Make a Steampunk Raygun

I admit it, I like the steampunk aesthetic. I like the copper and wood and the fun gadgetry. I’ve never made anything steampunky though, and I wanted to give it a try. Some of my inspiration came from the cool raygun that Jen made over at Epbot here: http://www.epbot.com/2011/10/birth-of-ray-gun.html. That woman’s got mad skills.

While my son and I were out and about today, we stopped in at the Dollar Tree and found this three pack of raygun squirt guns. Three for a dollar is definitely a foot in the door to some experimentation. I chose the orange gun to modify, since it was the simplest to modify, and my son used the yellow. His has a fin and stylized lightning bolts, really fitting a 1950’s “atomic punk” kind of Buck Rogers sensibility, so I’m not showing it here.

I started off by painting the grip with brown acrylic paint, using a stiff brush to capture the brushstrokes in a faux wood grain. I let that dry and then I added some black in the same way, adding knots and more texture. After that, I went back over with brown, which hid some of the black, making it look more like part of the wood. It was quick and dirty, but I covered most of the grip with little mosaic tile stickers, which I think look pretty good.

Here’s my first real tip when doing this: Have a hair dryer ready. On the warm setting, with a low blow, it will speed your drying time like woah, letting you complete a project very quickly. Don’t do it too hot, or set it too strong, or it will make a mess.

After the stock, I started painting the rest of the gun mostly a copper color. The paint is actually called “Worn Penny.” I left the tip and the rings the orange color, thinking I would add a light inside, though in the end, I left it a functioning water pistol. The end of the gun, I painted black, and then brushed silver so it looks tarnished and worn. I added some silver highlights in seam areas, and then added a crown embellishment on the end, and a couple of fleur de lis on the sides. The water plug got a brad that had the end like a phillips head screw.

On top of the raygun, I added a case that held mechanical pencil lead and erasers. It looks somewhat scope-ish, or maybe a way to add energy pellets for the raygun or something like that. The ends swing open, which is kinda fun, and I painted the ends copper, too.