Elfin Knights Project Takagi Blade Runner Blaster

Okay, so this post is only tenuously related to the usual wargames content on this blog, but it has to do with painting at least...

So, assuming you're still tuned in, I'd like to introduce a small project - a repaint of the world's most awesome water pistol - Deckard's blaster from the original Blade Runner!

The story of the BR blaster has been told many places - the original prop was an unholy union between a Charter Arms .44 cal. Bulldog revolver and a Steyr-Mannlicher .22 cal rifle with some extra greeblies and LED lights sprinkled to taste. Long thought lost, the original prop resurfaced in 2006 at a fan convention called WorldCon. In the meantime, several prop makers had turned their skills to producing more-or-less accurate replicas of the blaster based on screen caps from the movie. However, the emergence of the "WorldCon Blaster" in detailed photos has lead to more definitive replicas being produced, one of the most popular being made in Japan by Tomenosuke and retailing for nearly $1,000.

photo: eBay

I'd always wanted to have a BR blaster of my own but $1K is just too much. Enter the Takagi "Elfin Knights Project" M2019 water blaster! Injection molded in translucent black and amber plastic, it's an amazingly faithful replica of the film blaster, at a knockdown price.

However faithful it looks, though, a plastic water gun is never going to have the have the heft of a full metal (or even resin) prop. I fixed this by plugging the holes in the molding and filling it brimful with clean sand - weight is now over 800 grams or almost two pounds. I then masked off the grips and primed the piece with satin black spraypaint.

After priming, I painted the upper receiver and triggerguard with a mixture of GW Leadbelcher and craft black acrylic, and the buttplate with a straight Leadbelcher. The rest was carefully weathered, mostly with a sponge technique using Leadbelcher, concentrating on the parts that would contact the holster or hand of the user. I also did some fine edge highlighting and light chipping on the metal parts using GW Ironbreaker and a fine brush.

I glued two metal BBs on each side of the piece to represent the red LEDs and painted them Khorne Red highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet. The molded in LED underneath the gun was painted similarly. The LEDs on the cylinder rod were painted GW Caliban Green highlighted with Privateer Necrotite Green. All LEDs were finished with a gloss coat.

"Made in China" apes the WorldCon Blaster's "Made in Austria" gravure. Serial number matches the real prop

Lastly, I had my friend Byron of Northern Lights build me a fantastic clear acrylic stand for the prop. This will look pretty cool in my collecting room - although after having painted this one, I'm thinking of buying a resin kit to do up with working LEDs... crazy? who knows.

That's it for now, and all there is left to say is "have a better one!" :-)