Steps into Steampunk

So like most people I stumbled into Steampunk by accident one day. At a convention I saw an awsome outfit asked what it was and was told steampunk. Ok thats cool I thought.
Much later I saw a special on G4tv about it and thought. Victorian meets tech now I could really get into that. I love anything old. I've been a menber of the SCA for years and had been going to sci-/fantasy cons for longer.
So I've decided to make a Steampunk outfit. The one thing I know I want to go with the costume though is a firearm. But I also have a very limited budget. So I started to research on the web and found the answer. A repainted and decorated nerf gun. My husband does amazing (in my eyes) warhammer minitures and if he can make a little plastic miniture look like a gun welding soldier of death I figure he could do so with a nerf gun.
Then I had an idea. I would make the gun from star to finish and post it on the web for others to learn to. My husband would help show me techniques but I will do the work myself. So this is going to be my blog from begging to end of my learning to paint a steampunk nerf gun and as I sew my outfit I will post the steps here to.
My next post will be the begining steps of the gun.
Here though are the rough materials I stared with.