This was a study to examine ways of painting "black" with shadows and highlights. I have painted numerous aircraft and the Playboy Big Bunny represented several challenges.
1. Painting the Big Bunny DC-9 accurately. The project took months of research to get the correct window configuration along with other details such as the well hubs never being painted black.
2. Painting a "black object that still showed shadows, highlights and reflections realistically. This took quite some work in having to paint smaller parts of the aircraft in detail using different colour combinations.
The DC-9 is perhaps one of the most iconic aircraft of the late 1960s. But no single model was quite as recognizable as that which belonged to Playboy legend Hugh Hefner. His sleek, black private jet, complete with the seminal white bunny on the tail, was essentially the Playboy Mansion at 35,000 feet.
Playboy founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner loved life’s little luxuries. Knowing how exuberant and hedonistic his lifestyle was, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that, in the late 1960s, he commissioned his own custom DC-9 jet.
Delivered straight from the manufacturer in February 1969, Hefner set about turning the aircraft into a flying Playboy Mansion. The base model was a DC-9-32, the stretched variant of the Douglas plane, which was, at the time, a state-of-the-art aircraft.
Hefner had a million and one ways to improve his flying toy. Having secured permission to paint it all black, an unusual colour at the time, the DC-9 underwent a one of a kind reconfiguration on the inside.
Affectionately called the ‘Big Bunny’, Hefner had the interior kitted out with several lounges, a dining room, bathrooms with showers, and even a theatre and disco area. The design was unique, employing a modern Scandinavian twist for a futuristic appeal.