Friday, April 1, 2016

Save Those Old Easter Eggs ... And Make A RAYGUN!

Here's a quick craft that took forever because I am both indecisive and a raging perfectionist. (WHO'S WITH ME??)
(I'll give you a moment to decide.)

I nearly scrapped this whole post, in fact, but I still like the concept, so maybe it will inspire some of you to take a whack at it:


Retro raygun goodness!

The idea hit me way back when I found the materials for my $2 steampunk ray gun. I noticed some shiny plastic wineglasses at the same dollar store, which looked kind of like this:


With the glass bases stacked like that, I immediately saw the business end of a retro raygun. Aw yeah.

So I bought a pack of 4 for a dollar, then found an old foam Easter egg from my craft stash:


This egg is a bit larger than your typical plastic 2-piece eggs, and I think I originally found it at JoAnn's... or maybe Wal-Mart?


Quick sketch of my design idea:

By tracing the egg I was able to get those curves almost exactly right for the top fin and handle.

Next I cut out the handle sketch, which John used as a template to cut out a scrap of hard pink insulation foam:

 (I eventually reversed the egg, which I think looks better.) 

This pink insulation isn't very smooth, but the texture striations look a lot like wood grain, which is a happy thing for a handle! Or you can Spackle and sand it smoother. (See the rounded edges?)

John took it upon himself to do all the painting, and became mildly obsessed with smoothing out that foam handle texture. So even though my end result is smooth, your's doesn't have to be.

First coat of red spray paint.

The fin on top of the raygun is craft foam covered in aluminum metal tape, which I lightly scored with a toothpick to give some texture:



Those lines also help hide any dings or dents, since metal tape is so easily scratched.

The lightning bolt and the screw heads on the handle are also metal tape: for the screws I used a hole punch, then scored a straight line through the middle with a tooth pick. Easy-peasy.


Everything is held together with E-6000, but if I were to do it again, I'd drill a hole in the egg for the post of the cup bases to sit in, to make that joint stronger. Since the rest of the gun is literally all foam, the rest of the joints are plenty strong.

Oh! And the finishing touch: a clear fried marble on the very tip. For SPARKLE.

If you want to make your own egg raygun, keep in mind it would be much, MUCH easier to make a steampunk version, since then nothing has to be smooth or shiny. (It's amazing how many imperfections a little aging can cover up!) Even this design would look more realistic if I were to brush-and-wipe some thin black paint on it. I just didn't want to sacrifice all the shiny chrome. (SHINY AND CHROME!)

Hope this inspires some of you to get crafty this weekend! And if you're looking for more ideas, be sure to check out my Crafts Page, where I've got photos & links to every tutorial I've ever done.

21 comments:

  1. I'm gonna just start reading posts searching for Hamilton references. (Since they smack me in the face every day intentionally or not)

    "I immediately saw the business end of a retro raygun" --->>> "It’s either that or meet the business end of a bayonet"

    But the raygun is fun and awesome, too! lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ray gun song break: FLASH! (boom) AAAHHHHHHHHHH! He'll save ev'ry one of US (guitar riff).....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ev'ry man, ev'ry woman, ev'ry child!

      Love the ray gun, Jen!

      Delete
    2. OMG @Granny K, my friend and I were obsessed with that movie when we were kids! We'd go around singing that song all the time. Thanks for the awesome "Flash"back!!

      Delete
  3. Important note: many spray paints eat foam! Most of the Design Master brand are OK for foam. (NOT the glossy black though.). Brush on craft acrylic works too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This tutorial looks like so much fun! Thank you for sharing it with us! And thank you for helping me to try to look at potentially ordinary items (or items found at the dollar store!) and see their potential to be made into awesome sci-fi/fantasy treasures! Thanks, Jen and John!

    ReplyDelete
  5. A "clear fried marble"?? I've read it three times, can make no sense of it, and am now a little concerned for you, Jen...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's a process where you take a clear marble and literally fry it...in a hot pan. This causes interior cracking in the glass and makes a really cool effect.

      Delete
    2. Mmmmm, clear fried marbles!

      KW

      Delete
  6. Must. Get. Metal. Tape.

    someday...

    Another excellent raygun, Jen and John! Nice work!

    KW

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey...just thought of this! Some steampunk couple with the last name Reagan should totally name their kid "Raygun."

    "Here's our little Raygun Reagan!"

    HAH! Why is this so funny to me?

    KW

    ReplyDelete
  8. And you have done it again! Take something ordinary and make it extraordinary!

    ReplyDelete
  9. How cute! I will probably have to make myself several.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I instantly pictured this in the hand of that old Warner Bros alien Marvin the Martian!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love how you're inspired by the most random things and then turn them into something totally awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is so brilliant. I love how you can see inspiration in such mundane things - that's so great!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jen, I love starting my morning with you and John; Cake Wrecks is the first thing I open every morning, and I'm always eager for an Epbot update. However, I must ask you to fix something for me in today's Epbot: "your's" is simply not a word. Please replace it with the correct "yours". Probably just a typo, but it kinda makes my teeth itch.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I made one 2 years ago, I loved the design of the mango, you have more things with eggshells, I would like to share ideas, greetings

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful when commenting; dissenting opinions are great, but personal attacks or hateful remarks will be removed. Also, including a link? Then here's your html cheat sheet: <a href="LINK ADDRESS">YOUR TEXT</a>