Yeah SM3k tanks suck. I have had 3 have the exact same problem as you. I would go with a 2k tank, or an at3k tank, as I like those too. If you really want to be classy, a SM1.5k would work really well too.

I'm glad to see that this isn't unusual, that popping noice scared the crap out of me haha.

Banchee: well ROF is not that important for my purposes, the more power i can get the better, however I have a size limit since this thing will be roughly fitting in a maverick shell, a titan tank would be too big. I have a 18inch barrel on this thing, and before the sm3k tank blew i was getting 120ft flat, so I would like a tank that would keep my ranges around that or, of course, more

Well then, I would have to agree with everyone else when we say AT2K tanks. They're cheap, easy to find, and the guns themselves are small. Not to mention its very easy to integrate the guns in other places.

But with it off it rotates and fires normally. That's strange. I could help more if i actually owned one, I have a few RF20's and to my understanding they're the same gun in different plastics, but I can't think of anything that's going wrong. Perhaps just take everything out and put it back in, sometimes that helps.

Or possibly you're having the problem that happens to a good percentage of RF20's. Sometimes out of the box, they don't rotate. The slide doesn't return far enough back to catch another notch in the turret and doesn't rotate. If thats the case then there is nothing to my knowledge that can fix it.

From the sounds of it you've done so much structural damage that repair isn't worth it. Anything is fixable, but it'd cost you more money than a new LS. I say, get a new one and scrap out the old one, use the clips and springs and stuff.

Yes, descriptive is good. What do you mean crossbow configuration?

hmmm i think its leaking air... because when i pump it i here something that sounds like a slurping sound.

First of all, You should really try and improve your grammar and capitalization. Its very unprofessional. I see you've been around Haven for long enough to understand the rules. I hate to be the nagging prick who tell you to follow the rules but I hate seeing good members kicked out.

So to the SSPB, it sounds like toy cut the barrel off too much or you damaged it when you ripped the peg out. These guns are very finicky when it comes to modding. Doing what Dayko said will work, but one you find the leak, there is only so much you can do about it.

Most people just saw them off, but what you need to do is get a really sharp but thin knife and a couple flat head screw drivers and work your way down the crack where the black meets the silver. The "spoiler" is glued on to the rest of the body for whatever reason, you just have to cut through it on all 4 sides and the thing will pop right open. Also from my experience unless you're doing a paint job or some crazy RF20 overhaul, you don't even need to open the gun all the way to mod it.

I am going to have to go with you not putting it together right. I doubt that Hasbro redesigned the longshot and didn't make it look or function any differently. This happens to me all the time and I find its usually that the plunger tube is rotated in its place or something is missing.

okay i have this nerf maverick nad i want to mod it. So far i have the barrel modded to come out more and the ar's removed. But the ar's arent fully removed. The ar cap thingy that has the stem i just cut off the stems. i just want to have more mods for it cuz it sucks balls.

ranges:
40-50ft flat
60-80ft angled.

My modded nf does:
60-80ft flat
80-100+ft angled

First, check the modification directory. there's a whole section devoted to JUST the mav. JUST LIKE THERE IS FOR EVERY GUN.

Also, I cannot beleive those mav ranges. period. Those NF ranges seem a bit high too...

well it was estimated or maybe i got it mixed up

Also, don't use your feet to count unless they're exactly 12 inches like mine, but even then, I use a really long tape measure. I got a 100 footer at the Home Depot for like 8 bucks. INVEST.

Does it rotate manually? Does it rub against anything? Does the piston move or is it just the turret that doesn't move?

A while back for a contract I took a key chain laser pointer, a really nice one, and installed it in the spot where the light is. I hooked it up to the batteries and had a perfectly accurate laser sight that could be seen indoors over 100 feet away. I had it set up so at 40 feet the dot was exactly where the dart will hit.If you want a serious laser sight, I suggest doing that. Just don't shine it in peoples faces.

Oh snap... I'm thinking of the wild fire.... haha.

So over the past few mod write-ups that I've done, I've been getting numerous PM's and comments about people wanting to learn how to do some of the paint jobs that I've done. So I'm going to write a detailed guide for people of any experience level. So if you know a thing or two about painting, don't be insulted by how dumbed down this tutorial will be, its meant for beginners. Most of us could've already figured out how to do simple paint jobs like this, but I plan on doing multiple painting tutorials in the future. I plan to cover everything from simple two-tone to wood-graining and marbling. I've painted cars, trucks, guitars, motorcycles, ATV's, etc. and I'm going to try and explain this in the simplest, most cost effective way I can.

The first thing you need to do is disassemble the gun. I've seen a ton of paint jobs done from various people where they painted the gun while it was still together. This is a huge NO-NO. The paint can jam up things like slides, triggers, and other moving parts, not to mention is just looks terrible when you're done! ALWAYS take apart your guns before painting them. If you're too inexperienced to remove every part from your gun and get it put back together right, consider painting something simpler.

Step 1: TAPING

Taping is generally the first step to painting if you don't have any kind of serious prep work to be done. Prep work would go first, which includes sanding, priming, body filling, etc. and we might get into that on another day. But in this tutorial, we're using some of the original colors from the factory on our test subject. Now the more perceptive of you may have noticed, our test subject is a Nite Finder.



We want to keep the original handle, light, and logo colors from the factory. I do this to most of my Nite Finders to keep a more "stock" type of look, because I'm only changing the yellow color of the gun. That way it looks like it could've come from the factory that way. It's just a personal preference and its also the simplest and quickest way to paint most Nerf guns.



Now go ahead and begin taping off your gun. I taped off the black and grey areas. The best tape I've found for painting is Scotch 3M blue painters tape. There are a few types of 3M painters tape, the light blue is the best. The darker blue "Safe-Release" tape is absolute crap, DON'T use it. I haven't had any luck with frog tape either because both of them have very little "stick" to them and they peel up after a few minutes. Frog Tape is great for cars and such, but for small items with tight curves, you're going to want a stronger stick tape.

When taping, put tape on the area you want to cover and go over the edges of the area. Then once all the tape is covering your area, go over it with a hobby knife and trim the tape off the areas you want to paint. This takes a little practice, and if you use a sharp blade, you don't need very much pressure, so don't dig into your gun with the knife.



For taping the logo, you're going to want to use a tape that is flexible. Painters tape is not flexible at all, so I use electrical tape. E-Tape makes a great painters tape, it sticks well, comes off clean, and its flexible, which makes it great for certain applications. However its not as cheap and not as wide as painters tape, so I don't suggest you use it for everything.

Before we move on to the next step, you need to take some rubbing alcohol or wax remover to the surface of your gun and make sure that you get all the dust and finger oils off. Acetone is generally not a good idea because it eats the plastic away. It makes for a good painting surface though, but I don't advise using it unless you really know what you're doing. If you have sticker residue or some other kind of adhesive that alcohol wont take off, I use a chemical called "Xylene". You can get it at paint shops, and maybe your local hardware store if you're lucky. It takes almost any adhesive off without hurting the surface underneath and works MUCH better than Goo-Gone in just about every situation. I use it for everything, its a must-have for any serious painter. (But I will warn you, it takes most of the Nerf ink off the guns, like the grey and black area's of the Nite Finder.)

A lot of people feel a primer, sanding, or both is necessary for the paint to adhere. This is an option, but as far as spray paint goes, some primers just don't work. Krylon primer is basically useless. It doesn't stick to any surface any better than the actual paint itself, and it leaves a much worse texture behind than the paint would which requires sanding. If you think you need a primer, shell out the extra cash for some more expensive primer like Duplicolor or some automotive primer. Plastic primer works too, but I've had plastic primer that peeled off in sheets once it was dry. I just skip the confusion and go straight to painting. If you have a good clean surface and you paint it right, the paint should stick just fine. Besides, most of the durability comes from the clear coat.

Step 2: BASE COAT



For this demonstration, we're using a metallic silver base coat, a candy color coat, and a clear top coat. This is a common procedure used my paint profession all over. The base coat can be silver or white, as long as its metallic. Try experimenting with both colors to get your desired result, but for this we're using silver. I'm using Rustoleum metallic Silver as opposed to Krylon or Duplicolor because it has a much larger metal flake in the paint which makes the gun really pop in the sunlight. Use the same metallic I did. Rustoleum sells a few kinds of metallic paint including a "chrome" paint, and the others are garbage, don't use them.

When you paint, I find the best way is to hold the part in your hand. Wear a glove or put your arm in a trash bag so you don't paint yourself. Lying the part on a flat surface makes it difficult to see all the parts of the gun while you paint it, so I advise holding it like so:



Now proceed to the painting. Start painting in the hardest to reach places to avoid paint runs. I usually put an extremely light coat on first, almost impossible to see. Its more of an overspray than a coat. This acts sort of like a primer and helps the next coat stick a little better. If you go in for a thick coat right from the beginning, it can potentially bead, and the metal flakes can sometime cluster and look really bad. After about 5 coats, it should look like this:



Step 3: CANDY COAT

Now the color comes from the candy coat. Candy is a transparent paint that adds color to whatever is underneath it. In this case, it's a silver base coat, and we're using a purple candy, so it will turn into a metallic purple. Which I don't know if any of you have every looked at your local Home Depot, but they don't exactly have metallic purple in spray cans (at least not where I live) so this is a great way to get the color you want. There are a few kinds of candy paints that I've used. The best is the kind you use in an airbrush, but we're using rattle can's, so your easiest to find options will be Krylon X-Metals, and Duplicolor Metalcast. The Metalcast is a much better candy. Its bright, goes on very smooth and even, strong as nails, and takes clear coat nicely. The X-metals is pretty crappy. It goes on thicker and its hard to get an even coverage. But what really gets me, is that the clear coat I use sucks the candy coat into it which reveals the base coat in places, so you have to be careful to avoid it. Make sure the candy is dry first if you use X-Metals. But it you use the Metalcast, you can recoat and clear coat at any time you want. But I will say this, the Metalcast costs twice as much. It's about $10 a can found at most auto-parts stores.

But regardless, the X-metals that I used turned out quite nice:



Step 4: CLEAR COAT

The clear I used is Deft. It's meant for furniture, but I find that it sticks really well to just about everything. Its about $5-$6 a can at Home Depot and it goes a really long ways. I used to use Kyrlon Crystal Clear which is about $3, but it never dries as hard as Deft, doesn't go on as smooth, and it's nowhere near as shiny. I recommend that you give Deft a try if your other clear coats have let you down.

The process that I use to get such a high level of shine is what I call "flooding". Which is just as it sounds, you flood the gun with so much clear so fast that it eliminates the orange peel texture that leads to a dull surface. Now you can't do flooding with all kinds of clear. Krylon Crystal Clear is thick and it runs easily, and it doesn't spray out smooth at all. Deft comes out in a very fine mist, its thinner than Krylon, and you can get a very thick coat of it on without it running. This takes some practice and your first few tries will probably have some runs in it.

This picture shows one half with clear coat, which is on the left, and the other half without clear coat on the right. So can see that added benefits of a clear coat cosmetically, aside from the fact that it makes your paint much more durable. I tried to get a good picture of the difference but the sun was behind my fence so I didn't have much light anymore.



Now you can let it dry for a day or so and put it back together! Mine turned out pretty good overall. I've done better, and shinier. The shine can't be properly be represented in a photo, I promise you it's much more impressive in person, but none the less, thats how you do a candy coat paint job.





Does anyone have any questions?

Amazing tutorial! Would it be possible to use a silver vinyl dye as a metallic base coat?

Yeah, that would work just fine. Anything will work, it just depends on what you use to get the desired result.

Oh!!! That spring, you should've said so. I thought we were talking about the main spring. That spring isn't that important, I'm sure it will fire fine. But no, you can't re compress it without a blow torch or something and its not worth it, you can get them at a hardware store.

Very clear, easy to read, and full of information, nice work! One question though, I've used acrylic paint (multiple coats) and then a Krylon Flat Clear Coat and it turned out fine with a nice texture, Is your's the gloss or flat? I like how flat looks better, but it could be something to do with the "shinyness" of the coat causing the strange texture.

I'm not sure what texture you're referring to, but the texture you get from spray paint is referred to as "orange peel" for obvious reasons. You get orange peel whether the paint is flat or high gloss, but its easier to see on glossy finishes. On most things that get painted, the orange peel is wet sanded off so you have a smooth surface, and then its polished to a mirror finish. You can't do that with Nerf guns, they're too small, so the best we can do is lay a really thick, wet coat of clear on it and let it dry.

If you use it enough it will eventually go back into shape but it might be weaker after that. Stretching springs is for children, men buy new ones.

So let me get this straight, you're a "loser"? Haha. Every noob falls for that one. And you have explosive missiles, that you fire at people? Not to be the one who says "safety first", but dear lord, that sounds like a bad idea... Not the concept of it, the use of it. Why would you do that?

Thank you for the picture, Hammy.  Indeed, the bolt does leak air very fast if the bolt is not securely fashioned.  Banshee, it may very well be that the bolt is not locked forward, despite outwardly appearing to be in the forwardmost position.  I'll look into putting back in some locks.  The blaster still gets identical ranges to my Longstrike with its AR removed and re-lubricated internals, which is about 50ft parallel to ground.  Was it just a myth perhaps that basic mods on a Longshot get 60ft+ ranges because of its huge plunger tube, stronger spring, and direct plunger setup?  Anyhow I will open up the blaster tomorrow and check the air seal when I push the bolt forward with the priming handle.




Thank you all for the helpful suggestions.

Yeah, I would say 60 feet is probably accurate. I don't know how strong your spring is, but when I add a NF spring with the stock spring along with basic mods, I get around 70-75 feet. But that's with a good NF spring, like one of the older ones. The new ones are almost useless because they're so weak.

Oh my god, resize your damn pictures man! And yeah, we nee some ranges or something.

If I had a nickel for every time I've seen a revision of my original Magstrike mod pop up somewhere on another forum, I could build 5 more semi-auto Magstrikes. Haha. You're the first to do it in a RF20 though, so props for that. It makes me proud to see that someone actually likes the things I do, so keep them coming! I'm still trying to find a way to make it true semi-auto. Not that it would fire any faster anyways. In the time it takes you to drop another round in the RSCB into the barrel, you can easily hit the fill button, so it really doesn't matter. Unless you're using a hopper... which I don't.

You may have unseated the tank o-ring which is a real pain to get back on, but its possible and a very common problem. Either way you need to open up the gun and look at the tank.

Oh my god, you just killed the only good part about this gun. You know I get those same ranges out of the box? I love my belt blaster, it destroys all in indoor wars. You just turned a $20 gun into an oversized rifle with the power of a nitefinder... You could've had 2 nitefinders. And everyone knows copper is a terrible barrel replacement.

It kind of sounds like the bolt isn't being returned completely forward. That means the plunger will hit the part you showed in the picture harder than normal, and because that piece isn't pushed all the way forward for the o-ring to seal, air escapes around it giving you poor performance and virtually no air seal. And because you took all the locking mechanisms out, you don't even have to return the bolt to the forward position to fire. You don't have to have the bar very far back at all to have this problem, maybe 1/8" to a few millimeters. You might not even notice it.

That's just a theory, but if that is whats happening, you need to open up the gun and manually operate it and see whats not working perfectly. Usually its just a misaligned part inside the gun.

I'd love to see a video of you using this just so I can have an idea of its practicality. I might want to do this. I wasn't before, because the only other version I've seen of this was done hideously, so I ignored it.

I know from experience that some employee's of stores like this can be stupid and have no idea what CPVC is. If you use the word PVC they might get it. I know this sounds stupid, but anything helps right?

I had this idea the other day for something to add to the personal profiles we all have here at Haven. If there was a section where we could upload pictures of our weapons and etc. with small bio's on each, we could all see who works with what. The newbies could easily see whats out there weapons wise without having to search real deep. This could be helpful for everyone!

I don't know who specifically to talk to about possibly getting this added to NH, so I thought I'd post my thoughts here and see who is for my idea.

Thanks
-Banshee

The modding directory has NOTHING to do with this. I hope you weren't being sarcastic either, I don't appreciate sarcasm...

HAHA!!! I went to Toy's R' Us today and lord behold, they are still selling rapid fire 20's. so i bought obne, took it home swapped out the broken parts with mine, took back the broken one and got my money back. so now I have a kickass machine gun! WOO HOO!!!

Thanks anyways everyone!

Lucky you...

I bought a rapid fire 20 last year cuz I thought it would be a sick addition to my arsenal. Right of of the box, I was not impressed. The rapid fire mode didn't work at all. It would fire one round and the white piece of plastic that turns the turret to the next round doesn't go back far enough to catch a new notch before the gun fires again. So all It does is shake all over the place and make a lot of noise. The single fire mode works though. But i can't hold down the trigger because it does the exact same thing the rapid fire mode did. So now I have to pull trigger hold it long enough for it to fire and quickly let go so it doesn't dry fire. and by doing that i can only fire of about 11 rounds before I'm out of air. So I decided the least I could do is open it up and plug that stupid pressure release valve. But OH NO!!! I can't get the freaking gun open! the stupid black fin on top wont freaking open up, it's even hack saw proof. plus half of my screws are stripped! So now I have this crap machine gun with saw marks on it, stripped screws, 20 extra darts, and its less practical than my maverick. And I'm 25 dollars short because of it.

Someone tell me there is a way to make this thing fire normally, PLEASE!!!

yeah.... But I lost the receipt and i couldn't find it when i wanted to return it, so i took out my hacksaw...

Yeah, that's great and all, but my idea was to collect all the scattered mods and paint jobs of each user and allow them to post it on there personal pages. I know there is something "sort of" like that, but my idea is based on a different concept. I'm offering the idea, merely as an option of something we COULD have. I don't want people to treat me like a newb and say "well here's what we do have, live with it". It's an idea

I understand that, I know how to make websites (barely) I'm just saying if we had the ability, that option would be pretty cool, I think.

Huh... It seems a little impractical to be completely honest with you. Maybe it's better for you, but I honestly think it would be easier to just pull the stock cocker arm. But hey, its your mod and I respect that you did it and it actually works. Well done!

Does the gun hold any pressure at all? make any noise? Does it dry fire? If no to any or all of these then you royally screwed your gun. I know those things are very sensitive and break easily if you cut the barrel off wrong. Also, even though your barrel might be tight, the gun still has enough power to move the dart AT LEAST half way out the barrel. So something is wrong...

Yeah, I sawed off the whole barrel up to the o-ring, then put on a crayola barrel and I'm getting around 50' with mine. It was super quiet and made these little ping noises when I shot it. Then I made a silencer and I can't here a single thing.

I've never used epoxy putty before, but I have to agree with Angle, Bondo gets pretty brittle. It flakes off and chips easy, so when you paint it, the Bondo is first to go. I used plastic wood once. It doesn't hold to the plastic real great sometimes but its sandable and dries real fast, I use it for screw hole and stuff that I want to fill in.

I used to have the same water gun, and I cut the nozzle off and glued a piece of CPVC to it. It took forever to pump it up, but mine got pretty good ranges, though not quite that good. Water guns have a lot of potential for conversion because they have a higher volume of air than pretty much every nerf gun out there.

Very true. The reason most people don't use squirt guns is because the ROF is so little because you have to pump it so much. I highly recommend my pump mod. It takes 4 seconds to pump it if you're quick!

Amazing. And those ranges are un-angled, right?
That's got some serious power...

Actually Those where angled ranges, I usually never do level shots, but i just did a level shot and it was about 140-150 feet and 13 pumps.

If I were you, I'd put a large piece of PVC over the entire tank like a sleeve and fill the whole gap all down it with epoxy... It'll never pop that way.