Buzz Bee Double Shot - Zombie Hunter

Buzz Bee Double Shot with Shells

A couple of good friends had their birthdays recently and I decided to put together a dart blaster based gift for them. I chose the Buzz Bee double shot in part because of it's nice clean design but also because of the sweet shell ejecting feature. The pain scheme is pretty basic with a semi gloss stock and a metal esk finish on the barrel and stock feature. The metal effect was an accidental result of dry brushing too hard and actually turned out really well especially after I added a brown wash weathering effect.

I wanted to add some little details so I included each of their initials on the stock as well as a Zombie Logo. Additionally the blaster was provided in some thematic packaging to complete the effect.

Close up of details on stock

Packaging

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Seaview Lion Park

Upon the proposal of volunteering in South Africa as a holiday, my initial response was somewhat hesitant. I was concerned that working for free in another country was not the best way to vacation; wouldn't skiing in Japan or perhaps touring New Zealand be a better option. However the enthusiasm of my partner, who made the suggestion, was not the be dampened by my initial apathy and after much assurance that I wouldn't spend my holiday selling tacky souvenirs, the flights were booked, leave applied for and the trip locked in.

The reality of volunteering at Seaview Lion Park is a wonderfully relaxing, amazing and (I hesitate in using the cliche) life changing experience.

The Seaview Lion Park is located outside of Port Elizabeth on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The Park boasts a large array of different animals including 50 or so Lions, Leopards, Servals, Caracals, Meerkats, Bush Pigs, Siberian Tigers, giraffe and assorted other grazing herbivores. In addition to the fauna there are panoramic ocean views, diverse if somewhat pointy flora and of course the wonderful people(of whom I sadly do not have pictures).

Never mundane the focus of every day was the animals, sure there was enclosure cleaning, food preparation and clearing bush land, but the biggest activity was simply, spending time with the animals. Different animals wanted different things, the Lion cubs wanted the simple company of their extended pride but other animals such as the Servals wanted to play chasing Peacock feathers all around their enclosure. Some of the animal residents less tolerant to people intruding on their territory, such as the Leopards, still thoroughly enjoyed a scratch through the fence. A popular spot to relax was the baby Bush Pigs who liked nothing more than curling up on your nice warm lap for a nap.
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Volunteers stay in basic cabins nested among the lion enclosures and eat in the onsite restaurant. The surrounding area was filled with opportunities to explore on your day off; we went up to the Addo Elephant Park on a small tour conducted by Freewalker to see the huge African elephants.

When the time came to leave, say good bye to all my new friends, both animal and human and go back to the real world I thought back on my time at Seaview and I would not have traded it for ten Ski trips no matter the destination!

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Buzz Bee Tek 3 - Steampunk

So I have a couple of big projects planned for the next few months but I wanted a nice small one to try testing out some different techniques. This great little gun cost $7 from Toyworld so was a good option to test on. Being slightly obsessed with Steampunk I thought I would try a gun with some nice brass/copper accents to it.

The techniques I was looking at here was the use of an airbrush to apply my base coat. As well as the use of metallic dry brushing over a base coat.

The results were excellent, the airbrush applies a really even, amazingly matte finish with the only downside being the time it takes to paint (easily resolves with a larger capacity nozzle) and that multiple coats and a varnish are defiantly required. I am really thankful that the friend I mod with happens to own one!

At each main stage I took a picture of the parts and they are all shown below if you are interested in the step by step.

Original Toy

Disassembled Toy

After sanding and undercoat

After base coat of black and brown

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