32 replies to this topic

[Langley]

[Langley]

You've probably all seen the firing videos, and know that the Mega Centurion gets decent range for a stock blaster. I'm going to cut right to what you really came here for.

To explain the loud two-stage KACHUNK noise, here is a video:

Basically, when you cock the Centurion, it pushes the bolt forwards as you pull the handle back. When you fire it, and the plunger has come to a rest, it releases a catch which allows the bolt to return automatically. So the second louder noise is the bolt retracting.


The darts are 3/4" foam tubes:


Here's the Centurion plunger tube next to a Longshot tube.


Here are some shots of the plunger tube retracted, and yes it is a reverse plunger. Don't get to excited about the draw....



....they filled the plunger tube with slits, so only the last bit of the plunger tube appears to be functional.


The front barrel is not made to detach. It is designed to be connected once, and then never removed. The Centurion won't load the magazine fully unless a small tab on the front is depressed (indicating that the barrel was attached.) The barrel is held in permanently by a spring loaded retention ring which is enclosed in a single molded peice of plastic. It appears to be a huge pain in the butt to remove once it is attached, so if you don't like it, don't attach it.



The Mega Centurion is a really fun blaster to play with. It has an actual kick to it due to the bolt retraction, and it's got pretty good range for a stock blaster (I was measuring about 60-75').

[Mully]

So hold on a sec, only a little of the plunger is used to fire the dart? That stinks.
How good is the spring in this thing?

Edited by Mully, 23 June 2013 - 06:00 PM.

[Exo]

Well, fuck. I won't be getting this, but with it's likely price tag, I wouldn't've anyway.

Mully, I don't think so. I believe that that the entire PT IS used, but they put the slots in to keep pressure low. The faux barrel may actually serve a purpose, similar to how a HAMP has low pressure, high volume, with a long barrel. The last several inches are un-slotted to ensure that the AR seals the plunger so it doesn't slam together, destroying the back of the PT.

If you could find the correct size pipe, then you could slide that inside the PT, then fill the cracks with putty.

Edited by Exo, 23 June 2013 - 06:04 PM.

[roboman]

Any chance you could get some measurements of the plunger tube? ID would be particularly nice to know, if the whole thing isn't glued together, but if you could provide the OD and a rough estimate of the wall thickness, that could also work. I'm assuming, of course, that you've got a pair of calipers.

Also, could you provide internals pictures with everything in place, like the ones in the Internal Directory?

[ShaNayNay]

I assumed that the Elite line would be the end of the reverse plunger tube. Pity this did not turn out to be quite as modifiable to outdoor warfare as speculated. Someone will have to work on a homemade plunger tube for it. I won't, as this thing costs way too much.

[Langley]

I have a bunch of photos of different parts of the internals to help me remember how to put it back together, but I don't have one photo of the whole thing. You can take a look at the gallery here:

http://smg.photobuck...brary/Centurion

Edit: I've added some photos of the instructions and marketing materials. To answer some questions that have come up:

Yes, there are gears in this thing. There's a rack and pinion type cocking mech that is not unlike the roughcut. I think it provides a bit of mechanical advantage in cocking this thing, as it feels easier to cock than a longshot and yet when pulling on the plunger tube directly felt about the same as a long shot (totally subjective measurements here).

I don't have exact measurements of the plunger tube. Now that I'm a little more comfortable tearing it down, I'll probably apply some calipers to it and give you some data next weekend. Right off the bat I can tell you that, although it's a reverse plunger, the plunger volume is much better than any other reverse plunger I've seen. The tube connecting the plunger to the barrel is also much wider, and doesn't serve as a bottle neck as it does in other blasters.

I doubt the Centurion is going to knock out any homemades at NIC wars, but I have high hopes that we will see some mods that rival the longshot. The potential is there. Until then, it's pretty awesome lobbing .75" ammo 75'.

Double Edit: I will take more internals photos and provide more info probably next week. This sucker will also probably make an appearance at NJW on Saturday.

Edited by Langley, 23 June 2013 - 08:37 PM.

[roboman]

Interesting, thank you. It's not nearly as complicated as I expected. Hopefully, the PT is a common fractional inch measurement, so it can just be replaced with a piece of polycarb tube or something similar from McMaster. I'd imagine getting those air vents covered will help ranges quite a bit.

[Langley]

I'd imagine getting those air vents covered will help ranges quite a bit.

Trickier than you would think. Since they're slits, when the plunger is centered over the slit, the pressure in front of the plunger can equalize with the area behind the plunger even if they're covered from the outside. I was thinking that it might help to put some painters tape inside the PT and put some kind of filler in the slits, like putty or hot glue. It might dry close enough to flush with the inner surface of the PT and not stick out enough to impede the plunger. It's just conjecture at this point though. I'm not going to push my luck and look a gift blaster in the muzzle. I've already probably over stepped my bounds on this one.

[roboman]

Ah, yeah, I see what you're saying. Didn't think about that issue. I wonder if a piece of e-tape or something slick slick on the inside would work, or if the o-ring wouldn't be able to deform around it... Otherwise, I'd imagine urethane resin or even some epoxy could act as a pretty good gap filler, since it dries smooth. I can totally understand why you don't wanna mess with it right now, though. I suppose we'll all see in the fall when they're released.

[Solscud007]

Can you fit a normal dart inside the centurion dart?

[Gears]

cool color scheme

[Shadow the HellJumper]

Reading all the info about this killed my boner....

Reverse plunger? Seriously Nerf?!?!?!?! Haven't we endured enough? And its not only that, but you put fucking SLOTS in the plunger tube?! I was really hoping that Nerf had pulled their heads out of their asses but it turns out we were wrong... Will not be buying this because fixing the issues would be too expensive and time consuming...

[CaliforniaPants]

my dick is so hard right now

[HasreadCoC]

I'm surprised no one has said this yet, but Orange Mod Works (and the like) are going to have a field day making slot-less replacements for that PT.

Anyway, I'd like to see what this can do with have ing those slots filled (one way or another), possible spring replacement, and then hoppered to use normal 1/2" darts. Not the most creative thing, but it would give a good idea of overall performance and usability.

[nine]

What OMW could do to really make some cash is to make replacement normal plunger tubes. If that's not the case, hopefully the plunger tube happens to have the same inner diameter as a readily accessible dimension of PVC.

[PBZ]

It looks like the front end has the same slip in and turn locking mechanism that the other faux barrels have- would they fit on this? Just looking at possibilities, but if it you could find a way to hold the lock from locking, could you make the gun somewhat modular?
I guess this only applies if someones comes up with a way to reduce this down to normal dart sizes, but i was wondering.

[Exo]

It looks like the front end has the same slip in and turn locking mechanism that the other faux barrels have- would they fit on this? Just looking at possibilities, but if it you could find a way to hold the lock from locking, could you make the gun somewhat modular?
I guess this only applies if someones comes up with a way to reduce this down to normal dart sizes, but i was wondering.

No, it's just a straight slide-in.

[zx532]

This is a bit weird, but the O ring already slides past the vents fine, so what is the point of trying to perfectly seal them off? Wouldn't wrapping the PT in duct tape or similar solve most of the venting issues? (Similar to the "cover the air release hole" on the Nstrike reverse plungers)

[Carbon]

Wouldn't wrapping the PT in duct tape or similar solve most of the venting issues? (Similar to the "cover the air release hole" on the Nstrike reverse plungers)

No, that would just stop the pressure from venting out of the tube. Nothing would be stopping the pressure from going around the plunger head. Ultra-fast illustration:



If you increase the length of the seal, that would solve the issue, as would plugging the slots.

[Arvex]

No, that would just stop the pressure from venting out of the tube. Nothing would be stopping the pressure from going around the plunger head. Ultra-fast illustration:



If you increase the length of the seal, that would solve the issue, as would plugging the slots.

Filling it shouldn't be too hard if you can find a good material to fill the vents with. I would suggest Bondo or some kind of plastic resin, but I'm still new around here so my recommendations probably are as helpful as a match underwater.

Using your image:


I've used Bondo for filling badly drilled holes in costume stuff before. I don't know how effective it would be for compressed air, there might be a better material for this job. You might want to file the vents a little so that the filler material can get a grip on the outside and inside of the tube otherwise first shot might pop them out of the blaster.

EDIT1: Typo correction.

EDIT2: I can grab a piece of spare PVC and cut some slits to test my Bondo theory and post the results in the Mods section.

Edited by Arvex, 27 June 2013 - 03:17 PM.

[zx532]

I understand that it wouldn't seal perfectly, however with a tape seal you are left with a small opening (roughly 1mm by 1 mm judging by the picture) as opposed to the much larger opening, and the blaster still works well with the larger one.

[hydro cannon kid]

I feel like nerf just pulled a big giant prank on us.

[Phree Agent]

I understand that it wouldn't seal perfectly, however with a tape seal you are left with a small opening (roughly 1mm by 1 mm judging by the picture) as opposed to the much larger opening, and the blaster still works well with the larger one.

What Carbon was trying to illustrate earlier was that any sort of indentation (whether plugged or not) will vent the pressure that is being built in front of the plunger head. Someone also alluded to the fact that if you widened the plunger head seal to be wider than the gaps, the pressure will not be able to escape because at no point in time will there be a passage from in front of the seal to behind the seal.

[Carbon]

I understand that it wouldn't seal perfectly, however with a tape seal you are left with a small opening (roughly 1mm by 1 mm judging by the picture) as opposed to the much larger opening, and the blaster still works well with the larger one.

You have a point. Taping the slot would limit the size of the hole to the thickness of the plunger tube material, and would probably show some improvements.