See this is what I thought of first, but I want the gun to still be butterfly-able in case I need to take it apart for whatever reason. I did however use the putty to cement the springs together, that worked pretty well.

Glue the magazine onto one side of the shell instead of both.

There's a whole writeup for it here: http://nerfhaven.com...the-tornadobow/

Okay then you should be good. And you can get a decent caliper from Harbor Freight for like 12 bucks. They come in handy so much, its worth having one.

I don't have the measurements, but I'm back home and mine is in storage so I can get some accurate measurements with a caliper. I can have them to you within a day if no one chimes in.

I found the deoderant stick mag here and figured a way to change the design to make it cheaper. Also I don't live near a thrift store and don't have any money to get one. And with the pusher mech do you think if I made the mag I could still use the blowgun design.

Yeah probably. If you make the deodorant stick mag gravity fed, and glue it directly to the open pipe, then use the deodorant cap as the top of the mag that seals it off, I'd imagine it would work.

 

Also, MAD props for the amount of quality ideas you are able to come out with, with what you are given. This is definite proof that you do not need the best tools or materials to create something in this hobby.

It is so refreshing to see someone build a homemade with the main focus on cosmetics and mechanics rather than performance for a change. Thank you for this, and this truly unique priming system. I may be misinterpreting this, but you use a ramrod to push the plunger back and catch it, then place the ball in the barrel with another ramrod and fire. Is where the rival ball sits, and the plunger tube two different areas of the blaster? Does the Rival ball sit on the plunger head, in the plunger tube, or does it sit right outside of it, in a pressure fitted barrel?

 

Again fantastic work. If you haven't already, I'd recommend you enter this into Aeromech's homemade contest here: http://nerfhaven.com...riteup-contest/

 

EDIT: Did you make that chair in the pictures?

I guess I'll have to show up to this one huh? I'm more than ready for this war.

Idea: have Heartfoxx make a shell for a rainbow pump that has a stock mount!

Or we can put the work in ourselves as a community instead of outreaching for others to make it for us.

 

And this is the kind of attitude that is going to keep us "casuals" away from your NIC wars. There is already a division between NIC and Superstock so you guys can keep to yourself. I'm gonna keep having fun playing in public parks with blasters I don't have to worry about pelting pedestrians with.

Yeah, you were missunderstanding me a bit, and that's okay. That was totally my fault and did not intend to illicit that response. Honestly I felt that NIC powered blasters could be a little overpowering if I was playing with a lot of people running superstock blasters. As others have said, superstock definitely wins in rate of fire, but when you go to an NIC war, you'd expect the power coming out of a homemade or any other NIC blaster. If a bunch of people came to a SE war with superstock blasters because they are fans of our wars/people and want to go, no matter what type of play style we are running that day (NIC, superstock, etc), I wouldn't want to alienate people or have them feel burdensome.

 

That's what is difficult about the rise of Superstock with NIC, is that as long as its nerf, some people would just assume as long as its a nerf war, they'll be fine. Which may or may not be the case. Again, sorry for the confusion. Not trying to create any sort of animosity that isn't there.

If it's gonna be modular why not different sized magwells based on what you wanted to fire. For example insert a "mega plunger" a mega barrel and a mega magwell and now your gun shoots megas... if your really going modular make the swappable components self contained so you can do it at a war between rounds.

Not sure how easily the inside of a shell could be compatible with different styles of internals, but I like where that's heading. Big ideas, crazy ideas are some of the best ones. As seen on the centurion, micro mag well installation is possible. What I'm wondering however, is the practical application of this. Are we talking about a blaster people just buy and select their parts, and have a blaster ready to build shipped to them? Are we talking about stock caliber, when talking about elites and megas as you mentioned, or NIC style like some of the others?

Great work putting this together, hope to see more of them

 

Discussion Topic:

Do you feel superstock-style blasters and ammo are viable in an NIC war, where many people are using homemade darts and blasters? Would you be more or less likely to attend an NIC war that had a few superstock rounds mixed into it?

 

Super-stock blasters and ammo are definitely viable, only if you're willing to work to make it so. When we had people play in one of the opens fields we had with stock blasters, their best defense was agility. Superstock is very much a run-and-gun when put up against homemade caliber, hoppered blasters. As far as superstock being mixed in, I wouldn't mind a round or two. When we tried out awfuls rounds for the first time, it was much more enjoyable than I'd thought. However, as long as superstock doesn't dominate what we do, or what kind of crowd a war draws in, I don't mind. The minute the majority of people at a war have superstock blasters for an NIC war, is when I'd probably not feel comfortable using my baster against them.

I love how the first link was my first suspension from way back in the day. Good research there Blues, thanks for making me cringe!

It is difficult to beat printing for prototyping.  It would allow many more people to physically contact a designed part, and add their perspectives to a possible group-sanctioned design.

I can't disagree with that. In terms of redesigning an existing shell, 3D printing is the way to go. Although resin casting let's say, a crossbow shell, then extending the stock with bondo, and replacing the handle with an n-strike blaster, then recasting wouldn't be too difficult either. Anything that is on the blaster, no matter how weak or what the material is, as long as it can be cast, it can be converted into resin when the mold is filled.

 

I just gave you guys new suggestions, for something that could totally advance the hobby.  Are you sure that you read my post correctly?

Definitely not, that's what happens when you post after midnight.

 

Actually I am all for the modular 3D printed blaster idea. That's basically what I have in mind for 3D printed shell pieces that you can attach to rainbows and other homemade blasters. The only problem is in proportions of each handle would be different, as well as stocks and other items. Realistically you could just make a standardized attachment point for them all, like nerf, so that they'd all fit fine. I don't see why we all have to put our eggs in the 3D printing basket. More variety in how you can attain a blaster shell, the better.

Close mindedness is what destroys innovation and advancement of the hobby. I'd expect nothing less from grumpy old man Draconis. Thanks for never changin'!

 

Really the only reason I have for continuing this search, is because people have been trying to recreate the crossbow shell via printing for how long, with how much work? What is there to show for it? 

 

Frankly, resin casting, vacuum forming, or fiberglass isn't much better than it, but some methods have the ability to do it now. Which is more to say than any 3D printer so far. 

Why do you need the inside? It is designed for use with injection-molded ABS with injection-molded internals designed to precisely fit it. Using the interior for any other material is likely to end in unnecessary frustration and/or outright failure.

No you're right in that there really should be no reason to mold the inside. But if you apply a vacuum injection mold with resin, you take out a lot of the error and it's really much easier to do it this way. If I'm just doing a mold of the complete half shell, then I don't have to worry about the trigger sitting properly, the catch sitting properly, or other internals getting in error if I plan on making negative molds for them. The rule is the less things that have the ability to fuck up, the better. If I only have to worry about a two part silicon mold and the resin, then I'd be better off. In terms of the interior getting in the way, from what I've seen of my tornado and of other mods, very little shell modification is needed to install new internals, so it shouldn't be a huge problem. My goal (at least if I ever mold a crossbow) is to do an initial exact mold, install and remove things that don't need to be there (the ABS that people cut out for the plunger tube and a thicker spring rest), then I can just re-cast that resin mold again, without ever having to do any alterations to the original shell. This altered resin mold will also be our solution to the copyright issue. It may look the same on the outside, but the inside can be completely different.

Sure, these shells are extremely rare and valuable, but isn't that just as much of a reason to test our techniques out on smaller, more common shells?
I would rather fubar a Sharp Shot or Eliminator shell and waste a small amount of materials than accidentally throw away several hundred dollars of supplies extracting a Crossbow shell from a silicone grave.

What are rookies recommended to start with? Complicated creations like the +bow or simple pieces like the SNAP?

Because who cares if you cast a blaster no one cares about? I mean, you have a good point but as you said, the cost of materials is very high. So for most of us, its one good chance to get it right or nothing. Tornado or bust. Yeah there's less to mess up in going with a smaller blaster, but if I have a certain amount of money to spend on a gamble, I'd rather do it once and hope I get a good cast, versus hoping to get a good cast with a little bit of money, then spending more materials hoping to get another good cast on a bigger mold.

 

For some of us who have access to shops with all of the equipment needed for this, the percentage of error is greatly reduced, so going the bigger mold is a better option if time is of a concern. I can't be doing a ton of molds with our equipment in studio. The best I can hope for is one good shot.

 

EDIT: At this point, I have found a way to make a complete silicon mold of the inside and outside of one side of the shell with one mold. Hopefully with the proper tools, this won't be a concept any longer. I'll post on this when I have more concrete results.

What a great way of reducing the amount of parts you need to throw away with this mod. Very clean too, good work.

Thanks for the input Fondue, and welcome back to the community. You present some ideas that I never thought possible; slush casting. I'll have to look into how this done further as to how this is done, but this could close the price gap of using resin as a casting material by making a hollow shell for the internals instead of filling in the whole thing while still being relatively strong if done in layers.

 

How long would multiple layers of slush casting take to cure? I assume not as long as a normal resin pour [day(s)].

 

I also assume slush casting could be done in a half of a shell mold instead of a full mold? That would reduce the need for a precision cut down the middle of the mold later, and would ensure the two halves fit properly as long as they're molded properly. 

 

The expanding foam writeup could work excellently for this as well, totally forgot about that. It might not look pretty in a clear shell, but fabrication first and fine tuning later. That would work for the plungertube, and as long as a rainbow is being used, the catch as well. But how would the priming bar and trigger sit properly? The trigger could just be bolted and spaced in the center of the handle, but the centering of the priming bar may need some thought.

I apologize for contributing to the creation of this thread monster and for hijacking the hell out of the original intent, but I do legitimately have more input.  Has anyone considered making a pepakura cardstock pattern and producing a shell molding from that or perhaps even just using it as a shell?  This may sound absolutely impossible, but properly resined (?) pepakura can be incredibly strong.  Also, let me be the one to say the Crossbow shell is stupid.  They are short and uncomfortable for anyone that isn't a midget.  There has to be a better shell out there.

I don't think I'd EVER trust paper or cardstock coated in fiberglass to hold up a spring load. No matter how much fiberglass you put in it, it just would be too thin overall. Knowing Pepakura, I assume you could make screw ports for the shell halves. Otherwise, there's no way I could see the two halves staying together unless you used glue. Again, the material is just too thin. Yes you could layer fiberglass up to a decent thickness, but that would be very uneven, and probably very messy to basically paint that onto cardstock. If you can explain that in more detail, I may believe pepakura could work. But for now, I see no way to create a blaster shell efficiently, accurately, and strong enough to work with homemade internals.

I know I want to go up to NY to visit family after summer studio sometime in August, so if I end up getting there, I'll try to take the drive to NJ.

Up to my knowledge, the only generation 2 big blast exists in the Lego Aquatic whatever toyline, in the red, black, and lime green color scheme. Here is the trigger and tank of a gen 1 big blast,

 

And here is the trigger and tank of gen 2 big blast. As mentioned before, the gen 2 has a faster trigger pull, and won't break on you like the gen 1 tends to, but the tank is a little smaller. If you end up getting a gen 1 big blast, which you probably will with that color scheme, then you're gonna be better off. Just reinforce the trigger, buy an aftermarket trigger made by someone out of polycarbonate, or make you're own, and you should be fine.

 

 
No no, you misread me. It's both definitely possible to create a strong part and definitely 'expensive' to do this. It's possible to mass-manufacture, it's possible to micro-manufacture. It's possible to 3d print. Each method will have pros and cons. In this context, the cons of CNC and resin casting it that the material costs are high. Every method we're talking about requires specialist machinery (CNC, 3d Printer, Injection mold) which serves as a high threshold to the individual, so the cost of the part produced is what matters. 3d Printing and injection molding will both use plastic, so the cost of the part should be more marginal, except that I don't expect 10,000+ people to want to purchase these things so injection molding is right out IMO.

Right, I understand what you're saying. I definitely think that if the community is ready to take a step towards recreating shells for blasters, every option needs to be weighed in to see which method has the best opportunity cost. As of right now, I just want to know what is possible. Figuring out what is the best can come later, when a few ideas come to fruition. Whether that's waiting another two years for Drac's crossbow to come back with anything conclusive in 3D printing, or waiting until I have the funds to do a resin cast, is yet to be seen.
 

 

 
Sorry, I misunderstood. Based on your diagram and what you said about layering and standing the trigger up, I thought you were talking about casting the whole shell in one piece. 
 

No no, the only reason I mentioned layering the trigger up, is so that you have something sticking out of the mold that would stop resin from overflowing over the trigger mold, and would give you something to grab onto when attempting to take the negative mold out.
 

 

 
I haven't worked with resin before, so I'm just talking out of my ass at this point, but I had thought that a rigid mockup of the internals with maybe a couple of coats of glossy paint and some mold release would pop right out of the resin. You could probably taper and bevel the square parts slightly so that they come out more easily.  I've seen videos of people making parts out of fiberglass using a rigid mold coated in wax, but the fiberglass is flexible enough to work off the rigid mold, so maybe that's the key difference.
 

Me either, but I know a little bit about fabrication, and prototyping with the early amount of schooling I've had so far. Maybe if silicon (because as a material, nothing sticks to it, can be covered in wax or a combination of other non stick substances, maybe we can get something easy to remove. I'll keep looking into silicon negatives molds in a cast.
 
I know about fiberglass, but always assumed that it wouldn't work as well for some reason, probably due to the amount of flex fiberglass has when set. But honestly, ABS probably has much less tensile strength, and as you said, that flex could really help in removing negative molds from a cast; like ice cubes in an ice cube tray. Then, putting in reinforcing plates will be no different than what is normally required for a crossbow. But I feel like someone a few years ago tried this, and it ended up messy. I'll have to look more into it. The ultimate draw for me in using epoxy resin, is the ability to put items into the mold that can be seen when the shell is together. Darts, Coins, or some other type of items inside of a clear crossbow shell sounds insane. But whatever works, works.

 

 

I actually think an injection mold is within reach. Even if the mold costs $50,000 to create all that we would just need 500 people to pledge 100$ for a better crossbow. Everyone gets a crossbow, and we have a mold to make INFINITE crossbows. It could potentially pay for itself. Just something to consider. The active nerf community is about 10,000 strong. I think we could drum up the support we needed. Just some things to consider.

I mean, yeah that is something that could work if we had everyone in the community (active or not) contribute. I just don't understand the draw for injection molding at this point for the crossbow and tornado bow. No one uses those shells to put stock internals in them anymore, so why do we need to have an injection mold for the inside of the shell? As long as there is enough room for the internals that matter, the rest of the shell can be filled in and it would be much stronger as a result. This can be achieved with silicon molding for sure. Now, it won't be able to make an infinite number of shells (maybe at most 50) but it could cost as less as 25 dollars for a mold of both sides of the shell (I haven't looked into the quality of silicon molding ingredients at that price, as forewarning so take that with a grain of salt). And that is much more effective than a 50,000 dollar mold. There are plenty more alternatives for molding other than silicon over injection, so cheaper options are still out there.

Awesome, I was hoping for this. I have a few sketches lying around that I wanted to throw up as concept threads. Just to clarify, if we are posting a concept thread, are we expected to show work for/make progress on an idea shortly after an idea is hashed out? If someone posts a concept thread, has their idea figured out but it takes them an extended time period to start their concept/ they never get back to it, would that be breaking rule 3?

 

Langely's suggesting you make a fake set of internals that are similar to your real set, but solid. For a trigger I'd just make it a solid block the size of the trigger + any movement it can possibly make. It'd mean you'd need to accurately machine them once though.

 

 

Yes, I know. I think I've mentioned the mock trigger thing a few times, and even have a sketch of it a few posts up. Hell, the next sentence in the post you quoted says exactly what you said. Thanks though

 

 

 

Yeah, so far none of this is really cost-competitive. Even vaccuforming and filling with resin is going to produce shells that, accounting for any value in time and materials, you'd need to sell starting in the low hundreds of dollars.

 

However, CNC would produce a better shell mold; and you don't need a manufacturing CNC machine. Something like a shopbot would do just fine if you CNC'd the outside surface out of wood (or something similarly cheap & easy to CNC) you could vaccuform to that.

I don't like how quickly we are jumping to mass production off of a concept that is barely past the idea phase. This is all apart of prototyping. At this point, it isn't about how cheap it is to produce a shell out of resin or any other material, but is it possibly. As also mentioned above, resin and casting is obviously expensive. No one is saying it isn't. But as of right now, it stands as the easiest way to produce a shell accurately, and strong enough to work for a nerf blaster with little threshold to create (no need for CNC, 3D printers, Mills). That's what is important, not the money.

You are right, my idea would entail screwing two resin halves together once they are cured. And your idea of the plunger assembly, barrel, priming bar, and a mock piece for the trigger and catch is what I was floating around too. The only thing that I was trying to figure out, is how possible would it be to remove the internals after the mold has been cast? I'm thinking if you created a full mold pf the internals out of silicon of a mock trigger with the room to move and spring rest connected to the back (basically a really long trigger with a stem for the spring), a mock catch piece with no hole in the middle, extended upward for its movement for the actual catch, and the plunger assembly and priming bar. Then when the silicon mold dries, you'd pour in more silicon into the mold, creating these pieces. That way when the resin dries, you can just peel the silicon internal molds out, and peel the resin half shell out of the silicon mold. Then repeat. This might be a little expensive, but I may be able to try this out in the coming year.

You are right about moving parts. The plunger tube could just be set in, but if the crossbow is the example, you'd need room for the trigger, catch, and priming bar to move. Resin is a cool material because it can be done in layers (allowing one layer to dry, then putting more resin on top) and it still makes a complete mold. With that in mind, you could fill a cast to a certain amount, where the trigger and catch could sit. Once that is dry, 3D printed molds of the whole catch area (side profile of catch +length for spring to sit) and trigger area (side profile of trigger +length for spring to sit) could be printed with its side profile extruded to a desired length. That way, you could place this mold negative standing up in the first layer of dried resin, then fill the rest up until the shell's half is complete. Here's a quick sketch of what I mean to help explain: 

 

 

The semi circular portion would sit right on the inside of the trigger guard, and would give enough room behind it for a complete trigger, and spring to be just glued to place with hot glue. This negative mold will of course be extremely difficult to remove, even with a coating of some non stick substance as you've stated about the plunger assembly Langley. But if you can clear coat those pieces, it can help in removing; same with the plunger assembly. As far as the priming bar goes, using a table saw or a router saw could easily cut a channel out in the resin that would do the job.

Based on my understanding of vacuforming, the kind of piece you can produce with an at-home hobby rig is not going to be rigid enough to use as the shell for a nerf blaster.  The  What if you build a solid mock-up of your homemade internals, and either vacuform that or just spray it with release agent and attach it to the vacuform of the outside of the shell? Then you pour in some resin, and you end up with a fairly solid (if somewhat heavy and possibly brittle) tornado/crossbow shell half. 

 

With an industrial grade vacuum form, I've been able to form plastic at the same strength and higher than that of nerf blaster plastic. The downside is that its thickness and composite just can't get hot enough to form into anything intricate, making blasters all but debunked. Plus, vacuum forming plastic can end pretty badly too. You could melt the shell you're vacuum forming due to the high heat of the plastic being formed. But a mock-up of the internals in a cast is a fantastic idea. Having a full cast of the inside of the blaster minus where the internals go would be the only way in my mind this thing could be structurally sound. You'd just need a way of centering the internals into the hollow shell half, which could be done with a wire hung over the cast going through the plunger assembly.

 

EDIT: Or you could just make a mold of one half of a blaster with a silicon mold, fill that with resin with your internals placed in the mold, coated in a non stick substance. Then when it dries, you can take the resin out of the mold, and you have a whole half of a shell, with a perfect mold for your exact internals, that you can bolt to the other half when it is formed. And btw, resin is clear, so having a clear tornado would blow my socks off.

This may be a possibility, even if not the ultimate goal of this idea. You could simply make it the desired width of the plunger tube you want, and then simply attach the tube to the inside with screws at the beginning and end of the tube, much like a plusbow.

I could very well see this idea being applied to the homemade market more than the stock blaster market honestly. Groups like MHA producing homemade blasters with interchangeable outer shells that get screwed onto the blaster to bring homemades closer in looks to nerf blasters would change the game. I've had this idea for years, but never thought about using it with vacuum forming over 3D printing. Definitely would make the process much faster, easier, and cheaper to produce.

What about just a very basic shell? I don't know if that's what spud is talking about, but just a shell with no inside ridges or anything. Then people could simply put their desired internals inside.

Vacuum forming is a one side process. For each side of the shell, you'll get an interior mold of the inside of the shell, and an exterior mold of the outside of the shell. You can just do one vacuum form and get one half of a blaster, that's not how it works. You either build an exact interior or cut out the interior half of the shell and secure it to the outside half of the shell, making it structurally unsound imo.

 

If you want just the outside of two pieces of a shell, then yeah it will work fine, but you'll have a hollow shell on the inside that you can't do anything with. Every shell on it's interior has a complicated system of screw ports, supports, and the like that keep a blaster together and functional. You can try to really pull the plastic in to try to get the shell formed, but you'll need to drill holes through the entire shell in order to allow the air in the liminal space to move through the vacuum process, destroying a shell to possibly get a vacuum form. And yeah, there are plenty of shells simpler than the crossbow and tornado but are those worth replicating?

 

TL;DR creating an exact replica in how the blaster looks and feels is the ultimate goal for recreating a shell. If a plastic shell 'looks' like a crossbow but doesn't have the same texture on the grips, lines, grooves, and detail of a crossbow and is just a smooth form, is it a crossbow? If so, than you can try out the +bow.

 

 

I see.  Thank you for that.  Having never used one before, I had no idea.  Perhaps there could be a shell form that would be superior to a Crossbow while still being easily formable.  I'll have to ponder it for a while.

However, it could be possible to get a decent form with a very thin sheet of plastic with enough resistance to allow a resin cast to be made in it. If spaced out correctly, you could fill the resin between a form of the front of the shell, and the interior of the shell. But that all depends on whatever your molding material is, resin or something else, working properly and getting in every nook and cranny of every ridge in a blaster with a lot of ribbing like the tornado. But I guess if we mod a shell to remove any of the useless plastic on the inside, fill up the gaps between other ridges with putty, and just keep the interior ready for tornadobow swap, it could be possible.

Has anyone considered using vacuum forming to make shells before?  It may be possible.  I know that vacuum tables can be easily made, and I have seen some relatively complex vacuum formed objects.

It really depends on the size of material you are vacuum forming, the thickness of the plastic/plastic type you are using to form something, and the amount of finite detail of a piece being vacuum formed. I've used our vacuum former in my studio's shop in school, but we always ran into problems with forming between two extruded sections that were very close to each other. Instead of getting, let's say, a clean form with sharp angles of two rectangular pieces 0.5" apart, we got a bowed section between the two pieces because the process couldn't get the plastic to form into the corners of the material. If this is applied to all of the ridges and dead space in the tornado/crossbow shell, you'd need a very thin sheet of plastic to allow it to get a decent form. And at that, it would be to fragile to do anything with.

 

I hear ya. I understand that my goals may be a bit ambitious for nerf guns, but being able to play around with the 

nerf guns, figuring out how to optimize them for accuracy's sake, is a load of fun. And is arguably a better and healthier way to relieve stress than watching T.V. or other sedentary ways to pass time. All weapons in history have evolved through generations of redesign and fine tuning, even the simple sling shot and spear.  I see no reason not to apply this way of thinking to nerf guns.

By all means then, do so. If you have an idea for a blaster, or want to stylize a blaster in any sort of way, then go for it. Expanding upon the hobby and culture is everyone's goal for new members.

I have two concerns.

The first one is simple; the sound of the pump action makes me cringe, but Coop already covered that.

Nothing a little sanding can't fix.

 

The larger concern is the fact that the pump device raises the surface of the top of the receiver by two inches or more,

from what I can see.  This will likely cause some sighting issues for those who wish to add custom sights to the top

of the receiver.  While not a deal breaker, in terms of sighting along the trajectory, it would also force the shooter to raise their 

eye level slightly, which could be adapted with a modified cheek piece, but still.

TBH, the blaster has a huge piece of plastic sticking out of the top of the blaster already. Not sure the added pump grip raises your aiming surface if it sits flush with this piece. This blaster doesn't have sights for that reason.

 

I would have hoped they would cut off the top charging handle, and instead created an attachment

which would wrap/bend it onto the side of the gun, thus, allowing for a side charging handle rather than a top one.

This would allow the emplacement of "iron sights" to the top of the receiver without raising the sight, "height over bore."

I do like this idea, but the further away a priming bar is from the plunger tube, the more stress is being acted on by the connecting point. For a 3D printed add on to bend out and down on the side of the blaster, I could see it breaking within one prime with the spring inside of the apollo.

 

But your questions about the design are valid, but all things that can be changed yourself if you choose to. It is a plug-in kit. If you want these changes, I wouldn't see it being too hard to do them yourself.

ONE thing I really miss is the ability to toggle between the vintage dark blue and the white for the site theme. So much easier on the eyes. 

Been hoping post #200 would have been something cool, and I didn't fail. Finally got this build at a functional state over spring break. Been about a year in the making (mostly because no writeup for this exists):

 

 

Standard Rainbow Pump: full [[[[[[k26]]]]]] and 7" draw length. Still not completely finished. Still have to sand parts down, countersink screws for comfort, build a stock plate, rework the trigger and catch, put a spring spacer in, and straighten out the bushing a bit. Still kicks like a fuckin' mule though. This was a very satisfying build on a very cool looking project.

 

 

The handle is a 1 1/2" PVC Wye/Tee combination. Been using it on every functional homemade I've created. Surprisingly comfortable.

 

 

And who would I be if I didn't use a speedloader only on this thing? Some things never change. Maybe after this semester is over I will finally get around to making a hopper...

 

 

Family photo with the NRev +Bow made by Louiec3 WAY back in the day. Both have similar performance too. Couldn't be happier.

As a kid you see a bit of annoying things on the forum such as being punished for bad grammar or seeing words that a kid should not see. Maybe make a kid rank where if your under a specific age you get it and it would block out inappropriate words like a word filter or even just let the staff know "hey I'm a kid my grammar sucks". But make it only known to staff so other members don't take them seriously.

The internet has no age. If you aren't 13+ you shouldn't be on the forum anyway. At that age, grammar should be no issue.

 

The one thing I wish the forum had, is a better threshold for new nerfers to browse the forum on their first glance. As hard as it may be for the moderating team to track down every war going on these days, I used to love seeing the monthly list of wars available to attend on the main page. It kept me up to date on wars as well as helped bring the different areas together. When Nerf Revolution was still around, I remember one member who did a weekly news letter, had mods/homemades of the week, and other sort of nerfing news. The main page already has a blog setup, so adding a list of mods/ homemade guides/moderators picks of the modification and paintjob thread or homemade thread created the month before would make it really easy for new users to get an idea what the hobby is about. Doesn't have to be that in depth, but something that makes it easy to get what this forum is about right on the home page.

I love the amount of ingenuity you used to create this. If other nerfers knew about/knew how easy it was to use a steel bar instead of CPVC as their plunger rod, you can bet they'd be doing that. Great innovation. As far as the PVC catch piece, how easily is that falling into place? Also, how many shots have you put this through and how well is it holding up? I created a sort-of PVC rainbow catch system here and although it worked initially, I just think the malleable nature of this type of plastic just gave out. Hopefully with a metal priming bar, you'll have different results.

It looks like a lock, prolly to prevent dryfiring

No such lock exists on the rampage. As long as the blaster performs the way you need it to without the piece, you should be fine.

Oh? And what were the other pieces he used?

Uh, it's just a basic +bow build otherwise. With a skirt seal.