My 3 year old, Fiona, could not decide what to be for Halloween...She was torn between Boba Fett, and Scooby Doo. I was pushing for Fett, because I have a backpack (soft school bag) and Hasbro helmet to start with. We decided to combine the two into "Scooboba Fett", or "Scooby Fett", or Fetty Fetty Doo". Whatever you want to call it.
On Wednesday, I realized we didn't have a rifle. I went on facebook, and asked friends for Fett blaster ideas, hoping someone would say there was one at Ross, or a dollar store, or someplace cheap because we are broke right this second. After a few friends chimed in, I got the idea to just look around and see if I could build something passable that would fit her hands. I found a chunk of half inch hardboard, and a piece of PVC pipe, which was where I started, a little over 2 days ago.
I pulled out my old spindle sander, and started shaping the grip. I was kind of thinking about those old rubber band guns I would see on the boardwalk when i was a kid.
Well, at this point, I started really getting some ideas (all while some friends were still quipping back and forth on my original question). I went through a couple parts bins, and found a great part for the rear/hammer, and realized the plastruct T-stock i have been hoarding for years for Y-wing customs would work for the "fins" down the side. By now, I've decided to shoot for something similar to a Fett blaster, but certainly not screen accurate, just something that fits her hands and looks enough like Fett's gun from a distance that it is cool.
The big challenge was actually the scope...I ended up combining some scrap Cobra Adder missiles, a glue bottle cap, several other joe bits, and some (I think) clips for hanging blinds to cobble one together. It was around here that I started going a little overboard for a toddler costume, but the constant updates for my friends on Facebook were egging me on, so i kept going. This is where I was after a day, roughly yesterday morning.
The next step was filling in the details with bits, trying to come up with somewhere to mount a sling, etc. I dug out a bin of old military model parts and some other bits bins, and just pulled what I thought would work, and what looked good. By yesterday afternoon, this is what i was looking at...
here you can see the grip in her little hands. I decided to leave out a trigger completely-she grips it so tight, I was afraid she'd just break it anyway.
Now, I would like to point out, I spent $0 so far on this. I used junk that was lying around, and while the junk I have lying around is more conducive to putting together a project like this, it was still assembled without buying anything new at all. I even had a couple half dead cans of matte black Krylon Camo to lay down a couple base coats, and really let me see where this was headed. That was last night. I took these pics this morning.
So now i am looking at it, and I am really happy with how it looks. If not built for small hands, it could almost work for an adult cosplayer. So, I took it to the next level, and did some dry brushing and detail work. I took these pics about an hour ago, and have since laid a few coats of matte clear coat on it, and left it to dry for a few days. Scooby Fett has the best blaster a dog could ever have.
After all is said and done, i did buy some brown paint, but it really more to replace the last of the paint I used for the grip and stock. So in truth, the whole gun cost me nothing to build.
