So here's the first installment of my Steampunking up a Maverick Rev-6 NERF pistol. First we begin with the NERF Maverick Rev-6, a gorgeous little piece of kit that uses a simple spring based cocking mechanism to deliver the airpower for the darts:

Fig 1: Our unsuspecting victim...

Now before I dismantled the gun I sanded off the NERF logo on the cocking mechanism and then removed the outer parts themselves as we can see here in fig 2:

Fig 2: Cocking mechanism gone and I'm getting some ideas for my colour scheme already...

Here we can see the internal mechanism before we take any pieces out, it's worth making careful notes about which bits go where. The general gist of things is this: The long dark screws are for the main body of the gun, the short dark screws are for the cocking mechanism and the small chrome ones are used to hold together the firing mechanism. I found it also helps to keep each relevant section of the mechanism near it's component parts when you remove them from the gun itself:

Fig 3: Make a note of where everything goes, you'll need it later...

Now we have all the pieces laid out, I actually left a couple of them in the gun as they weren't going to get in my way and later simplified the re-assembly process:

Fig 4: Did you make sure to make notes?...

Now we undercoat! I'm using Games Workshops Citadel paints as that's what I'm used to. Clearly this is a black undercoat, for the colours themselves I used Dwarf Bronze, Boltgun Metal and Scorched Brown. I also got the Badab Black ink wash for later detail work:

Fig 5: Only undercoat parts that you're going to paint, most of the mechanism can be left to one side for this...

Let the fun begin! Spend some time working out your colour scheme before you put brush to surface or you might not be pleased with the results. I've gone for a stock wood body with a brass and metal cocking mechanism, barrel and barrel release button. The details will get more pronounced over the next few pics:

Fig 6: Don't rush into this stage, make sure you're happy with your planned colour scheme before you start painting...

Now we can see things coming together and it starts to become more apparent as to why I've done this particular colour scheme, clearly there's still a lot of work to be done but it's starting to look really nice:

Fig 7: Looking good, eh?

Lastly for today we can start re-assembling the mechanism in prep for putting the main body of the gun back together. Note that there's still a lot of work to be done at this point. I'm not going to put the barrel and chambers back in until I'm completely satisfied with the paintwork and detail on it. Once that's ready I'll put the body of the gun back together and finish off the fine detail work, do the ink washes and any dry brushing detail that needs doing:

Fig 9: Still much to be done...

So here we've got all the base colours done, I then spent some time going over the detail on the chamber section to make sure I wouldn't have to go back and do too much later:

Fig 10: Next we get to start putting stuff back together :D

After reassembling the main body of the gun I got out a fine brush and tidied up the detail before getting a black ink wash out for giving the metallic sections a grubby, tarnished look:

Fig 11: I may have over done the ink was in a few places but that's nothing that can't be fixed with an airbrush.

After applying some ink was to the detail on the grilling on the sides of the cocking mechanism I reattached that too. There's still a load of work to do in brushing up the detail on the wooden sections and I intend to put my logo on it too but that'll have to wait for another day:

Fig 12: Everything's reassembled, and yes it does still fire :)

Here I've done some more detail and started working on the wood sections, I've also repainted the back of the cocking mechanism in boltgun metal as it gives a better sense of continuity in the colour scheme.

Fig 13: Next we'll be adding more detail and logo's

Right here we are with some more bits and pieces done (but by no means finished). Firstly I added a couple of leather wraps on the gun body and the pistol grip and used a hefty amount of dry brushing with Chaos Black to give the metal a much better finish. If you look carefully you can also see that I added a couple of spikes for good measure.

Fig 14: Still more to be done but the look is really coming together now

And here we can see the logo on the side of the cocking mechanism, I've added an extension to the front of the gun (it's actually a working torch) and a few clockworky bits an pieces. By no means is this the finished item but I can safely say I think we're nearly done :)

Fig 15: The finish line is in sight... Next up, making the holster!