Nerf Vortex Proton is finally here
I got my first Nerf Vortex Proton this week and I couldn’t wait to mod this up! First up let me tell you the price-point on this is sick, $16. I was expecting it to be more, given in the same store the Nerf Maverick was $20. Anyway this isn’t my review, this is about the Nerf mod, so let’s get to it as we look at the Nerf Vortex Proton Blade Runner homage.
Nerf Vortex Proton Nerf mod – Blade Runner blaster
First up let’s look at the before and after shot. The Nerf Vortex Proton blaster looks cool before you sand and paint it, well other than it’s green, that could be better, still it beats the usual bright Nerf yellow I guess.
Nerf Vortex Proton Nerf mod – Blade Runner HOMAGE
I hit this up with the sanding, cleaning and black base. I’d had an idea for this to make it a Blade Runner homage since before it launched in stores. It’s never going to look like Rick Deckard’s blaster pistol, so please don’t comment to tell me it looks nothing like that, I know, it’s a homage to the Blade Runner universe, not a replica of Deckards pistol.. obviously.
I was going to do the large facing area in stripes, but thought this would detract from the logo areas, so I left it as metal look, bland, but not detracting from the Tyrell Corp logo and the ammo warning.
Nerf Vortex Proton Nerf mod – What went wrong…
Hooo boy where to begin, I’m a beginner, but I thought I’d try and be clever with this and give it the resin / amber look orange of Deckards blaster… big mistake! The clear gloss spray ate the paint away on the grip after multiple coats… all the triple orange drybrushing I’d done melted into itself and the paint turned to a sludgy mess. So not cool. Time to scrape, re prime etc. Right, so then I just went back to regular drybrushing, sticking with the orange theme. Not as cool as the gloss looked before it started to go bad, but better than nothing.It’s a shame these images don’t show up the dry brushing better, it looks better in reality.
Also the Tyrell Corp logo was deep orange, to match the handle. As it dried in, it turned red… ARGH! Lastly, you will lose most of the lovely geometric detailing on the Proton when you sand, because it’s very fine / flat detail.
Nerf Vortex Proton Nerf mod – Blade Runner blaster
That’s it basically. I like this mod, but it’s not in the same arena as the Mav2D2 (Nerf R2D2 mod) I did last week (I still love him, he’s so adorable!). I’d put this one in the same range as the Weyland Yutani Nerf blaster I did a couple of weeks back (another sci fi homage, that one to the Aliens universe).
There’s no doubting the Nerf Vortex Proton is a great and easy blaster to paint mod. It is a shame you lose the geometric detailing when you sand however.
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This is the mod that brought me over to your site. You’ve done a lot in a small space of time, nice work. Looking at your first to this the difference is amazing. You should sell these.
This is excellent work. I have a question–is the internal part of the slide painted? and does it still slide smoothly?
Thanks, and your work is inspiring…!
Hi Rick,
I don’t paint the internal slide area, maybe an inch in and then I stop. I would imagine you could, it’s just personal choice that I don’t, as I didn’t want it to affect the workings and you don’t see it when it’s closed.
I do paint the inner part of the slide on the Scout and that’s worked, so if you’re doing a Proton and you wanted the inside part of the slide painted, I’d go for it. I’ll maybe do it on the next Proton I mod and I’ll pop back here and let you know.
Thanks for your kind words and for taking the time to comment at my blog, appreciate it.
when you sand the blaster it’s rough, but when you add the primer, second coat and clear coat is the shell still rough? If it is, is there a way to make it smooth again?
Hi Marcus,
what grit paper are you using? It should be fairly smooth after sanding, don’t paint it if it’s not as re-sanding the painted blaster is annoying ;p
Use a high grit paper and if you’re having trouble use a lower grit to do the first sanding, then re sand it BEFORE painting. Hope that helps … good luck! xx
hello! just curious, do you take the blaster apart before painting it? or do you just mask off the parts that could be affected by the paint?
It depends on the blaster. Some I take apart to weight them. Either way the ENTIRE thing is sanded, prepped and painted.
This looks awesome, just a couple questions?
what paint colour did you use for the black and the orange (brand and colour name)
and how did you get the white faded scratched look?
and finally when you painted the blaster did you take out all the internals when you spray painted it?
What type of colors you painted?
Hi Mishoo,
this was a black base with tri-metallic dry brushing, a few shades of orange on the grip area and a nice mustard with yellow highlights on the bullet looking area.
Hope that helps.
This looks great!! I just picked up a proton and I’m getting ready to paint it. You mentioned that some blasters you don’t bother disassembling. Did you disassemble this particular one for the paint job? Thanks!!
You can get away with not disassembling this one, but take the nose off as it will look so much neater if you do an accenting color on that piece.
Hope that helps and thanks for stopping by!