Sicklefin Devil Ray, Or Just Sicklefin, As Seen @ Armegeddon
#1
Posted 19 July 2006 - 09:37 PM
I'm Sure you're all thinking "What the fuck did you do to that manta ray Bags?!"
well the better question is what didn't I Do.
To start things off I'll explain the conceptwork
one day, while finishing up my last manta (the biling-blow camo one) I got this really cool Idea: What if I could take the defensive power of the manta ray, and give it the beastly power to shoot around 80 feet without loosing the number of barrels I shoot out of? I was thinking of sticking two splitfires inside a manta, and now I just had to figure out how to do it.
I knew I would have to bassicaly gut the entire shell of the manta, as well as flatten out the top to propperly compensate for the SFs, and also to help on proper coverage, I probably would need to use some kind of plastic to expand the edge to also help propperly cover the SFs. I knew I needed to extend the triggers so that they sat near where my hand would be, and I needed to fugure out how I'd place the SFs inside the shell.
I decided to place the SFs laying sideways inside the shell, and then I would attach them to the upper and lower halves o fthe shell accordingly and using their screws to primairly hold the whole creature together.
I quickly got to work on aquireing the propper materials and got to work.
The manta I aquired was once used for a double 2k Integration, so it was already partialy gutted for me, that was nice, but the upper shell was severely damaged. I decided to bust out the heat gun and go to town on it first, after it was nice and flat I got to work on epoxying it back together:
The Flattened Shell: I expanded the area where one's hand goes because I have beefy hands
After a ton of dremmeling I managed to clean out the shell enough to accomidate the splitfires: part of the SFs handle had to be cut off, I cut it right at the bottom of the opening for the trigger, Also I cut the guides off the held the pump shaft in the vertical position, so that it would sit without interfering with the triggers in final production. here's some pics of the first SF being placed into the shell, with a test version of the trigger extentions:
This one showes where both are attached to the bottom of the shell:
Now that I had figured out where they were going to go, I needed to figure out how to propperly extend the shell to accomidate the SFs and I wanted to do it with some style: so I started looking online for Relatives of the Manta Ray: I found the SickleFin Devil Ray, and it's name sounded soo damn Awesome I couldn't Resist:
So I designed something to attach to the shell to make it look more like one:
Here's the peices before they were cut:
...Stupid Image posting limit...
A couple of Pics of them attached: A suprisingly long process involvin waay too much epoxy:
I simply put a crapload of epoxy on to the halves of the SFs that were to make my top and laid the Upper manta half on top to attach it to the rest of the gun(s)
I went back to tackling the process of extending the triggers some; I had originaly wanted to make a complex pinion system that allowed the extentions to swing smoothly with the SF triggers, but it was too much work for too little gratification, so I simply glued on the extentions i had made:
so here's the really ugly working version of it:
Now it was time for me to paint it:
uncharateristic of myself, i went with a Flat Black for the bottom of this blaster, and for the bulk of the top of the upper half, it has a flouressent Green-Blue fade on the top to accent it though, and the underside of the upper shell is also flouressent blue.
The finished product, or so i thought...
Before I even got to geddon, perliminary tests lead to me breaking the trigger extentions, luckly I had gutted the lower half so that I could still fire the gun with my opposite hand. During Geddon I discovered that my hands had taken some damage from the use of the gun, the area around the handle was cuttin my hands, so I opened it back up when I got home and added some hockey tape also.
Internals, after Tapeing:
...Images Limit...
More Pics:
underside:
A little closer so you can see trigger location:
Blaster Face on:
Operation is like having a 6-in brassed SF, pump approx 10 times, ramrod darts down into bottom of barrel, fire either semi-auto or shotgun bassed on trigger pull. SFs have 6 inches of 9/16 with small ammount of 17/32 nested inside, barrels are covered with petg to protect them. I used sicklefin in three rounds of geddon, and it proved worthy, I found it easier to aim if i swiched hands when fireing earch SF rather then shooting out of the top, and then the bottom.
I hope to have some action shots as soon as Kuhlschrank's Geddon Pics are uploaded.
Questions/Comments?
-Bags
Don't call it a comeback, I never left.
#2
Posted 19 July 2006 - 09:37 PM
Edit/ Are you afraid of stabbing yourself on the pointy parts? Or do you use them for "barrel taps"? /Edit
Edited by Renegade, 19 July 2006 - 09:41 PM.
#3
Posted 19 July 2006 - 09:45 PM
Then you go and do something like this! Amazing just amazing! This beast has Good range,Good ROF, a sexy/demonic sleek design a decent paintjob and a sexy underbelly paintjob. Looks great man keep em coming!
I don't feel the way I used to do.
I know its bad,
After what we had,
But I’m just not the angel you knew.
#4
Posted 19 July 2006 - 09:55 PM
If you feel up to it, I think intergrating some AT2K turrets would really make that thing rock even harder.
Also, just a question, but do gun hits not count on the West Coast? Cause if gun hits don't count, why don't people just attach giant sheets of plastic to their guns? Or, is it like since the Manta Ray was advertised as a blocker, it's ok to use it to block? But, then, how is it treated now that the Sicklefin has extensions, and is bigger than it was originally?
Sorry if those were too many questions.
Well, keep churning out the awesome, Bags!
Sincereley,
Pat
#5
Posted 19 July 2006 - 10:07 PM
Also, just a question, but do gun hits not count on the West Coast? Cause if gun hits don't count, why don't people just attach giant sheets of plastic to their guns? Or, is it like since the Manta Ray was advertised as a blocker, it's ok to use it to block? But, then, how is it treated now that the Sicklefin has extensions, and is bigger than it was originally?
Gun hits Count On all Guns Except the Manta ray, and I played three rounds at geddon without anyone complaining about the extentions. It's really not much bigger than before, and the back Sickle pieces don't effectly block things that would have hit me anyway because of location n' such, they stick farther back, and also, i did open up the region where my hand goes by alot. I was concerned about if it would be allowed or not, but I managed to justify the reasons were mostly for accomidation of the integration, and for overall finished look.
I approve.
Edit/ Are you afraid of stabbing yourself on the pointy parts? Or do you use them for "barrel taps"? /Edit
I rounded off the corners some as to not injure myself, and because of where they are, it's mostly for styling.
-bags
Edited by baghead, 19 July 2006 - 10:16 PM.
Don't call it a comeback, I never left.
#6
Posted 20 July 2006 - 07:58 AM
#7
Posted 20 July 2006 - 09:39 AM
*drinks to your honor, baghead
#8
Posted 20 July 2006 - 11:28 AM
- 2 SFs
-manta ray
-paint
- ALOT of work
#9
Posted 20 July 2006 - 12:06 PM
#10
Posted 20 July 2006 - 12:33 PM
Good job bags. When you first told me about it at NWC-1 I didn't think you were crazy...partially because I knew first hand that sticking 2k's into a Manta Shell had been a piece of cake, and because the SF's themselves are solid guns that simply require epoxy to be attached.
However, I wan't expecting it to require this much extra work and such to make a working model out of it.
Mad props. That thing looked sick at 'Geddon, and seemed to perform to its appearance. Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of those few cases when you DO judge a book by its cover.
Very sleek, and very stylin'. Thus Marty fulfills his purpose, and becomes a legend.
If you feel up to it, I think intergrating some AT2K turrets would really make that thing rock even harder.
He's definitely up to it. The question is, who the heck wants to deal with 16 barrels? It'd look really cool, having 2 SplitTech 2k's in a Manta Shell and all, but the usability of something like that is in serious question. A SplitTech alone as a primary is enough to worry about. I've found from personal experience that you find yourself firing the two barrels that are in the firing position, and then there's either no other opponents around, or you missed and got shot, so you're out. So you find yourself just reloading the two you just fired and leaving the turets where they are. Don't get me wrong, at Armageddon last Saturday I found myself on my third pair of barrels at least three times, but during the course of a war, 3 times compared to however many hundreds of shots were taken, is really not that often. So if you double the number of Turreted Splitfires I was carrying then you've eliminated the need (initially) to go to a second pair of barrels. So now you might find yourself on a second pair of barrels with ONE of them, but it still doesn't really give a need for such things. You'd NEVER find Bags on two "fourth pair" barrels, with all 12 others empty. It's just not necessary (and is substantial overkill).
Oh, not to mention the fact that his barrels are brass, so 16 brass barrels (even only being 3" long, like on my 2nd SplitTech, which are barely long enough to fit a dart down and provide a tiny bit of extra barrel length to stabilize the darts) would weigh the gun down so much the user would get fatigued fro just carrying the gun. Then you add to the weight on his hand from the gun itself the pressure when he's pumping (in the same direction as the weight of the gun, mind you) and his arm is going to be ready to fall off in no time.
Just an extra little tidbit...I don't think the upper barrels (closest to the shield part of the shell) have enough room to fit a turret on them anyway. You'd have to cut a chunk out of the shield that would go several inches back into the shell. It'd look kinda cool, but then part of your sheild that you're using to block darts is a wall of brass barrels. A shot that is blocked by the turret rather than the shell would have a high possibility of denting the brass. Unless he sleeved the brass in PETG, which would add to the weight even more, and now you've come full circle.
Edited by Falcon, 20 July 2006 - 12:54 PM.
#11
Posted 22 July 2006 - 08:30 PM
Got Nerd?
#12
Posted 23 July 2006 - 01:12 PM
-sponge
#13
Posted 23 July 2006 - 01:33 PM
one of these days I'm going to geo back and re-do the top of the shell with some bondo to smooth it out and give it a new paint job, similar to the current one, but far more ornate, untill then it shall remain looking like the walls of a lazer tag arena.
-bags
PS: Thanks for the new sig CX!
Edited by baghead, 23 July 2006 - 01:48 PM.
Don't call it a comeback, I never left.
#14
Posted 25 July 2006 - 12:58 PM
Bags, that name is brilliant.
"Clusterfuck 9000"
I'm making Ben a new gun. I'm going to go get ahold of a new big salvo, and put a 2k turret on all 4 barrels. Considering the Big Salvo's means of firing (and considering all Ben ever does is pull the trigger back ALL the way) the Big Salvo seems like the perfect gun for the job.
This seems to have become my specialty as of late; I'm just putting a fucking turret on everything. I even joked with Apollo once about putting a turret on each of the 4 spots on a turret (you can fire off four shots, rotating a turret each time, and then you rotate the base turret and fire four more)...
But that name..."Clusterfuck 9000"...brilliant. I nearly changed my sig upon seeing that...
Anywho, I hope you'll be around some time in September~ish for a Fall CAFF. My clan't been discussing dates but we haven't settled on one yet. I won't know my weekend schedule for September until I get down to PLNU.
Anywho, the gun's still awesome. I'd like to see it see some more action and whatnot in the near future.
Edited by Falcon, 25 July 2006 - 12:59 PM.
#15
Posted 25 July 2006 - 01:47 PM
Oh my god.
Bags, that name is brilliant.
"Clusterfuck 9000"
I'm making Ben a new gun. I'm going to go get ahold of a new big salvo, and put a 2k turret on all 4 barrels. Considering the Big Salvo's means of firing (and considering all Ben ever does is pull the trigger back ALL the way) the Big Salvo seems like the perfect gun for the job.
This seems to have become my specialty as of late; I'm just putting a fucking turret on everything. I even joked with Apollo once about putting a turret on each of the 4 spots on a turret (you can fire off four shots, rotating a turret each time, and then you rotate the base turret and fire four more)...
But that name..."Clusterfuck 9000"...brilliant. I nearly changed my sig upon seeing that...
Anywho, I hope you'll be around some time in September~ish for a Fall CAFF. My clan't been discussing dates but we haven't settled on one yet. I won't know my weekend schedule for September until I get down to PLNU.
Anywho, the gun's still awesome. I'd like to see it see some more action and whatnot in the near future.
Groove gets credit for that one, someone wanted a name for their gun and one of the many potentials that came up was "Clusterfuck 9000" another was "chaffed Anus" or something...
The "Clusterfuck 9000."
-Groove
-bags
Edited by baghead, 25 July 2006 - 04:03 PM.
Don't call it a comeback, I never left.
#17
Posted 28 July 2006 - 12:30 PM
I don't really undestand why General Cole is making articles of clothing with my name on it. First it frightened me, but after a few hours I got over it. It seems obvious that General Cole is hoping to have sex with me.
#18
Posted 29 October 2006 - 10:36 PM
I had to fix-up Sicklefin the other day and Because of that I did A New PJ on the Top of this Badboy:
It's Neon Pink And Green Under a Black crackle Finish, Gloss Coated.
Several Of the Pics were taken with a Blue LED flashlight as the only light source as to help highlight the Fluorescent colors. Note, Pics are kinda big, may take some time to load.
The Crackle Effect was achieved by Spraying An Ultra-Flatt Black Primer On top of the still wet Fluorescent Paint.
-bags
Don't call it a comeback, I never left.
#19
Posted 30 October 2006 - 12:05 AM
Or another gun with similar paint.
Very sexy paintjob, I am jealous of your painting skills.
I don't feel the way I used to do.
I know its bad,
After what we had,
But I’m just not the angel you knew.
#20
Posted 30 October 2006 - 05:34 PM
The paint job reminds me of dried out leather, but only in the alien fashion.It's Neon Pink And Green Under a Black crackle Finish, Gloss Coated.
The Crackle Effect was achieved by Spraying An Ultra-Flatt Black Primer On top of the still wet Fluorescent Paint.
-bags
#21
Posted 30 October 2006 - 05:58 PM
I don't really undestand why General Cole is making articles of clothing with my name on it. First it frightened me, but after a few hours I got over it. It seems obvious that General Cole is hoping to have sex with me.
#22
Posted 01 November 2006 - 06:41 PM
YURA YURA to yuganda sore e kimi no moto e tonde yuke.
In these wavering skies, I will fly to you.
#23
Posted 01 November 2006 - 07:00 PM
Steve Irwin would hate it
And we care what a dead guy thinks? I mean it looks good. Let Irwin R.I.P.
-My Dad
#25
Posted 02 November 2006 - 09:43 PM
-bags
Don't call it a comeback, I never left.
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