Ok, onto the electronics. First up, once the 2 body sections are glued together, the only way to change the battery is through the nose of the barrel. So I need to make the end cap removable. Used a small magnet and metal tab to achieve this...
Spent ages trying to work out the best way to work the electronics. Obviously you have a LED strip that needs to light up. But how do you activate it? With a pull of the trigger or with a switch? If a switch, where do you put it? I didn't want to just have the switch as part of the wiring loom, stuffed into the nose of the barrel. That would mean you'd have to remove the cap and carefully pull out the wires to access the switch every time you wanted to turn it on and off. Way too much work for the pay-off! And I couldn't for the life of me find anywhere good for the switch to go. I'm also very limited to tools and materials here, I don't even have a soldering iron! So I have to be creative.
Pulled apart a toy gun with lights and sounds and a motor that spins when the trigger is pulled (it was used for moving part of the gun back and forth). A cool set up that could give lights, sounds and some movement or at least vibration. But I decided to keep this for another build (Fifth Element Police Blaster).
So then I pulled apart a $2 LED lantern and BINGO! It has the switch I want and a LED for the nose of the blaster.
The beauty of this little set up, is you use the switch to turn on and off the blue LEDs. But while the blue LEDs are on, if you connect the single, bright LED (from the lantern) the blue LED's actually cut out and turn off. Which is cool as it will give the gun some variation.
So, where to mount the switch... I opted to put it where there already was a "button" of sorts.
That'll work. Ok, onto the trigger switch. Again, spent a load of time mulling this over, how to make a switch and also have the trigger spring loaded.
Ended up making a spring-loaded switch out of a hair clip and it works!
Ran the wires.
Had to make space in the gun body for the cables and I don't have a Dremel here. So out came the drill. Eeek!
It ain't pretty, but it worked. Pieces locked together in place, no glue required.
Connected up the LED strip and placed it where I want it.
Mounted the bright LED from the lantern into the nose cap.
And here we have the result of a couple days playing around with this thing...
Onto filling the gaps, sanding then painting before adding the clear inserts. But first I have to repeat what I just did on the second kit. Lol.