Steampunk Nerf Hammershot

Edit: First off, thank you so much to instructables for featuring this. The amount of attention it has been getting is amazing. And second, thank you to all who have, and are reading this, you are all amazing. Seeing how popular this has gotten has motivated me to continue to make more, so new instructable will be written very soon. Also, if you want to see more of what i have made, my deviantart is here, and my tumblr here. And again, thanks so much to all of you.

This is one of the first custom Nerf paint jobs i have done, and i thought I'd make an instructable to commemorate it. As with my previous instructable i will not be making lists of paints or items used because i want to promote others to do something custom to them, and not just a copy of what ive done.

As with anything like this the first step is to take apart and sand the shell of the gun, and with this one the turret as well. Any parts that you will see on the outside needs to be sanded so the paint can adhere. The Hammerhsot is great for beginners because all of the internals are encased in another internal shell, so you can simply remove it all at once. After those are out take a light grit sandpaper and go over every surface with it.

After i sanded everything i made some parts to add to the body after it was painted, the only one i attached first however was the cap for the tube because i wanted it primed for paint. The other parts were simply made from cutting a short piece of PVC pipe and bending a length of brass rod to conform to the guns shape. The chain was an idea that was later scrapped.

The last step in preparing the gun for paint was to use Bondo to cover the faux exhaust holes on the right half of the shell. This was done because i needed a flat surface to attach the new faux exhaust pipe after paint. After you mix the Bondo and apply generously over the holes, simply scrape off the excess while wet and sand it flat once its cured.

Now that the shell was done i took it outside and gave it a coat of grey primer to help the paint adhere even more. The silver spray paint was a test but turned out to be too glossy for this so i scrapped it. I went back over the whole thing with hammered bronze as a base coat, then taped off most of it to add the copper in certain places. Once those were both done I sprayed the handle brown to darken the wood texture. I taped over the original "cloth" on the handle to save it from all the spray paint.

Certain parts of the shell i wanted to look like dirty, scuffed up metal. To do this i painted those areas black and then went over with a light coat of silver, wiping it off after each coat so the black makes it look dirty. I did this on many of the parts of the shell, but as ive been saying its up to you on what you do to yours.

Before i put the internals back in i wanted to make a small adjustment. The Hammershot is a great blaster, though because of its internal design it makes a "popping" sound when fired. To stop this and add a few feat in distance to the gun i removed the air restrictor. To do this you need to pry open the two snap locks on the front of the plunger tube and remove the cap. After you do this the restrictor and its spring will simply fall out. Put the cap back on and you're good to go. The only draw back to this is that you can not dry fire this gun any more, I cant stress this enough. This is because the air restrictor keeps the air from exiting the tube, and slows the plunger to a stop to keep the gun from hurting itself. Once its out you can break the blaster by dry firing.

After gluing on the painted pipe i was ready to do the weathering. To dirty this thing up and make it look used i took black paint to the crevices and areas where dirt would build up. I brushed it in thick and wiped most of it out to leave just enough in. I also lightly brushed some onto the faces and again wiped it down, this breaks up the colors so its not completely uniform. On the right half of the shell where the small "holes" were left intact i lightly brushed black coming out the back, to make it look like smoke has been coming out of it. On the small indented part on the front i brushed in red paint and as usual wiped most away. This makes it look like the paint has worn and faded off over time. After all this was done i took the tape off the cloth and painted the trigger and hammer before putting the internals in again. As with the rest of this the weathering is up to you, you don't even have to do it if you wish to leave it "as issued".

This step wasnt too well documented, but what i did was sand it as usual and remove the inner pins to reduce friction on the darts. Then like the other dirty metal parts I primed it and painted it all black before going over it with silver. After that was dry i went back and weathered it the same way as the shell. After clear coatng it and the shell with a matte spray on i put the cylinder back in and closed it all up.

Now that everything else is finishes i could finally add the last parts. To start i mixed up some two part epoxy and glued the brass rod in place on the left side. On the front of the small tank i added a very small spirit level, simply for giggles. Then i cut a short piece of clear vinyl tube and glued it on the test tube cap to make it look like it feeds into the gun. Then finally i filled the tube with green dyed water and epoxied it into the cap to keep it from spilling/evaporating.

And its done! Thank you for reading this if you did, i appreciate any comments or favorites, and especially if you choose to follow me. Thank you again, and ill see you in the next instructable.