Help with Weapon swapping (Blueprints noob)

Hi everyone, I just want to say in advance thank you for taking the time to read through this.
I was wondering if someone can walk me through (whether broad of detailed), the process of swapping weapons (in my case a space ship). In my game ‘Super Hyper Flight Shooter’ the player has 2 tiers of weapons “Secondary”, and “Special” weapons. I would like the player to swap weapons instantaneously throughout the game. Ideally there will be a nice little animation played for each weapon that mounts and dismounts on the ship. Also there is a Power Boost pickup that the player will collect in order to use the Special Weapon. Power Boost will also have an animation mounting to the ship.

Should the weapons be in the same fbx file as the ship and hidden and be reveled when the player calls for that weapon? Or is it easier to have the weapons and other attachments be seperate fbx files?

I know there are Blueprint tutorials, but sometimes I believe I benefit from learning specific things I need. Just kind of my method of practical learning.

Thank you all again in advance for your help.

The most flexible approach would probably be to have the weapons as separate models. This makes it easier to add new weapons or replace them as the project evolves.

When doing an actual switch, you would first play some “hiding” animation on the current weapon, then destroy or hide that node - then spawn and attach (or unhide in a concealed position) the new weapon and play its “reveal” animation.

There are many different ways this coud be accomplished. Experiment!