The epic (and late) conclusion to my Nerf steampunk pistol project.

It's time for the finishing touches to my first endeavors into the world of cosplay accessories. You can read the beginning of the project here. 

So we left off after I had sprayed the gun pieces with the bronze paint. It took a while for them to dry, and they remained pretty tacky to the touch for a while. Truth be told, it's still kinda sticky. I'll mention how I solved that problem further down. Anyway, screw the pieces back together, making sure to place all the components in the way they originally went if you want it to still function and shoot darts.

Next comes the weathering stage. This is where you will be using the acrylic paints you bought at the craft store. I chose to go with a metallic gold and a metallic bronze.

Just so you know, the brown color on the right was
too close to the spray paint's color to really see. You can easily
pass on it. Just go for the gold.

As luck would have it, there was a third color in our closet already, so the fiasco with the bronze paint turned out okay.

I wish I could tell you exactly what color this is, because it
turned out to be perfect. It's a red brick/burnt umber type deal.

I chose to go with a dry brush technique, which is to say, there was no water used. DO NOT USE WATER. Put a little paint on a piece of cardboard or in a paper bowl and lightly dab a dry sponge brush on it. Then, make sure you tap off the excess on the sides, as you can see below. This will leave just enough paint to work with.

As you can see, I lightly mixed the gold and
 bronze acrylics to make a less vibrant color.

Just run the brush over all the surfaces, especially the detail bits. The brush will catch the edges and make a pretty cool weathering effect. Repeat this with different mixtures of colors until you get the desired effect. To speed up the process, bust out a hair dryer and set it to medium heat. That should make the paint dry enough to allow you to handle the gun on both sides. Remember, there should be very little paint at this point.

You can see here the red and gold sheen over the bronze base.
That's not light playing on the surface folks, that's paint.

I'm actually really pleased on how this turned out. It's a perfectly weathered copper tone, a color that only came about after I spent time painting with the gold and red.

I focused on the cogs with a purer mixture of gold, to help them stand out.

You can see here that I took some pliers to the gun cartridge. After painting,
it looks like the copper exploded at some point, possibly
 due to steam pressure. Just a little detail to enhance the look.

Another view of the barrels. You can see some of the paint on the tubing
 I added got a little mottled. That wasn't intended, but it ended up looking
 kind of nice, like the copper had corroded or something. Don't
be too worried if things don't turn out perfectly.

After the paint was dry, the handle remained pretty sticky, so I just slapped some Mod Podge on it and let it dry. Worked like a charm.

There you have it. The gun is finished and looks pretty good, considering it was my first attempt.