Monday, October 24, 2016

Cyberpunk Nerf Custom Mod for Attack of the Cyber Octopuses short film - "John Laser Gun"



Ok so this is the first post of this blog. In here I'll write about my new project ATTACK OF THE CYBER OCTOPUSES, a retro-futuristic cyberpunk short film, entirely made as in the Eighties (i.e. no CGI, but a lot of props and miniature models!). If you want more info about it, please visit the official website.
And... sorry for my terrible English grammar... I'm Italian... Anyway I'll keep you updated with news about the film, especially about the "making of" of it and all the models and props that will be created.

So let's start with the first one, the Laser Gun of John, one of the main characters of the film!

First of all I bought a toy gun from the brand Nerf. They make amazing futuristic design and the pieces are very easy to take apart.



Then with sand paper I scratched away all the unwanted logos and texts, making also the surface ready to be spray painted.



After sanding a little bit more, I covered all the pieces with a first coat of gray primer.



I let it dry for some hours, then spraied a second coat of primer and then finally the matte black main color.


Some more coats and some hours later, I used brushes to "dry paint" the model with silver acrylic paint. I wanted the laser gun to look worn, old and used many times, but still cool and working.




The final touch was adding some "blue metallic" details, to make it more futuristic and cyber.



Then, after a coat of clear matte lacquer that fixed everything, this is the final result:




If you like what you see, got inspired or simply wanna help the project, please consider buying me a virtual beer on PayPal.
Well, I hope you enjoied this making of. Many more to come... Stay in touch and follow the social media pages of this amazing project!

P.S. this was my very first attempt to do anything like this. I've never painted a toy gun before... How do you like it? Your critics and comments are very welcome!



3 comments:

  1. Looks great! Thing is, the pew-pew guns in a lot of sci-fi films could not justifiably be shooting "lasers" as lasers are basically really powerful light, and therefore travel at the speed of light, while the weapons in movies shoot projectiles that visibly travel across the screen. Many sci-fi universes sidestep this by saying that the weapons are actually shooting a glob of high-energy plasma (which apparently exhibits similar properties to that of the weapons in the films) like a firearm shoots a bullet. Basically they make their film more accurate by changing the weapon from a "laser rifle" to a "plasma rifle", "laser pistol" to "plasma pistol", etc.
    Sorry if I'm backseat directing (prop designing? nomenclature inventing? scriptwriting?) but I always like sci-fi films that are at least sorta-plausible :)
    Whatever you call them, it sounds like a really cool movie. Good luck!

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    1. Thanks Nick for your precision! Well, this film is gonna be a tribute to the Eighties science fiction movies and there's gonna be a lot of Star Wars style pew pew :D So well, being a reference of the genre, I'd rather stay with a "pew pew" than standard bullets. In the genre, especially if not a high budget film (like mine is gonna be), they used a lot to call those weapons: "laser guns". Maybe they were wrong or not plausible, but somehow if I wanna tribute those films I guess I've to tribute also their mistakes ;) Or I can simply call it "Plasma Gun" and solve the problem! What you suggest?

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    2. Calling it a "plasma " (eg, "plasma pistol", "plasma rifle", etc) is EXACTLY what I suggest. I have no objection to pew-pew guns (I rather like them, in fact) just when people incorrectly refer to them as 'lasers'.
      Sorry for the late reply, and good luck!

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