willtruncheon

Minimized Tommy 20, juiced up with a battery upgrade and cosmetic work. Once again, a piece for a local Steampunk LARP. The ranges are still fairly feeble, but the rate of fire is greatly improved, making it absolutely unstoppable within 30 feet. You can lay down a veritable torrent of foam. The powered-up flywheels also make a fantastic screaming sound when the trigger is pulled.









The hinged & latched box on the side is the new, larger battery housing.

OMC, Larping is huge. There are more than 500 "business" games in the United States alone, where larping isn't as popular as it is in Europe. At least two full feature-length movies have been made about it for general release in the last few years. It's everywhere, and it naturally coincides with nerf.

As a general rule I wouldn't recommend taking on a condescending air while addressing an Admin. I'm sure OMC knows how big LARPing is etc etc, but yeah, I'm sure he appreciates the information.

And as for bows in Nerf, evertime this stuff comes up I'm always at a loss for why you would use weapons meant for hunting and killing for Nerf. I always looked on it as a game where we take child's toys and make them more enjoyable... Hm don't know about you but I don't want to get shot at by a real bow.

-OfAll'

OfAll,

Please don't look for "condescending" where it's not. I'm answering OMC's question, not taking a cheap shot. Believe me, my interests here do not include flaming admins.

Being shot at by a "real" bow using boff/nerf ammo is not a big deal. Safety standards are pretty well-established... most of these games are businesses with liability issues. Bow strength is monitored. Remember, people have been doing this in numbers since 1970something. When it comes to nerf and larp projectiles, I've taken more shots to the face than Elton John in the '80's, with no ill effects. The only injury I've ever heard of from a larp arrow was at a terrible game (now closed) where someone fell on an arrow made from a golf tube and got cut.

Hey Tigger,

You might want to try nerf arrows that have the tips bulked out with foam from a pool noodle, to make the striking surface larger. I assume that Amtgard rules don't allow the use of core in projectiles? A modded BBB might look okay, although I have no idea if arrows modded in this way would be too front-heavy to be practical. Do you have your heart set on modding a gun for this purpose? There are some pretty amazing bungee-cord crossbows out there that fire nerf arrows, as well. They look appropriately "period".


QUOTE(One Man Clan @ Apr 27 2009, 05:37 PM)

What's with all the LARP crap popping up on this board lately?


OMC, Larping is huge. There are more than 500 "business" games in the United States alone, where larping isn't as popular as it is in Europe. At least two full feature-length movies have been made about it for general release in the last few years. It's everywhere, and it naturally coincides with nerf.

The only thing I don't like is the hole in the bottom of the grip. Did you misplace the piece that goes there?

Aside from that, it's fucking awesome.

AssassinNF, good point... the gap is for the insertion of a horse-hair tassel that hangs from the butt (hur hur hur) of the gun. At the time these pics were taken, I was waiting for enough horse-hair to actually finish it. I'll have to take a newer pic.

To answer your questions:

This blaster took about ten hours altogether to make (not including time spent drying and looking at the NerfHaven tutorials). A lot of that time was spent kinda staring at it, trying to figure out what should go where, and puzzling over how to assemble it with all the additions. The paint I used was Plasti-Kote for the metallics and very cheap generic acrylic paint for the other colors. The verdigris was accomplished using several washes of green, greenish-blue, and turquoise (a wash is a heavily diluted, very watery layer of paint that settles in the recesses of what you're painting). The Plasti-Kote is great, because it is very durable and adheres beautifully to plastics, but I had some problems with it melting my first layer of spray primer. The whole deal is sealed with three layers of a satin spray whose brand name escapes me.

I paint everything by hand. Someone who is more skilled than I could probably do it with an airbrush, but I am a lot more comfortable with the old-fashioned style, having come from a background of miniature painting.

Thank you all so much for your feedback and support. It's very inspirational.