Hey Gang,
I'm planning on putting together a Jawa costume for my youngest, so I thought I'd start out with the Ion Blaster!
It isn't 100% accurate, but it cost very little to construct, and I'm happy with the outcome.
I made the barrel out of plastic cups and a couple sections of PVC plumbing tubes. I cut the stock out of a 1 1/2" thick piece of pine I got for $0.50 at the local hardware store. The most expensive part of the build was the $10 package of checkered ABS sheet that I got from the hobby shop. I used that to create the knurled section at the back of the barrel. I got the "trigger" from an old pair of vice grips, the gear at the front was from a local surplus store, and the rest was made from crap I had sitting around!
I painted it with several layers of black primer built up to a nice texture, then I rubbed everything but the stock down with graphite to give it a metallic sheen. After clear-coating that, I rubbed the whole thing with limestone dust and terra cotta chalk pastel to make it look dirty. After clear-coating that, I hand painted all of the "damage" and gave it another rub-down with the terra cotta chalk pastel dust. One more clearcoat and I did some silver damage.
Here's a pic before I started painting:
And the completed blaster:
And with the little stand that I built for it:
Hope you like!
I'm planning on putting together a Jawa costume for my youngest, so I thought I'd start out with the Ion Blaster!
It isn't 100% accurate, but it cost very little to construct, and I'm happy with the outcome.
I made the barrel out of plastic cups and a couple sections of PVC plumbing tubes. I cut the stock out of a 1 1/2" thick piece of pine I got for $0.50 at the local hardware store. The most expensive part of the build was the $10 package of checkered ABS sheet that I got from the hobby shop. I used that to create the knurled section at the back of the barrel. I got the "trigger" from an old pair of vice grips, the gear at the front was from a local surplus store, and the rest was made from crap I had sitting around!
I painted it with several layers of black primer built up to a nice texture, then I rubbed everything but the stock down with graphite to give it a metallic sheen. After clear-coating that, I rubbed the whole thing with limestone dust and terra cotta chalk pastel to make it look dirty. After clear-coating that, I hand painted all of the "damage" and gave it another rub-down with the terra cotta chalk pastel dust. One more clearcoat and I did some silver damage.
Here's a pic before I started painting:
And the completed blaster:
And with the little stand that I built for it:
Hope you like!
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