Assistant Curator Matt Sharpe dons the cover of NRA Insight's March Digital Edition.

Those of us working here at NRA Headquarters are asked, at times, to go the extra mile. Stay late for a project, give up a weekend to work at a show, or, as was the case with National Firearms Museum Assistant Curator Matt Sharpe, stand in as a model for NRA InSights magazine.

"They asked and I answered," said Sharpe. "Who wouldn't jump at the chance to appear in an NRA magazine."

Featured on the cover of InSight's March Digital Edition, Sharpe appears in Modern Day, Civil War, Revolutionary War and Pilgrim-era costumes ... with the appropriate firearm of course.

Titled When Guns were Young, Sharpe is featured in an article written by Senior Curator Doug Wicklund about the birth of firearms. Starting with the hand cannon and moving on to the edge of flintlocks and wheellocks, Wicklund provides the basics of firearm evolution for Insight's young readers.

None of this would be possible, of course, without a helping hand from Matt.

"Oh Matthew was a real trooper," said Wicklund. "It's not as easy as it looks. Between the heavy period costumes and bright lights for the photo shoot, he probably dropped a few pounds just standing there. But he did get some great pictures with a number of historically significant firearms."

Here's Sharpe in action:

Assistant Curator Matt Sharpe in a Civil War era costume.

NRA Museum Assistant Curator Matt Sharpe in his Revolutionary War best

Sharpe in his final costume ... from the time of Plymouth Rock.