18 replies to this topic

[Super 6 0ne]

Since I'm new to NH, I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Jesse, and I'm a 20-year-old Game & Simulation Development major at Shawnee State University, which is nestled in the scenic foothills of the southern Ohio reaches of the Appalachian mountains. I've been seriously nerfing for just over a year now and I love it.

Inspired by Bolt's incredible FAR, I've decided to develop my own tactical nerf assault rifle. I call it the NP6.


1. Front Sight
2. Rear Sight
3. Picatinny Rail
4. Pump/Ejector Arm
5. Trigger
6. Plunger Assembly Outer
7. Plunger Assembly Inner
8. Power Spring
9. Trigger Mechanism
10. Cocking Indicator
11. Pump Locking Mechanism
12. Barrel
13. Magazine
14. Magazine Release
15. Ammunition Level Indicator
16. Grip
17. Stock
18. Threaded Muzzle Head
19. Targeting Laser
20. Laser Thumb Switch

Above was my first attempt at visualizing the rifle. For the most part, the guns mechanisms are not to scale and difficult to decsern, but it served my purpose. I refined the drawing to this:



The NP6 (Nerf Pump 6) is a magazine-fed, spring-powered, slide-action tactical nerf assault rifle. According to my latest drawing, which is much closer to scale than the first, the weapon measures 32 inches from crown to butt. It is similar in principle to BoltSniper's hugely impressive FAR, but different in a couple of key ways.

Primarily, it's a slide action. That means that instead of working a bolt attached to the ejector port, the user charges the weapon by working a slide or pump. As the slide is pulled back, the spent casing is expelled and the weapon is charged. Returning the slide to it's foreward position closes the ejector port and advances another round into the chamber.

Operation:
User pulls slide (light green) all the way back. Inner plunger unit (dark green) locks into place. User inserts magazine (blue). User advances slide and outer plunger (light green, connected). The leading, narrow end of the inner plunger advances the first round into chamber. Slide locking mechanism (dark green triangle) locks slide in forward position (locking mechanism is powered by a torsion spring, not shown, but represented by an arrow). User pulls trigger. Inner plunger is released and comes forward, driving the dart out of it's casing and through the barrel. As the inner plunger comes forward, it disengages the slide locking mechanism, allowing the user to cock the weapon again. User pulls the slide back. Slide arm opens the spring loaded ejector port while the extractor arm pushes the spent casing back and out of the chamber. Process begins again at beginning, minus the insertion of the magazine.

Over at NHQ, BoltSniper asked a couple of good question:

Your design looks very good. I don't see anything that will not work in your latest rendition. Not too sure how the ejection is going to work. Are you going to have a rim on the casings? Or am I right to assume the shell is going to be pushed out by the little tang on the slide rather than pulled by an extractor?

Also, why is the chamber so deep? Air seal? Cycle timing?

One comment about your plunger. I like the idea of sheathing the plunger to bring the catch point forward. Very clever. But I will warn you that plunger mass is your enemy. The lighter your plunger the better performance you will get from a given spring. A lighter plunger can accelerate faster and will produce a higher pressure behind the dart.

I replied:

You're correct that the spent casing will be pushed out by the little tang-like thing (which I've been calling an "extraction finger" in my head) on the slide arm, but it's not quite as simple as it looks. The finger is hinged, and held straight by a torsion spring. It also has a rubber pad on the tip (the extraction finger tip, if you will). As the slide arm moves back, the top half of the finger is pushed inward by a wedge-shaped guide protruding from the left half of the inside of the gun. As the tip reaches the spent casing, it achieves maximum bendage and pushes the casing out.

To facilitate this, there will be a lateral groove cut in the left side of the chamber which will allow the finger to make contact with the casing.

The chamber is as deep as it is for two reasons. First, as you said, for cycle timing. The other reason has to do with this rather unorthodox extraction system I've come up with.

Most of the right half of the chamber is actually attached to the ejection port, and retracts as the port opens. This will allow the finger to push spent casings out, and still guide new rounds into the chamber when the slide comes back forward.

I've also taken a note from Mikhail Kalashnikov. If the gun is going to jam, it's gunna happen in the ejection port. By allowing the parts a little extra room to move and breathe, I hope to make the weapon a bit more resistant to malfunctions.

I'll take your suggestion about the plunger weight to heart. It hadn't occurred to me, but makes perfect sense.

I still have some developmental work to do on the gun. I'm in the process of rendering a couple of the mechanisms in more detail, and will post these as progress warrants.

Anyway, thanks for your time. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have or make any comments. I've already been given a lot of good ideas by community members, and I appreciate it greatly. By drawing on the collective knowledge of the community, I'm able to refine and perfect my design in ways that I otherwise could not. Thanks again.

Edited by Super 6 0ne, 03 February 2006 - 10:42 PM.

[Tech Sniper]

the larger puic looks a bit like the scorpian smg, where did u get the inspiration?

[Black Wrath]

That's the best first post that I've ever seen.

That looks horrifically awesome. Everybody loved the FAR, but I have a thing for pump-action shit.

Please make it work, it would be unholy; the amount of ass it would kick.

[Tech Sniper]

LMFAO

[cxwq]

LMFAO

No.

[Tech Sniper]

my mistake, not the scorpion

[Black Wrath]

my mistake, not the scorpion

You're truly pushing the administration's limits, and I'd just like to warn you about it before it's too late.

You've been warned twice now by Cxwq, just listen to him and shape up.

[WratH]

Very nice. To me it looks like a cross between a Thompson, the HK SL8 and a sig552.

[Meaker VI]

That is great, I wish you well on your final design/construction of that wonder.

I do have some advice as well though; I've always liked pump action and for nerf, it is as close to semi-auto as you will easily come with a spring gun. On that ROF related note, you would improve it more if you added a light-weight return spring to the pump, causing less jamming by the user's failure to put the pump all the way forward.

Other than that, it looks awesome. All the more I would have said is the plunger thing, but bolt's already pointed that out. If you look at his GNS, you will know how he shrunk the plunger and that definately improves preformance.

[Super 6 0ne]

Well, really my inspiration came from Bolt, and his amazing FAR. I wanted to build one, but I didn't want to copy someone else's design.

The shape of the gun is pretty much born of necessity. The upper reciever is raised so that the shooter can comfortably utilize the sights or optics. The FireFly-esque extension that runs between the grip and the stock is purely superficial, and that's okay with me. As I was working on that drawing, I was trying to think of a way to add just a bit more badassery, and remembered a bullpup assault rifle I modeled in Lightwave a long time ago:



Remington makes a pump-action patrol rifle in .223 Rem. The Remington 7615P:


If you really want to compare it to something, that's what I'd choose. Sure they don't look the same, but in terms of practicality and function, they're brothers.

But a Skorpion?


I dunno.

Anyway, thanks for your support and encouragement guys. I actually considered spring loading the slide, Meaker, and haven't completely ruled it out yet. It'll depend on how much resistance the main spring puts up when I cock it.

But yeah, thanks for your thoughtful posts and suggestions. Keep 'em coming, please. I'll keep y'all posted on any new developments.

Edited by Super 6 0ne, 04 February 2006 - 11:00 AM.

[Shotty Master]

I like the desighn, reminds me of the SA80 and of the Beretta Cx4 Storm.

[Enigma1313]

You've got yourself some pretty nice plans, there, Super 6. It looks like you've found a way to get the pump action around the clip and trigger assembly, something I've been trying to figure out how to do. The overall cosmetic look is pretty cool looking to. Good luck building this baby...I'll love to see the fruits of your labor.

[Ronster]

How long do you think it will take you to build it?

[CheeseNerfer]

Wow beautiful design, It looks like every nerfers dream, my only advice is to focus on the basics of the gun and build them first until you have the gun functioning perfectly and then add things like sights and rails and so forth, because whenever I start building a homemade all I ever plan out is the accesories and then when I start to build it i build it around them rather than the basics of the gun. Just a thought but I'm guessing your pretty on top of everything.

[Meaker VI]

Not that this is overly connected, but I thought of the Pancor Jackhammer when you posted that shotgun pic. The world's only fully automatic shotgun. Nobody knows what it is used for, that site says that only 2 exist. Probably real jackhammering...

But, hitting the tangent button, we've wanted to build bullpups for the longest time, but nobody can get a good way around that the plunger needs to be behind the clip. Which needs to be behind the handle (obviously) for it to be a bullpup. So building one would probably end up really long between the stock and handle. But if you manage it with the pump action, you will become another nerf-master builder, along with bolt. (Although having used some of his designs for yours, I don't know that you would be quite as good.)

[Super 6 0ne]

I've thought about building a bullpup, and it just doesn't really seem practical to me. You could, hypothetically, mount the plunger under the barrel and connect it to the back of the chamber with a tube, but the length of the barrel would be way more than necessary, and probably have a negative effect on performance. Although, the plunger could be almost half as long as the barrel itself...

Hmm...

Anyway, as far as using Bolt's designs goes, I really tried to avoid that. If you compare his design to mine, you'll see that the only things the guns have in common are that they're both magazine-fed spring guns. The rest of the mechanisms are considerably different.

Although it's true that I was inspired by Bolt's FAR and studied his work, I tried my best to pull the design of the NP6 out of my own head and create something as origianl as possible. I see how someone would think that I borrowed some of the FAR and put it in the NP6, but I really haven't. It's all me.

To answer your question, Ronster, I'm not sure how long the actual construction will take, but right now I'm limited to R&D due to a lack of funding. I'm broke until Spring quarter starts at the end of March, so any real construction won't begin until then. Frowny face.

[murakumo32]

I'm interested on how you will go about making the shell for your homemade. It doesn't look like it can be constructed out of pvc pipe like the FAR. Will you use wood, or some other material?

[Super 6 0ne]

I'm thinking of using fiberglass. I'll make a clay mold to shape it around. Then I'll able to mass produce them, to some extent, as well.

[ArcanTheRedd]

Rather than plexiglass for your first model, why not use Styrene? It's a plastic type material sold at most craft stores. Your prototype will work with the styrene, I think and when you make a mold, you can then make it out of stronger more expensive material if you feel the need.

Very awsome design, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

Kevin