Petting Zoo Rejects: Tediore: The Everyman's Gun (A How To For Everyone)

It goes without saying that Borderlands is a Registered Trademark and owns all the things (sans Nerf).

Welp, here's my attempt to turn this:

Not going to lie to you, not sure if they still make this.

Into something vaguely resembling this:

Disclaimer: May increase chances of Pyscho attacks.

List of materials:

Shelf-liner: This stuff.

Spray Paint (Flat Gray, Flat Black, Gloss Dark Purple, Metallic Gold, Enamel Clear Coat)
Nerf N-Strike Longstrike CS-6
Painter's Tape and Scrap Paper
Exacto Knife
Power Drill
Phillips (Cross) head Screwdriver (a normal one, and a small one)
Superglue
Shelf-liner
EL Wire (any color for your choice of element)
Sandpaper
And this thing:

From the Build Your Own Lightsaber Kit

Oh, also a s*&t ton of patience and don't make the mistakes I did. You can find just about everything at Walmart…in fact, I think I got everything at Walmart minus the EL wire. The EL wire was purchased on Amazon.

First, disassemble the nerf gun. The main body can be taken into two separate pieces. If you have a small crosshead screwdriver, you shouldn't have to drill out the holes to get to the screws (yes… I did that. You should not). Take out the internals, but keep the screws. Save the bits you take out, useful for more crafting. You'll also need to cut up the magazine well to make it parallel with the fore grip.

Rail, Painted.

The Butt-stock assembly doesn't come apart, but unscrew everything because you'll need to pry the edges open for the EL wire later. The only thing you need from the front barrel section is one of the rails (mostly the one without the giant screw stems on it. Mostly).

Okay, here's where some of the patience comes in. Start sanding the bejesus out of the gun. There's all kinds of molded injection plastic patterns, warning labels, Nerf logos, and other random things. There will be blue dust EVERYWHERE, just a heads up. When you finish, wash with soap and warm water (gets rid of the dust and oils and whatever the hell else is on the plastic. …If you don't, the paint will not bond well. I learned this the hard way), let dry, then put down a coat of black.

First coat will let you see anything else you want to sand.

Superglue the magazine release in place.

There's a few of these tubular elbows. Cut them. Cut them off.

Two more coats of black over everything (to include the inside). Let the black dry, then Start with the faux carbon fiber pattern first. It's easier to go back and correct any (of the many…many) mistakes. Makes it easier to detail afterwards as well.

Cannot stress this enough: Make sure the shelf-liner (gotta be honest, not sure if I'm supposed to hyphenate that or not. I'll stop though, you get the idea) is tight against the surface and in a direction you like. If you use too much paint (whatever color you want, really, it's your project), it'll run under the pattern. If you use too little, it won't show up. It took me a few times to figure out a medium spray - paint can be painted over, by the way - so don't get discouraged if you don't like how it turns out.

Let everything dry before moving anything. After you take off the shelf liner, apply the black very lightly, in one direction (I recommend diagonally) along the length of the body to give the pattern depth.

Again: Patience

Now on to bordering. Tape ALL the things, use the exacto knife to cut out the parts you want to color. It's kind of self explanatory. Whatever colors you want to complement the overall look of the gun.

It may come out dull looking, but it's supposed to. Remember the rail? I drilled a pilot hole through one of the existing screw holes (hehe) in a place I thought looked good. Two screws, not too hard, but don't over torque the screws. Use the same screws that came from the rail, and the pilot hole small enough that you have to work a little to thread them through into the main body. After that, apply three coats of the enamel clear coat to make it bright and shiny.

Your brain.

Your brain on MDMA (that… that was in poor taste).

Side note: The same technique is applied to the barrel, the butt stock, and the vertical grip.

Cut the top off so it fits into the magazine well. Not… so it… It has to fit well into the well.

Here we see the barrel; solitary, proud.

All those elbow tubes you cut? Put the two halves of the gun together, drill a hole at the junctions, and really anywhere you want the EL wire to come through. Then feed the wire through the gun however you want. Again, your show. You can even take some plastic, glue it over any holes in the gun, and put the wire on top of it to give it better light dispersion. It'll make it look cooler, but I started losing steam as soon as I picked up batteries for this thing.

Super glue and winding will keep it in place, I promise. Time to seal it up, throw in the screws, and done. Details, cell shading, and a Tediore logo will follow at some point, but it's time to move on to something else. Hope you find it easy and fun, and can't wait to see how you improve on it. I know you f***ers will too, you're all so damn talented (I'm not even being sarcastic right now, just jealous).