, but that's very much deliberate. Painting with similar paint in this scale looks too intense. The smaller the scale, the more the colours need to be subdued in order to look right. I took some liberties here and will do so with the final coat.

Notable also is the barely visible paint peel on lower left top of the blue paint on cockpit. I made a classic blunder, the second time ever, I tipped a jar of thinner on my workbench. Naturally, it spilled all over this build and burned through some of the finished paint. I had to repaint over it because I could not strip all off due to already installed electronics. Managed to fix everything except that small patch. Much later I realized I have to mask that area with tape to paint the fuselage. Tape will lift the damaged paint off. I gotta figure out how to work my way around this.
 
Oooh. Shame about the spill. I'd take the hardest route and sand that back then take the airbrush to it again, masking to the natural dividing lines so you son't see any join.

Looking awesome though. The detail is superb. I'm looking forward to building mine. I've got to say masking and spraying the blue onto that big old clear cockpit is something I'm working up courage for. I've got acceptable lines like that through masking but I've never got them spot on. You can't touch up clear! :)

Off to grab that photo etch kit now!
 
Oooh. Shame about the spill. I'd take the hardest route and sand that back then take the airbrush to it again, masking to the natural dividing lines so you son't see any join.

Looking awesome though. The detail is superb. I'm looking forward to building mine. I've got to say masking and spraying the blue onto that big old clear cockpit is something I'm working up courage for. I've got acceptable lines like that through masking but I've never got them spot on. You can't touch up clear! :)

Off to grab that photo etch kit now!

I removed most of the burned tape simply by lifting it off with a tape. A light sandig on the edges helped to blend the patching paint. I wasn't sure how well I could fix the paint and I hesitated with the spot on top of the dasdboard. I figured it won't show underneath the windshield as it was, but if I botched the fix, it might.

The big windscreen/roof glass piece is indeed intimidating. I have this white (Tamiya?) masking tape which is soft and bendy, really good with various contours and free shapes. I'll try that first, I hate knifing regular masking tape to fit on clear parts.

The PE kit is nice. The rear wall and the floor openings could easily be done with styrene sheet instead of the brass, it's a fairly simple fix, but if you plan to light the sucker, there is no substitute. The PE really adds to the dashboards.
 
The PE kit is nice. The rear wall and the floor openings could easily be done with styrene sheet instead of the brass, it's a fairly simple fix, but if you plan to light the sucker, there is no substitute. The PE really adds to the dashboards.

I took a look at the PE. It's a nice kit but it's pricey and a lot of the parts do seem aimed squarely at lighting. I might just get the styrene out for the most part. Quick question on your tyres... what diameter are they? They look a lot better.
 
I took a look at the PE. It's a nice kit but it's pricey and a lot of the parts do seem aimed squarely at lighting. I might just get the styrene out for the most part. Quick question on your tyres... what diameter are they? They look a lot better.

I agree, if you don't plan to go full bells and whistles, then the PE set isn't absolutely necessary. The dashboard doesn't show too much even when lit. Rear wall is easy to do, opening the footwells reqires a little bit more measuring and planning. If you need to add the overhead dashes, they're easy to scratch.

The tires are from a decades old 1/24th scale car, most likely a Monogram because I thought Monogram was the "it" manufacturer when I was kid. I made some measurements for you:

Height: 27mm
Width: 14,5mm

Tire.jpg

But the tire isn't in original specifications anymore. I carved the inside bigger to accommodate the 19mm altered kit wheel. Then I sanded the threads off because the tire profile was wonky, bulged out on the middle, and it was a bit too big to fit in the Spinner wheel wells. After sanding about a millimeter off, I put the wheels on a Dremel, spun it and scribed rudimentary treads with an X-acto blade rear edge. It's not perfect but the wheels are almost completely hidden in front and not much shows in rear either.

This is far better than the kit tire though, that was a completely featureless blank doughnut.
 
Oh WOW!
This looks awesome!
I also finished my own Spinner build a while ago, but I didn't light the yellow slits on the sides. I couldn't figure out how to do it, so I'm looking forward to seeing your build..
This looks like a great start. And great work on the tires too! I'll follow this one for sure. ;)

Here's my build: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=206196&page=27&p=4159129&viewfull=1#post4159129
But you are much more precise! :D

Good luck!

Me, more precise? That's a first. :)

I know your build, I have been following your thread from the early days. Your Spinner is superb! Not to mention the project as a whole, and the trailer, amazing work!

I hesitated with the side slits, it was a tough one to figure out. In the end I made it a do or die thing, either solve it or not build at all.

Since the wheels do not need to turn, you could build the light housings through a cut in the wheels. It wouldn't completely solve the problem of the red and green (I think it's green on the starboard side) segments next to skirts. I think an EL sheet could do the job but I have no experience on working with those, so I'll try to make do with some led trickery. I cut the plastic slits off and built a led housing underneath. Mine does not go through wheels because the other rear wheel will turn with the power switch. There will be compromises, the red and green won't exist in my build, but hopefully the yellow will show at least to a point.
 
Thanks for you kind words man! :)

Yeah.. I understand what you are doing with the slits. Be sure to take tons of photos along the way, haha...

Good luck!
 
Thanks for you kind words man! :)

Yeah.. I understand what you are doing with the slits. Be sure to take tons of photos along the way, haha...

Good luck!

A snapshot of the slit as it is now.

Slit.jpg

There was supposed to be two leds in each slit but I settled for one (circled on top), a second one wouldn't have made much difference. Aluminium foil is for blocking the light from illuminating the wheel wells from inside. There will be a coloured yellow lens on the slit, flush with the fuselage.

This is not the perfect solution, it'll result in an unevenly lit yellow slit, brighter on the top. Furthermore, the coloured bottom parts won't be there at all, well, I'll paint them on but they won't be lit. I'm pretty happy with this, though.
 
I'm not sure what those vents on the floor of the Spinner should look like. I sourced my spares boxes, found some Eduard brass mesh and just covered them with it. The mesh won't show much, of course, it'll be all dark behind them but if light hits them from a good angle, then maybe it adds just a little bit to the model.

Floor Vents.jpg

There's some careless black basecoat spray on the floorpan, made a little mistake there, but it'll all be gone tomorrow after I lay down the top coat.
 
Like a champ, when preparing for painting the final paint coat, I primed the model without realizing I had not masked the front wheel housing lights. Oh joy!

Overspray.jpg

It was difficult to see how bad it was, but I sanded lightly and polished the clear parts. The good thing is that you don't actually need to see through these and a light sanding only adds another light diffusing layer. So, maybe this wasn't a disaster after all.
 
The led driver boards arrived, all three of them. Each must be soldered with eight wires. EIGHT! I have never ever soldered anything this small. I bought a new soldering iron just for this, it has a very small sharp tip, but I don't know... I may have to buy a clocksmith's eyepiece to see where I'm poking with the hot iron.

The good thing is that there won't be any shortage of space inside the model, I could fit all three boards in one wheel pod.

Board Blade.jpg
 
Soldering leds to the drivers. Made a mistake with the first one, wired it backwards and fried it. I will have to purchase a new board, it took five weeks in mail for them to get here the first time...

Patience. Need patience. The immediate sort preferably.
 
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