Props NERF Gun Repaints [MA40 & Bulldog]

[cyne]

Heya folks!

I thought I'd make a step-by-step thread for turning the NERF Halo guns into some proper props (or display pieces) to help people out who haven't taken this leap yet.
I've done two before, and I have about four AR's and two bulldogs I'm working on right now. (plus some other guns, but this is about the NERF models)

Here's a list of materials and tools I use for these repaints:

• Rustoleum 2X Ultra Cover - Satin Charcoal Grey spray paint
• Tub of Black Acrylic paint
• Rub N Buff - Silver Leaf

• Dremel with multiple attachments
• Electric hand sander (iron shape)
• Sandpaper (from 40 grit to 400)
• Tube of epoxy putty
• Blue painters tape
• Fine, soft paintbrush set
• Exacto / hobby knife
• Handsaw
• Superglue
• Vice

 

[cyne]

STEP ONE: Filling the Holes and Sanding the Text

Use a tub of epoxy putty to fill in the necessary holes on the one side of the gun, making sure you really push it in as to leave a smooth surface after sanding.

You may notice how I left the three accessible for the batteries on the MA40. This is up to personal preference, but I leave those three unfilled and accessible just in case I want to have this gun be functional.

Once you have filled these screw holes and let the epoxy putty harden, you can now sand it back smooth. Using my electric hand sander first, I remove about 90% of the putty that's sticking out from the gun. While I have it, I use it to sand down the NERF logo's.

I then move onto hand sanding for the last 10% of the putty, making sure I'm keeping level with the paneling on the gun. Do the usual increments of grit; 40, 80, 120 and so on.

As soon as the gun is smooth to the touch and the text is gone, you can now wipe it off to prepare for painting.

 

[cyne]

PART TWO: Base Coats Of Paint

You have a choice here to make: I personally use the Rustoleum Satin Charcoal Grey, but you could just as easily use Rustoleum Ultra Matt Slate. Charcoal has a more green hue to it, while Slate has a blue hue. I believe the blue-hue is more accurate to what we see in infinite, but I wanted my guns to have a more 'military-ish' feel to them.

For painting, I have an old vertical shoe rack that I can just slide my guns onto, that way I can hit all angles without touching it and risking fingerprint markings.

The only part you'll need to mask off is the ammo readout, so use small bits of painters tape.

Always start your first layer of paint real light, so you should have some white showing though, almost looking like a marble texture.
Two more coats of the same amount and she should be looking covered.

After leaving the paint to dry overnight, I then started applying some black acrylic paint to desired areas.

To figure out what scheme I was going to do, I simply looked for reference photos online. While this scheme I chose isn't accurate to Infinite, the reference photo of someone else's prop made it look gorgeous.

After applying multiple layers of black acrylic to your desired areas, it should end up looking like this:

The next step in the painting process is the silver application. I've found Rub N Buff to be super easy to use, while giving extraordinary results.

After painting both sides and leaving it to dry, you are now free to call your prop done!

This is all you need to do to achieve a clean, fresh-off-the-assembly line look, which can work really well for ONI-type looks.

Obviously, it's not weathered at all so that suspension of disbelief can be broken quite easily. Which is why in the next sections, I'll be going deeper into more intricate paint applications. Brownwashes, silver drybrushing, and adding that iconic yellow stripe.