Not sure how I ended up on that attendance list, as the first I've heard of it was a few minutes ago, but I'm coincidentally pretty likely to go. Carpool with teh bspo! Maybe Darkshrimp or Gears is interested?

Whoops, I saw a name on the Facebook attendance list that I thought was yours.

Just a quick bump. I actually need to pull out of attending due to a friend's wedding, but I'm still tracking the thread to field any questions.
The FB event is getting huge, this is going to be an exciting war.

Date corrected.

T Dog is right, be careful with your blasters. No standard blasters are banned outright, but you might want to pack a Longshot or something for game balance.

As for the ridiculous waiting times, the UMD guys are trying to cut them down this year. The main problem was that they had to make sure no one was still playing the finished game. More efficient match-ending, combined with a stopwatch, should increase the nerfing-to-bullshitting ratio.

I improved Aeromech's quick-change hopper design with a 3D-printed tongue on a metal spring.

 

It's now reliable, shake-proof, and durable enough for war use.

 

 

Writeup and 3D model soon!

Nerf-brand guns are expensive everywhere. If you're looking for deals, you'll need to hunt online or use Ebay, Craigslist, the Trading forum, or trading at wars.

If you're looking to make an entire hopper out of CPVC, it ain't gonna happen. 1/2" CPVC wyes are rare (if they even exist), and an dart wouldn't be able to turn in it anyways. The closest you can get is the normal PVC design Langley pointed out with a 1/2" blue copper hopper to save some dead space.

When you go to a war, it's BYOD - bring your own darts. Generally, each Nerfer brings a big batch of Stefans that they tailor for their specific style and blasters.

Sometimes a few guys will get together before a war and make some communal darts, but this is pretty rare - each Nerfer has their own special blend of weights, foam, glue, herbs, and spices, and no Nerfer will ever trust another's dartmaking skill.

So go pick up some 1/2" caulk saver, a big bag of BB's, some hot glue, and a long movie before your next war! How many you'll need depends on how you play - in one war, a friend of mine used only 50 darts, while I chewed up more than 200.

After each match, everyone dumps the darts they picked up into a bucket so each Nerfer might be able to salvage a few. Typically you'll only get about 10% of your darts back, and the last guy to leave usually embezzles the unclaimed darts.

With all the running around, I don't get cold. Instead of putting on long johns, I bust out the cold-weather arsenal: Wildfire, FuryFire, Crossfire, Stormfire, Firefly, Rapid-Fire 20, Strikefire, Triple Torch, and Vulcan.

I used to have problems with seals, then I started bringing a club to wars.

If you want to make your pipe last longer, you can cut little rings of CPVC instead of entire tubes.

Tactical Spatula!

You've opened the floodgates for some weird integrations.

Also, Chainblazers rule. Good job.

This guy's Recon packs an EMP that disables RFID tags and flash drives, a blinding flashbulb, an MP3 player, LED's, and it still works.

You can see a picture at the Nerf Facebook group:
http://www.facebook....id=158498753170

They probably appeal more to office warriors than little kids. It certainly gels with the tactical vests and other realistic accessories.
Will they replace regular darts? Probably not. Other accessories at the Toy Fair included regular orange Streamline Darts, so this will be a specialty item for the time being.

He's referring to a Longshot carbine, which is a shortened Longshot like the beautiful one I painstakingly broke down in my own write-up. Little shameless self-promotion never hurt anyone.

Anyways, BuzzBee blasters are generally lower-quality, have worse performance, and produce worse mods than Nerf blasters. They're made of cheaper materials, aren't as comfortable, have weird design quirks (DoubleShot) and sometimes use those janky shells.

The major exceptions to the rule are BuzzBee's air-powered blasters, especially the BuzzBee Big Blast (BBBB). Single-shot air blasters are the most powerful weapons you can get for a small amount of money and modding time, and Nerf doesn't make them any more. The Big Blast is cheap ($10), easy to mod, and ridiculously powerful (100ft easy). It's probably the most common blaster at wars and a great one to start out with.

Generally, Nerf blasters are more expensive, higher quality, have more complex mechanisms, and are more powerful stock. BuzzBee blasters are much cheaper, vary in quality, and are fairly simple to mod. I'd say to pick up a couple of Big Blasts or a Berserker and experiment - you don't really have much to lose.

Would using wider PVC make the Mobstacle more stable?
Could solvent-welding it together make it solid enough that you don't need tensioning cords?
If the cloth is left loose, would it be less likely to tear when shot?

Both breeches operate the same way. The brass in the plunger tube slides snugly into the larger brass in the barrel extension. When you close the breech, the plunger brass slides into the barrel brass and makes a seal.

 

The difference is that Jay cut a tongue into the plunger brass and Walcom didn't. Otherwise, the mods are identical.

 

The tongue guides the plunger brass into the barrel brass, preventing it from misaligning and jamming open. It also provides a smooth guide rail to help you slide the dart into loaded position. Otherwise, it shouldn't affect performance or functionality.

 

The drawback of Jay's mod is that it's difficult to cut a good tongue into brass. Ideally, you'd use a bandsaw or a bench-mounted Dremel and vise so you can cut an even, symmetrical tongue. The cleanup is also tricky - you need to round off the sharp brass edges and carefully bend it back into shape.

 

The downside of Walcom's mod is that it's marginally harder to load the blaster. Also, if something flexes or shifts, the brass pieces can misalign, and instead of closing and sealing, the plunger brass will push the barrel brass out of the blaster and bend out of shape.

Walcom's is flush up agents the brass breech and the receiving piece of brass goes into the breach and in Jay's the piece of brass in the breach has a bit sticking out and that goes into the receiving piece. so that doesn't make a difference ?

 

and this would be my 1st breach mod what one would YOU recommend ?   

 

Ang Jay also mentions 1/2 inch brass, why is this and is it better to use 1/2 inch brass instead of the 17/32 inch brass ?

I wouldn't recommend doing either one. Breeches are difficult mods that need to be executed very well to even work. You seem fairly new to Nerf. I'd do easier mods and get used to working with brass, then tackle this one.

 

If I were to do one of these, I'd do Walcom's mod. It's easier to build and more likely to perform reliably.

 

1/2" brass has a snug fit on stock darts. 17/32" brass has a snug fit on most Slugs and other Foam Backer Rod-based homemade darts. You will select the barrel diameter that fits your loadout, and select the other brass parts to fit snugly against that. 

 

You shouldn't worry so much, and just buy some materials and see how things fit. Even if you make a massive mistake, this mod only takes $30 of materials.

There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding trigger actions in multi-shot Nerf blasters. Terms like semiautomatic and automatic get thrown around in the wrong contexts, leaving a lot of confusion. I've outlined the basic trigger action styles here, with examples. These definitions apply to any Nerf blaster with a mechanism for loading subsequent shots. Single-shot blasters like the Nite Finder that require manual reloading don't count.

Single Action - In a single-action blaster, a new dart will not automatically load and the blaster must be primed again before another shot is fired. The user must manually turn a turret, pull a lever, tilt the blaster forward, etc to load the next round. Modded blasters that use the Firefly turret, shotgun speed-loaders, RSCB's and inline clips are single action. Single-action blasters have the lowest rate of fire of repeating blasters, since the user must do two actions to fire a new round.

Double Action - In a double-action blaster, the blaster must be primed before each shot. Unlike a single-action blaster, the act of priming or firing a double-action blaster causes another dart to load. This eliminates the action of manually advancing the mechanism. Most revolvers, such as the Maverick, Fury Fire, Doomsayer, and Firefly are double-action. In addition, the Longshot and Recon are double-action, since they must be primed before each shot. Double-action blasters have higher rate of fire than single-action blasters, but the need to re-prime makes them slower than semi- or full-auto blasters.

Semi-Automatic - Once a semi-automatic blaster is primed, multiple shots can be fired without needing to manually advance or re-prime. Pulling the trigger automatically advances and releases a new round. However, continuing to pull the trigger does not cause additional rounds to be fired. The Hornet is the most common semi-automatic blaster at this point. Semi-automatic blasters can fire as rapidly as the user can pull the trigger, giving them excellent rate of fire.

Automatic - Also called fully automatic. Once an automatic blaster is primed and the trigger is pulled, darts will continue to advance and fire until the trigger is released. This gives the blaster unbeatable rate of fire, since the rate that darts are released is only limited by the speed of the mechanism. Common automatic blasters are the Magstrike, Vulcan, and Tommy 20.

Preemptive Q and A:
Q: But I thought my Longshot was semi-auto! A: Fire a shot and pull the trigger again. If another dart doesn't fire, it ain't semi-auto.
Q: You don't know what you're talking about. A: Entirely possible - if you spot an error, let me know.
Q: How can it be double-action? Nerf blasters don't have hammers! A: Double and single action are based on their definitions for revolvers. A double-action revolver also advances the cylinder. Some liberty was taken here, since double-action revolvers are technically semi-automatic.

I wrote this in response to this thread in particular. I feel like having concrete definitions helps avoid ambiguity.

Single- and double-action in this context refer to whether a new round is automatically chambered or not.

After reading the responses, I feel like I created more confusion than I was trying to solve, and have cluttered the board. If this isn't necessary, you know what to do, close 'er on up.

This sounds too complicated to implement at a real war. It's too difficult to measure range on the field, and many players only have one primary. At a highly structured Nerf war (Oxymoron!), this could work, I suppose. Some suggestions:

- Range penalties should use a logarithmic scale. The difference between 30 and 50 feet is negligible, but the difference between 80 and 100 feet is game-breaking.

- Players should only be ranked by their highest-point-value blaster. From what I've seen, it's prohibitively difficult to carry more than one primary, and merely switching between a primary and a sidearm is borderline impossible. The power difference between a player with two +Bows and a player with one +Bow is probably nonexistent.

Moral of the story: Play the Shields game type!

Never dry-fire your springer! Even if you've got the plunger head padded with a ton of sponge rubber, it ain't a good idea for any reason.

If you need to 'expel dust', disassemble your blaster and swab that shit out with a Q-tip! Firing your blaster with dust in it scratches your O-ring and plunger tube, anyways.

Slick integration. Did you use clear-coat on the paint, or is that shiny right out of the can?

NLKM asked me to RSVP for him as a strong tentative yes.

I need darts, BTW. I'll bring a bunch of barrels so nearly any fit will work, but I'd prefer MrCrouse's thick beige foam.

Well, shit. If DX, Lucian, Z80, and all the rest are coming, I can't say no. Count me in.

DX, bring an airgun!

I'm taking the train in. Can anyone pick me up at Mamaroneck station at 9:15?

So I unearthed an ancient cache of slingshot darts. What do you guys think, are they unsafe coming out of the Super Soaker?

I need darts, BTW. I'll bring a bunch of barrels so nearly any fit will work, but I'd prefer MrCrouse's thick beige foam.

ZAck you on campus? If you help me make some darts I'll give you some. I just have to find materials...

Yeah, I'm on campus. We should do a dartmaking/modding/drinking party.

I know you said 130 only, but I used all Hellcats on my Rapidstrike and they're the nuts.

Flywheels rev up in about 150ms and the pusher cycle takes about 110ms.

Dynamic braking is also great. No pusher overshoot at all and flywheels come to a complete stop in about 100ms.

The motors don't really protrude too far through the shell. You could patch the holes with some styrene if you don't have access to a 3d printer.

If somebody in the future wanted to try and keep everything in the shell, it would make much more sense to just use some type of tubing that is already flexible.

I don't think that would work - the rotation mech is actually braced against the upward air pipe. Normally, it's held in place by a green bushing on the missile tube, but once this mod is performed, the air pipe serves this purpose. I feel like a flexible tube would jam the rotation mech and eventually get sliced through, but definitely give it a try!

You should try to give it wings

All in good time...

You should paint the rest of it with 50's Japanese monster movies art. A video would be good...

It's going to get a hammered-gold paint job, and the side sticker will be replaced with a piece of a Godzilla movie poster. It needs to wait, since spraypaint doesn't come out well in cold weather. It will eventually get a video, though.

Couldn't you just take a heat gun to some CPVC and bend it so it fits in the shell? This would remove the need of an elbow and cut down on the dead space.

I suppose I could. That will eliminate the elbow, but how would that save dead space? Also, getting the length of the CPVC segments is pretty tricky.

Rearloading and a pump replacement do seem to be pretty popular requests. Because of the sloppy way I closed up the turret, rearloading is impossible, but I could add it if someone would give me a replacement turret (wink wink).

I'm still trying to find a good place to drop a new pump. Any ideas?

Very nice job this thing is now a beast.
9/10, (doesn't have the wings...)

Agreed, when are the wings going on? I keep checking this thread, waiting.

I was kinda kidding...
Have you put the other 10ft. of PETG in yet?
I couldn't really tell by the pics.
If this was mentioned I apologize.

Unfortunately, OMC's not stocked with PETG, so this thing's stuck in half-barreled limbo. If someone's willing to sell or trade ten feet, shoot me a PM.

There's definitely a lot of interest in those wings! I was planning on waiting til the springtime to add the wings and give it a paint job, but I could move my schedule around a bit. Keep your peepers peeled.

I think he is reffering to the straw mod on the mav: Putting it inside the plunger tube, in this case the CPVC. Wrapping it in tape a bunch of times and gooping it into the cpvc connections might improve ranges.

I thought about that, but decreasing the inner diameter would also restrict the airflow. While the elbow puts in a lot of dead space, the 4B tank also moves air very quickly. I'm not sure on this - does the restricted airflow outweigh the dead space?

Just for clarification, you pump the gun, cycle the shotgun style grip at the front, and then fire?

Exactly! The pump action is still fully functioning.

Maybe I missed something...but you removed the spring plunger system? I don't see why you would do that... My (unfinished) version leaves it in the center but adds a Marvelous Salvo to the turret for a Seoul Style Smackdown.

Why didn't you leave in the spring system, but just direct the BBBB part to the top of the turrect as you did? it would allow for both, since one fires from the top, and the other the bottom. The only problem is barrel length.

I took out the springer for a few reasons. First, there's no way that pissant little plunger tube would manage to get a dart down a foot of PETG. Second, it would make the blaster harder to pump. Third, it increases the number of breakable moving parts. Finally, the LSFG handle doesn't have two triggers.

And of course you'd add a Marvelous Salvo to it, Seoul. You put Salvos on fucking everything. That's a really good idea, but 20 isn't a multiple of 3! That kind of thing bugs the crap out of me.

This station always takes requests! You suggested, I listened. I present to you... Daikaiju! Mark 1.1! Now with 100% more basketball pumps and rearloading!


Mmm, Spalding. I sawed off the pump tube and glued this puppy on with a big wad of epoxy putty, a la Rork's Mega Missile Decrapified. The tank's full in 2.5 pumps, 3 if I feel like living dangerously.


A close-up of the rearloading hole. To prevent losing darts, I made this chute out of thin aluminum plate.


According to your mom, size matters. My blaster is four feet long. What about yours?

Now that I have your attention, I'd like to show you a Berserker with the air tank hooked up to the turret - the two blasters 'fused' together. 20 shots, 4B ranges, and all that good stuff. I also replaced that gawd-awful handle with one from the Longshot Front Gun and installed a little somethin-somethin in the middle of the turret. I dub this thing... DAIKAIJU! Means 'giant monster' in Japanese.

This mod is dedicated to Muttonchops, who mentioned the original idea at Apoc 09. Soon afterwards, he took a 3B barrel to the face, meaning that someone up there did not want this blaster to be made.

It's a little tough to pull apart and reassemble, so this isn't a true write-up. I'll touch on the interesting bits, which will hopefully be enough to make your own.


Here's a pic of the internals. The air goes out of the top of the tee, through an elbow, and into the top barrel. A cut-down neoprene washer helps prevent some air loss. I tore out the now-obsolete springer components.


This is the bread and butter of this mod. In a stock Berserker, the missile-launching post is attached directly to the air tank, and serves as the spindle for the turret. I sawed off the entire barrel, down to the blast chamber itself, and replaced it with a CPVC tee. Note how the tee is cut down to lie flat on the blast chamber - this ensures that the turret actuator can move correctly.

I plugged up the end of a piece of CPVC and inserted it into the tee to serve as a new spindle. To get the actuator to fit, I enlarged the hole to fit over the tee. A few wraps of electrical tape eliminated the wiggle room. I added an extra spring to the ratchety thingy so the pump could apply more force to turn the turret.


To kill the air restrictors, I used a 1/2" spade bit to annihilate the entire contents of each barrel. To fill the dead space and create a better seal, I hot-glued a segment of stock dart into each barrel and melted off the excess with a high-speed Dremel. Not the best solution, but it worked.
I replaced this with a new turret for rearloading action!


To get the air pipe to fit, I had to cut a slot in the shell and clean out some of the plastic. It's pretty straightforward - just grind away till it fits.


I hacked off the Oompa-Loompa-scale handle, ground the tabs off a Longshot Front Gun handle, cut a slot in the shell, and Fly Tier's Glued the handle in. Fits like a glove. The topmost screw on the new handle will be covered by the Berserker shell, so remove it first.


I drilled a hole in the LSFG handle's trigger tab, bent the longer firing pin to fit, and installed it all. The trigger pull is just enough to set off the blast chamber, and the internal extension spring makes the trigger spring unnecessary.


The finishing touches - A King Ghidora 'hood ornament' and ten feet of PETG. Why PETG? It's nice and light. Why not 20 feet? Because 10 feet is all I had!

Here's some gun porn for ya:



Check out Version 1.1, with rearloading and a basketball pump!

This mod took around six hours over two days and cost about $35, including the Berserker.

It doesn't matter if I'm in a wheelchair, if there is another war at UMD, I will be there.

For the goobers: Don't make a war decision based on whether or not you have the right blaster. Even if you don't, someone will be able to lend you one.

Got your PM, White Moonlight. No can do - I'm moving back to school tomorrow and can't possibly get to PA the next day. Hopefully I'll see y'all at the PANO's, assuming I'm able to go.

Someone left behind a slick NiteFinder with a distinctly-colored battery cap. More info Here.

I might be there. I think the next day's the first day of college. If I do show up, I'll bring cookies.

I'll be there if the weather is decent and I'm not hungover my hangover won't interfere with my aim.

My guns are in in a state of horrible disrepair at the moment

At least you have a working NiteFinder...