19 replies to this topic

[Jeo]

Well this was somewhat of a surprise. Earlier this week I got a message from Pocket of Urban Taggers saying that he had a package from Blaster Parts. As I'm sure you all know, Pocket isn't one for modding so I gladly offered to help.




The kit is designed to be a simple, bolt in replacement breech allowing your Centurion to fire regular elite/streamline sized darts, and in that regard, it achieves everything it set out to. The install is incredibly simple and at the end of it, your Centurion will indeed fire standard darts. So let's have a look at the kit.



The kit comprises of two parts; the breech and the clip-well adapter.



The adapter is beautifully simple in both it's design and application.



Slot it into place instead of the standard mega clip and you're done. That's it.



A small spring loaded nub then holds the regular sized clip in pace.



It's held in with two screws.



Once it's removed you can see the spring loaded nub.







Once the block is back in place, it also helps to form the segment that locks the clip-well adapter in the blaster.







The other part is the breech itself. Again, the simplicity here is beautiful.



It's identical to the stock, mega sized breech, just with a smaller diameter.



The screw holes line up perfectly with the stock plunger assembly.













All in all, both parts make for a really elegant and efficient solution to the problem, but lets get to the installation itself.

If you've already put the barrel on your blaster, this will get awkward but it's still possible to remove the rest of the shell without disassembling the barrel. There are five different screw sizes holding the shell together but I'll run you throw which ones go where at the reassembly stage.

Remove all of the screws from the blaster proper shell, and the back three screws from the barrel. Open the shell from the back of the blaster, then gently pry the back of the barrel apart until you can get shell off.

[Jeo]

This blaster seems like it has a lot going on inside, but it's still relatively straight forward. Each priming handle is attached to a rack, which is connected to the large white pinion gear you can see here. That pinion drives a gear in the centre of the gearbox which pushes the breech forward. Unlike most other blasters, the plunger tube is actually all the way back at rest, and the breech pulls forward to create tension on the main spring inside the plunger tube. As you've all heard rants about it on the internet, I'm not going to get involved in the reverse plunger design debate, but instead just present it for what it is.

As always at this point, take a couple of minutes to have a good look around inside the internals and figure out how it all works.















Here is what it looks like when the breech is closed and the blaster cocked.



This stretched spring you can see here is the breech return spring that pulls the breech back after firing.





The blaster cocked.



Immediately after firing.



OK, happy with how it all works? Let's continue with the disassembly.



Start by removing the jam door.



Then this small screw that holds the breech return spring in place.



Then you should be able to lift out the entire breech/plunger assembly. Start by sliding the breech forward, then slip the plunger tube over the catch, lift up so that the bottom nub of the breech clears its track, then lift the whole assembly backwards and it should slide out. I'm making this part sound way more complicated than it actually is. Once you're here, you'll figure it out pretty quickly.



OK, breech free. You can see here that the whole thing is in two pieces; the breech and the plunger.



It's held together with three screws.



Interestingly the stock air restrictor is housed entirely within the breech section, so if you wanted to retain the ability to shoot mega darts but wanted to lose the AR, unscrew this section and the AR will just fall out.



Like I said, three screws hold it together.



Then screw the new breech segment in it's place. Also apparently I forgot to take a photo of this step, but make sure you transfer the breech return spring to the new breech as well.



Getting the brecch/plunger assembly back int he blaster is the opposite of removal. Start from the right, get the front of the breech under the breech catch, slide the breech all the way forward until the bottom falls into it's track, then slide the whole assembly backwards, ensuring that the plunger aligns in it's track too.



Reattach the breech return spring and the jam door.



Then put the shell back together.



Like I said earlier, there's five different screw sizes. From left to right...

[Jeo]

The two really big and long screws go here, in front of the jam door.



And at the very back of the blaster.



The next two longest screws go here (assuming you were stupid like me and removed all of the barrel screws, despite not needing to).



Two of next biggest screws go in these two holes here.



The third one goes at the bottom of the stock.



The smallest screws go in these four holes along the top of the tac rail.



And the rest of the small screws go in the barrel section. Every other screw on the outside of the blaster is the standard sized Nerf screw.



As is said earlier, the clip well adapter is beautifully simple.



Place it into the stock clip well and you're done.





Here I've removed the jam door to better show you how it sits in the blaster.



With a 6-clip.







With an 18-clip





Then pops out using the standard clip release button.



And again, the smaller clips are held in place by this little nub. To release a clip, simply pull down.



OK, enough photos, how does it actually perform? Not as well as I had hoped. I really wanted this to be at least on par with an AR'd Longshot, but it really isn't. It's a lot better than the stock Mega firing Centurion in that you'll be able to use all of your existing darts and clips, but only a metre or two increase in range.

All told, I still think this is a massive step in the right direction towards making the Centurion game relevant, but there's still quite some work to be done. My next mod on this blaster will be an attempt to improve the stock plunger tube by plugging the slits that run down the side, then I'll have a go at replacing the spring or maybe even a complete plunger replacement. I like giant blasters and I want it's performance to match it's size.

[Exo]

Woah. Pictures. Good write-up, how does the plastic feel? Do you think that the printed bolt we be likely to break under whatever stresses it's under?

[Duke Wintermaul]

A very nice installation guide.

I saw this kit bumming around on another forum last week, and backtracked it to the manufacturer.

Unfortunately, this kit costs more than the blaster.

Personally, with such a high pricetag and the issue of the tapered plunger tube still looming ominously I'm steering clear of the Red Behemoth.

[Phree Agent]

I got excited when I saw the kit, and it is a step in the right direction I suppose. BUT, until the price comes down, I can't really expect too many people to spend close to $100** for an under-performing, overly large longshot. Granted, I am sure that with all the experienced 3D printer folks we have around here, something comparable could be crafted (for cheaper). But, that again depends on demand which is fairly low I would imagine right now.

Also, I kind of prefer the larger ammo. I think that is what makes this blaster fun and unique. If we want to push the limits on clip fed blasters, there are plenty out there currently that have adequate room for improvement/innovation.

**NOTE: The price I quoted was for the blaster AND the kit

Edited by Phree Agent, 07 October 2013 - 10:13 AM.

[Shadow the HellJumper]

I'm glad this kit is out since it's a step in the right direction. But I would rather have a full blown parts replacement kit that has a direct plunger setup and a full smooth bore barrel similar to the setup that Remedy Metal had going. Because to be honest, if this thing doesn't have some sort of full seal breech that also has a nice long barrel to make this thing accurate like a loser platform should be, then what's the real point other than having the most unwieldy and uncomfortable blaster in Nerf history? Plus, I'm not sure if using Elites was the best idea since they are just as inaccurate as streamlines; unless you are using CDDT's or those PAK Desgins darts or of course mad heavy Stefans.....

Edited by Shadow the HellJumper, 08 October 2013 - 05:21 PM.

[Jeo]

'Exo', on 07 Oct 2013 - 1:29 PM, said:

How does the plastic feel? Do you think that the printed bolt we be likely to break under whatever stresses it's under?

Feels solid, I doubt it would break. There's next to no stress on it, only the return spring which is pretty weak.

[Daniel Beaver]

That's really neat, hopefully it can be improved upon.

[Exo]

I imagine that it would be fairly simple to convert this kit to an angel breach style-system. Or, it could be possible to do such a thing with the stock breech, if they sold the magwell by itself, or released the CAD files.

Edited by Exo, 08 October 2013 - 12:27 PM.

[StampedeNB]

Are those mod parts on stock at Blaster_Part in a few days? I remembered them shouldn't be seen last month...

Centurion has too many power-weaken design which need to be repired. Should you consider to block those air-leakage holes and replace a stronger spring? It should get better performance.

Edited by StampedeNB, 10 October 2013 - 11:31 PM.

[Mully]

'StampedeNB', on 11 Oct 2013 - 04:29 AM, said:

Are those mod parts on stock at Blaster_Part in a few days? I remembered them shouldn't be seen last month...

Yep, they're for sale right now.
http://www.blasterpa...-centurion.html

On topic; this is pretty neat. Someone's going to have to build an Angle Breech for this.
It's not cheap, but it's kinda cool.

Edited by Mully, 11 October 2013 - 12:16 AM.

[Just582]

'Jeo', on 08 Oct 2013 - 03:47 AM, said:

Feels solid, I doubt it would break. There's next to no stress on it, only the return spring which is pretty weak.

Actually, the entire force of the mainspring is on the bolt, as the gear system pushes that bolt piece forward then is held forward by that weird catch near the jam door. I still doubt it would break though.

On another note: I completed an angel breech on my centurion one month ago, but am still considering if I should post a write up cause it was so simple. If enough people want me to I will post a writeup. I combined this with plugging the slots by opening the plunger tube, and it is quote powerful. Somewhere between a stock breech modded longshot and a brass breeched longshot. I would guess it hits about 150 fps right now, as I haven't been able to test yet.

[Hammy]

Yes, please do a write up for an angel breech centurion

[rockinon96]

Where can I buy one of these? I really want one

[Duke Wintermaul]

A quick Google search will lead you to Blasterparts.de... or you can just type the HTML into the search bar.

If that's too hard, I actually posted a link directly to the products page; and in English too!

'Duke Wintermaul', on 07 Oct 2013 - 2:55 PM, said:

I saw this kit bumming around on another forum last week, and backtracked it to the manufacturer.

So lets read the thread again, and look at all links, before asking a question that has probably already been answered.

Edited by Duke Wintermaul, 18 October 2013 - 12:06 PM.

[Steampunkzombie]

Just582 - Oh please for the love of god put up a write up for that. Thank you.
If this thing wasn't so damn expensive I would be getting it for my Centurion....damn...anyway good idea for trying to make a shitty gun less shitty.

Edited by Steampunkzombie, 20 October 2013 - 09:14 PM.

[Just582]

To Hammy, Steampunkzombie, and anyone else who cares:

I don't think I will be doing a actual writeup, but it is really easy to do, cause you don't have to sand and glue the bolt to boltsled connector.
1. Unscrew original barrel
2. Chop off most of original bolt, down to about 1.5 inches I think it was. Make sure the original bolt doesn't protrude into the magwell
3. Sand out barrel stub to fit 1/2" pvc
4. Cut pvc flush with barrel stub
5. Screw barrel stub and pvc combo back in place
6. Use enough 17/32 brass to go from the tripronged piece in PT to end of magwell
7. Cut the 17/32 brass to length
8. Cut 9/16 brass from back of magwell to about halfway through the faux barrel
9. Cut a half pipe in brass from back of magwell to 1 inch away from the front of the magwell.
10. Use etape to secure 17/32 brass in pvc stub
11. Use various pieces of pvc and etape to secure 9/16 brass in faux barrel (don't use tightening rings or the dart won't fire)

[MavericK96]

Would love to snag one of these at about half that price.

[Zorns Lemma]

'rockinon96', on 18 Oct 2013 - 4:57 PM, said:

Where can I buy one of these? I really want one

'Mully', on 11 Oct 2013 - 05:09 AM, said:

Yep, they're for sale right now.
http://www.blasterpa...-centurion.html

On topic; this is pretty neat. Someone's going to have to build an Angle Breech for this.
It's not cheap, but it's kinda cool.

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Necro