Angela the cheerful cynical technophile

The AEP7 Fallout Laser Pistol, working Nerf. I love this gun. There I said it, this mod took me a long time (probably all up about 20 hours of faffing) and I love the finished product, because there is something insanely cool about firing Nerf darts out of the AEP7 Laser Pistol from Fallout haha. Positively useless in a Nerf war or HvZ game? Probably, but there is a good possibility whilst the firing capacity of the Nerf Nite Finder is lame (one shot, which in a HvZ / War really isn’t ideal unless you’re a crack shot of course), the off putting nature of this gun more than makes up for it, giving you time to take a bead and make that perfect one dart shot. -Please note, I don’t think the Nite Finder is lame… I am referring to the firing capacity of the blaster compared to other Nerf guns.. I loves the Nite Finder :)

[caption id=”attachment_2175” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”The butchered Nerf Night Finder and wooden base of this build - WIP”][/caption] The AEP7 Nerf laser pistol.. bulky, but bad ass … don’t leave home without it. [caption id=”attachment_2176” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”Ahh the AEP7 Nerf blaster, never hit the wastes without it.”][/caption] This post written for GirlyGamer.com.au and jettisoned to some other GirlyGamer / Nerfenstein related social media sites… coz that’s how she rolls. Follow my exploits on the Nerfenstein Facebook Page… it’s a hoot.. no really.. seriously…

Decided to give a foam build a try, started out as the Mass Effect Carnifex pistol, ended up being a Mass Effect M-77 Predator. Not overly happy with the finished product, but for a first attempt okay. I changed from the original Carnifex idea to the Spectre M77 Paladin, simply because I don’t think anyone has done one before, whereas the Carnifex is out there in the fan realm as a prop build. I actually like the overall look of the M77 more, with its grungy white and striking red and black decal work.

[caption id=”attachment_2167” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”Mass Effect Paladin - Foamy goodness, light but easier than mdf”][/caption] [caption id=”attachment_2166” align=”alignleft” width=”160” caption=”Don’t mess!”][/caption] The Caution decal reads this is a Spectre acquisition sidearm and if you’re not a Spectre agent and you’re caught with it you’ll be arrested and the sidearm confiscated… well we can’t have just anyone running around with top level weaponry now can we ;p I took a photo of it with my 1:1 Avenger for size… meaty. [caption id=”attachment_2168” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”The official 1:1 Mass Effect Avenger and the Paladin foam prop build”][/caption] This post written for GirlyGamer.com.au, may well appear on other GirlyGamer social media, but if it appears in full anywhere.. well it’s someone being cheeky and using another persons hard work… how rubbish is that? So head to GirlyGamer.com.au for the real deal. Oh and this build is MEANT to look dirty, it’s meant to look grungy and oily and messy, it’s a battle sidearm, not a dress weapon ;p

Nerf Element Tactical Scope Lightsaber! - You guys and gals know I love putting a different spin on things right? I don’t think things in the Nerf modding world get much more weird than this… I bring you the Nerf Element Scope Lightsaber (or as the cool guys at The SciFi Show named it, the Nerfsaber).! Swoosh swoosh. I’m wanted in twelve systems just for wielding this thing! Why I even wrote a TV ginsu style ad right this minute for this thing.. .to be read aloud with annoying TV sales pitch voice! …. “Going into a desolate bar with a no blasters rule NO PROBLEM! Found out the biggest bitch in the galaxy is your father? WHO CARES! The Nerf Element Scope Lightsaber brings a whole new meaning to HvZ and Nerf War badassdom. Pull it out and swoosh at all your friends and while they’re trying to figure out what the hell it is GINSU!! The Nerf Element Scope Lightsaber comes with not 3, not 2 but 1 amazing green LED fueled plasma coil, so you can swoosh it around in the dark and see green blurs for fun! The Nerf Element Tactical Scope Lightsaber features a fetching ‘N-Strike’ logo as well as other recognizable Nerf parts. Amaze your friends, slice through air! An elegant weapon for a more civilized age. Get yours today!”

[caption id=”attachment_2148” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”I ended up swapping out some of these parts, but you get the idea”][/caption] This was a fairly easy build and loads of fun, so if you want to know how it was done I’m putting it here so you can build your own. Obviously you will need the Nerf Element EX-6 action kit, it comes with the Element Ex-6 pistol (you will need the main inner barrel section for this build), the tactical light (not needed) and the most important thing you will need, the tactical scope. Along with these you will need some other bits and pieces, though to be honest these can be any little Nerf bits you have laying around, so you can really personalise your own Nerfsaber. For this build I used a tactical rail catch clip and the plunger button from the Nerf Secret Strike. Non Nerf parts include part of a hair-roller (yes I know I do love them, they’re cheap and add great texture!), some PVC piping, part of the lens off a pair of toy binoculars and finally an irrigation button (from the gardening section of the hardware store) and the usual putty and glue you would use on other builds… oh and paint.. duh.. obviously. You will need to start by using a cutting tool (Dremel) to remove the bulky part housing the attachment area that slides onto the blaster, then sand that flat until the whole thing is nice and round, other than the rail section, which looks kind of cool. [caption id=”attachment_2150” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”Still looking all scruffy looking Nerf…. herder.”][/caption] [caption id=”attachment_2153” align=”alignleft” width=”120” caption=”Green Glowy Goodness”][/caption] That’s the main body of the Lightsaber / Nerfsaber done, I opted to add in a green LED to the internals so it looks wicked in lowlight. This was simply a green plastic bottle I happened to have from an old water pistol and a green bright LED light with switch. The bottle was like it was made to fit snuggly inside the tactical scope, so you can slide it in and out if need be, the LED setup is simply mounted into the bottle opening, you get to the switch by flipping open the tactical scope at the lightsaber’s base… sweet! [caption id=”attachment_2154” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”And the Nerfsaber finished, full sized swoosh swoosh goodness”][/caption] I’m adding pictures to illustrate the build, because trying to explain it can be a bit hit and miss. You can see the PVC was cut to a length that looked in proportion with a ‘real’ lightsaber, the end was carved into that nice angle, so when the Elements barrel was slotted in you could see the side of it where the PVC pipe is cut away. Oh yeah, to slot that in you will need to find something to brace it in there as it should look like it’s almost free floating at the ‘pointy end’. Once the tactical rail catch clip and irrigation button are attached to the PVC (the irrigation button has a handy spike, so this is not just drilled to the front of the PVC, but also through a drilled hole into the PVC for strength), you can now attach the PVC to the tactical scope, I used the toy binocular eyepiece as it was a PERFECT fit to hold snuggly into the tactical scope, with the tapered side holding the PVC pipe perfectly also, it was almost like these toys were meant to be used in conjunction with one another. That’s it…. I hope this helps you in some way Star Wars Nerf fans. This post was written for GirlyGamer.com.au that’s the blog of Ms. Nerfenstein. Join her.. err.. me over on Facebook, for more updates and blaster / prop fun!

Hi guys, I thought some of you might like to make your own Borderlands sniper rifle cosplay prop build, so I’m doing a little write-up in case it helps anyone. Right to start with and to save you some effort you will need a base pistol. This will save you sawing or modelling the trigger, grip and main body. I just grabbed a cool toy shotgun and sawed the barrels off because they weren’t long enough for this particular gun. You will also need plenty of bits of dowel and some wood.. here’s a full rundown of what I did, you can tweak this as you see fit…

[caption id=”attachment_2138” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”A pile of mess, soon it will be a Borderlands Vicious Thunder Sniper Rifle”][/caption] Borderlands sniper rifle prop build The barrel section As you can see the main barrel on this build is pvc pipe, just find something that will cover the pistol holes and is long enough. All the other front barrel sections are dowel of different sizes and an old / empty deodorant can, for specificity it was an impulse can, the reason I’m telling you that is because the lid on this can worked great and looks kind of post apocalyptic when you’re looking down the barrel and it also happens to have that nice scoop from the side. I used ‘Death to Skags’ and the Borderland decal on the front to make it pop a little and also to leave no doubt this is a gun from the Borderlands videogame. Borderlands sniper rifle prop build The rear stock section More dowel and mdf here. Remember when you’re cutting sanding mdf to wear a filter mask. I only had one image as a guide here, so cut the buttstock pieces to look similar and glued the struts that attach to the rear of the pistol. I dressed these up a bit with my magical hair-rollers, cut pvc clipped and glued over them at the other end, swiftly followed by nylon string wrapped over both struts. The rear part of the stock also has the small additional part attached below it, this is an irrigation pipe from the gardening section of the hardware store, but you can use anything you have that’s similar. [caption id=”attachment_2139” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”Borderlands Sniper Rifle prop Sanded, primed, more sanding, primed again”][/caption] Borderlands sniper rifle prop build The rest The sight is off another gun, I imagine you could easily make something similar with different sized dowels, but if you have something handy that looks like what you need, save yourself the effort / time as this build will be time consuming enough. Paintjob As this prop build was based on the one picture you see below (inset top left), I went with the yellow and orange color scheme… how very Nerf. Obviously keeping with the metal look trigger area and the multi-tone brown grip. There’s also some subtle gold and brass edging highlights all over the blaster. To finish off I did some rag work to dirty it up a little with some brown and black paint. Job done! [caption id=”attachment_2140” align=”aligncenter” width=”454” caption=”All ready to hit the wastelands and take out some skags”][/caption] I hope that’s been of some help to those of you who want to build your own Borderlands sniper rifle prop weapon for cosplay, or just to sit in your games room. Till next time fellow videogame / blaster fans.. over and out! This post was written for GirlyGamer.com.au that’s the blog of Ms. Nerfenstein. Join her.. err.. me over on Facebook, for more updates and blaster / prop fun! Good luck with your builds!

Forgotten all about this one until someone reminded me recently. This is my take on the FF VII gun Cerberus. Triple Barrel crazy. This is a full scratch build other than the trigger base section with grip and single hammer. There’s 4 tones in the hand grips and three on the metal (black excluded). Still got to make the token and chain attachment, also the hammer is gold so that needs added that is part of the Final Fantasy Cerberus weapon, just to set it off a little more. This build is primarily wood, though it’s completely puttied to give it that awesome smooth finish that can then be detailed like metal. This particular one is on hold for someone, though I can be commissioned to make others if need be. I’m playing with the idea of a steampunked version of the FF VII Cerberus pistol because I think that would be wicked, assuming I get the time.

[caption id=”attachment_2130” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”The Cerberus Revolver from FFVII - For when one barrel just isn’t enough”][/caption] Hope you liked this quick update. This post was written for GirlyGamer.com.au that’s the blog of Ms. Nerfenstein the prop maker tinkerer on the Gold Coast Australia. Join her.. err.. me over on Facebook, for more updates and blaster / prop fun!

Romulan blaster pistol or disruptor, or phaser… I had no idea this toy was even a Star Trek gun, which is odd given I’m a huge Star Trek geek. According to one of my lovely Facebook fans this is some sort of Romulan civilian disruptor pistol, because it’s used by Nero and he and his crew are miners. When I was at SupaNova Gold Coast, I met a great bunch of people from Claytons Comics, a comic store near Brisbane. Terry - the owner - gave me a few pistols to mod and this was one of them. Claytons Comics is expanding into toy weapons by way of Claytons Toy Guns. I bought a few things from them which you’ll no doubt see cropping up from time to time. Right, back to that Romulan disruptor pistol. David on Facebook asked for a rundown of the process involved in how this mod was done, so I’ll go through that just now in case it helps anyone else. Needless to say I started out by fully sanding the entire thing. I was going to weight it because it’s clearly made of metal, but when I unscrewed it all it became apparent it was heavily glued together along all seams. I didn’t want to Dremel the heck out of it and ruin the electronics inside, so I left it.

[caption id=”attachment_2101” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”Romulan blaster pistol prop gun”][/caption] Once it was all cleaned after the sanding it was time for the black base coat, followed by a couple more light coats once it was all dry (obviously). Next up my favourite thing, dry brush dry brush and more dry brush. Despite part of this being gold, I just did the entire thing two different silver metal tones, a dark tone, followed by a few lighter ones. I then did some wet / dry brushing on the areas that were the deep silver, needless to say this was with silver paint. This wasn’t a full paint as it needed some depth, the image doesn’t show it up great, but you can kind of see it. The gold areas are two different tones of gold, dirtied with some black dabbing. I also used this dabbing technique along where all the gold joins the silver on the grip, it turned out great, kind of looks like dark rust has eaten into / corroded the metal, or someone with really grimy hands has been using it for years. I used the same dabbing technique on the tip, though I did this with copper, brass and gold, before going over that in random areas with black. This looks great, like the metal is totally worn and sort of decayed or rusted with a dark metal corrosion. That’s that pretty much, another blaster mod done. Hope you liked it. Post written for GirlyGamer.com.au and fired to Tumblr and other social networks via an Photon Torpedo. Why not join me on Facebook for more blaster and prop making madness!