THE
If you want your gun to look ultra-special, let
Gunmunki work his brand of magic on it
W
Photos courtesy of Gabrielle Smith
alk into The Shop at
The Grange. Pause
for a moment. Turn
to your right. Stare in
wonder at the incredible
guns hanging there. A beautifully-polished
Thompson sits right above a stunning
Winchester, and a breathtaking MP5 based
on the Norwegian Special Forces’ woodstocked design. If you like your guns to look
real, this is as about as real as it gets.
The man behind these works of airsoft art
is Andi Coulton, aka Gunmunki. In a series of
articles he will share his knowledge (and some
of his secrets) with Airsoft Action readers.
016
December 2011
Surprisingly, Andi has
only been involved
in airsoft for about
three and a half
years. On leaving
school he worked
in plastic injection
moulding before taking up
archaeology, searching Ilkley
Moor for remnants and remains
(as any true Yorkshire lad would). During
this time he became passionate about LARP
(Live Action Role Play) and, in 1984, started
his company Second Skin which made
armour and weapons for use in roleplay.
Here he created the first ‘safe’
arrowhead.
Airsoft was just another
hobby until he helped
with the initial site
creation, development
and building at The
Grange. A guy called
Roman taught Andi
how to strip down the
site guns and re-spring
them to work at the
correct muzzle velocity. Andi
soon realised the potential for
customisation airsoft guns offer. That
moment got his creative juices flowing and
Gunmunki was born.
For Andi, customisation isn’t about bolting
on loads of bling accessories – it’s about