Steampunk Gun

Every steampunk character has a weapon. Or a prop. It's almost like a prerequisite. The most common of these is the Steampunk gun. Now, I am not nearly so talented or filthy rich as to just make or buy one, much less a functioning one. And those are hard to get into conventions anyway. So I googled it, and there is a surprising number of examples where people have taken toy guns and painted and modded them to look like fantastic pieces of art, which are actually sometimes functioning. My favorite so far has been this one. I really liked the blue. So that's what I had in mind when I found this baby on clearance where I work.

That orange button on the hilt? Makes it so that the gun can swivel into a sword. There are sound effects and lights and everything, guys. And I figured, my steampunk character is a medic. That knife bit on it would come in handy, and I could mod it so that the gun looked more like a stun gun, because what kind of doctor would want to kill someone? ...Alright, pretend that was rhetorical.

So I took to the spray paint.

There are lots of tiny pieces. I can't tell you how many pictures I took just so I could try and remember how to put the darn thing back together. And I still can't figure out where this one screw goes. OH WELL. The problem I ran into was that toy guns are made to fit together exactly as they are. Adding paint to them adds space between the moving parts that wasn't there before. So perhaps unsurprisingly, I can't get the gun to swivel between gun and sword modes, which isn't a problem, but there was also a portion on the muzzle that would have been really cool if it could pop open like it's supposed to. Then I could really create the illusion that this is a stun gun, with a bit that pops open before it delivers electrical shocks. But no. Woe is my life.

Also, make sure you seal the paint with a layer of clear acrylic. It makes a huge difference.

So this is what you get. I also decided I wanted to keep the blade (I was thinking of throwing it out entirely), so I painted it with basic acrylic paint. And then I decided I wanted blue. The problem came in that I used too much color.

 

I probably should have stuck with one shade of blue, and maybe done wood paneling for the handle. As it is, it looks a little to futuristic-y for me. But I still like it. So does my brother.

I decided later, that hello? Stun gun = electricity = if this is steampunk, how does it get the electricity stored inside the gun? So I cut out an outlet face, painted it and glued it to the gun. It would have looked better had I done all that at the start, and then painted it all in one go, but unfortunately, based on how the gun is put together and the position of the outlet face, I can't open the handle of the gun anymore. And it certainly doesn't look the best of quality, but it's an interesting touch and I am going to be satisfied with it, because I frankly can't stand thinking about changing it anymore.

But of course I don't have pictures of that. I suppose you'll just have to wait until it makes it's appearance at Dragon*Con this year. :D