Nerf Gun Mod - Neon Genesis Evangelion Repaint

I finally found some Plain FX paint and I wanted to give them for a while. A lot of the cosplay builders I follow have been using them. I felt this would be a great project to test out these paint. I wanted to do another mod of a nerf gun and do a completely different paint job. My inspiration was the Eva Unit 1 from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Supplies

Files and sandpaper

Small paint brush and a chip brush

Small Phillips screwdriver

Krylon Color Master Paint and Primer - Iron Ore

Acrylic paints - Neon Green, Violet, Black, Cadmium Orange

Plaid FX paint Mutant Shift - Green Gene, Ultraviolet, Fireball

Weathering Paints - Cadmium Red, Brown, Iridescent Rich Silver

Step 1: Clean Up the Gun

Take any files or sand paper you have on hand and take off any Nerf logos, raised text, and caution text you don’t want to show up. The plastic is pretty soft so it does not take too much pressure to smooth out the surface. Once you have that part done take your sand paper and sand down the entire surface of the gun. This will create some tooth for your paint. If the surface remains smooth your paint will not stick to the surface.

Step 2: Take the Gun Apart

This step can be optional depending on what type of Nerf gun you have. Take pictures of this process, They will come in handy when you need to put the gun back together.

This one has the cylinder so it was going to be much easier to paint this part separately. These are usually held together with screws. Unscrew them and then pull each section apart. With this gun the parts to shot the darts was one big piece so I was able to lift it out and place it to the side. After I had the pieces separated I sanded down the parts again and them ran them under some water to get any dust off and let it dry.

Step 3: Apply the Base Coat

The first coat of paint I did was Krylon Color Master Paint and Primer - Iron Ore. One heavy coat seems to do the trick for me. I let it dry for about 2 hours. Once it was dry I added on my acrylic paints. I had to do 5 coats of the orange paint but 4 coats of green, violet, and black. Let paint dry.

Step 4: Apply the FX Paint

Now apply the FX paint to the corresponding colors. These paints were thinner than I had thought. It took about 3 coats of each color to get a nice shine. I left the black part a matte type of finish for some contrast. After these paints dried completely this does have a nice color shift effect. I will uses these paints future builds.

I applied the fx paint before I put the gun back together but the it was easier to see the effects when the gun was together.

Step 5: Put the Gun Back Together and Weather

Put your gun back together. Work backwards from when you took it apart and use your photos as a reference. After you have all the gun put back together it is time to weather. I made a wash of red and brown and applies a thin coat and wiped it off with a paper towel. Once I had a couple of coats of the red and brown I took the chip brush and dry brushed some silver on the edges for some scratches.

NOTE: I did not apply a varnish before I did my weathering. On the purple color some of the FX paint came off. Since I wanted this gun to be super beat up it is cool to see the non shiny paint under the shiny paint. It does have a nice contrast.