Destiny Inspired Hand Gun - X-Shot

Being a bit of a nerd and a fan of Destiny, I wanted to put one of my Nerf guns under scrutiny but i love my nerf guns to much so I went to my local Tesco store and found an X-shot gun for €2!! This one is called The XShot Reflex Revolver TK-6 Blaster! It's not what I had in mind, I was hoping for a hammer action revolver but for €2 this is perfect.

My inspiration was bungies Destiny, and more specific The Last Word, that steam punk kind of look. However, not having the hammer action, I decided to use the colors only as inspirations and wing it!

Always a major step for me, take before photos of the gun, including the locations of the screws. The screws in this gun were all the same so it was easy to remember their location, but if they are different sizes then take the snaps!

Take the X-shot apart! Being careful not to lose any screws! There were roughly 7 screws on the outside holding together the shell together.
Once you have it apart take more photos so you remember where everything goes! There are also a couple of springs holding the triggers etc so get close up photos of these in their current position before touching them.

Lay everything out and take a final photo!

With all the parts separated, you need to sand everything! In order for the new paint to stick!
Don't go overboard with the sanding, I went with a 100 sandpaper, medium grit.

Paint everything BLACK!

I went for a matt black spray can! This will be your primer/undercoat. Since the gun itself is yellow and blue, I gave this 4 coats, with 20 mins drying between the coats!
After all the coats were applied and the gun was dried I re-assembled the gun back to its original look using the photos i took as my guide!

GOLD

I bought a GOLD metallic enamel paint I wanted to add to the black gun to achieve the steampunk vibe. I didnt want to overdo it so I chose 3 parts of the gun to paint gold, giving it only 2 coats as I wanted the black to come through a little to help with the old/distressed/used look.

Ok so don't really distress it, definitley do no sand it! If you do you will sand away the paint to reveal its canary yellow. Instead, get yourself some silver enamel paint and a very fine paint brush! What you want to do is dip the brush into the paint and wipe away the excess on some paper, almost like its dry. Now, go over the edges in a horizontal stroke to create the look. I held my brush at the same height and swayed over the gun so anything high would touch off the brush. Use your common sense, look at the gun and try to imagine it being use, being handles over and over again and dry brush those parts with the silver, dont over do it! its easy to get carried away so stop every now and again and LOOK. The edges, the handle, the parts of the gun that would rub off a holster, all these need to look distressed.

Finally, when you are happy with your result, get a spray can of lacquer and cover that baby in it! It will hold the paint in and prevent any of it coming off.
Thanks for checking this out and hopefully you had fun :)