Updates!

Regular readers may have noticed a few changes to the blog happening over the last couple of days, and there are still more to come. First and foremost, I've been posting more. Over the last month, time constraints that have been preventing me from posting more often have become more manageable, and though I don't actually have any more free time than I used to, I've organised my job and other commitments in such a way that I get larger chunks of free time that I can do more with (however, being a parent and doing parental duties is still something you can't "organise").

Secondly, pages on the blog have changed. There is no longer a photos page, but there is now a listing of reviews posted on this blog in it's place, and also a online store listing for retailers of aftermarket foam dart blaster parts and other equipment. The links page has also been updated. If you are a retailer or blogger that would like your page listed, let me know via comment or via the new email: street-tag-warfare@live.com

Ads are now gone completely from the blog, really they were just a placeholder to give the page some colour anyway, I will have to think of something colourful and interesting to put in their place eventually. I'll probably allow ads for the YouTube channel, as that's probably the better platform for them and at least there they can pay to expand the blog more. There's a ton of blasters and mod kits I'd love to review but realistically there is no way I can afford to cover them all out of my own pocket. Every cent any ads generate will go back in to the blog, and hopefully cover the cost of some competitions and giveaways.

Finally: social media updates. Over the next week or two, my personal YouTube account will become the platform for any videos for this blog (about time I started doing videos), and also the Facebook page will be updated more frequently.

I had plans to run a competition in the near future for a logo and banner design for all outlets of this blog, however the readership at the moment isn't anywhere near big enough or active enough to have a healthy competition. So if you'd like to see things like competitions and giveaways, get campaigning! comment on posts and spread the word! show me that you're here and that you want free stuff!!

Ultimately, this blog is owned by the people who read it. If you have suggestions or ideas for Street Tag Warfare, shoot me an email and i'll try to get it done. User submissions are welcome, I especially love high quality mods that I can feature!

Remedy Metal Power Train kit: First impressions

The Nerf Longshot, for almost 8 years now has been the ultimate blaster for modders wanting huge power from a CS blaster, due to it's large plunger tube and fairly rugged "battle rifle" good looks. It's popularity among modders is pretty hard to miss, there's literally hundreds of different mods, from integration mods, to power mods, lighting, steampunk and paintworks are hard to miss, and in recent times, as modders start to push the boundaries of power, reinforcements have been popular. Everything from epoxy putty reinforcing, steel plates on the boltsled, and brass breech systems, to plunger tubes made from metal and spring plate supports. All these things have allowed higher and higher spring loads (16+kg seemed to be the norm for a while) but eventually, something usually broke or at the very least there was a huge amount of uncertainty about whether your Longshot would last another war. I myself have broken 2 boltsleds, 2 bolts, 2 back plates, and a plunger over a few years.

Let me show you, what I think, is the ultimate in power and reliability for a spring powered Longshot:

Forgot to take a photo of the kit before it's assembled - pic from Remedy Metal

This is the Remedy Metal Power Train full mod kit for the Nerf Longshot. It's a full stainless steel replacement kit which does away with the standard plunger, catch, plunger tube, back plate, bolt, bolt sled and breech system from the Longshot and replaces it with all stainless steel and delrin goodies.

Full kit installed

The plunger is all stainless, with a bigger o-ring and the screw holding it together has been moved from the plunger head to inside the catch tail, taking a weak point away from the impact area. The back plate and catch have also been redesigned and made from stainless steel, with a delrin support for the catch and an upgraded catch spring. There is also a k-26 main spring upgrade included with the kit. the plunger tube is also stainless steel and includes a vacuum hole in the design to stop it trying to suck darts in to the bolt. The bolt is also precision cut stainless steel and is a 2-part assembly with the front end sealing head (opposite plunger, as I've also heard it called) attached with a snap ring on either side (tool included for that!). The bolt is supported by a full stainless steel bolt sled and feeds in to a delrin coupler as the sealed breech, which also does away with the need for a dart tooth. At the end of the coupler is the precision cut stainless steel barrel which nests inside the existing plastic barrel, allowing it to be painted. The whole kit installed looks very nice and probably leads many people to remove their jam door to show it off.

Reinforced trigger

So it looks stunning, but how does it perform? Well, since I don't have a spare Longshot to build up, I used my old longshot that I wrote about a while ago as the test bed. I started off with just the k-26 spring as my load, but quickly realised that the stock trigger wouldn't handle pushing the catch under such load. I decided to reinforce the trigger with a pair of 14g bicycle spokes cut down to fit the groove in each side of the trigger, and filling the gap directly below the trigger tail with hot glue to support it. The first shot I fired from the assembled blaster impressed me, a lot! modified darts were already puncturing cardboard.

The spring load I'm using - 20kg. Green felt used for padding.

But I couldn't stop there, right? I had no hesitations about upping the ante with the spring load. The blaster now feels so solid and reliable, and really, there's nothing that can break in this kit with a mere k-26. So I loaded in 2 more springs, a 6kg Recon spring which fits nicely over the top of the k-26, and coils in the opposite direction, and then the original longshot spring over that, which coils back the same way as the k-26, so there was no worries about springs getting tangled when primed. All up this is about 20kg. funnily enough, I had answered a question on the Oznerf forum a week ago about 20kg in a longshot, warning that it'd be a pretty tough prime. Well, it is a pretty stiff prime and does slow down rate of fire, even with the Xplorer priming grip. But, to no surprise, the Remedy Metal kit takes it with ease. Firing this blaster is incredible. I do not have any other blaster in my load out that comes close to half the power of this thing, and thinking back to brass breeched Longshots I've seen, it'll probably out range those too.

So the verdict? Well, this isn't a final verdict. This is my first impressions after a week of messing around with it in my longshot. There's still battle testing and range testing to come. But for now, this kit is a stunning piece of Nerfing genius. It is worth every penny I paid for it and then some. The attention to detail, overall quality, reliability and power produced is nothing short of mind blowing. I have no doubt that this is a fantastic step in the right direction for aftermarket foam dart blaster parts. Look out for future posts on this kit, I hope to do a full build video using the Remedy Metal kit, if I can source an in-box Longshot from somewhere.

If you are interested in this kit, visit the Remedy Metal facebook page for updates, or http://www.remedymetal.com/ to order a the full kit or other parts.

Nerf Rapidstrike - with internals!

So everyone is raving about the Nerf Rapidstrike photos that have been leaked on baidu.com:

Well, here I was cruising Reddit, when I stumbled upon these posted up by "Rapidstrike", with a link back to Baidu once again:

Interesting, right? Until now, I hadn't covered the rapidstrike, since every other blog and their dog was all over it anyway, but no one has posted these yet, so I thought I'd get the word out. So we can confirm loads of things with this: full auto dart pusher, lots of wires and safety mechanisms... And lots of Wires. also, wires. seriously, there's literally 7 or 8 separate wires just behind the trigger...

Anyway, enjoy, speculate, plan mods, whatever tickles your fancy!

Orange Mod Works working on sealed breaches?

I saw a few pictures pop up in my facebook news feed last night by Orange Mod Works which seem to not-so-subtly hint that they are working on a sealed breach system for the Nerf Retaliator. I'm not sure what to make of this, as there is no pre-order up on their website yet, but they are calling it "the second stage", obviously referring to the stage 2 "solid" kit for the Nerf Retaliator.

From what the picture shows, it's a kit with revamped internals, adding on from kit #1. Bolt sled, metal trigger, bolt, plunger and receiver are all included by the looks, but it also features a barrel extension that is supposed to allow the dart to accelerate more as it leaves the barrel, using the full potential of the direct plunger volume of the Retaliator.

If this kit is indeed going in to production soon, I'll be pretty happy. I like my Retaliator, but at the moment it has no extra power over my rampage, so it's kind of an inferior candidate for the same role. giving it some extra power would bring it in to it's own field, it certainly couldn't out range a longshot, but it could out range a rampage with the two Orange Mod Works kits, and it's more compact than a Longshot. This kit and the stage 1 kit would make the Retaliator one hell of a pistol or short rifle.

Good work Orange Mod Works, I do hope this makes production soon!