On Tuesday I was able to pick up a BoomCo magnum from the microsoft store.
That night I cracked it open. This blaster was particularly annoying to open because of the way it has metal bars threaded and glued to the inside of the slide's clamshell. I had to forcibly separate those.
I worked pretty much all day wednesday (My bike blew a tire en route to work, which was pretty ****ty) so I didn't get any work done then.
Thursday morning I glued the trigger down (it flaps around unless i keep the internals in, and I didn't want anything besides the original spring to keep the slide in place). I also cut out a bit of 2mm EVA foam to insert behind the barrel so the gun doesn't look hollow. I glued that down too but forgot to take a picture. (it was after I painted the gun)
Later on thursday morning I started painting. Then I got on a train for LA to go see Autechre. I didn't get back until friday around 11, and I was exhausted so I went with some friends to get tea before we went to the card game club at my college. After that it was too dark to paint, and I was still too tired so I went to bed super early (Around 630).
This morning (friday) I woke up after sleeping 12 hours, checked social media, and then went outside to finish painting. I masked off the Magnum's barrel cover and painted it. Then, within an hour of the last coat being applied, I gingerly reassembled the blaster. There's some touch up work I missed, but I can fix that with a Q-tip. For me the important part is that the prop is, for all intents and purposes, complete and ready for halo 5 launch. That said, I do want to attach an orange barrel at some point. I'm not sure what the Fashion Valley Microsoft Store's policy will be on props. They may be more lenient, considering the location is the official microsoft-designated 405th meeting place for san diego. If anyone has any info on that, please let me know.