Building a Blade Runner blaster replica kit

Since I saw Adam Savage showing off his Blade Runner blaster collection (link), I have always wanted to have my own, because I’m a huge fan of the movies. There are many different kits available on the market, but the Tomenosuke version is the one you should get, because it is by far the most accurate version. They have made different kits over the years, but recently they released the latest Stunt Model version which is the cheapest one, but still.. not so cheap, because it was about 360€ with customs.

Because it is a Stunt Model kit version, you need to finish it by yourself. I also ordered a stand for it, so I can put it on my display. Searched from Etsy and found a deluxe version of the “detective special” stand.

So, to get started, the first thing was to remove excess plastic, from the sprue or from mouldlines. I used a pair of clippers and small files. Then, I sanded those surfaces, which I’m going to paint and used some alcohol to remove any grease.

I bought some paints, varnish and brushes from Citadel. Citadel is known for high quality paints for the Warhammer figures, much better than those supermarket scale model paints.

Painting was the hard part. I mean, I had no previous experience how to paint miniatures and I was afraid of ruining this piece. Luckily, it turned out to be easier than I thought. I applied a few layers of metal paints, some black paint and also tried to mimic the wear of the original movie prop. The kit came with a photo scrapbook of the original movie prop, so I could check what needs to be done.

I used also a car wax for the grips to polish them and started to glue the pieces together.

It took a few weeks altogether to glue and paint everything, because I didn’t want to rush. I had to switch from a plastic glue to a super glue, because the plastic glue didn’t hold so well.

I’m really happy for the end result, maybe in the future I will also get a metal kit from Tomenosuke, if it will be available again and get some prop ammo for this one.

Finally, I can put it on my display and start working on my next project. It was fun, but to be honest, building model kits is not my cup of tea. But 3D printing might be…