Complete Guide for Painting a Nerf Gun Like Pro

Since the debut of the Nerf brand in 1969, there have been numerous Nerf blasters in the market, but mostly all have come in the same colors, like red, blue, orange, or black, as the design and colors of these blasters are mostly the same and look menacing as a rainbow! So if you’ve got bored with these and want something new, then here I’ll assist you in how to paint a Nerf gun like a Pro! 

Painting a Nerf gun can not merely give your toy a fascinating look; in fact, it can even make it worthy of your friends’ jealousy. Therefore, Nerf enthusiasts love to paint and modify Nerf guns to give their firearms a pleasant look! Let me tell you; it’s not a daunting task; you can customize it by following the Nerf gun painting guide and taking your Nerf war to the level up. So, let’s start with step-by-step information so that you can do fantastic Nerf gun painting.

Things to Do Before Painting a Nerf Gun 

Nerf gun painting is simple and easy; it’s not as difficult as it seems if you follow the best way to paint a gun. Just follow the steps mentioned below, and then you can do this in a blink of an eye. Here are some following things that you should consider before taking a stab at painting Nerf guns. 

1. Select a Ventilated Area for Painting a Nerf gun; As the painting of Nerf guns can’t be done in a dining hall, so make sure you’re choosing a comfortable area where you can work efficiently. I suggest painting your Nerf gun in a shaded area, irrespective of direct sunlight. 
2. Only choose Quality Paint; It’s a crucial step to which you need to pay heed. The Quality of paint really matters while painting Nerf guns. Many brands are available for plastic painting but sadly speaking; it doesn’t work as well as they look. Hence, make sure you’re choosing only the right Nerf paint. If you’re a newbie and don’t know much about this, you can pick Krylon Fusion; it’s the best paint for nerf guns.
3. Try Paint on Easy-to-Disassemble Blaster; It’s always preferred to start painting on easy-to-disassemble Nerf guns because if you don’t know how to assemble and disassemble the inner parts of a gun, then you might get into trouble. But no worry, you can follow the below-mentioned steps amidst painting a nerf gun where you don’t need to take out the internal part of the gun. 

Steps to Follow While Painting a Nerf Gun

Now, let me lift the curtain with how to paint Nerf guns. Here are some essential steps that you can follow while painting your best Nerf gun without any hassle. You can convert any green or orange monstrosity into a slick space gun, so let’s start. 

• Remove Annoyances from the blaster
• Apply Base Coat Or Prime the Nerf Gun
• Spray On The Accent Coat
• Place Some Tape Around the Blaster
• Finish Touch With A Clear Coat

Remove Few Annoyances

While painting a Nerf gun, first of all, you need to remove a few annoyances present on the blaster, like safety logos, 2 Nerf gun logos ( from the grip and front), and race name letters. For this, you need a metal file to send down the rough shape. Then, rub it on the surface until most of the logo is gone. 

Use of Sandpaper

Now, in the 2nd step, you need to take sandpaper, and gently clean the surface, so that ugly logos disappear entirely. You can see in the picture it’s almost gone from the gun. Now, let’s move forward to remove the safety icon. Just sand it until it’s hard to see from a closer look.

I usually use fine sandpaper of 1200 grit to give a smooth and finishing look. You can also use this because it’ll help in the sand over everything and protect the blaster from scratches. After this, repeat the same steps to get rid of the front and grip logo. Continue this process until you get a smooth grip surface, like in the picture. 

Apply Base Coat Or Prime the Nerf Gun

Now, it is time to move toward the painted area of the Nerf gun with an Airbrush Kit. It’s a meager cost and available on amazon; if you already have this, then use it to make your blaster attractive for your friend. After cleaning the gun’s surface with fine sandpaper, you may feel this slippery. To fix this, it’s better to use Primer; it’ll also help disappear the previous colors. You may use a black surface primer; it’s perfect for such types of plastic and sticks better than others. 

After evenly applying the Primer on the whole surface of the Nerf gun, now give 20-30 minutes to dry this painted nerf gun completely. If you’re using some other primer, then make sure to read and follow special instructions or a longer drying time before it is used for the next step. After applying Primer, your gun may become less shiny.  

Note: While painting a Nerf gun, make sure you’ve not missed applying the base coat on the top part, which may be visible as you’ll slide back and forth and even probably damage the paint after a while. Therefore remember to put the color underneath it properly. 

Spray on the Accent Coat

Once you’ve done the base coat, you can decide which color you want to apply on different sections of the blaster. For color combinations, you may take help from Google by searching Nerf gun painting ideas or adding custom colors according to your own choice. If you want a gun like this, then you can use steel paint from Vallejo and cover everything in silver.

After that, you need to pick black again and just slightly dust over the silver. Just make sure not to put black all over the surface. Instead, you may put a little bit of silver on your finger, rub most of the surface, and buff the highlighted color to distribute it evenly. It’ll help your Nerf gun to look more realistic.  

Place Tape Around the Blaster

After giving your Nerf gun a realistic look, you need to pick masking tape and place it around the blaster. These strips will help you to reduce the risk of running the upcoming 2nd and 3rd colors into the base coat. 

After doing this work, you can pick a light gray color and then paint the uncovered top part with this. Now, you can pick darker gray and edit some shadows. As all things have done, now pick steel paint again and dust it over the Nerf gun’s surface. 

Now it’s time to add some stripes on the uncovered surface ( as you can see in the picture) with white-gray paint. Just spray brick red and pull off all the masking tape. After painting the Nerf gun, you’ll see it like in the picture. Additionally, you can design a logo from masking tape and paste it over your gun where you want. After that, you may fill this logo with a white and red color with a brush. You may repeat these steps for additional lettering on the top of the blaster. 

Finish Touch With a Clear Coat

In the end, you just need to spray a clear coat over the entire Nerf gun to finish everything. You can also place the Nerf gun over the wooden board and spray it from different angles.  Hurrah! After painting the Nerf gun, it’ll look like a pro and perfect for a Nerf war! You can see how easier it’s to paint the Nerf gun.  You can also follow this video to get more interesting ideas;

FAQs

Final Verdict

For many people, painting a Nerf gun gives immense pleasure. Changing the color of any blaster is not much tricky; with some basic knowledge and technique, everyone can do this job swiftly. Here are some steps with which you can turn your little toy blaster into a work of art. While customizing your Nerf gun, make sure to follow these steps correctly. Not for Nerf blasters; in fact, you can also use these steps for custom pistol painting.