Introduction: Nerf - "Artillery" Maverick

I've said it before, but I'm kind of awash in orphaned Nerf guns. A lot of times when we've announced we're holding wargames, someone inevitably 1) buys something cheesy like a Maverick out of excitement, and 2) abandons it when it turns out to be a crap gun. So I've got a bit of a surplus of unwanted six-bangers which, on the bright side, leaves me free to practice some mad science.

Thus, the Artillery Maverick! Why "Artillery?" Because "Stocked Maverick" is kinda boring and it's cooler to borrow the title from the stocked Luger model.

  • I believe this Maverick used to be mine. I got so frustrated with how poorly it performed that I just removed the cylinder and gave it a single fixed barrel. It's not the best performance-wise, but still markedly improved since there's no more cylinder gap. But then I saw someone on deviantArt who made a neat stocked version and decided I needed to make one myself.
  • The stock, like the Old Yeller that inspired it, came from a Recon (another gun we seem to have too many of). It took me a couple tries to get the rods in just right; I tried a fancy construction adhesive at first, but in the end I settled with plain ol' hot glue and screws. It felt too wobbly for my liking, so I got some scrap wood and screwed that into place to reinforce it. Having also recently discovered the joys of aluminum tape, I added some of that to the wood to hide the texture.
  • I didn't actually add the stock for stability; Nerf darts are so inherently inaccurate, it doesn't really help aim at all. It primarily looks cool, but it's also a handy place to add dart holders.
  • Also added to look cool more than anything are some leftover Vulcan parts. I took the muzzle off of mine since it only added length, so I thought it'd look neat covering the Crayola barrel. It makes it a bit trickier to load, but not by a whole lot.
  • In what's becoming a new norm for my mods, I painted it with a dark undercoat (semi-gloss gray this time) and sponged on white and various blues. Or rather, I got a sponge effect using a napkin this time. I have no idea where my actual painting sponge went, but I'm betting it's a cat toy by now.