Nerf battles are really fun, however, what can make you experience even better is to be able to customize your own nerf gun. Through this article you can customize your own gun with the step by step guide provided. 

Materials 

Nerf N-Strike Elite: Strongarm Blaster

Apoxie Sculpt

LED strip

2xAA power inverter

Metallic silver spray paint

Metallic dark grey spray paint

Grey primer spray paint

Acrylic model paint set

Step 1

For this project you will need a nerf gun, you can use one that you already have or you can buy a new one. You will first need to take apart all of the parts of the gun, it is fairly easy to take apart all of the parts, however,  make sure you click pictures of the way it looks before you start taking everything apart, this is so that when you reassemble the parts you can fit everything in their respective places. . 

You can then use a Dremel tool to sand off any letterings on the gun. With the help of a sanding block, smooth out the surfaces. Doing this will differentiate your gun from the rest. 

Step 2

Lay out the gun on a flat surface and spray paint it, you can choose a colour that you like. For this project, the gun was first sprayed with a primer and then some pieces were spray painted with a metallic colour  while the others were painted black, 2 coats of the colour was sprayed . 

After the spray paint has dried you will have to paint a pass on the gun, this will give the gun more depth. The colour used for this should be a darker shade of the colour used for your gun, it could even be black. Acrylic colour was used to paint the pass. 

You can add a different colour at the front of the gun to make it pop out and make it more defined. 

Step 3

The power  inverter for this project was taken from some EL lights, these can be bought online too. The lights were chopped off at the end and the wires were stripped. You will then have to disassemble the inverter and unsolder the wires and re-solder it so that the wire comes out from the other side of the board. Next you will have to drill a hole into the case of the inverter, this is done so that the wire can go through it.

Once you put that back together, you will need a strip of LED lights. Cut off a small section of the LED strip and solder the inverter wires to that section of LED. 

Step 4

Next, you will need to drill a hole into the bottom of the gun, this is done so that you can pass the wire through it. You can use a Dremel to cut out space to house the wires.

You then have to trim off a bit of the nozzle so that you can fit the LEDs in. You now have to fit it back in place. You then have to fit the wire into the space made earlier, make sure that the LED strip does not move during this process. 

You can now reassemble everything. Use the picture taken during step 1 so that all the parts are in their respective places. Once the gun is closed you can test out the lights. 

Step 5

To customize a shape for your gun, you can use some ‘Apoxie Sculpt’. Mix the elements together, this will give you some hours to work with before it dries up. You can use a bit of the mixture to attach the inverter to the gun. You can then start adding the mixture throughout the gun, building any detail you want to. Once you have added all the details you want, leave the gun to cure for 24 hours. 

Next, you can start sanding it. Make sure to be careful while doing this as the dust created is very fine. Use a tack cloth to wipe off any dust on the gun. 

Step 6

You then have to add a base coat that matches the earlier colour. Mask off all the other areas, especially the black areas and prime and colour the gun

You can now start dry brushing the gun. This is where only the high spots of the gun are painted to give it a “used” look. The gun is now ready to be used.