If you're anything like me, (which, I'm sorry if that's the case), any time you have the potential to even remotely touch something that looks like it belongs in your book's world, you tend to fall down a rabbit hole of possibilities.
That was me like, four nights ago.
I somehow, honest to God can't tell you how, found myself pinning on Pinterest a bunch of different images of Nerf guns that had been modded and/or painted. And I began to look into the massive catalog of Nerf guns and found myself staring at a rifle that I felt looked a lot like how I envisioned the sniper rifles in Agerius. So, one thing led to another and a few hours later I owned said Nerf gun (the orange one at the front).
Which almost immediately led to me Googling how to modify and disassemble this specific Nerf gun, and what others recommended for a solid paint job. I spent hours reading through options and watching YouTube videos. Which then led to me purchasing a bunch of spray paint and a few accouterments for said rifle.
And if I'd had my way, I would have done the whole paint & build last night. But, we got a small tsunami instead, so, I figured I could wait a day. So eventually I reached the point today where I was prepping everything and slowly sanding things (and inadvertently, occasionally, sanding too aggressively).
Something like an hour later I finally had everything primed ('cause I follow all the steps even when the spray paint can says it can be applied without sanding and priming, 'cause I'm paranoid that I'll have wasted my time).
Which then, eventually, after hours of painting and being paranoid that I screwed something up, led to this:
It's still lacking a few elements (most notably the glowing bullets that house the energy required for firing and the sniper barrel, but that's the point of this story that ends with me frustrated 'cause glue didn't work like it was supposed to). But it's pretty dang close to what I had envisioned. If I were super brave, I would have gone all out and made the various modifications to the shoulder rest portion of the rifle too, but I honestly was just trying to see if I could even do this a little before I tried to do a lot. And I gotta say, with an all in price around $35, I think it was money well spent. I learned what goes into painting a Nerf gun well, and I now have a prop for the books.
I'd like to get the 3 main guns (pistol, assault rifle, and sniper rifle), done up at some point, but I'll be fair. Finding any sort of foam dart gun - Nerf or otherwise - that looks close enough to what I was thinking is tricky. But, it might be worth it, if only for the social media photos I might be able to do with the assortment when advertising time comes around.
That said. Anyone wanna be a model when that time comes around? I'd to it myself, but, well, the boys are the ones who tend to be carrying the rifles.