wow Thanks much for all the nice response!! - MP3 player: I sawed off the bottom of the handle at the groove in the butt of the handle, I went to the Fry's electronics store and bought "the cheapest mp3 player with a lit up display that I could find" this one was on sale for about 10 bucks. When it is uncased, it only needed a little sanding to make it fit perfectly in the cavity at the bottom of the handle (I had to remove parts of the screw tunnels in there, on the very bottom to make the window work). It is epoxied in place. I put it in there because I wanted to make it have a 'futuristic' look with a moving lit display (it would look cool in a hip holster - ) I made recesses for all the plugs, it has a integrated battery that charges up from a USB port, and all the buttons are studs on the edge of the outside , and finally a hole for the on/off switch. I am going to make a stand-off that wont come off easily, currently you have to use a small tool or straw to move the switch. It is also a 2 gig memory chip. Here is a pic with the wires plugged in and the studs on one side, sorry it's so blurry >.>:
pic of the usb cable:
Is it "useful in a nerf shootout?" probably not, I wouldn't recommend it. For the glowy-technology effect, it does do the job tho. internals are all stock, except I did stretch the spring out a little tiny bit. . Also - by way of 'ghetto programming' if you want a particular message to show on the little screen all you do is name an MP3 file to that word/phrase.
Paint: Yes, it is Citadel paint. Best paint evarr.
Steampunk: totally with you on the gauges and mechanical stuff. For instance I will "spoil" the next add-on - you know those cheap kids jump ropes with the mechanical counter in the handle? Well, it works by rotation of the rope. 6 dollars. So, I am going to disassemble one, repaint the number counter to only count down from 6 (then it resets cos it's round) and attach the right size gear or wheel to make it turn in the correct proportion to count down for each shot, by way of the rotating chambers. I may have to rig a belt/pully thing, which would look cool also. Yes - it is going to be kind of bulky and that is the point - excessive, even unnecessary doodads on the gun.
The red dot scope is from a Daisy bb gun, and works really well.
Again thanks for all the encouraging responses, there will be more pics of the Longshot soon, also getting a neato glowy mp3 player jammed in it somewhere.
I am considering futuristic/steampunk/whatever styled bayonettes for both guns. Any tips on what to make a bayonette blade out of, that isn't going to accidentally kill some little kid? (Plexiglass is not a good idea, for instance)
