11 replies to this topic

[Poseidon]

The purpose of this is not to knock off Dizzy's Stormfire mod but rather to provide some insight into some of the more specific details of the Stormfire and the CTF unit that may not have been included in Dizzy's thread. The first post will cover the Stormfire itself while the following will cover the CTF unit and other accessories. Please don't post on my post until both posts are... err.. posted. I apologize ahead of time for the quality and size of a few of the pictures. With that being said, I introduce to you, the Stormfire Dart Tag Set.



We'll be working with the sexy "eye raping" green SF. Now, once you open this puppy up (18 screws that need to be removed), you'll get this...



Now, if you take the tube that the plunger is inserted through, you'll see this. Obviously a "wee" bit of air is being restricted.



From here, you need to remove the green barrel with the green connector piece from the white plunger tube. It's held together by this funky glue which came apart as shown after being held over a candle for a bit. Please be careful; I don't want anyone getting burnt on my behalf.



Now we're going to be working with the green piece we remove from the plunger tube.



From here, cut the piece off that connected the barrel to the plunger tube. Now using a dremel/file/scissors, shave off enough of the interior so that whatever type of barrel you are using will fit through. This is probably the most tedious part of the mod; which isn't really saying much.



Next, take the connector piece and reconnect it with the plunger tube and your new barrel giving you something like this...



Now, once again, you'll have to file/dremel/scissorify (verb form of scissor?) out the inside of the orange piece that goes on the front of your gun so that your barrel will fit through.



From this point, you have several options. You may choose to add some foam to silence the gun a bit (it needs it) or replace the spring or whatever else you can come up with. But basically, it will look like this when all together.



Here's a close up of the catch if you're curious...



And the gun altogether again.



Now, some size comparison.





The gun is approximately 29cm long.

Just a few notes... The SF is very light and has an excellent handle being larger then most guns that have come out recently. It, unfortunately, is very loud but's spring doesn't rattle like NF's sometimes do. In addition to the two main ammo slots, there is one right below the barrel and another in the handle much like the Recon. As predicted, it has an attachment rail on tome of the gun for all of your attachment needs.

As this is essentially a basic AR removal mod, I'm not going to give you ranges as they vary from person to person depending on their spring type, barrel and darts used. In comparison though, it performs very similarly to my NF's. Overall, I'm very happy with its performance thus far.

Part 1 is done, Part 2 will be finished in the next 20 minutes or so. Thank you for reading! Please hold all questions, comments or flames until Part 2 is done or may the evil gremlins of Nerf hunt you down, boil your internals, play racket ball with your head and make stylish necklaces with your various appendages.

Edit: So Banshee made a good point. For that, I took some measurements. With the 5 stock darts I fired at 30-45 Degree Angled shots (taggers if you're curious; used because everyone's familiar with them) I got...
55ft
53ft
60ft
54ft
61ft

Bear in mind these are with stock darts, with a stock spring. Overall, I'm rather satisfied with it.

Edited by Poseidon, 23 July 2009 - 08:55 PM.

[Poseidon]

Part 2

Now we'll cover the CTF unit and all the other various accessories included.

First off, the Dart Tag vest and glasses. The glasses are pretty much the same as the old ones (only with a slightly darker frame) and have 99.9% UV and UVB ray protection as according the box. Meh.



And then we have the vests. Which are made even more usless as they no longer have a back to them. Perhaps Hasbro wanted to discourage back stabbing(shooting)? Who knows, but here it is...



And now, we have the CTF unit. Originally, I thought it was going to be a little weak, but it turned out being really cool. It has two different modes (Seek and Disarm & Capture the Flag) as I will describe very shortly.





And a comparison to a Maverick...



The unit has four options on the front. As you probably can't tell from the picture, they're "Off", "5", "15 and "Flag" in descending order. The "Off" option is quite obvious, if you don't understand it, shoot me a pm and I'll send you a name a nice psychiatric doctor I know. The "5" and "15" refer to the "Seek and Disarm" mode as the number of minutes you have to complete the task. "Flag" just refers to Capture the Flag mode.



Now, on the back, there is a description of each of the game types. But, as I'm sure you once again can not read it, I'll summerize.

Seek and Disarm: After you select either "5" or "15" on the front of the unit, you have to press the Start/Stop button on the top to start the game. You have however many minutes you chose to seek and disarm it. As it is waiting for one team to disarm it, it flashes read from the light fixture on top. To disarm the unit, you simply press the Start/Stop button on top of it. There is a catch however. If the unit is moved more then a few centimeters, it will alarm. You can use this as you choose. For example, this could just prevent the defending team from moving the device or you could just have it so when it is moved, the alarm goes off alerting the attackers to it's position. Every time the unit hits the minute mark with the timer, it will beep one time for each minute that there is left in the round. In the last ten seconds it starts alarming like cow getting a hot branding tool shoved up its ass. Overall, it seems like a pretty sweet option which I will be promptly trying out at a local war I'm hosting next week.

Capture the Flag: This type is exceptionally more simple then Seek and Disarm. Once the unit is set to "Flag" and you press the "Start/Stop" button, the game begins. All that the unit does in this round is alarm whenever it is moved. I guess this purpose of this is to give the Defending team the advantage in finding the theft. And, that's about it. To stop the game, you actually have to turn the whole unit off. I imagine it would be a lot more amusing to have a unit for each team then just using the single one, but hey, whatever floats your boat.



And, here's what the unit looks like when it's blinking...



Also note the unit takes 3 AAA batteries.

Yep, so that's about it. I hope this has been helpful and influential in your decision if you want to spring the 40 bucks to get it. I believe it was worth it if nothing more then for the CTF unit. Thank you for your time! Questions comments and flames are welcome.

[Bedhed117]

I know you said that there weren't gonna be ranges, but can you give us an aproximate.

[Poseidon]

Well, I didn't do a spring replacement yet, but probably somewhere between 60 and 75 feet. With a better spring, I'm sure you could get it up to the high 70's or 80's. But once again, ranges aren't very useful to go by. My darts alone could make a 5-10ft difference from someone else's. There you have it though. Nobody else ask.

[Banshee]

But ranges are useful. I don't give a flying fart how good your darts are or if there's a cross wind or you're using a yard stick, I just want to know how far you can guess the gun shoots. I wouldn't buy they gun if it got the ranges of a crossfire. So people need to at least say "Somewhere between 50-70 feet" which would mean its about as good as AR modded nightfinder. If no one ever tells us some ball park ranges, the only way to ever find out is to waste money and find out. Speaking of which how much are these? They don't sell them where I live yet. I hate sets like these though, just like the disc shot and the tech target, they make us pay for useless add-ons.

Anyways, all I'm saying is ranges are necessary in a range modifying writeup. Otherwise, why would I go through the effort of following your instructions. In the real world, its all about numbers, lets start hearing some from now on. But thanks for answering Bedhed's question.

By the way, nice drums man, I got the same kit in red. Haha.

[Poseidon]

I completely agree on most points. I'll be the first to get pissed off at anyone who leaves no trace of ranges in their mod thread. The main reason for me leaving it out was that this was nothing new; just basically AR removal. Now, if I had done something more interesting, even a spring addition, that might have been something worth mentioning. But I also understand where you're coming from here wanting to know on average the range of the gun. I mean, no one's going to buy a single shot gun if it gets the ranges of a Maverick. Which it doesn't; it's an excellent gun doing just as well, if not better, then a NF.

By the way, the Stormfire set I purchased was $39.99 at my local Toys R Us. The also sell them on walmart.com for the same price.

And yes, I like the drum set... wanted it in red but only had silver... oh well, life goes on.

[Poseidon]

Forgive the double post, but Banshee convinced me some ranges would be beneficial. Although I don't think they're 100% necessary, here they are.
30-45 Degree Angled Shots

55ft
53ft
60ft
54ft
61ft

Bear in mind these are with stock darts (taggers to be exact; I figured I'd use something everyone's familiar with), with a stock spring. Overall, I'm rather satisfied with it. Take it how you will.

Edited by Poseidon, 23 July 2009 - 08:53 PM.

[dizzyduck]

(ranges)

I don't mean to be Devil's Advocate, but if you're claiming those ranges flat, I'll have to call BS on that. The stock spring is puny, and with stock darts I wouldn't believe anything higher than 45' at the absolute most when fired flat.

[Poseidon]

(ranges)

I don't mean to be Devil's Advocate, but if you're claiming those ranges flat, I'll have to call BS on that. The stock spring is puny, and with stock darts I wouldn't believe anything higher than 45' at the absolute most when fired flat.

Nope, completely understandable. I should have been more clear; those are angled. I'm not accustomed to taking ranges and when I do I go somewhere between 30 and 45 degree angled shots. I can go and do then flat first thing in the morning. My reasoning behind taking them angled is that there's no reason to shoot a dart flat in a war. But I guess I can also understand the need for a universal form of range taking. Anyway, I'll be more clear in the future.

[Ner Commando]

Nice mod and writeup. With a new spring this could be one heck of a sidearm. This looks the most like a real pistol other than the lnl.

[Poseidon]

Nice mod and writeup. With a new spring this could be one heck of a sidearm. This looks the most like a real pistol other than the lnl.

Yep, people will just have to be smart and not minimize it, paint it black and bring it to a nerf war. You know someone will. I think the orange one is going to end up pink but I'm not sure...

[spartan062]

1. With a new spring this could be one heck of a sidearm.

2. This looks the most like a real pistol other than the lnl.

1. I agree.

2. How does the Nf not look more real? This gun looks more science fictiony.