How to Steampunk a Nerf Elite Strongarm (Including How to Make a Gun Holder for It)

For Halloween 2025, I'm dressing up as a steampunk cowboy, and to be considered a cowboy, I need a gun. I will show you how you can make your very own Nerf Elite Strongarm as steampunk and show how you can make a little leg holder for it.

This project and my Halloween costume were a little inspired by the video game Red Dead Redemption 2, and a lot of internet steampunk cowboys. I don't think I would have dressed up as this if it weren't for the game and my sisters, because they're all dressing up as cowboys too.

Obviously, for the very first step, you're going to need the Nerf Elite Strongarm.

Part 1:

To modify the overall design of the Strongarm, you're going to need:

Some,

1. Metallic multi-surface paints, such as gold, copper, and silver
2. Black spray paint
3. Gears
4. Random items for the decoration of the gun
5. A small hand Screwdriver
6. Paint brushes (you don't necessarily need these; I just used my fingers, and it gives off a better texture to make it look older)
7. Hot glue
8. Super glue or clear Gorilla glue

Optional:

1. A contact solution bottle (you will need a hand saw or some sort of blade)
2. Gears (I mean, it's steampunk, so you kind of have to add these, right?)

Part 2:

If you want to make the gun holder, you will need:

1. Duct tape (I'm using black)
2. Thin cardboard. (cereal boxes or thin cardstock should do)
3. Rope
4. Scissors

The very first step is to buy a Nerf Armstrong. I bought mine from Amazon for about $20, and that's including tax. Before I take it apart and absolutely destroy it, I first wanted to toy around with it first.

After playing around with your Nerf gun, you're ready to take out the screws of your gun. When you spray paint it, you may want to remove your internal pieces. I didn't because I didn't feel very confident in myself that I would put it back together exactly, so I left it as is. You may want to place some painter's tape on the parts you don't want to get paint on.

If you have problems with the last two images, you can follow the steps on them, or a simpler way of doing it is described here: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxHLp_-5ZmFxa8RamBtge7NluWAtTxnjcj?si=U0DNFXwhvVsiRgDl. Credit to the person in the video who was very helpful.

The next step is to spray paint black. Also, before spraying the barrel, make sure you take the back piece out. I didn't, because I didn't know how, and so I kind of broke the spin of the barrel by spray painting it.

I did miss a few spots with the spray paint, but that's alright. I was able to cover it later.

I first grabbed some of my tin metallic paint and put some on my finger, and went across some of the parts with it. I really like how this turned out, and honestly, I thought, 'I should just leave it like that.' But I did say it was going to be steampunked.

Now, I didn't necessarily have a bronze colour or anything like that, so I was stuck with the paints "classic gold," "vintage gold," and "copper." I wasn't pleased with the copper colour because it gave a brownish-red colour that didn't really look good on its own.

So, I tried mixing the three, and it came out amazing. I actually really liked how it turned out, it gave a bit of bronze colour and some gold in there too. I just poured even amounts of the golds, and then I added a little less of the copper and mixed it all together.

I drew inspiration from another person who had done something similar. I took a contact lens solution bottle measuring 1 1/2 inches and then cut that off. Afterwards, I drilled (tried to) 3 lines of holes. I then spray-painted it black, adding a coat of the tin paint on it. Then, I hot-glued it onto the top of my gun.

I'm quite happy with how it came out

To make my gun look a little more steampunk, I had to put some gears on it. I bought a little bag of assorted gears from the sketchiest website I know, Temu. It was only a couple of bucks. Honestly, I was expecting a way more than the amount that I received, like 50 of them, but that actually read 50g.

Because the gears are metal and hot glue doesn't stick to metal very well, I will use clear Gorilla glue. I was going to use super glue, but I couldn't find the bottle. In my experience, clear Gorilla glue works well, but some of the time it comes off surfaces.

I was very stuck on how I wanted to put my gears on, either on the slider or on the edge next to the slider. While I was trying to figure this out, I went online to get some inspiration, and I saw this guy cut out the shell of the gun and added the gears in there. I guess you could say this could be like powering the gun way more, so once the primer is hit and explodes, there's twice the power. Once the trigger is pulled, they are shot out at really high speeds (well, for this gun, it wouldn't happen, but maybe in a book or some game). You just have to imagine it.

So I did this, although it was a pain to cut out - I hope it was worth it.

First, you want to cut 5 strips of thin cardboard, ones from a cereal box will work. The strips need to be 1-2 inches longer than your nerf. Four of the strips are 1 inch wide, while the bigger one is 2 inches wide.

Next, duct tape your strips; this will add reinforcement to them, making them stronger. And cut off any excess tape. While doing this, I ran out of duct tape, sooo yeah. That ain't good. I found some tape, it's probably electrical tape, so I have to use that for now.

Grab your 2-inch strip and wrap it around your Armstrong (preferably the widest bit) and tape it, making sure it's loose so you can slide it off and in easily.

Take one of your 1-inch strips and wrap it around, not on the nozzle, below it. and tape those. Now you want to cut off the right excess tape off (if your a right handed. If not, do the other side)

The next step is to make a bar that will go from the gun holder's side and up to keep it straight on your leg. I grabbed a long piece of firm cardboard for this can and taped it. After I taped it, I then taped it to the long piece of the holster.

Now we need to increase the friction of our holster because once the gun is put in it moves very easily and could fall out. I used some broken darts I had lying around and cut them in half, taping them to the holster.

You want to use either rope or you can use Velcro. I used Velcro because that's what I had. This is just to keep it attached to your leg.

You're going to need to grab a strip, cut off about a quarter of it and tape it on the bar over the holster ring and then slide the Velcro through.

The gun holster looks pretty dang cool with the gun, and it looks so cool on my costume. I was going to add wires, but I ran out of time anyway. I hope you enjoyed reading this.

I'm very pleased with how this project came out. The cool thing is that it actually shoots darts, whereas my sisters got little revolver toy guns that make noise when the trigger is pressed, but don't shoot. So I got an idea of who might win in a duel.

Anyways, thank you for checking this out, and I hope you had a good Halloween!

Bye, tschüss, or hui hou (until we meet again)!