Orange Mod Works website up!

Orange Mod Works, creators of the stage 1 mod kit for the Nerf Recon and the book, Nerf Modding A-Z: Nerf Recon, now have their website up and running, and is worth a look. You can even downlad the PDF version of Nerf Modding A-Z: Nerf Recon for FREE. So have a look, www.orangemodworks.com

Nerf Alpha Trooper custom rebuild: part 1

I know I haven't done a review on the Nerf Alpha Trooper, but I haven't been able to get my hands on a completely stock blaster. I do know, however, that they don't come with any attachments, nor a stock, and aren't compatible with barrel extensions. So originally, they look like this:

They do, however, come with an 18 dart drum magazine, the ability to accept stocks from other blasters, have a rail on top for an attachment, and best of all, SLAMFIRE. Which means they can shoot darts as fast as you can pump the priming handle.

I didn't actually own one of these until the other day, when I started scrounging around the spare parts the one of my friends and his brothers has quite a stack of. I managed to find pretty much everything I needed to rebuild an Alpha Trooper. I was only missing an inner barrel, barrel tip, jam door, stock mount and the main spring. So after more scrounging I found a barrel from a Longshot front gun, a spring from either a Recon or Raider, and a stock mount. No jam door or barrel tip however. Improvisation came in to play. I cut down the inner barrel piece so that it would fit inside and leave the end bit poking out to mimic a barrel tip. so I reconstructed my Alpha Trooper to it's former glory, went to test fire and ran in to a problem. the piston was getting stuck in the stock mount. I have no idea why, I think the piston in these is slightly larger than the older Recon and Raider. So I simply cut the back of it off, problem solved but now I had a jamming issue, where the blaster wouldn't prime.

My solution? get rid of the clip lock safety that only allows you to take a clip out if the blaster is in the bolt open position, and one of the spring loaded safety mechanisms, of which I still don't know what it's function is, other than to cause headaches. I reassembled once more, and test fired. 6 shots, beautifully quick, at about 35 feet. Next step, more range! So I drilled out the air restrictor and rebuilt again, and this time tried using an 18 dart drum. I would say that once you get pumping with this thing, It's hard to deny that it's an incredible blaster, especially when all I did in terms of performance was drill out the restrictor and suddenly I was hitting 45-50 feet.

Needless to say I was over the moon, but, I wanted it to look a little different, so I took it home and got to work. Since i had no jam door, I decided that the extra space could make room for fingers if there was a carry handle on top. I cut off the handle/rail from a Nerf Deploy, and split my Alpha Trooper and handle into 2 halves. i lined up some marks of where to file down to be able to stick the handle/rail on top and still get maximum surface area to glue to. I filed the halves of each separately then put them together so I could line up the handle/rail as good as possible, then applied hot glue on the outside of the joins, taking care not to glue the halves together. After that had set hard, i took the shells apart again and glued the inside of where the handle joins the main blaster for a strong connection. Add some Triflow lube, Reassembled and with a Stock from a Nerf Recon and an 18 dart clip instead of a drum, it looks alright in my opinion.

There is still a ton more that I want to do with this blaster, I plan to use a stronger spring, add a rail on the right hand side for a light, paint and add an acog scope (mainly for looks really). I can't wait to have this all done, it's not much right now but by the time I'm finished i hope it will be one awesome Alpha Trooper!

-Rolley

Orange Mod Works

Right now, these guys are fairly new on the block from what I can tell, but they have tapped in to a severely needed market within the Nerf community, by taking on the challenge of making modification kits for Nerf blasters, and also publishing a book on how to mod Nerf blasters.

Right now, their website is under construction, however they have an eBay page taking pre-orders for their stage 1 mod kit for a Nerf Recon. Finally! Someone has found a viable way to get custom machined parts into the hands of Nerfers for their blasters! Needless to say, I'll be ordering one of these mod kits which will be made from stainless steel for the first run, and aluminium thereafter.

So jump on to Facebook and add their page, http://www.facebook.com/orangemodworks
And to preorder one of these kits, shipping on the 25th of may, go here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330564360950&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

-Rolley

Tactically Geared: Nerf

Something that both Nerf and paintball has in common is the need to be able to access spare ammo and equipment, but many players don't think too hard about setting themselves up to be able to access the spare darts or paintballs they need in a hurry, nor about how well they can be disguised to other players

So what do you need for a Nerf war? Well that depends on what you want to do. I'll cover paintball in a different post, but for now I'm covering Nerf. First of all, if you only use one style of blaster and one style of game then you probably only need one setup. Otherwise, it's good to have a variety of gear so that you can switch around between games. There are quite a few options to carrying spare clips and darts. Having ample supply of clips on you while using a dart blaster that needs the darts to be individually loaded, however, is pretty counter productive. I would suggest using a Nerf Ammo Bag kit.

They come in a few styles, with 50 camo streamline or whistler darts and hold plenty of darts to last you a game. The other upside for these, is that they can also store 8 standard size clips, or two 18 dart drum mags, so this could be a solution if you have a clip fed blaster and have some cover to use, as you will need to stop and open the bag, pull the clip out and load it. This can't be done as quickly as having the clips on your body, however.

This is where the Nerf tactical vest comes in. This would have to be the best all-round solution to most situations in a Nerf war. It comes with 12 darts and 2 standard clips, but can hold up to 4 clips, a spare side arm blaster, and has a zip pouch for anything else you might need (lights, capture the flag unit or even more darts). Using this means you could access extra clips even quicker than using a pouch, and everything stays secure. Though, it could slow you down by reducing your mobility, and is a bit counter productive if you're using a ghillie suit.

So, try going a little more light weight, and attach a Nerf bandolier to your blaster. While not offering as much storage as a tactical vest or pouch, it can still hold 6 clips and 12 darts, though could be quite bulky with the full 6 clips strapped on. Other than that, it's as lightweight as you can get. You could, of course, choose to use a blaster that already has spare storage, but in my experience that won't last if you get into a sticky spot.

If you live somewhere that amazon.com delivers to, here are the links to these handy items:

ammo bag kit

tactical vest

bandolier from amazon

If you live in Australia, most times these can be found at major stores such as Big W, Toys 'R' Us, or Target.

hope this will get you geared up a little better for your next game! -Rolley

Nerf Vortex reveal video 3

As of late my updates have been few and far between, so I'm very sorry that I'm the last one to report on this, but between work, my photography, and well, more work, I haven't had time to even go near my computer in around a week. But keep checking in, I'm trying to clear some time for this blog and I'm not giving up on it or anything like that.

Anyway, the Nerf Vortex reveal video number 3 is now up on the Nerf facebook page and gives viewers a really clear shot at the 4 (so far) revealed Vortex blasters. I say "so far", because, there may be other blasters. While it hasn't been released, I'm not going to totally discount the possibility of more blasters released closely following the release of the initial 4.








In the video, the blasters are clearly named, and you can see tactical rails on all of them, confirming the snippet of info the Nerf facebook already released saying that the new blasters will accept N-Strike attachments and vice versa. However, it doesn't seem like there will be any different barrel configurations, which may disappoint some people. This doesn't really bother me however. One more thing I noticed, being that the Praxis has a different stock attachment point. Have a look at the back of a Recon. there is an upside down U shape slot in the black stock mount part, presumably to allow air to flow in behind the piston when it fires to prevent vacuum drag. on the Praxis, it's a big round circle. Does that mean the internals are vastly different?

For more information, check the Nerf facebook page. Also, have a look at the Urban Taggers blog. They also have some more info that I'm not going to report on here, as they would have gone to great lengths to get this information and I feel their hard work shouldn't go unnoticed.

More info on upcoming Nerf Vortex line

Alright, the Urban Taggers blog is on the ball again with a little more info on the upcoming Nerf Vortex line. A few really clear pictures on 4 new disc shooters is going to get some people really pumped. they look great, so head over to Urban Taggers to check it out.

Interesting Nerf Reactor mod

Anyone remember they good old Nerf Reactor? You might not, they are getting a bit vintage now. They are a bit like a pump action ball shooter, I haven't done a review of one yet, but I will eventually. since I was given two of them, I will review on and I will mod the other. The mod is going to be something similar to the one in this video I found on YouTube. Basically, it converts a Nerf Reactor from pump action, to combustion powered, using the same principals used in building a very basic potato cannon. Now, I'm pretty experienced in combustion potato cannons, I'm not going to reveal anything yet, but I'm certain I can apply my knowledge to gain a lot more range than this guy. Anyway, If you want to watch this mod guide by Kiplay, here it is!

Ubisoft Battle Tag

Ok, I'm very slow with this, but I'm hardly ever in tune with the whole laser tag side of things. I don't know why, it seems like a ton of fun.

Anyway, Ubisoft Battle Tag. It's a new system for laser tag games, that involves ammo, med kits, respawn points and health. You might say some of thes things have been implemented before, but from what i can gather, the med kits and ammo kits are separate units that you pick up, and "tag" under your laser tagger to reload. And, from what I gather, game stats can be recorded to a computer via some sort of a radio transmitter device called UbiConnect.

Stats wise, they claim ranges of 300m, or about 990 feet. Both Nerf AND paintball players would melt at the thought of getting that sort of distance out of their blasters or markers, and laser tag I can imagine being a whole lot more accurate than foam darts or paintballs. In fact, I kind of use Nerf as training for paintball, because the darts are SO inaccurate. I don't think they are releasing anything other than the pistol type laser tagger (or T-blaster, as they call it), so it might be hard to get steady shot.