Blunder-Gauss: Steampunk Breachloading Cosplay Laser Gun

I needed a cosplay weapon and decided a steampunk-style shotgun was the direction I'd go. I named it a "Blunder-Gauss" after the type of weapon you see in woodcuts of early settlers with the flared trumpet shaped barrel. The story is that the gun fires a magnetic blast of energy, using powercells, with the laser accumulators using some of that energy to create a scattergun blast targeting system...basically a laser dot for a shotgun. :-)

Supplies

NERF Zombie Strike Sledgefire Blaster - I had it sitting in a box for years. It was only $20 when I bought it. Had I seen what it costs now I would have used a different gun.

Coil from on old CRT television

Miscellaneous parts from my bits boxes (I'll identify where parts came from, if I can remember, as we go)

small bits of plasti-card for little details - you can use cardboard or plastic from bottles instead.

18 laser diodes - from Amazon 10pcs 5V 650nm 5mW Red Dot Laser Head Red Laser Diode Laser Tube with Leads Head Outer Diameter 6mm

Hot glue gun

Superglue

Epoxy putty - Apoxie Sculpt is my personal preference

Two-part Epoxy glue

Soldering iron and solder

Shrink tubing

Small slide switch

Rustoleum plastic paint in flat black for primer, Bronze for tone

Assorted acrylic paint for details

Run-n-Buff in bronze

Magicfly Professional Oil Paint Set for washes

Masking tape for, well, masking. :-)

Assorted small screws for mechanically attaching things together - glue is okay, but an actual mechanical join is much sturdier

X-acto knife

Dremel tool for drilling holes and sanding/shaping

Since I already had the tools and a bits box, the total cost for this project was under $50.

Step 1: Greeblie It Up!

Typically the most time-consuming step. From the basic gun, I started attaching parts and pieces from my bit box.

1. The first thing I did was start removing telltale things like logos using the dremel, covering over them with parts, and filling in screwholes with epoxy putty.
2. Start test fitting other parts to see what looks good.

This is always the hard part in the description because everyone is going to have different parts to work with. I suggest taking apart some old electronics - there are a lot of useful bits you can harvest. Also, Going to a thrift store for old toys can be a goldmine of useful pieces.

For example, going from the front of the gun backwards, I used:

• Coil from old CRT television
• Pump nozzle from a shampoo bottle - you can see it better in the overhead picture.
• Fender from a remote control car I got at Goodwill for $5 (it's the green thingie with the round reflector in it).
• Body from a robotic cat - it's the gray piece under the fender.
• Handle from an old fondu pot.
• Plastic piece from a trophy, cut in half (the gold funnel shape).
• Two wooden puzzles of some tower for the "barrels" of the laser accumulators. I glued a piece of paper over part of the wooden slats to give it a stretched cloth or sheet metal look.

Of course, things don't always fit quite right, or you're lacking something that would fit at all, so then you need to...

Step 2: Fabricate What You Need

Using premade things presents the challenge of making them fit together so that they look like they could be from the same item. Especially for me since I tend to start gluing things and figure out what else will fit as I go.

The biggest challenge is gaps, especially if they're oddly shaped. At the front of the gun the magnetic coil fit into the barrel of the gun perfectly, which it what started me making the whole thing in the first place. But the part of the coil that held it perfectly in place in a television didn't match up to a Nerf gun, and I didn't want to chop it up because it's what holds all the copper wire in the cone shape I wanted.

So, I used 5 minute epoxy glue to make sure things didn't move. The car fenders and cat body fit pretty closely, so I used epoxy putty to build up any voids under the plastic parts I was adding. This was also important because I decided to add the front handle piece and since it was going to get handled a lot, needed to be very secure.

Being flexible in your design is important. I had already built a lot of the other parts and decided to add the handle later. It would have been easier if I had done it when I built the front of the gun, but I hadn't realized I wanted it yet. :-) So, I drilled a hole beg enough to put a 3" wood screw in *backwards*, then filled it with epoxy putty, leaving the threaded part sticking out. Then the handle screwed on.

The first piece I needed to make was the flat plate where the sight would be (played by the shampoo nozzle here).

1. Used cardboard to figure out what shape I needed - cutting cardboard is easy, and if you make a mistake, is also cheap to throw away and try again.
2. Once I had a template I used a small piece of scrap wood and traced the pattern. The wood is thin enough that an X-acto knife was plenty to shape it.
3. I made it fit over the existing rail and flush against the coil flange, which had convenient screw holes in it, so I used that to attach the wooden piece along with some epoxy to make sure it would be sturdy.

The other big challenge was getting the laser barrels attached. The best solution I came up with was to make "wings" to hold the barrels on the gun with some braces added in to help keep it aligned since the gun actually opens mid-way to load the energy cells (repurposed nerf darts).

I used the same process of a cardbaord template, then used a dremel to cut the wood pieces for the wings and braces.

• The trick is to keep test fitting pieces until it is close, because until you actually start attaching things, you won't know for sure if it really lines up the way you want, so leave some wiggle room.

The wing supports didn't fit the barrels perfectly at first, so a little dremel work got them to sit the way I wanted, then I first used some hot glue to tack them in place, and once I checked the alignment was adequate, added the C-shaped braces to help with keeping things in place and also as a design element.

Once the mechanical stuff was done I needed to do the big step of adding the lasers!

Step 3: Lasers!

When I discovered how cheap a bag of 10 laser diodes were, I couldn't resist and bought two bags.

So why does my laser gun only have 18 if I bought 20? Simple. I wanted to use one in a different gun I'm making and one other diode was DOA. It's a pain if you planned on a specific number, but they're cheap so sometimes one fails. I think I have one diode fail out of every 20 I've bought over the years, so not bad.

The diodes come with short leads, so I soldered longer wires I had from an old computer mostly because I liked the twisted colors. Trying to solder lots of wires together at once is a pain, so I did it in groups of three, which is also because with 9 lasers on each side, the math worked out better.

I left extra length on the wires because I wanted a crazy inventor tangle look, and also so I can tuck the wires where I want to after I paint, without having to try and paint under the wires later.

All of the wires come back to the base where I decided a 9-volt battery would sit easily after testing to see that one battery could run all 18 without issue. To hide the battery, I used another RC car part and drilled a hole through the rail on the gun so I could run a pin through, making a rough cover that will swivel up when I need to change the battery.

To finish it off I added a little slide switch to turn it on and off and just glued it in place.

Step 4: Finally Time to Paint!

I masked off parts using masking tape and some paper for the larger areas I didn't want to get paint on, like the copper coil.

Then once it was warm enough outside I used flat black plastic primer to do the whole thing. Once that had mostly dried, I hit it with some bronze paint. It didn't change the color much, but it does have a metallic sheen and is slightly coppery in color if you angle it in the light. The idea is to give the illusion of metal in the crevices I can't paint easily. It's all about adding layers of depth to it.

The next layer is a bright copper/brass color and just drybrushing it on. It won't be the final look, but it gives you a good idea of what looks good already and what needs more attention. You can use acrylic, or if you have any rub-n-buff, it's even better. I had a tiny amount left, so used what I had and will finish with acrylic for the details. Then use an oil wash to tie it all together.

Step 5: What's Next?

One final thing I want to do, in addition to some detail painting, is to change the Nerf dart holder into a powercell. The gun doesn't actually fire anymore since I stuck the magnetic coil in the barrel, so the power cell doesn't risk damage, but I think it would look interesting.

My plan is to cut slots in the holder and put in some LEDs from a Christmas icicle chaser light. Then add a second battery under the stock to run the LEDs so the powercells will pulsate, then when ready flip on the laser sights and blast the evil Magnetic Demonoids back to their own dimension! I'll post an update if anyone is interested.

Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you enjoyed!