Anima's Nerf Obsession |
In December '04, I happened to be wandering around a Toys 'R Us with a friend, and saw the new line of Nerf toys. The Maverick and the Nitefinder caught my eye, because they had an awesome anime look to them. The Maverick: a big chunky six-shot revolver that fires hard, feels great in your hand, and is generally perfect for indoor fun. The Nitefinder is just a Nerf gun with a red LED sight, but it's styled beautifully like a SOCOM pistol or something.
I decided right then and there they had to be painted. I'd just started work on prop replicas, and prior to that I'd modded my computer case, so I was feeling more confident about paints and such. While searching the web for a way to remove the stop in the Maverick that prevents the cylinder from ejecting fully, I stumbled upon an entire community of Nerf enthusiasts. Hundreds of people not only modify or paint their guns, but they have Nerf wars. A lot of these people are my age or older, not just a bunch of kids.
Vinyl dye is my secret weapon when it comes to painting Nerf guns. It's easy to use, and since it dyes the plastic instead of painting it, it doesn't scratch or chip off. My first efforts were lackluster, but I soon got the hang of it. Before long I was selling painted Mavericks on EBay. One sold for over fifty dollars! $$$
(If you'd like to try painting your own Nerf guns, I've written up a guide you can find here, TINH Article: A Beginner's Guide to Painting Nerf Guns I cover the use of vinyl dye, give tips on primers and masking, and advise you on how to prepare your guns for painting.)
I got tired of painting the same, off-the-shelf models of guns though. I wanted to try painting older guns, ones I remembered having as a kid. The problem is, the EBay market for Nerf guns is fairly competitive. The old, cool guns are rare and expensive. Nevertheless, I did obtain (eventually) most of the guns I was looking for, though many came from a local Goodwill store instead of the internet. Yay for paying 99 cents for something that sells on EBay for over sixty bucks!
Here are some pictures...
These are all hosted on Flickr, so you can click 'em all for larger resolutions and see the rest of my gallery.
These guns were painted with Duplicolor's line of Metalcast
paints. They simulate an anodized metal look, and I love the sheen
that goes with it. The blue one was a commission for Soltris. The green
one I still have, and the red one was sold on EBay.
Llyander commissioned these
from me, and I eventually got them finished up. The main frame of each gun
was vinyl-dyed, while some parts like the top rail, slide, and butt have to be
painted with conventional paints. The grips are sprayed with plastidip,
giving them a better feel as well as a better color.
This is one of the older models I mentioned above, the Sharpshooter II. I'm not quite satisfied with the scheme on this one, but it's one of the few guns other than the Mav and NF that I've painted so far.
Here's a better picture of Soltris's gun. The paint has held up well! He's had this one for at least six months now.
The Nitefinder I painted awhile back. I'm not proud of this one... This gun is also modified to shoot mega darts instead of microdarts, but it doesn't shoot well at all. Needs more work!
I've spent a lot of time at Goodwill, scooping up any Nerf gun I can find that works (and some that don't) so I can paint them, or trade them for guns I want.
That gun at the bottom of this pic is my latest favorite. I've modified one to shoot around 80 feet, but I've yet to finish painting one.
The Rapid Fire Rifles and Doubleshots are interesting off-brand guns in that they utilize shells. After firing the shotgun, you snap it open and the spent shells autoeject.
The Rapid Fire Rifle uses a clip of six darts-in-shells, and cocks Winchester-style.
I tried selling these on EBay, but after I sold my first one, about a dozen other EBayers caught on and ruined the market.
The Koosh Firestorm is interesting because it fires rubber rings instead of foam projectiles. Its range is impressive, and it looks badass.
The Big Bad Bow is pretty cool, but my interest in it is mostly for its spring, which I add to the Longshot's for increased power. If I find one at Goodwill, I always cheer; regardless of the gun's condition I just saved 25 bucks.
The Rapidfire 20 is one of my favorites. It's an automatic Nerf dart machine gun! Pump it up, squeeze the trigger and it blasts rapid fire through all 20 darts. Talk about crowd control....
This is a Longshot I'm in the process of painting. It's easy to see its potential from this shot!
I do take commissions as far as Nerf painting/modding, but I'm busy enough that they usually take me quite awhile to get done...months, usually.
To give you an idea of pricing, I charge $25 for a basic paintjob on a Maverick, $30 for a paintjob/mod-job, and $35 for something special. (Special can include the Metalcast paints, or stenciling, patterns, etc.) A Nitefinder would run about the same. A Longshot would be at least $50, because there's so much more gun to paint, not to mention sand, prime, etc. A modded Longshot would be $60 or $70, because it's a lot of work and uses up one of the Big Bad Bow springs I hoard like gold.
Just a banner I photoshopped up.
