SatyrWolf

Catch plate failure in a modded Longshot. Ended up shooting myself in the leg point blank and left a welt the size of a quarter.

My first mod was a Longshot. But then again I'm an engineer. 

From a cost standpoint anything you can thrift for under $5 is good to try modding.

If the screw heads are flat, chances are you'll need to drill them out, Find a bit that's about the size of the screw threads and go slow.

How slow? Slooooww. Slow than that, Don't get impatient. Use a drill, not a Dremel-like tool. The drill motor will tell you if you go too fast. It may take u to a half hour to remove one screw. The fact that they're rusted will help. If you go too fast you'll melt the plastic and ruin the post. If it happens once or twice it's not a huge deal but the shell won't be as strong. If you're just opening it once for a repair and don't plan on opening it ever again you can drop some devcon at those points.

My vote for awfuls would be my Vulcan. It sounds like a prop plane when the motors spin up. I hate loading the chain. Ranges suck and sometimes the chain doesn't advance despite how much weight is hanging off the side.

I would advise against craft foam. It'll lose shape fairly quickly