As someone who is largely self taught in the practice of prop building, I learn new lessons with nearly every project. In the case of something insanely complicated like the Halo Needler, I learn a ton of new things. This final entry into the Needler build log will be all about tips and tricks that emerged from this project, which hopefully will help other propmakers in the future!

Weathering, painting, sculpting, molding, sanding and casting... it's all come down to this. After several months of building and finishing the Halo Needler prop's numerous components, it's time to bolt all the parts together and transform the mishmash of plastic bits into a complete and whole prop. Let's get to it!

All the Halo Needler prop parts are basecoated, shiny and new, and they just require a little bit of faux history infused into them to complete the transformation from plastic to replica. One part storytelling and one part fakery, this is the process known as weathering.

After more hours of sanding, priming, filling, sculpting, molding casting, cutting and drilling than I care to count, it's finally time to get some color onto the Halo Needler Prop. Parts are trimmed, mounting points are sorted out, and electronics are done. Let's break out the airbrush!

Today's update to the Halo Needler prop will be all about prepping your cast parts before going to paint. When the individual parts of your project are still raw resin, you can afford to have a scrape here and there figuring out the best way for everything to fit together. Once things are painted, the last thing you want to do is fret over every bit of dust that might damage all your hard work.