13/4/24 I had originally planned to turn this into some kind of airsoft replica but the internals are so cramped that the only really options were stuffing a hacked up AEG gearbox in there, or a HPA engine; didn't really like either option so instead I pivoted to turning this into a cosplay type of prop replica. As-is it's quite accurate to the real-life XM556 Micro Gun, a mini-minigun essentially- the overall size is correct, though the proportions of the dummy motor and de-linker mechanism are a bit off, and there is a large hole in either side of the main body for the original foam dart ammo belt. Still, it looks the part and is a solid base for this project, just needs some cosmetic work and a paint job, so here we go then...

13/5/24 As mentioned previously there were a couple of large holes either side of the main body that needed dealing with, so after dismantling the blaster and cutting some scrap plywood to shape I glued it in place which gave a good base for a layer of car body filler which would fill in the remaining gaps. After that was set hard I filed and sanded it down, blending the area in the surrounding plastic and matching the curve of the blasters shell- on the other side of the shell I couldn't remove the green plastic piece as it also holds the motor and rotation mechanism, so I opted to simply fill in the hole and smooth it over flat. That's all for now, but the next few updates will happen more quickly so check back soon, cheers.

20/5/24 The next part of the blaster to modify was the delinker mechanism that was missing some important detail, namely the ejection chute for the discarded links, and the feed chute 'lips' & opening. Ideally I wanted a to craft a hollow ejection chute but given it is an awkward curved shape and this is just a cosplay prop after all, I opted for the easier solution of shaping a piece of wood and gluing it in place- it looks the part and most people wouldn't know any different anyway. I also carved an opening for the feed chute and mounted some curved aluminium lips either side; due to the proportions of the whole delinker mechanism being a bit off, the opening isn't as long as would be required to fit 5.56mm ammo, so I will have to find some similar looking but shorter dummy bullets and improvise a tad.

21/5/24 On to the barrel assembly now, and I had a lot of work to do to replace the cheap and nasty looking original barrels that were only actually half of a hollow tube- easier to injection mold seemingly, and they didn't even line up with the muzzles on the grey end cap. I solved the alignment issue by grinding away a couple small tabs that allowed the end cap to line up as desired, then I agonised for a while on how to replace the existing barrels. In the end I opted for the hardest option as it would give the best result- completely removing the barrels and replacing them with 6 aluminium tubes, held in alignment with 2 wooden discs that had a hex-pattern of holes drilled into them. A little bit of measuring, drilling, sanding and gluing later and I had the assembly completed- there is a tiny bit of runout as the barrels rotate but it's very minor compared to some of the cosplay miniguns I've seen over the years, so I'll call that good enough for me.

23/5/24 With most of the modifications to the blaster completed it was time to think about the paintjob I was going to apply, starting with a good rub down of the whole thing with some scotch brite pads and then a coat of grey primer spray paint. I could see some minor imperfections in the areas where I had filled in the holes in the shell, but I ran out of spot putty so we'll just call that weathering since you have to look very closely to see it- good enough for me, again. At the same time I also painted the triggers for the blaster- primer and then a coat of gloss red to match the real thing. I probably should have filled in the text and sanded it down on the safety switch, but as mentioned I was out of spot putty, so meh, it's fine.

30/5/24 With the shell primed and waiting for a final coat of paint I decided to quickly rig up the trigger for the barrel rotation, a very simple wiring job with a single micro switch and a few wires going to the motor and the battery connector. Hardest part of this job was bedding the microswitch in Milliput epoxy putty since I didn't trust just using hotglue for a permanent mounting solution- lots of wiggling and poking to make sure the microswitch was positioned just right, resulting in zero unwanted play in the trigger, just a nice click and no wobble. I cut some notches to route the wires and glued them in place too, then turned my attention to the dummy ammo belt. This was a bit of detail that I agonised over for a while as ideally I would have an ammo feed chute but those are unobtainium and 3d printing one is out of the question, so I decided to use what I already had and trimmed down the foam dart ammo belt and glued the 3D printed cartridges ( purchased from ebay for pretty cheap ) into place after giving each one a couple coats of metallic gold enamel paint. The end result isn't exactly what I would call convincing compared to the real thing, but it does give the right idea as such so that'll do for me.

16/6/24 Now that all of the modding and electrical work is complete it is time for final reassembly. I greased up the barrel assembly with some Molybdenum where it rotates in the body of the blaster in lieu of having an actual bearing- one large enough would cost more than the blaster does so that's understandable. I tested the electronics one last time to make sure and the motor and barrels spin, which they did, noisily, so I reattached the faux delinker and the motor assemblies to the main body of the blaster, then screwed the two halves of the blaster shell together, finally inserting the front handle which is non-removable without risking damage so hopefully I never have to open this up. It instantly looked so much better with the black paint job, additional details and proper barrels, plus the red trigger(s). Next job will be to do a weathering pass with silver paint dry-brushing and then final pictures before calling this project complete.

24/6/24 Weathering completed- it's rather therapeutic to run a fine brush over the edges and raised parts of a prop and making it come to really come to life with just a little silver paint ( no complex chipping techniques or multiple washes, I'm far too lazy/dumb for that ). Anyway, I would like to get photos of the Minigun taken in a more pleasing setting- something like woodland for example, but it does mean going outside.. hmm, we'll see. On to the final photos for the time being though, I am really pleased with how this turned out though I can still see areas that could have been done better; as I always say, good enough for me though.