Ice Nine

Old Timer Pervert Squad team round is going to get the cops called on the war but that's a risk I encourage us to take.

ARMAGEDDON XIX: 2018

Date:
Saturday, 23 June 2018
 
Time:
9:00 AM to 4:00+ PM
(Arrive around 9AM; people like to chat and prep beforehand. First round will start by 9:45AM.)
 
Location:
Stanton Elementary School
725 S Vencino Dr
Glendora, CA 91740
 
Remember, using these locations is a privilege, not a right. Use the golden rule: Don't Be A Dick.
 

 
FAQ

Where and when?
The war is 23 June 2018, from 9:00 to whenever (usually 4:00, but later is not impossible and is in fact a little likely). Location data is available above.

Darts?
Slugs and safer darts only. No metal is preferred but I understand that to maximize attendance while keeping it safe I need to keep this restriction more open. If you do make slugs, use #6 washers and not #8 washers. Use Ryan McNumbers' excellent guide available here if you plan on making slugs. If you use larger ammo, like megas or similar, keep them soft-tipped by the same guidelines as above.
If you are using silicone dome darts, they must be soft tips. Last year people were shooting rocks. Keep total dart weight under 1.3g, too, if you're shooting 1/2" darts.
You are also free to use stock-style darts, obviously. China Darts as reviewed by Cheerios are fine. No FVJ/FVN/whatever type of darts have a rock hard rubber/vinyl tip. The tip of the dart needs to be soft.

Who?
Everyone is welcome to come, veterans and newcomers alike. I'm not going to outright ban people younger than 13, but if you plan on bringing someone who is, you are responsible for them all day and you are especially responsible for them remaining safe (hydrated and wearing eye protection). I will be running this war with the assistance of others (including, but not limited to, Zorn and Apollo256).

What isn't allowed?
With dart restrictions, there isn't as much of a need for blaster regulations. Don't bring Titans shooting micro darts because that's just ridiculous. I and other war council advisors will spot-ban things if you are lasering dudes from a million miles away.

Blaster rules:
HOMEMADE AIRGUNS: Case-by-case basis. It is highly recommended that you talk to me beforehand (send me a PM or something). I'm very understanding.

TITANS: You may use them if they fire missiles (stock or Draconis or whatever) or balls. They must not be firing darts, of any size.

LBB/4B/UMB/SIMILAR: You may use them if they have the functional stock OPRV.

SUPER SOAKERS/SIMILAR: Do not bring them. If they shoot darts, they're too powerful. If they shoot water, people get mad.

SCEPTORS: If you want to use a Sceptor, make it colorful. Make it look as little like a paintball gun as possible. Wrap the tank in denim or something. If you replace the tank or pump, the OPRV must be kept at the same pressure and the tank volume may not be made any larger (stock is about 800cc).

SUPERMAXX 2000/5000/9000: Do whatever. It's fine. I hope you don't blow up your tank.

MELEE WEAPONS: Don't bring anything larger than these (Mashoongas).

SHIELDS: Hits on shields count as hits on you if you plan to use them. I'm nostalgic enough to say that Manta Rays count as actual shields against 1/2" darts, though.

Anything else?
1.) To stop a round for safety reasons, yell out the word "HOLD". If you hear someone call "HOLD", STOP PLAYING IMMEDIATELY. At any time during a round, anyone can call "Hold", which will temporarily stop that round. Players should repeat the call of Hold so that all other players hear, until the round stops completely. If a pedestrian is walking through the field, if a player is injured or if there is some other threat to personal safety, you are obligated to call hold. You can call a hold to pause the game and sort out some issue that is not a matter of personal safety, but do not abuse it.
2.) No barrel taps allowed. Barrel taps are how you absolutely gouge someone with a brass barrel and take out a chunk of skin. Barrel taps are how you break the barrel and bushing off your blaster. You can shoot them from point-blank, or you can ask them to take the hit. Don't touch them with your blaster.
 
 
 

A few important pieces of information:

• I don't anticipate there being a problem with the war site, but if there is, this is the address of the place we will be going as a back-up:
  Ole Hammer Park
  362 N Live Oak Ave
  Glendora, CA 91741
  There is also a school next door named Cullen Elementary we might try as well if we are over in the area.
• Be sure to check the weather forecast before the war. It looks like the heat wave in SoCal will break before the weekend happens, which is good; they estimate it'll have a high of ninety on Saturday, which is consistent with previous years. Be sure to bring (and re-apply) sunscreen and a lot of water. There are drinking fountains on-site.
• There are no available bathrooms at the school. If you need to use the bathroom, there are restaurants two blocks away with available facilities.
• If you need to reach someone the day of the war, for whatever reason, your best shots are posting here in this thread or using the Facebook event or reaching out to the NerfHaven page on Facebook. PMs probably will not work.

 
What gametypes?
Expect to play some carpe testiculum and related gametypes. There will probably be some quick-run deathmatch as well, to suit those people like Gears with a bloodlust that knows no bounds. Last year, speed rounds and freeze tag were big hits, so those will make another appearance. There will be minimal team captain team picking to keep downtime short.

Anything else?
Bring lots of water. I'll probably end up picking up a pallet of water bottles as backup but it does get hot and you will probably be running around so expect to need to drink something.
Bring lots of sunscreen, because no one wants a sunburn now or skin cancer later.
There are a lot of places to eat nearby. Traditionally, people eat at The Hat for lunch, which is conveniently about four blocks away from the war site.
Bring comfortable shoes. You will be running around.

If you have specific questions or concerns, PM me, or post them here, or whatever.
 
***
Attending:
Ice Nine
Zorn's Lemma
 
Maybe:
 

This is the most beautiful thread posted to NerfHaven in several years. I'm locking it so no one can sully its beauty.

One and a half months to go before Armageddon XVIII. I'm excited. I've gotten a handful of questions over PMs, and I'm happy to answer them, but generally it's better to post them in the thread so people can see the response (in case they have the same question). A couple of private answers I might as well make public:

• People generally bring extra blasters, especially to a war this big. If you're worried about your blasters at the war, people are usually pretty nice about lending things out if you're respectful.
• You're better off bringing your own darts. There are, at this point, a few community bins of darts floating around, but quality varies as most of them have aged fairly poorly. In a pinch, though, there will be darts you can borrow.
• Last time I was at the war site, there was construction happening on the parking lot. There were still parking spaces available, off to the side, and there is street parking available, but PLEASE be respectful to the neighbors. Don't throw trash in the street, don't honk your horn, just be considerate of others. You're a guest and we're lucky to be able to use the war site.
• I'm going to bring trash bags, like I did last year. When we leave the war site, there will be less trash on the ground than when we got there in the morning.

we don't, but if you just wanna give stuff away nobody will stop you. by all means spread the joy.

Two years ago, two guys from Washington brought two big boxes of stuff and at the end of the day, gave it out to anyone who wanted anything. I remember some kid being thrilled with finally getting a Longshot, which was fun. There probably won't be any "sanctioned" giveaway events because running rounds is already challenging enough.

I declined to put up a pool and just decided to do this. We're going to use the same topic again because it seemed like people were into that.

When: Wednesday, March 8th at 9 PM Eastern (6PM Pacific, 1AM in GMT (sorry GMT))
Where: #nerfhaven IRC channel on irc.darkmyst.org (use this link or direct your client to this server to join)
 
Topic: What's the best way to run a war? What do you (or your local hosts) find effective, and what don't you find effective? There's lots of stuff to talk about here (picking teams, remembering names, dartsweeping, different levels of preparation needed for rounds to start). 

As usual we will be talking about anything nerf related that comes up, and answering any questions.  This topic is just a guideline and jumping-off point. 
 
If you would just like to use a real IRC client instead of the web interface linked above, I recommend downloading Pidgin or mIRC. mIRC is a Windows IRC client. Pidgin is a mutli-protocol chat client that works on most platforms and connects to google chat, AIM, IRC and others (facebook chat support available with 3rd party plugin). There are also plenty of IRC clients for Android and iOS. Just enter irc.Darkmyst.org as the server and join the #NerfHaven channel. You may also take a look at IRCCloud, which is a web based service that lets you stay logged in to the IRC channel even when you're not online.

A'ight, this is terrible. Thanks to everyone who gave advice, and especially thanks to everyone who told this dude off.

the worst part is they happen to be not white and im not being racist im noticing there behavior..

You are being racist. Way to make excuses. Take a couple months off to think about your massive, unwarranted sense of entitlement and your truly embarrassing racist outburst here.

Personally, I like this holster. The price is a little bit high but it's worth it to pay for ethically-sourced materials and production. Altera also has extremely good customer service.

Toad is right. You can't just go with only velcro around the leg because it'll slide down your leg and you'll have to keep fixing it and it will be infuriating.

 

OK, now just one second here, none of those have to do with any of the rules on the forum. I understand and comply with the rules here and as well as my ISP, and i'm not breaking any laws...

"If you break any of the above rules, the NerfHaven staff can, and very likely will, delete your account with little or no warning. If you repeatedly troll or spam on this forum, this activity will be reported to your ISP as harassment, and may result in the termination of your internet access."

Spamming is covered by most terms of service, and generally harassment is as well. Notice that it doesn't say that if you break the rules of the forum, you get reported to your ISP.

You're right, your rights don't end where our feelings begin. But this is a privately run organization and you agreed to our code of conduct when you signed up (and your continuing membership is therefore contingent on that), and historically the people who run this forum do not care about feelings.

​Just making sure here, if a admin could please clarify... How is this legal? and how do you plan on shutting down MY internet? I pay good money for internet access, for a service they provide ME and I can do what I want with it within the laws of my country. I have common sense and I am wize to the ways of the internet scammers out there. how do i know NerfHaven isn't a scam?

Remzak mostly has it right but I'm going to offer some additional clarity. Your ISP has terms of service, which stipulates that if you act in a way that violates their terms of service, they can cease to provide you with their service. Here are some things that ISPs say they can suspend your service for doing:

• Send spam or bulk email
• Send viruses/malware/etc. to other users
• Engage in illegal activity
• Transmit content that violates copyright law (basically, pirating)

If one violates a term of their service provider on this forum, it's within the rights of the administrators to tell one's ISP and let them do what they will with that information.

THE "CALIFORNIAPANTS'S BACK MEMORIAL WAR" MEMORIAL WAR 2016

Date: Saturday, 17 December 2016; 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

(If people can't make the 10th, the 17th is also viable.)

Location:
Stanton Elementary School
725 S Vencino Dr
Glendora, CA 91740

Remember, using these locations is a privilege, not a right. Use the golden rule: Don't Be A Dick.

Dart?
Slugs and safer darts only. No metal is preferred but I understand that to maximize attendance while keeping it safe I need to keep this restriction more open. If you do make slugs, use #6 washers and not #8 washers. Use Ryan McNumbers' excellent guide available here if you plan on making slugs. If you use larger ammo, like megas or similar, keep them soft-tipped by the same guidelines as above.

What isn't allowed?
With dart restrictions, there isn't as much of a need for blaster regulations. Don't bring Titans shooting micro darts because that's just ridiculous. I and other war council advisors will spot-ban things if you are lasering dudes from a million miles away.

Blaster rules:

HOMEMADE AIRGUNS: Talk to me first. Blaster that conform to my QEV design thing should be fine, as would similar ones.

TITANS: You may use them if they fire missiles (stock or Draconis or whatever) or balls. They must not be firing darts.

LBB/4B/UMB/SIMILAR: You may use them if they have the stock OPRV.

SUPER SOAKERS/SIMILAR: Do not bring them. If they shoot darts, they're too powerful. If they shoot water, then people get mad.

SCEPTORS: If you want to use a Sceptor, make it colorful. Make it look as little like a paintball gun as possible. Wrap the tank in denim or something. If you replace the tank or pump, the OPRV must be kept at the same pressure and the tank volume may not be made any larger (stock, is about 800cc).

SUPERMAXX 2000/5000/9000: Do whatever. I hope you don't blow up your tank.

MELEE WEAPONS: Don't bring anything larger than these.

SHIELDS: Hits on shields count as hits on you if you plan to use them. Manta Rays welcome.

What gametypes?
The usual, including Reverse Carpe (a small war special).

If you have specific questions or concerns, PM me, or post them here, or whatever.

ARMAGEDDON 2016: COLD SNAKES

Thanks to everyone who made it out this year, we had at least fifty around lunch time and probably closer to sixty (I'll wait for a full group photo before we make that declaration). It was crazy to host an Armageddon that was both a little rainy and seventy-ish. It was truly excellent weather for a Nerf war and I think everyone was feeling it because the amount of running I saw people do was insane.

• The morning's mechanical counter deathmatch game was one of the best rounds of Nerf I had ever seen, along with some of the most exertion I've seen from people. It ended with the score being 151 to 148.
• Huge props to everyone who traveled: we had people from Philly, we had people from Wisconsin, we had people from Minnesota, and we even had someone visit us from Australia.
• Lots of new faces. I'm consistently impressed by how mature and talented the young kids are at these wars.
• Lots of blaster variety.
• None of our China darts worked after getting consistent performance in the garage the day before. That's how you know it was a real quality Nerf war, everything from the night before doesn't work.
• ROCK MODE.
• Getting the U3 together for the first time in, like, four years.
• Groove and Zax together are always a plus.
• The second round of freeze tag where Ryan and Jlego chased me around the school and I started a chain reaction that made the game go on for another few minutes was pretty fun. Zorn got some good photos of me turning a baseball slide into a summersault.
• Beaver broke the pump handle on my SuperMaxx 2000 pretty much instantly. I could just switch to a Small Soldiers 5000 pump handle but it's not yellow.

If you post photos or video on social media, try and use the hashtag #geddonnerf because that's what I was using when I was live-Tweeting from the war from @nerfhaven. Here's one of the few action photos I took: Beaver and some people chasing down a suddenly fleeing Groove and Zax.

Great content, Kane. This is one of the best YouTube Nerf videos I've ever seen. Thanks for not making a directionless rambling video or just a series of stills. Hopefully you manage to get a write-up in there too. And:

I recommend watching it, and really all youtube videos, at 2X speed.  It's in the quality settings menu.

This is probably among the most useful things on this website.

When: Sunday June 5th at 12 PM Eastern (9AM Pacific, 4PM in GMT)
Where: #nerfhaven IRC channel on irc.darkmyst.org (use this link or direct your client to this server to join)
 
Topic: Getting ready for wars, both hosting and attending. Share your tips and tricks with everyone else. 

As usual we will be talking about anything nerf related that comes up, and answering any questions.  This topic is just a guideline and jumping-off point. 
 
If you would just like to use a real IRC client instead of the web interface linked above, I recommend downloading Pidginor mIRC. mIRC is a Windows IRC client. Pidgin is a mutli-protocol chat client that works on most platforms and connects to google chat, AIM, IRC and others (facebook chat support available with 3rd party plugin). There are also plenty of IRC clients for Android and iOS. Just enter irc.Darkmyst.org as the server and join the #NerfHaven channel. You may also take a look at IRCCloud, which is a web based service that lets you stay logged in to the IRC channel even when you're not online.

General Sceptor Reference Guide

Section I: Generic Stuff

Q: Why are you setting this up as a question/answer?

A: Because it’s easy.

Q: What should I do with the tank?

A: The easiest thing to do, the very easiest, is to wrap it in colorful tape. Get a roll of pink duct tape. Get a roll of yellow electrical tape. Go crazy on it. Paint doesn't adhere very well to the tank's plastic, but it might work depending on the paint you use.

Q: Why didn’t you plug the pump on this blaster?

A: There are a couple of reasons. The major reason is that there’s no reason to do it; the blaster fires great at its stock pressures, and since it fires ammo larger than a stock micro dart, it wouldn’t be allowed at most US wars with a plugged pump. Another reason is that the firing mechanism starts to fail at high pressures. The OPRV kicks in at about 20 PSI, in case you were wondering.

If you want to plug your pump, then prepare for: more pumping; no way to know when you have enough shots because the OPRV isn't venting to tell you; no way to know if you pressurized it too much for the valves to work right; and possible war illegality.

Q: What are your thoughts on tank replacement?

A: Tank replacements don’t really work, in my experience. One of the first things I tried to do when I picked up the blaster was make a larger tank, which you can see here as the Skeptorr: Pipe Bomb Edition. Even though this tank had more than double the volume of the original tank, I still only got four shots at usual power; it took more than twice as long to pump up for zero benefit. I was always skeptical of people who said they got more shots than that when they replaced their tanks, but who knows, it doesn’t make much sense to get fewer shots.

I actually recommend making the tanks small if you want to replace it (stock volume is 800 cubic centimeters). I took it to the point of absurdity in that Skeptorr post with the tiniest airtank I could manage; with that tiny airtank, it was basically a Big Blast. Draconis did a really wonderful tank replacement, which is pictured below.

Q: Why do you like this blaster so much?

A: It’s a fun piece of variety in the war scene. I prefer airguns to springers, for one, so the pumping time doesn’t bother me at all. They have super fun niche uses, too, like double-tapping a target if you’re worried about a rush, or berserker-rushing a group of people. While the sustained rate of fire is lower than pretty much any springer blaster, the burst fire is probably the fastest on any non-flywheel blaster, and I like that.

Q: Is there anything you don't like about the blaster?

A: Yes. A different shell would be better. This one is okay, but it looks too much like a paintball gun for my tastes and since the internal trigger geometry is very specific, it would be a decent challenge to put it in a different shell. It would probably be doable if you grabed this handle onto a different shell, but that would be a lot of work for little benefit.

I don't care for this one too much, nor the limited-authenticity two finger trigger, although with the very stiff pull, it's easier to operate with two fingers. On my first Sceptor, I cut the trigger down to one finger and put cushioning on it, and it was still worse.

The number one worst thing about this blaster is the pump coming out. There's no cap or anything to stop you from straight-up pulling it out of the pump tube. This isn't a huge deal, because there is a "break" in the tube towards the end that usually catches it, but if you're determined it's easy to get out. My first through for fixing this is using a rotary tool or even a drill to carve a channel into the body of the pump and put a bolt through it at the front of the shell, preventing it from being drawn out fully, but that's also too much work.

Section II: How Does It Work?

Q: How does it work?

A: It’s actually pretty cool. If you’ve every opened an older SuperMaxx blaster (e.g. SuperMaxx 500, 1000, 2500, 3000, or 5000-oids), there’s a cam system that works with the trigger to load a spring and then it drops out of the way to open the dump valve as quickly as possible. Here’s a SuperMaxx 5000 taken from Some Blog, so it’s visible:

The Sceptor works similarly. The people to whom I’ve spoken generally call this valve a “hammer valve,” which might or might not be correct, but I’ll keep using it regardless. The latch on the trigger meets the metal latch and loads a rotational spring as force is applied.

When the spring hits its near-maximum deflection (and the rotation of the metal circle moves the latch far enough away), the trigger slips back and the spring winds the metal piece forwards, which opens the valve momentarily and lets just a bit of the stored air out. The piece on the trigger is spring-loaded, too, so when it slides forward it moves out of the way of the latch until you start pulling it back again.

Section III: Repairs

Q: What can go wrong?

A: I've seen two things go wrong with a Sceptor: the front seal starts to leak, or the pin starts to leak.

The front seal on my first Sceptor started to leak at Cataclysm 3. I actually ended up repairing it on-site. This blaster is pretty well made, and the blaster's core assembly actually disassembles. There are five screws in the front area, two above the pump shaft on the front, and three on the rear of the dump valve/ball pusher assembly. Here's the back three.

It's difficult to get the rightmost screw because the airtank and tubing gets in the way a little. The tubing is flexible, though, and you can push it out of the way. Taking this off will remove the front sealing face of the air system, and give you direct access to the pin and the sealer at the end of the pin. I coated mine in silicone grease, used another blaster to blow off any debris from the front sealing piece, and then screwed it back together.

This fix managed to get it working and sealed up the leak. I don't know if there was something stuck in it preventing it from closing or if the sealer had dried up a bit, but this did the trick.

Q: What about the leaking pin?

A: A Sceptor of mine came like that and I decided to play with it instead of returning it. It was leaking out of the back of the front assembly, there the pin leaves to run along the spine of the air tube. I unscrewed the front of the blaster, took a tub of silicone grease, and used a long wood rod to jam as much at the interior pin as I could. I also squirted some mineral oil in there, in hopes that it would run down the pin and lubricate the o-rings (and maybe make them swell a bit).

Since I had extra blasters, I figured that this is a useful testbed. The silicone grease managed to slow down the leak somewhat, and I kept pressurizing it and pulling back the pin to move the lubrication through the system. It's not perfect, but it is a little improved, and hopefully over time the lubrication helps out.

Q: Anything else?

A: The only other person I know who uses a Sceptor regularly is Gears and he's never told me about any other leaks he's had. He did get a leak out of his most recent Sceptor, so it's probably the case that the deadstock ones being sold at the moment have dried-out lubricants in them since they've been sitting in a warehouse for years. The blaster disassembles quite a bit but if it's leaking out of the box I recommend just trying to return it.

If you have questions, or person problems with your Sceptor in the past, please post in this thread. It would be great to have more information about this blaster, since the most modern write-up on NH before this lost all its photos and most of the developments in Sceptor history are buried in the mods/paint thread and unsearchable.

Welcome to a simple write-up and general repair/reference thread for the Battle Max Sceptor MarkerBall v1.0, usually just called the Sceptor. I've been using one of these blasters since 2012 and have a lot of experience with them, so when Zorn's Lemma asked me to pick one up for him and modify it for Armageddon, I figured I would write it up here alongside a couple of noteworthy elements of the blaster.

As of the original post date and time, red Sceptors are available on Amazon for $21.60 with free shipping; there are Prime-qualifying Sceptors for $29.99 (red) and $34.99 (blue). In the past month I've bought three red ones, but one blue one came instead of a red one. There are no differences between the colored versions. One was leaky, probably because these have been sitting in a warehouse for four years and the lubrication dried out. If yours is leaky out of the box, the easiest thing to do is return it; Sceptor leaks are possible to fix, but a hassle.

The first post in this thread is a modification guide, and the second post is general stuff with which I've had experience (such as fixing leaks or tank replacement). If you want to jump to the guide, use this link.

These are the tools and parts I used for this modification:

• Sceptor
• 1-1/4" to 1/2" PVC bushing
• Hacksaw
• Hot glue, hot glue gun
• Super glue
• Small-mouth wire cutters
• Hammer
• Sandpaper

This is as bare-bones as it gets, pretty much. These are all things I had available when I started into this hobby in 2003. Rotary tools can be used in a few places to make things go more quickly, but this is a blaster someone can buy for thirty-ish bucks and get rewarded with a highly competitive blaster (if your wars are okay with them).

Start with your stock blaster. You can play around with the stock inline ball system; it's pretty fun. Unfortunately, the Sceptor balls and the new Rival balls are not quite the same size. I send my Sceptor balls and inline barrels to Draconis so he can use them at his wars. (Click to embiggen the pictures, I'm uploading them via NH's file attachment system so we don't lose the photos to some stupid change of service.)

Remove the pump system. It's four screws. Put it aside for the time being; it can be used to make a pump handle for later on, and it has a few nice little springs inside of it you can harvest if you're like me and like to Frankenstein blaster parts for other projects.

Unscrew the blaster. There's a sticker saying you'll void your warranty if you open the blaster. You can cut it down the seam of the blaster, peel it off (which will leave the word VOID written on the plastic until later in this write-up), or just pull the blaster apart without paying attention to it (it's not strong enough to hold up to shell-pulling forces).

The internals are pretty simple. There are three main components: the trigger, the air tank (the fake paintball hopper), and the mechanism body. Go ahead and pull off the orange-tipped clear plastic tube and pull the white tube out of the back. Feel free to keep them for future projects, or throw them out; they're not necessary for any part of this mod in the future.

You have two options when it comes to the ball pusher rod: you can leave it in the blaster and glue it down at the front later, or you can remove it by cutting the metal. The latter is more work, but you can get slightly better airflow to the bushing, so it's up to you. If you decide to cut the rod, go ahead and do that, taking care not to damage the actual firing pin. It doesn't take too long to do with a hacksaw, even if you don't clamp it down. Be careful not to touch the metal rod right afterwards, because it'll be very hot.

Now, this is what the front of the internals should look like once you're removed the pusher. Notice that the air port is kind of buried; be careful not to get anything in there. I like to leave a little pressure in the system while I'm working on it, just to keep the stopper closed and make sure nothing gets into it.

The shell will need to be modified in order to make room for the new bushing. Take the internals out of the blaster and screw the shell together if you're going to cut it with a hacksaw; if it's screwed together, it'll be easier to get a clean and consistent cut. Line up the hacksaw with the major part of the shell, where the pump emerges. (At this point, I decided that I wanted to make Zorn's shell two tone, so one half will be red and one half will be blue from here on.)

Removing the little hook part that latched onto the stock pump system will be helpful when you put on a different pump handle, so go ahead and cut that part off too.

The only downside of cutting the blaster back at this point is that there is no longer any shell support for the air tank, but it's very stable sitting in the shell so the performance trade-off is worth it in my opinion. If you want to see a modification that leave the tank support intact, please look at TantumBull's write-up.

It takes almost no time at all to do this with a hacksaw. If you have a bandsaw or scrollsaw, it's probably even faster, but this way means free arm workouts. After you're done, clean up the edges of the cut with some sandpaper or a hobby knife or even just your fingernails (not pictured here, I cleaned it up later).

Put all the internals back into the shell. It should be pretty intuitive, but if it isn't, the trigger is the only place where things can go wrong. Make sure you've aligned BOTH trigger springs (the one that rests on the shell, and the one that rests under the trigger's black ramp at the top, there's a little post for it inside its channel).

A 1-1/4" to 1/2" bushing fits PERFECTLY inside the remaining black stub at the front of the blaster. If you're skeptical, feel free to take your Sceptor internals to a hardware store and check for one that fits the best. On all the ones I've modified like this, I've managed to get perfect seals just from press-fitting them to the blaster, but we need to a little bit of work for optimal performance before we get there.

Take your hacksaw and cut the stem with the o-ring back to even with the rest of the black piece. This is a good time to make sure the blaster is pressurized a little, since you don't want those little plastic shavings to fall into the system. Wash it out with a little bit of water afterwards.

After that, take your wire cutters (or rotary tool) and shave down the wall of the center ring near the dump valve. I just bit off chunks with the cutters and that was more than enough, but a rotary tool can shave it down further if you're anal about it. You can remove the center stem piece with pliers, or leave it in; it does not matter at all.

Heat up your hot glue gun and fill up the center hole area enough to pool up towards the top. You only need to fill the front hole where the pusher exited; the back hole doesn't get impacted by airflow if you fill this one.

If you've done all this, then if you press your bushing in far enough, the rear wall should nearly make a seal with the area you just filled with hot glue. The airflow will pass through the channel you cut and out of the bushing, but even if you don't make that channel, this blaster puts out a lot of air sufficiently quickly that you'll still get great performance. Run a bead of superglue or goop around the seam of the bushing to make sure it stays put.

The last thing to do is figure out a way to add a pump handle. Back when these things were the flavor of the month, CaliforniaPants started the trend of putting a wye on the front of the pump. Admittedly, this makes an incredibly comfortable handle, and at least one of my Sceptors used that idea. Anyways, take your hacksaw and cut off the little wings from the front of the pump shaft. I actually put this handle on the edge of a block of wood and smashed off the wing with a hammer, or you can do it neatly with a rotary tool or scrollsaw or bandsaw or whatever.

In order to fit 1/2" PVC fittings over the pump, you'll need to shave any of the remaining wings down to the body of the pump. This is pretty easy even with just sandpaper. After you've done so, you can slip on whatever fitting you like best. TED found this "trap wye" and it makes for an amazing handle. You can glue it on, or take advantage of the soft plastic and drill in a hole and put a screw through it.

If you saved the original pump exterior part, you can cut off the bottom of it and use that as your pump handle. I have seen at least two people do this in the mods/paint thread, so here are those photos of it that I could find (from Pause and DICE134).

Put the pump back in. Your blaster is now finished. If you pump it up until the OPRV kicks in (usually between 35 and 40 pumps), you should get four shots out of a hopper at more or less full strength. It takes a little while to pump up to full from empty, but if you only fire one or two shots, it doesn't take long to get back up full.

I have two recommendations at this point:

• Put a stock on it. Steal an N-Strike stock attachment point and glue it on the back. Fashion one out of PVC. Do whatever. It makes the blaster more comfortable to use.
• PLEASE do something to modify the appearance of the tank. Try and disguise the fact that it looks like a paintball hopper. Cover it in tape that is a bright color, cover it in felt stickers, cover it in denim. I still have yet to choose something for this blaster, but on my 4JAX Sceptor I plan on covering the tank in as many googly eyes as possible (I bought 600).

Now go out and enjoy your blaster.