How to Make a Retro Style Sci-Fi RayGun Blaster out of EVA Foam with Free Templates

hey guys steve here at sks props today we’re going to be making a retro themed space gun welcome to the shop in today’s build we’re going to be making a retro style space gun now personally i love the look of these things and you can find them in classic movies like flash gordon or video games like fallout 4. this particular one is made all out of my hd foam which you of course can find over at blick art materials and a bunch of my hd foam half round dowels now because it is foam it’s extremely light and con safe i want to show you guys the steps that it takes to put this together and paint it we got a lot to do so let’s get started the first thing we’re going to do is take our half dome pattern and transfer that onto some six millimeter hd foam with a pencil these shapes can then be cut out either with a utility knife or a band saw now i cut out six of the patterns but i’m only going to be using five for the main body of the gun next we’re going to round them a little bit with a heat gun now remember when you’re doing this you want to do it in a well ventilated area and always wear your respirator you want to lightly apply a small amount of heat and then roll the foam with your hand this will give the foam a natural curve contact cement will be used to adhere all these pieces together now make note of the three marks that i have on the side this will help me line up all the pieces i firmly press all the parts together now this pattern gives me a half dome that’s going to be perfect for the body of the space gun it tapers a little too much at one end so i lightly mark it with a pencil and then cut off my excess with the utility knife to clean up the cuts at the top and the bottom i use a dremel rotary tool with a medium grit sanding drum once i’m satisfied with the look i use my heat gun one more time just to round everything out i want to put a cap at the back of the gun so i use a circle template on some 10 millimeter hd foam now when it comes to cutting your circles you could of course cut them by hand but i also have a video on my channel that shows how i made a simple circle jig for my bandsaw now at this point we have seams around the body of the gun and to give it some additional details and to cover these up we’re going to be using some 15 millimeter hd foam half round dowels these half round dowels come two to a pack and each one is 36 inches in length this is a really quick and easy way to add details to any of your projects the half round dowels are cut to length and glued onto the body using some super glue you can see just how quick and easy it is to add these details and now the main body of our gun looks seamless next we’re going to be using some 20 millimeter half round dowels to wrap around the circles at the front and back of the gun now to help minimize the seam on this piece you want to cut each side of the dowel at an angle so they line up perfectly at this point i mark the bottom and top of the gun this will help me line up all my seams properly adhesive is applied to the circle and the 20 millimeter half round dowel is glued into place a half round dowel is also applied to the back of the gun notice i’m leaving a gap at the bottom this will be for additional details later on i’m going to be using a 20 millimeter hd foam round down as the zapper at the front of the gun this dowel will be cut to approximately four and a half inches i mark the center of the front of the gun and then using a forstner bit i drill into the 10 millimeter hd foam but not all the way through this will allow me to glue the round dowel into this depression using my circle jig again i cut circles that are three and a half two and a half and one and a half that same forstner bit is used to drill through all of these pieces the circles are then slid onto the dowel to give it a tiered look moving on to the handle i sketch out a basic shape onto some bristol board this is then cut out and checked for fit now because i want the handle to be a little bit thicker i’m going to be gluing two pieces of 10 millimeter hd foam together the template is then transferred onto the stacked foam cut out and checked for fit against the body of the gun it is lightly tacked in place with a little bit of super glue but i will fully attach it later on now i’d like to have an additional detail on the grip of this gun so just like the handle the process is the same we’re going to be sketching this out on some bristol board transferring that onto some six millimeter hd foam cutting it out and checking for fit now that i have all my detail pieces cut out it’s time to start cleaning them up to do this i’m once again using my dremel rotary tool with a flex shaft and a medium grit sanding drum after all the pieces have been rounded over i switch over to a very smooth sanding drum this allows me to cauterize the foam and give it a very smooth surface using a heat gun i lightly heat seal all the pieces before gluing them together the grips are glued onto the handle and the placement of the handle is marked on the back of the gun with a pencil now because this is kind of a stress point i make sure to use contact cement so that handle isn’t going anywhere the detailed circles were once again pushed onto the round dowel and tacked into place with super glue to cover up the seam for the handle and add some details to the back of the gun we’re once again going to be using some 15 millimeter half round dowels this piece will wrap around and end at the middle of the handle down below to cover this seam up we’re going to be making a trigger for our gun once again this is drawn out onto some bristol board and then traced onto some six millimeter hd foam this piece is also detailed out with a rotary tool and glued into place to cover the seam an additional piece of 15 millimeter half round dowel is glued next to the piece that we had previously applied one more piece is cut to fit and glued around the top i feel our space gun is looking pretty good but it needs one more detail of course it’s got to have some kind of a lightning bolt on here to show that it’s a zapper so i draw a basic bolt onto some bristol board cut that out and then transfer it onto some two millimeter hd foam this piece is then glued down using super glue i take the other piece and transfer it to the opposite side with a pencil to make sure i’m spacing them out properly after i had taken photos of the gun raw i then sprayed it with two thin coats of plasti dip after that had fully cured a coating of gray krylon primer was then applied to the entire piece now i want this space gun to be pretty vibrant so i’m going to start by hand painting a layer of utrecht brand cerulean blue as the main color of our gun this is applied using a filbert brush and a minimal amount of water after the main body have been painted the same color was also applied to the handle now to give this blue a really cool sheen i’m going to be using the createx brand pearlized through my airbrush now this paint goes on pretty clear so it really just gives a sparkling shimmer to whatever color is underneath you do want to thin it a little bit with a reducer and i added two coats to the top of the gun as a highlight moving on to our half round details i’m going with golden brand iridescent bronze now this paint is very opaque you want to try not to get it on any of the colors that you’ve already laid down you can tell that this paint is very reflective and i really like the color combo of the blue and gold going together using a small detail brush i go ahead and paint the bolt and because it is a two millimeter foam and kind of raised up i go ahead and paint the sides next up i’m using some utrecht brand mars black to paint the grips at the bottom of the handle to give the gold on this gun a little bit of a multi-tone i’m going back to my airbrush and this time using createx iridescent red this is sprayed directly onto the gold and then using a wet paper towel and a wet brush a lot of it is wiped away so it just stays in the crevices as a final highlight i use the liquitex brand heavy body iridescent rich silver this is applied selectively to the bolt tops of the half rounds and sides of the circles and there we have it our completed space gun so you guys can see the basic steps that it takes to put together your own retro style space gun now the great thing about this is again most of the details are made using the hd foam half round dowels which you guys can find over at blick art materials now if you guys are enjoying these videos be sure to give them a thumbs up and share them with your friends and family and remember if you’re building any of my builds or using hd foam be sure to tag blick and sks props on twitter and instagram because we love seeing your progress until next time thanks for stopping by you .