Steampunk Pistol Prop

So this week my wife is in hospital (getting her back fixed) so I am home alone - apart from 2 dogs, 2 goats, 25 chickens, 22 sheep, 19 geese, 9 ducks and some goldfish!!

Now I get easily bored and it's fine during the day as I can go to work or do some gardening while it is light, but when the sun goes down it's a choice between crappy TV or making something , SO...............

On the way home tonight I stopped off at the dollar store and bought a pirate pistol and a soaker type water pistol, the two cost me $6 NZ all together.

First off the water pistol had to come apart to remove all the "gubbins" inside. Easy enough with a small screwdriver, the pliers were for extra purchase on the some of the tight little suckers. I've kept all the bits as you never know when they will come in handy!

I cut the trigger assembly off of the water pistol, and chopped the pirate pistol into 3 pieces, I used a Dremel with a fibre cut off blade and the sanding drum to clean up the burrs on the cuts.

I then offered them up to each other then sanded the mating faces to get a flat interface.

At this point I realised that the grille on the water pistol interfered with the flintlock mechanism of the pirate pistol so I butchered one side of that off too.

I cut a short length of plastic conduit (I had hanging around in the shed) and used some plastic cement (like modellers glue) to attach the muzzle.

Again used a short piece of plastic conduit to join the other end together, I had to pack it out with some electrical tape to get a snug fit

I also glued on the little green bit (was originally the pump handle) and when happy it was all lined up left it to set.

Once that is done will paint it.

Up to this point it took about 45 minutes

I used a 2 part epoxy filler to fill up and smooth off all the screw holes and plastic seams and joints.

I got a bunch of this free from an auto factor as it was out of date and the packaging was discoloured.

I also put in a couple of 25 mm fencing staples to hold the green pump bit on and between the pistol assembly and water pistol, I heated the staples up then pushed them through to melt into the plastic and give the whole unit a bit of rigidity.

I primed with car primer paint (an old can that was loafing in a drawer from years ago) lots of thin coats and then hung it from a welding rod to dry

Sprayed with a can of flat (matt) black car paint, you don't have to be too careful as any thin layers/primer showing through will add to the patina later

So I used various acrylic paints and highlighted parts, I have a pretty low boredom threshold so may do some other bits/colours later.

There are much better artists than me out there who could probably make a better job of it but it looks ok.

I may also do a bit of weathering using some scotchbrite on some of the parts

I'm going to enter this in the Halloween props comp so please vote if you like it