Boneyard Build Blog: Halo-ween Revisited
HALO MILL: Halo-Ween - What we have planned
The HALO MILL Halo-Ween event is scheduled for the 29th of October and promises to be quite the spectacle, with tracer units abound, challenging low light conditions and Halloween-themed games running from 10 am to 5 pm with fancy dress as strictly optional, but heavily encouraged!
The guys at HALO MILL have some interesting plans involving the distribution of sweets, the return of Airsoft pumpkin carving and a Halloween-themed competition-style course of fire which will involve a timed target shoot. Each player will get 3 attempts to run the course and the holder of the fastest time will be awarded a prize at the end of the day!
To make this event even more enticing the guys have an Airsoft Gun to give away as well, and simply turning up will enter you into the draw and could see you leaving with not just the satisfying feeling only an intense CQB skirmish can provide, but a new addition to your armoury!
If you are interested in joining us for our Halo-Ween event day, head on over to the HALO MILL Facebook page and send a message to the team to let them know how many places you need!
The Patrol Base Mini-Franken Revisited
You may have seen it before but here it is again in all its glory...the Patrol Base Mini-Franken!
Now as much as we did a brilliant job hacking up the Amazon toy minigun and fusing it with a well-used former rental G&G CM16 Raider-S AEG, the Mini-Franken was somewhat lacking in the aesthetics department unless you squint really really hard. Our solution? To give this bad boy the paint job it should have had from the start, and refresh our old Halloween special for the spooky season of 2022!
We started by rummaging in our spray paint collection and separating the wheat from the chaff, choosing only the most spooky colours we could find. The Mini-Franken was then disassembled to protect its highly advanced internal wiring, sound effects board and LEDs, and with some careful-ish application of masking tape, the painting could begin!
With our colours chosen, our first coat was then applied. A spooky yet highly boring matt black. YAWN. We can do better!
To give a bit of a Destiny vibe, we went with a flat grey for our second coat, focussing on the upper receiver and its plethora of sci-fi greebles. Some small details were masked off before applying this coat so we can go in later with a paintbrush and add some accents to give the Mini-Franken a bit more visual interest and make the most of its more unique attributes.
Obviously, this contraption was never going to look factory fresh, and with that in mind we turned our attention to applying some "natural" wear. We dry-brushed a second, slightly lighter grey over the top of our grey spray job to add some depth and take the Mini-Franken in a battle worn direction.
With the grey parts worn down a reasonable amount, we removed our sketchy masking job to work on the barrels. The masking did not go well, but that is usually what happens when you use paper instead of proper masking tape! Black paint was applied with a brush to clean up the masking fails, and Tamiya Bronze was dry-brushed over the barrels, with a second lighter dry-brush of Bronze 50/50 mixed with chrome silver applied towards the muzzle in an attempt to simulate burns from muzzle flash.
To lean into the battle-worn look and give the Mini-Franken some sci-fi legitimacy we hit the corners of the receiver and all the raised edges with a metallic dry brush, making use of the leftover paint from the barrels. A few attempts at scratches were made, and most of them look acceptable thank goodness! The inexplicable tubes at the back of the receiver were dry brushed up through several shades of metallics, finishing with a Tamiya Chrome Silver highlight.
Next up, we needed to make the lower receiver of the Raider-S look like it has been around for a few centuries, and our technique? Dry brushing, of course! We gave the whole receiver a dry brush with our Bronze/Chrome mix, and then hit the raised edges where more wear would naturally develop with a light dry brush of Chome Silver on its own to make the wear really pop.
And that's the painting done! There is still some work to do to add some details though, spray paint can only go so far. We used Acrylic paint pens to add some details to the little vents and ports on the sides of the Mini-Franken, appropriately indicating that something spooky, perhaps a Nuclear Reactor, is powering this beast! In reality it is 3xAA batteries and a 7.4V LiPo stick, but who cares about reality? 'Tis the season of escapism!
Now, obviously being powered by something that glows yellowy-green, the Mini-Franken must be really, really dangerous. We are very safety conscious here at Patrol Base, so we adorned either side with hazard stripes in what we envision are the most dangerous areas, made using yellow electrical tape (aka cheating). We did originally intend to paint these on, but we also have real work to do, and electrical tape is quick, gives a nice solid yellow and comes in nice straight lines straight from the roll!
The final touch will be to add a kill tally to the remains of the Krytac Trident PDW stock, and an I.D number. We used our acrylic paint pens like the lazy buggers we are, marking 13 kills on the right side, then washing it out with a wet cloth, and "BYB-01" on the left side over the top of some black watered-down acrylic.
Finally, a small spooky ghost was added to the lanyard loop below the front grip, and a terrifying pumpkin was added to the random loop on the right rear of the receiver. Without further ado, here is the Mini-Franken, ready to send chills down the spine of all who cross its path!
Rough though she may be, the Mini-Franken looks way better with its grimy new finish, and spookier to boot! A quick reminder for those who missed the original build blog, this total build including the paint and Aldi Halloween decorations cost less than 60 quid!
This is why the Boneyard is great; with a bit of creativity and elbow grease, you can get hold of discounted AEGs and do the Dr Frankenstein thing: Tear it apart, hybridise it with whatever you fancy and have an AEG that looks like nothing else in this world (for good reasons, or bad!).
We hope you enjoyed this Boneyard Build Blog, and that you have a fantastic Halloween, whether you treat yourself to coming to the HALO MILL Halo-Ween Airsoft event or trick yourself into staying at home!
Whatever you get up to this spooky season, it is always important to remember never to take your Airsoft gun out on Halloween, even if it is two-tone, and even if it is an unrealistic monstrosity like the Mini-Franken!