Nerf Blaster

My First Nerf Mod

So a bit of a tangent for me this. I got into IHMN through the steampunk aesthetic, which whilst not something that immediately grabbed me the idea of massive mechanical walkers and women in corsetry had an undeniable appeal that pulled me in. And after pretty much exhaustive googling for inspiration for modelling projects I kept stumbling across modded Nerf guns.

I was aware of various mods of the nerf maverick, essentially an oversized revolver (which will hopefully appear in this section soon). So in my usual way I started hunting ebay. Then I found a shotgun which seemed to have scope for a nice steampunk conversion. And it came with a free nite finder.

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I was originally intending to sell this on, unable to see a way to steampunk mod it. Then I saw this mod:

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Which obviously put me in mind of a certain sci-fi side arm:

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And so it had to be done. I’m not going for a replica here, just something that pulls the underlying theme and makes people in the know think “Hey, that looks a bit like a DL-44”. Well ok, until I started this project I had no idea Han’s blaster was a DL-44, but there you go.

Anywho, I set to work with a saw and chopped it it, then patched up the newly created gaps with foamed pvc.

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For the muzzle I had a rummage in the ever growing bits box and found a stanchion for a very old battery powered knock off scalextric. Random huh? But it seemed to suit the shape. Out with the hotglue gun..

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Then I used blue foam clad in more foamed pvc to bulk up the body of the blaster. Then some pvc pipe, another shorter stanchion and a larger piece of pipe formed the scope. This was attached with a meticulously sanded piece of blue foam (then covered in a lot of pva glue to make sure it doesn’t melt).

Finally I used a piece from inside the handle (where the batteries went on the original model) to replicate the scope support.

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I’ve created a small targetting reticule for in the scope, I’ll post that once it’s finished. Oh and the battery compartment is filled with plastacine to try and give the blaster some weight.

Like I said it’s not a replica, but I think it says Han Solo without having to be anal about the details. And it shoots elite darts a bloody long way, which is nice.

This weekend I plan to spray it up with grey primer, then a coat of black, before setting to with the silver metallics. I do need to find myself some matte varnish for when it’s all done.

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