So a few weeks ago I searched the interwebs for a good way to make your own, inexpensive Steampunk gun and came up with nothing too useful. I did however stumble across an etsy.com item that was a modified Nerf N-Strike Maverick Blaster. My brilliant friend, we'll just call her Nancy, suggested we try this ourselves. So we did. Here's where we started.

Goodwill (and/or Value Village and other thrift shops). We searched up and down every aisle. We found awesome faucet adapters in the giant odds and ends box, along with cabinet handles (which look surprisingly awesome), and a few old clocks and/or extremely cheap barometers for boats. Whatever you can find and think would look good sanded and glued to your gun. We also found a few cheap lights to add to it, they looked cool. Exciting anecdote: Nancy "All I need is a baggy of old watches" Looks in jewelry case. Sarah "Like those baggies of old watches?" Nancy "Yeah."

Michael's (or any craft store of your choosing). Here we got paint. Please for the sake of all that is good in the world don't buy the cheap metallic acrylics. Spend the extra dollar and get what will look good. In our case it was FolkArt Metallic Antique Copper. However when it comes to a black, don't worry about the quality. For me it was just to add an undercoat and some texture. Then if you want to get all fancy maybe get a gold metallic too. Also while we were there we purchased a hot glue gun ($4) and some refills ($2?) then some sea sponges. These are reusable if you clean them after using. Then maybe grab some paintbrushes if you don't already have them. A big cheap one will work. You're going to be covering a lot of ground with this. Then maybe some sandpaper, because you get to sand a lot.

Lowes (or other home improvement store). This is were we picked up some PVC pipe, we thought the 90 degree angle ones were pretty neat looking (these were the steam vents). We also picked up some adjustable metal clamps, and carried on our way:



and



Target (Fred Meyer, K-Mart, any store that carries toys). Get yourself a Nerft N-Strike Maverick Blaster. This was about $9.50. It is totally awesome.

Now that you've spent a good part of your day preparing for this venture, you actually get to start making the gun! Assorted tools are nice to have so if you have a small tool kit, that will be handy. Breaking bits and pieces with a hammer is fun, also, unscrewing things (like clocks) is useful.

This is us starting:



We're all adults here.

So then we had a pile that looked like this:



I made a hat too, no worries about that though, because this is about the gun.

Then I just started gluing shit to the gun and making it look good. Eventually I ended up with something like this:



After I got everything I wanted on there, I started sanding. This was a long process but it's worth it for how much easier it makes painting. Sand everything! EVERYTHING! Anything I didn't sand I immediately felt like an idiot for skipping. It helps the paint to stay better, and prevents it from smearing when you're adding on extra coats. After I sanded, I went back with the glue gun and "soldered" all the seams and anywhere I thought would look cool. Now before the paint it just looks like hot glue, but after it looks like totally awesome badassedness.

Now you're ready to paint. Bet you've been waiting for that for like, ever. I know I was.

I did a base coat of black, my friend we're calling Nancy did a base coat of the copper (and Matt who we don't mention because his was totally way more badass, used spray paint for the undercoat). Either way, our guns looked really cool. So you get your base coat down and let it dry. When you're painting around such places as the trigger, or around the hammer you make sure to hold the trigger (and hammer) back until the paint is completely dry. This means several thin layers or you'll be holding it for a looooooong time. If you do not let it dry completely you will face the wrath of smeared paint, and it's not a pretty sight. *sigh*

Now you're ready for your next layer, I did copper. After I got that layer done I took my sponge and sponged some black and gold back over the copper for a look as desired. My final product looked something like this:



The other side:



And Nancy's looked like this:



Our friend Matt's looked totally righteous but since I don't have any pictures of his let's just suffice to say that he didn't do a bad job.

Let me make one small suggestion. Don't paint your bullets like I did. Because even when they're completely dry and you've shot them numerous times just fine, they will eventually, if left inside the barrels, still adhere to the inside, it's not fun to pull them out after.

So, that's really about it. I hope it helped. It was a great learning experience, super fun, and much less expensive than if I'd bought the one off etsy.com. And now I can Steampunk other things around my house, like the vacuum.