One halloween my brothers and I dressed up as Star Wars characters and brought awesomeness to our town. I was a homemade Han Solo of course, complete with a sweet holster and an orange toy blaster. My younger brother went as Luke, and the youngest as Darth Vader. I have often wanted to revisit that getup as an adult, I still refuse to act it though. I am a big fan/member of the RPF, and I have built a few costumes in the past, not to mention a long childhood history of making things, but I figured it was high time I start documenting this stuff.
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I recently purchased a cheap toy blaster from the internet and decided to modify it. I believe it was one of the Rubies replicas. It was originally orange and white but I didn’t mind as I bought it with painting in mind. First, I sanded the thing down to get rid of the plastic looking edges and remove the names and factory stamps and such. After unscrewing everything, I gave it a couple coats of matte black spray paint, then filled the inside with hot glue and about a dollar or so worth of pennies to add some weight and improve the structure. With a little work I was able to put everything back together eventually, it feels much less like a toy now, still not gun slinger material but it’s a start.
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The end of the barrel was sealed shut and had these cheesy speaker holes, I broke that piece out and drilled some holes along the sides of the nozzle so it would look more realistic and cooler. Once the blaster was all in one piece I touched up the finish with some sandpaper, then sprayed it with another coat of black. Lastly, I dry brushed some silver spray paint on with an old sock to add some metallic scuffs, I have to say that part was really enjoyable. I guess I’ll have to come up with some sort of holster as well as the rest of the costume, it’s that old “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” thing. Eventually I will do some more detail work on it when I get the time, but for now I at least have something to shoot first with…
