Dagger Dagger Gun

When I am bored and have some downtime my mouse inevitably finds its way to a Halloween store and my first stop is always to check out the weapons. Generally it's to laugh at the shoddy $2.99 roman sword that would possibly scare off a chipmunk with a fear of guys in leather skirts.

But on occasion I come across something with a good sturdy handle, interesting but not so elaborate designs that it makes Orcs laugh with the sheer stupidity of how one goes about holding it without poking their own eye out for a pretty good price.

To go with my costume this year I needed a set of daggers and while there are plenty of not quite long enough to be swords but too long to be daggers flimsy shiny plastic bits out there true daggers were a bit of a hide and seek game. Until I came across this one.

There's actual heft in the handle, the blade isn't extremely stupid but oh that death's face on the hilt is just screaming "goth kid in the basement pretending to do witchcraft with an old popcorn bowl and a packet of kool-aid."

Luckily I have a way of fixing things.

Taking out my trusty wall joint compound that I use to fill cracks in the pieces of styrofoam when making tombstones I spackled over death's rather unbecoming grimace. I decided to leave the hands as is assuming once they were painted it would be hard to tell exactly what they once were.

Let the stuff dry, add a coat of black latex paint (semigloss for that shiny new coffin look) and I got some cheap gems from Michaels to complete the illusion.

I can understand why the pitting with black works on some old axes and hammers but it just looks stupid on the blade of these daggers so falling back on my old piles and piles of silver paint I updated them to look a bit less like I pulled these things out of the mud and more stabbity stab stab.

When I wasn't making cool daggers I also took a crack at making the cap pistol my husband got for his Captain Jack (Harkness, not the pirate) costume look a bit less shiny.

Have I mentioned how much I love the plastic fusion spray paint? Because I'd marry it if I could.

I've added a bit more black to bring out the details in the barrel and then some acrylic coating to make it shiny again but otherwise she's pretty much ready to go with a good dose of silver and brown spray paint.

Oh and one more thing, if you ever suddenly wake up one day and want a 5' skeleton you must head to Walgreens quickly. Last night we picked up this guy for only $30.

All of the joints move and while the plastic is pretty thin, especially around the ribs, that is an amazing deal. To compare, the more traditional haunters Bucky would cost at least $90-$100 for a 5' skeleton.

But get there fast, Walgreens always sells out of the good stuff really quickly.