Be prepared to fend off airship pirates or even the dreaded air kraken!

Mod some cheap water guns to give them a steampunk look with little more than paint.

Step 1: What You'll Need

We found some cool water guns for $10 at Walmart but we weren't happy with the Super Soaker colour scheme.

To give the guns a bit more style you'll need:

Primer or spray paint for plastic
Acrylic craft paints (black, brown, silver & bronze)
Spray on clear coat or sealer
Paintbrushes
Sandpaper
Drywall compound
Masking tape
Scraps of pleather and interesting plastic bottle (optional)

Step 2: Prep the Guns

Prepare the guns for painting by removing any stickers and sanding. According to the can, it is not necessary to sand plastic before painting it with Krylon Fusion paint, but we wanted to rough our guns up a bit and remove some of the raised lettering.

Fill the screw holes with joint compound and sand the gun again lightly after the putty has dried.

Use masking tape to cover up any important moving parts or openings.

Step 3: Prime Time

Give the guns a nice coat of primer or plastic paint.

The Krylon paint we used recommended waiting a week for the paint to become chip proof, so we set the guns somewhere safe and waited until the following weekend.

Step 4: Let Out Your Inner Artist

Once the base coat has properly set, it's time to get creative with the acrylic paints.

Be warned, you might need to apply the metallic paint in several coats to get a nice finish as some of the cheap craft paints are rather thin.

Rub a bit of black and brown paint over the gun after the initial painting is done to give it a used and dirty look.

Step 5: Seal 'er Up

Tape up the important bits again and give your gun a protective coating.

Step 6: Add the Extra Bits

It's all in the details.

To finish off one of the guns I put together a little cuff to cover where the water storage connects with the rest of the weapon. I just took a scrap of pleather and sewed it into a loop that fit the connector.

I also switched out the original water bottle for the green base of a spray bottle.

For night time water fights, I plan on throwing a little glow stick into the bottle to make it glow (although this will likely make me an easy target).