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That pic! hahaha! I feel seen. Last weekend's hacking was some tiny details. This is my Before pic. It's not too bad I guess. There's decent detail. It's serviceable. But it could be better. Accurate screw/nut vs the huge thing that came with the mold. Much better! This was super easy, so I decided to start in on the three capacitors. I'll admit, they look rather wonky in this shot. They seemed a bit better IRL. They're barely visible anyway though. And just like that they're installed! This took an incredible amount of grinding to fit. The "floor" beneath these capacitors needed to be mostly flattened to get them all fitting underneath the center support/divider thing. But they fit! Rear insulators painted black, front insulators painted brown. I built the front support piece and ran wires through, around, and over. Some tiny resistors made their way underneath each capacitor. You can also just barely see the front wing. And wired up. It really looked like a mess until the spiffy red wires made their appearance. I no longer hate this and am pretty dang proud of the result. They're gonna need some careful weathering to really bring them out. And then... Reposting this to show that sad front sight. Look at that tiny thing. It's a bit better already. Please be forgiving when looking at this. I molded and sculpted this in place without removing the guard frame. It's not quite correct. The dimensions are a bit too large overall, but it's decent, about the right shape, and much much better than the nothing that was there before. The little block is made out of POR15 epoxy clay. It's easy to work and something I've used several times before. It smooths when wet and cures in about an hour. I sculpted the blocks with long thin screwdrivers. I cut down a threaded rod as per Tino's excellent tutorial. Drilled in place. I used green stuff to get the two metal pieces protruding to where I wanted them. And painted! Everything is protected by the guard. I also sanded the front of the guard flat to remove knurling where it shouldn't be. SO MUCH BETTER! Not perfect, but better than what was there. And for being sculpted in place I'm quite happy with the result. I'm feeling good about the blaster now. It's about time for paint and weathering.

Here are some progress photos!! So close to being done!! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1--wlD0xe9BOVdiw-FRWsUOw4kK3UmewD

Wow! What an update, Adam. Everything you did makes this blaster better.

The tooth pick and thinners or mineral turpentine trick generally works very well. I have also used the Testors brand of thinners to do this with no issue. Best recommendation I have for painting those Ab buttons neatly is, Don't drink coffee before you paint them lol, I didn't think Caffeine had an effect on me until I tried to paint some very fine details after my usual double shot

I'm quoting this bit because the importance of a nice brush cannot be overstated for any craft project. Truly a poor brush can make even the most simple job into a multi-day pain-fest. A $5 brush from the painting aisle in the hobby store is so very worth it and hardly more expensive than the trash Testors white handle model brushes. And that said, well done on the buttons.