Majestic

Make Your Own Melee

 

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I know many nerfers enjoy the use of melee weapons or “boffers” in our wars. And there are several companies including Hasbro that are happy to provide you with one for a fee. Players have also been making them out of pool noodles and duct tape for years. Homemade boffers have never appealed to me aesthetically, so I set out to change that. What follows is the step-by-step guide to how I make foam melee weapons that are a bit more appealing to the eye, yet still completely safe for play. All of the supplies for this build can be found in a single trip to your average local Home Depot. I have also included links to the exact products that I used.

 

1/2 in. EVA foam mats

 

Polycarbonate Rod

 

 

Hot glue

 

Aluminum Can

 

Contact Cement

 

 

Long disposable razor blades

 

Fast Drying Caulk

 

 

Plasti Dip

 

 

Make a Pattern

 

 

1. First you must decide what you would like your boffer to look like, how big you would like it to be and then transfer that onto the EVA foam mats. This could be as simple as a freehand drawing. What I did was find a picture of what I wanted and printed it in the size that I wanted. I then made a reusable pattern by cutting out the design and covering it in packing tape.

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1. Place the pattern on the textured side of the EVA and trace the edges. Then flip the pattern over and trace the other side so that you end up with what will be the two halves of your boffer.

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Make the Core

 

 

1. Place your polycarbonate rod on the pattern and trace its outline. Make sure there is at least a half inch of foam clearance on all sides, including the ends.

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1. Measure the distance between the ends that you traced and subtract 1.5 in. from the result. Cut your polycarbonate rod to that length.

 

 

1. Use a rotary tool to hollow out a section about .5 inches deep and .25 inches wide. Do this on both ends.

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1. Cut two sections from your aluminum can that are about 2 inches wide and 4-6 inches long. Lubricate the inside of both pieces of can. Wrap them around the ends of your rod, leaving an overlap of .5 inches on one end and 1 inch on the other. Use several wraps of tape to secure them in place.

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1. With your glue gun on its highest setting, very slowly begin to fill the cavity that you have created. Be patient while doing this, any air bubbles in the cavity will make the hot glue very weak and you will have to do this step over again.

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1. When you are sure that you have gotten all of the air bubbles out of the glue and it has cooled thoroughly remove the tape and the aluminum. You will be left with two ends that are very durable and also quite soft and flexible such that they will be unlikely to poke through your foam.  It will take 15-20 minutes for your glue to cool. I you are impatient like I am you can speed the process quite a bit by filling a large glass with ice water and swirling the molten ends in it until they have solidified. This should only take a minute or two. The end with the longer hot glue tip will go toward the point of your blade, while the shorter tip goes on the end where your hand will be.

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Prepare Your Foam

 

 

 

1. Place the finished core on your pattern where it was marked from the earlier to make sure you have gotten the length right. Cut the inner section out of your pattern.

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1. Place your pattern back onto the foam. Trace the hole you cut out for the rod.

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1. Now we can start cutting foam. Using your razor knife cut the form out of the foam (one side at a time) as evenly as you can. Try to keep the knife at a right angle to the EVA the entire time.  Any place where the angle changes will have to be sanded out later and may lead to the halves of your boffer being uneven.

 

 

1. Use your rotary tool to carve out the channel marked for the core to about .25 inches deep on each piece of the foam. I used an old piece of tubing to create a plunge guide for my rotary tools hand piece, but you could use a tiny router or just free hand it.

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1. With soap and hot water wash all of the dust off of your foam halves.

 

 

Glue Your Foam Sandwich Together

 

 

 

1. When your halves have dried follow the instructions for your contact cement to first glue the core into the channel on one piece of your foam. Then glue the two pieces of foam together. Contact cement is pretty smelly and toxic stuff, so make sure to use it in a well ventilated area and to always wear a respirator when working with it.  

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Carve your shape

 

 

 

1. It’s time to get artistic. Use your razor knife and a drum sander on your rotary tool to create the final shape of your boffer. You could also use a belt sander if you have one. This process is pretty messy and dusty and your lungs won’t like it so remember to wear your respirator the whole time.

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Seal it

 

 

1. Eva mats typically will have some air bubbles in the smooth side which will fill with Plasti-Dip when we try to seal it so we will have to smooth those out. If you wish to have random pitting all over your sword you can skip this step.

 

 

1. Quick setting adhesive caulk will do a good job of filling the bubbles and the gaps along the edges left by the texturizing on the foam. Moisten your finger and spread caulk over the whole piece in really thin layers. The thinner you can spread it the quicker it will dry and the less shrinkage you will have. Let the caulk dry for 5-10 minutes between coats. When you are satisfied with the smoothness of your project we can move on to the next step.

 

 

1. It’s time to coat the boffer in Plasti-dip. I use Plasti-Dip because it is cheap, very durable, adheres really well to EVA and accepts paint easily. I like to spray a few layers on the sides, then a few on the edges to build up thickness evenly over the entire piece. Remember to spray in very thin coats so that your dip will be as even and durable as possible. Repeat the process until the piece has an even coat of dip and you are happy with the results. I have found that it takes at least 3 coats to do the job.

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Paint It

 

 

 

1. I use acrylic paints from Citadels to get my final coats. They work very well with the Plasti-Dip and I have found them durable enough to use without any kind of clear protective layer on top. Plasti-Dip makes lots of different top coats that you can spray over your finished project if you wish to do so. Have fun with it, this is a great chance to express yourself and make something totally unique!

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1. When the paint is dry your boffer is finished and ready to go to war!

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Good morning kids. Today I am going to show you how to take the venerable mainstay of the Nerf clip system series of blasters  from a small gimmicky pistol to a fire breathing primary ready to hang with the big boys at your super stock or N.I.C. conflicts. In 2008 Nerf released the Recon and sadly its compact size was matched by its compact performance. Then in 2012 the Retaliator hit stores, and with the redesigned plunger system the blaster finally offered decent performance and the platform was worth modding. In the eight years since the original release there have been multiple kits, springs, and mod guides released for the platform, which makes the blaster much more effective in a war. Still, none of those kits offered the performance that I was happy with. I decided to piece together what I thought would be the ultimate in power and reliability, and truly maximize what this little blaster can do. 

 

The result of my quest is this Frankenstein blaster powered by a cut down Longshot plunger tube, an aftermarket Magnus spring, metal bolt sled, metal breech, and sealed brass barrel. Below you will find the details on how to make your own LS Ret.

 

The shopping list:

 

Retaliator, Recon, or MK 2 Recon

Longshot plunger tube and plunger head

Brass tubing in ½”, 17/32^nd , 9/16^th,  19/32^nd , and 5/8^th

Orange Mod Works “Unleashed Stage 2 Kit for Nerf Recon”

1/8^th” rubber “Make your own gasket” sheet

½” PETG tubing

½” PVC tubing

Super Lube

Optional:

Orange Mod Works 7+kg spring

Blasterparts Magnus upgrade spring

Orange Mod Works Retaliator Unleashed Solid Stages 1 & 2,

Gavinfuzzy customs 3d printed LS plunger head

 

The tools used are:

Rotary tool w/ sanding drum, cutting wheel and routing bit

Hack saw

Pipe cutter

Digital calipers

Hobby knife

Electrical tape

Pipe reamer

Sandpaper

Tooth picks

2 part epoxy

E600 adhesive

Sharpie

Paper towels

Blowtorch

Flat and Phillips head screw drivers

½”  dowel rod

Large pliers

Teflon tape

Disembowel your Longshot

1. Remove all of the screws from the Longshot and clamshell the blaster. Remove the screw that holds in the trigger. You can now remove the bolt sled/breech/plunger tube assembly.

 

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                Pic by Captian Slug

1. Use a small screwdriver to push the pin through the bolt sled and separate it from the breech. Remove the two screws that hold the plunger in place and remove the plunger and spring from the tube. There is a single screw holding the plunger and spring together, remove it and separate the plunger head.  If you are using one of Zaruko’s printed heads you can skip this step.
2. There is a small air release hole on the breech, use this as your guide and cut the breech in half using pipe cutters. The breech can now be separated from the plunger tube.

 

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1. Congratulations, you have just trashed a perfectly good Longshot.
2. Set the LS plunger head and plunger tube aside for now.

 

Disembowel your Retaliator

1. Remove all of the screws from your Ret. and remove the cap from the stock mount point. This blaster contains screws of many different sizes. Mark them so that you don’t lose track of where they go.
2. Clamshell the blaster. Be sure not to lose the accessory mount or its’ spring, also set aside the dart holder set in the handle.

 

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Photo from http://nerfarmourer.tumblr.com, edited by me

 

1.  Take out all of the locks and throw them away.
2. Take out the bolt sled, plunger tube, plunger, catch, trigger, and muzzle and set them aside. The dart tooth can be removed and thrown away.
3. Set the shell aside for now.

 

Mod the Bolt

 

1. Open your OMW Recon kit, and take out the bolt, bolt sled and bolt pin. We don’t need any of the other bits. Be sure not to lose the pin, so keep it somewhere safe.

 

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1. The opening in the bolt is wider than the main section. It is wide enough to house a stub of brass without removing any material. Cut a piece of 9/16^th brass that is 1 ¾”. Sand the outside of the brass and the inside of the bolt, then wash it with hot soapy water.

 

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1. When the parts are dry adhere them with 2-part epoxy.
2. To make sure that the pieces line up properly I shove a dowel rod through the middle of it and tape it down firmly with electrical tape.
3. When your bolt has cured unwrap it. Carefully remove all of the exposed brass using your rotary tool.

 

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1. Cut your OMW bolt down to 4.41” with a pipe cutter. Clean up the cut with sand paper and a pipe reamer.

 

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1. Remove the o-ring from the Nerf bolt and set it aside. Cut 0.69”(giggity) off of that bolt. Remove the AR and its spring and discard them.

 

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1. Cut a piece of ½” brass that is 1” long. Cut 1/8^th” rings from both 17/32^nd and 9/16^th brass. Sand and wash the brass and the bolt nub we cut off in the last step.

 

 

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1. Nest the rings on to the ½” brass then set them into the bolt nub applying 2-part epoxy to everything . Slip the OMW bolt onto the exposed piece of ½” brass. Measure your bolt from the end of the plastic nub to the hole where the bolt pin goes it should measure 3.78”.  Epoxy everything together and wrap it up with electrical tape to keep it secure.

 

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1. Unwrap your bolt, slip the o-ring back on and lube it up, and set it aside.

 

Plunger Tube

 

1. Dig out the Longshot plunger tube, and cut it to 3.12”.

 

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1. Inside the Longshot plunger tube there is a ridge that needs to be ground down with a rotary tool.

 

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1. Now on to the Ret.’s plunger tube. Remove the plunger. It is a very tight fit so be careful not to break the lip of the plunger, it is annoying to try to fix it later.
2. Cut off the end of the tube and sand it flush. There is a ridge on the mouth of the tube that will need to be removed and sanded so that the lip is round.

 

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1. Now the Ret.’s tube and the Longshot’s tube will fit together nicely, so sand and wash them and epoxy them together.

 

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1. Get out your gasket material and cut out a disk that is 1.38” in diameter. Cut a hole in the center of your disk large enough to allow the bolt to move freely through it.

 

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1. Use your E600 to glue your gasket to the face of the plunger tube to form a pad for the plunger. Be sure not to get any glue on the walls of the tube or on the white part where the o-ring on the bolt meets it.  

 

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1. The plunger tube it now finished and you can put some lube in it. Yay!

 

Bolt Sled

1. Take the OMW sled out and rest the plunger tube inside of it. Mark the place where the tube meets the rear of the sled.

 

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1. Remove all of the material from the rear of the sled so that the plunger tube can slide across it freely. Use your rotary tool with a coarse sanding drum. There is a lot of material here so this will take some time, be careful not to remove more than is necessary as this will weaken the sled.

 

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1. Slip the bolt into the slot in the sled and put the pin in place. Use your large pliers to push the pin all the way to the middle of its hole.

 

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Plunger

 

1. If you are using the Zaruko part you can skip steps 1 &2. Separate the Longshot plunger head from its rod by removing the screw that holds it in place. Remove the o-ring and set it aside.
2.  Remove enough material from the center of the plunger head so that the bolt can pass through it freely.
3. Sand and wash the rear of the plunger head and the front lip of the Ret. plunger, then epoxy them together.
4. It is important that the pieces be straight and line up flush with the plunger tube so, once the epoxy is on wrap the plunger in electrical tape the way that it is pictured and slide it into the plunger tube then tape it to the tube like in the second picture.

 

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1. When the epoxy has cured remove the e-tape and make sure that the bolt can slide in to the hole in the head freely. If there is any stray epoxy in the way clear it off with your rotary tool.

 

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Stock head and shaft

 

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Zaruko head and OMW shaft

 

1. Add one wrap of Teflon tape to the groove where the o-ring sits, replace the o-ring and lube it up.

 

Plunger Guide

 

1. Cut a piece of ½” PVC to 1.94”.

 

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1. Cut a piece of ½” PETG to 2.85”.

 

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1. Put a few wraps of e-tape around the PETG so that it rests smoothly in the PVC.
2. Put a few wraps of e-tape around the PVC so that it fits tightly inside the cap that goes over the stock mounting point.

 

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1. The diameter of the plunger rod is larger than the inner diameter of the PETG so you will have to trim it a bit, I use the rotary tool and sand paper. When everything slides in and out smoothly you are finished.

 

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Breech & Barrel

 

1. Cut a piece of 17/32^nd brass that is 2 ¼” long.

 

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1. Carve a groove that is 1/16^th” deep in on one side. This will help feed darts that are inconsistent in length. The group I play with uses FVJ’s from China and I have found that the lengths can vary as much as a few 8ths of an inch. It doesn’t seem like much but the tolerances on a breech system that can fire full length darts are pretty tight.

 

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1. 9/16^th brass will form your barrel. Cut the brass to whatever length fits your application. In back to back fps tests I have found no real difference in performance of barrels from 1 foot to 4 inches. The only thing that did make a difference was the amount of 17/32 brass, the more of it the less velocity the darts had when they exited the barrel.
2. Sand and wash the inside of the 9/16^th brass ½” deep on the inside, do the same for the outside of the 17/32^nd brass as well. When the pieces are dry run a bead of epoxy around the tip of the 17/32^nd chunk and slide it into the 9/16^th piece ½” deep. Wrap the joint tightly in e-tape.
3. Cut two rings of 19/32^nd brass and two rings of 5/8^th brass all ½” long. Sand and wash both sides of all of the pieces.

 

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1. Slide the 19/32^nd ring onto the barrel 2 ¾^” so that the edge is away from the tip of the 17/32^nd piece. Put epoxy on all of the surfaces to be joined then slip the 5/8^th ring onto the 19/32^nd ring and wrap the whole thing in e-tape to hold it together until the epoxy cures. Do the same thing with the rings on the other end of the barrel the distance from the end does not really matter but the closer to the end of the Nerf barrel attachment the more stable your barrel will be.

 

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1. Now that your barrel has a pair of stable mounting points, only a few wraps of e-tape will be needed to achieve a tight pressure fit in the faux barrel of the Nerf attachment.  So wrap them up and shove them in until the end of the faux barrel is flush with where the 17/32^nd brass(breech) meets the 9/16^th brass(barrel).  Make sure that the groove in the breech piece is pointing down.
2. Dig out the muzzle piece and cut off the dart gate. Screw it back into the shell.

 

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1. Connect the barrel attachment. The tip of the breech should not stick out past the end of the muzzle more than ¼”.

 

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1. Put the bolt sled into its grooves in the shell. Move the bolt back and forth to check that everything mates nicely.

 

Shell Work

1. Break out your rotary tool and carve out the areas of the shell marked in red. If you do not want to use the larger spring then don’t cut the spring rests out, and ignore the next two steps and use the upgrade spring of your choice.

 

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1. Cut down your Blasterparts Magnus so that it is less that 1 inch when compressed(about 12 coils).
2. Use your blow torch to heat an area near the end of the coil that you cut and flatten it. Grind it flush with your rotary tool.
3. Clear out the debris and put all of the internals back in to see if everything fits together nicely.

 

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1. Lubricate all of the moving parts, replace the bolt sled, plunger tube, plunger, catch, main spring, and trigger. Screw the whole thing back together.
2.  Go to a war!!!

 

The blaster will fire elites, FVJs(full and short length), #6 slugs, and MHA sili domes. The test below was done with MHA foam, and as you can see the results vary wildly. The pink foam is pretty inconsistent but when they work they really move.

 

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Buzz Bee has abandoned their line of adorable air blasters, and I feel they deserve a proper send off. Here is my eulogy to the unloved "small tank" Panther/Air Max 1.



This is your shopping list, it is small and I'll bet most of you have most of this cap lying around anyway.

1/2in CPVC
5/8in CPVC
Tiny machine screw
Rotary tool
Tube cutter
Saw
Two part epoxy
Electrical tape
Hobby knife
Small screwdrivers


Disassemble
1. Pry off the large orange piece from the rear of the blaster with a small screwdriver.
2. The orange tip is glued in place, to remove it cut where the two halves of the shell meet.
3. Remove 7 screws and clam shell the blaster.



Modification
1. Lift the internals out and set the shell aside.



2. Separate the tank from the OPRV and pump.
3. Cut the barrel off about 1/2 in from the tank. This will expose the air restrictor. Cut it off as well. Be careful not to let debris fall into the tank.



4. Wrap about 7 layers of electrical tape around the end of a piece of ½ inch CPVC. Insert the CPVC into what is left of the barrel and cut the exposed tape off with a razor. Cut the CPVC so that it sticks out about ¼ inch when inserted into the barrel.



5. Rough up the outside of the CPVC and the inside of what is left of the barrel, wash and dry the two pieces, then epoxy the CPVC stub into place. When the epoxy has fully hardened trim any excess from the edge of the barrel.

6. Slide a 3in. piece of 5/8 inch I.D. CPVC over the ½ inch CPVC stub and epoxy it into place. This will form the outside of your breech, an will be trimmed to rest in the ribs of the blaster later.



7. Cut the OPRV along the line and clear any debris.



8. Rough up the inside of the rear of the tank and the area where the ORPV was removed. Wash and dry them, then epoxy them into place.





9. When the Epoxy has cured lay the internals back into the shell and cut the 5/8 I.D. CPVC so that it rests snugly on the rib just behind the tip of the blaster.



10. Clear out all of the areas where the modified internals hit the shell halves.





11. Cut a channel in the end of the breech piece that is a third of the way around the tube.



12. Cut a hole in the side of the breech that is opposite the channel and large enough to fit a dart. Make sure that you don’t cut too near the channel as to make it weak or too near the tank as to not allow the barrel to form an air tight seal.



13. Cut a piece of ½ inch CPVC for your barrel 5 to 7 inches works for me.
14. Slide the barrel into the breach and mark where the machine screw will rest against the channel.



15. Drill and tap a hole for the screw. Sink the screw so that the head can rest on the outside edge of the breech without it passing through to the inside of the barrel. Epoxy it into place.



16. Mark the barrel along the inside perimeter of the hole in the breech and cut it out.





In order to feed stock darts you will need to sand the edges of the hole in the barrel as wide as possible to accommodate the foam. Stock darts are an extremely tight fit in the 5/8's O.D. tubing so the inside of the barrel will need to be sanded to increase its I.D. so that it feeds and fires smoothly.

17. Place the newly completed internals back into the shell and remove enough material to expose the breech and load darts.





18. At this point you may add a tank expansion, a write up of the technique I use can be found HERE.
19. Replace the internals and screws and get to a war!





To operate the blaster give the barrel a half turn to open the breech, insert a dart, turn the barrel a half turn the opposite way to close the breech. Pump the blaster 8 times and fire as normal.
Note: To use stock darts the inside of the barrel must be sanded quite a bit in order to feed them properly.
This breech system is good for about 110 ft without the expansion and stock darts. With extra air volume and slugs it can hit over 150 ft.
You now have a small, powerful, self contained system that is perfect for integrations. Now go do something cool with it!

As you may have noticed there were pictures from several different projects in this write up, here is what they turned into.

Here is the stock blaster once again just for the comparison.



This one now has much shorter barrel on the Air Max and an OMW six shot kit on the Hammershot.



Some time ago I noticed a lot of modders were making minimized Hammershots and Sweet Revenges. I decided to take it another direction and make a MAXIMIZED Sweet Revenge. It has 6 inch brass barrels, rear loading slot, LED's that activate on trigger pull, the tank has been expanded, and more shell work than I dare to think about.

How to single a Nerf Zombie Strike Doublestrike and create the “Singledstrike”

I love a blaster that can be primed and fired with one hand only, so when I saw this blaster on sale at Target for $8 I could not resist bringing it home and making it awesome. The following is my attempt at making a war-worthy, single-shot, front-loading, last-resort style blaster that can compete with a mildly modified Firestrike.

Let’s turn this……..


Into this…………


This is what you will need:
Nerf Zombie Strike Doublestrike
http://www.target.co..._1_51&term=nerf
Small Phillips head screwdriver
Hammer
Nail
Pliers
Dual setting hot glue gun
Tube cutter
Saw
Blowtorch
Scissors
De-burrer
Coarse (black) nail file
Sand paper
Tape
Cup
½ in wooden dowel rod
Dremel tool
Calipers
Ruler
½ in PVC coupler
17/32 brass tube
Wooden block
Soap
5 minute epoxy
½ in brass tube
½ in PETG (optional)
And this is what you do with it….

Dis-assembly

1) Remove seven (7) screws and put them in a cup to keep them safe. They are all silver and all the same size so remembering their locations not important.



2) Clamshell the blaster, and put the tac-rail clip and its spring in cup with the screws.



3) Remove the barrel assembly, hammer/plunger assembly, main spring and its perch. Remove the trigger group and put it in the cup.



4) Remove the O-ring from the plunger. Using a nail and hammer, gently punch out the pin holding the plunger to the hammer. Notice the pin is knurled on one end, hammer on the opposite end. If it is not immediately apparent which side is knurled, notice that one side is slightly more recessed than the other. The recessed side is the one to pound on.







5) The inside of this blaster is extremely well lubricated. With hot soapy water wash it all off. Put the O-ring, and hammer in the cup. Now warm your hot glue gun.

Delete Air Restrictor (AR) and dead space

1) Fill the cavity in the plunger with hot glue. To keep it level, I rest mine in a ½ in PVC coupler. My hot glue gun has two settings; I use the low setting to fill the holes first so that the plastic does not warp from the heat. Next I crank it up to fill the last 1/4 in and hit it quickly and carefully with a blowtorch to get everything nice and smooth. Set the plunger aside and let it cool. Then mount it back on the hammer assembly. Large pliers work nicely to press the pin back in. Set the assembly aside.



2) Remove two (2) screws from the barrel and put them in the cup. Note that they are longer than the screws in the shell.



Stand the barrels upright and push down hard on the dart peg with a piece of ½ in wooden dowel rod to remove the smart AR unit. Wash the grease out of the plunger tube (PT) with hot soapy water.



3) Cut off the dart pegs and attack the ARs with a dremel tool. There is a lip inside that must be shaved smooth to delete the AR and widened to fully fit a dart. When you are finished, wash your unit.





4) Fill the lower AR and the inner hole in the upper AR with hot glue and let it cool.



5) Cut a piece of cardstock that is 1.5in x 3in, roll it up and stuff it into the upper AR.



Cut a second piece of cardstock to 2in x 4.5in and tape it around the AR unit.



Fill the empty areas in the back of the AR unit with hot glue avoiding the air channel for the upper barrel. Sit it aside and let it cool. Take the paper off and fill any gaps with hot glue.

Singling

It may not be obvious why it is a good idea to take a blaster that fires two shots and make it only shoot one, but after extensive modding and testing I have found that the lower barrel never shoots consistently or nearly as hard as the upper one. In my opinion it is cooler to have a blaster that shoots one shot really well than one that shoots the first dart acceptably and by comparison farts out the second.

1) Carefully cut the upper barrel off about an inch down from the tip. I left the very tip on to cover the brass we are about to put in and because I thought it looked fancy. Now sand the inside of the barrel with heavy grit sand paper wrapped around the dowel rod until a 17/32 brass stub will fit inside. The I.D. of the barrel necks down about 8mm from the plunger tube, don’t sand this part. Hammer the brass until it hits this point. Do not hammer directly on the brass or you will deform it badly. Use a block of wood instead. With a tube cutter or saw, cut the exposed brass so that it covers the darts you plan to use completely but you can still push them in all the way with your finger. Then deburr it with a deburrer and sand paper. I leave the lower barrel intact to store a second dart. I covered the exposed brass with a piece of ½ in PETG and used epoxy to fix it in place. This was a totally aesthetic choice and is completely optional, but I think it looks neat.



2) After you are done cutting and sanding, thoroughly wash the plunger tube assembly and the AR unit in hot soapy water. Rinse and let dry.

3) There is a small air channel in between the barrels on the face of the plunger tube that needs to be plugged for a complete air seal. Spread a layer of epoxy on the face of the AR unit and press it into the plunger tube. When it reaches the limit of what you can do with your hand put the screws back into the plunger tube and evenly screw them into place to fully seat the AR unit inside. This is the last step in singling this blaster and you only get one shot at it. Take your time and make sure everything lines up nicely and the barrel does not get clogged with epoxy.

Spring Spacer

Now that a number of supporting modifications have been done to focus the air flow and make the plunger system more efficient, let’s make some POWER! In stock form, if the hammer is pulled back beyond the point where the trigger engages, the Doublestrike has a nasty habit of pushing the dart out of the barrel slightly. Adding a properly sized spring spacer helps combat this by removing a lot of the excess travel of the hammer during priming.

1) Get out your calipers, tube cutter, de-burrer, file, ½ in brass, and ½ in dowel rod. Cut, de-burr, and file smooth a brass spacer 9.5mm long. I nest the rod inside the brass while using the tube cutter so that the end of the pipe barely deforms. A saw will also do the job.



2) Tack the spacer to the spring perch with hot glue. It will need to be biased toward the trigger so that it clears the hammer stop. Put the guts back in the blaster and test it’s functioning. When it is working well, fill the brass with hot glue and set it aside to cool.





Note: 9.5mm does not give the spring full compression. The trigger catch will not engage with a spacer large enough to compress the spring fully. Under the trigger guard there is a serial number etched into the shell, I have noticed there are slight differences in the design between models. 9.5mm might not be the optimal size for all models, but it has worked well on the ones that I have modded.

Reassembly

1) Lubricate the plunger, and O-ring, with silicone grease. Don’t forget to lube under the O-ring as well as the inside of the plunger tube. Push the plunger/hammer assembly into the plunger tube and seat it in the blaster shell.

2) Replace the trigger group. Note that the trigger spring must rest all the way against the shell with the end that does not connect to the trigger pointing toward the barrel.



3) Impale the main spring on the hammer assembly and squeeze the spring perch in to place. This can be tricky as the internals will try to liberate themselves constantly during the process.



4) Replace the tac-rail clip along with its spring and place the two sides of the shell together. Screw the 7 screws back into place and you are ready to go own newbs.

I decided to paint this blaster with a nationalistic paint scheme in time for Independence Day. The base is two coats of grey Duplicolor vinyl dye, followed by two coats of red Duplicolor vinyl dye, which I let cure over night and then wet sanded smooth with 800 grit sandpaper. The accents are all Citidel, the colors I used were White Scar, Ceramite White, Macragge Blue, Temple Guard Blue, Evil Sunz Scarlet and Nihilakh Oxide. The dry brushing was done with Testors Metallic Silver. I sealed it with 2 coats of Rust-Oleum Gloss Automotive Enamel which creates a supper hard finish, and wet sanded again with 800 grit sand paper. Finally, I applied two coats of Rust-Oleum Matte Finish to remove the sheen from the clear coat and give it a more comfortable feel in the hand.








I did range tests with three different darts, standard blue elite’s, green Zombie Strike elite’s and Mostly Harmless Arms (MHA) pink foam silicone tipped darts. Four darts of each type, both angled shots and flat shots. Please note that these are approximate as I do not have a legitimate firing range. I just fire them in the alley behind my house and pace them off. Also, the shots are listed in the order that I picked them up off the ground, not the order in which they were fired.

Blue Elite’s:
PTG shots Angled shots
1. 69 ft 1. 96ft
2. 72ft. 2. 105ft
3. 75ft 3. 108ft
4. 78ft 4. 117ft

Green Zombie Strike darts
PTG shots Angled shots
1. 63ft 1. 108ft
2. 63ft 2. 120ft
3. 75ft 3. 126ft
4. 96ft 4. 126ft

MHA darts
PTG shots Angled shots
1. 69ft 1. 87ft
2. 69ft 2. 90ft
3. 72ft 3. 99ft
4. 75ft 4. 102ft

It is worth mentioning that the barrel is not optimized for MHA foam and were I to make one that is Stephan compatible I’m sure that the benefits would be measurable.

Stock performance was about 45ft flat from the top barrel and 30ft from the lower one. As you can see these modifications add up to some major improvements. But you don't have to take my word for it. I'll see you next time.

Come sweat out your hangover Nerf style.

Where Should I Go?
Cherokee park
745 Cochran Hill Rd
Louisville, KY 40206



We will start at the Frisbee field location and if more space is needed then we will move to the tennis courts. The game areas are marked in red and parking is in yellow.

How do I get there?
All directions are from the intersection of Eastern Parkway & Bardstown Rd

Frisbee Field
Enter the park from Eastern Parkway and turn right onto Scenic Loop. Turn left after Dingle Rd to stay on Scenic Loop. Make another left at Beargrass Rd, then one more left at Beals Branch Rd. The next street is Cochran Hill Rd, the game area is on the corner and parking is across the street on Scenic Loop.

Tennis Courts
Turn Right on to Cherokee Rd at the round-a-bout at the entrance of the park from Eastern Parkway. Follow Cherokee Rd until it meets Barret Hill Rd and turn right. The tennis courts will be on the left with parking in front. If you pass Park Boundary Rd you have gone too far. The game area is directly behind the tennis courts.

Navigating the park can be a bit confusing, so if you don’t understand the directions or get lost hit me with a PM.

When should I be there?
Sunday May 4th
Between 2pm and 6pm

What are The Rules?
-This war is for un-modified stock darts only.
-Melee is cool.
-Eye protection mandatory no exceptions.
-No head shots of any kind will be allowed.
-No shields. Blaster hits count.
-Blaster/melee bans will be on a case by case basis. If you can shoot yourself in the head at point blank range without injury then we will most likely allow it.

What games might we play?
Meat grinder
Defend the core
Capture the Flag
Gunslinger

There will be dart sweeps between every round(the perfect time to brag/trash talk). Any other suggestions are welcome, but we would like to keep the game play short and the rules simple.

What should I leave at home?
-Negative attitude, remember we came to play games so relax and have a good time.
-Blasters painted black or camo that you tried to make look realistic because you cant be trusted with a real firearm. You will be ridiculed for your silliness and your blaster will be covered in stupid pink tape.
-Sluggs, stephans, and what-have-you. This war is for stock darts only.

What should I bring with me?
-Blasters/melee, we will do several pistol rounds so bring those as well. Don’t have a blaster? Don’t worry there will be loaners.
-Ammo, there will be some to share but the more the merrier. Un-modified stock foam only.
-Water, there are no facilities at either location so bring lots of it.
-Eye protection.
-Stuff to trade/sell. Let’s see what you got!!!
-Costumes are welcome!!