Sunday battle day!

Needless to say, I want one, if it exists or not.

It's a sunny winter Sunday, and I've got an invite to another Nerf war, this time trialing the inclusion of Max Force blasters. I'm taking the opportunity to take a few photos and test out my modded alpha trooper and my shadow hawk to see how they go against competition. So tonight I'll have a couple more updates on how these two fared in an actual Nerf war. I know the layout of the venue quite well and have a couple of sniper spots scoped out already, as well as some routes with good cover to push through. In the mean time, doe anyone know what this kid in the picture is holding??

Now THAT'S how you paint a stampede!

Mr. Johnson from the Johnson Arms wordpress blog has done it again, I saw this pop up in my feed and was absolutely stunned at the look of this stampede he has done for a buyer, so I just had to post it, Johnson's work more than deserving! So there's a pic for now, and go to http://johnsonarms.wordpress.com to see the blog, including the post on the stampede HERE.

My second blog.

This is just a quick post to announce that I have my second blog up and running, http://rolley-photo.blogspot.com/. It's basically just a blog that I will update a few times a month with my photography work. It will usually be just a bit of camera fiddling to see learn what works and what doesn't, but I will upload some backyard warfare photos from time to time that I haven't loaded here. For example, there's a couple of extra photos of the Max Force Shadow Hawk that I didn't include in yesterday's review.

So anyway, have a look from time to time, and feel free to leave a comment. I'll let you know via this blog when I've added extra Nerf/ Max Force/ lazer tag photos on my photo blog. enjoy!

Max Force Shadow Hawk review!

In my hot, not-so-little hands today, is the Shadow Hawk, part of the Max force line by Jakks Pacific. It's a blaster I've been keeping my eye on the release of since it was first starting to appear on blogs and other sites. It's not a foam dart shooter, instead, it shoots a kind of water soaked paper bullet called "soft splat ammo", which is claimed to reach ranges of 100 feet, much further than any stock foam dart blaster available at the moment, which is a big claim.

So, how did this spit-ball sniper rifle turn out? Well, when I got the Shadow Hawk out of the box and set it up, my first impression was that this is a seriously good looking piece of tagging awesomeness. Before I put some test shots through it, I took the time to check out the build quality, and found that it is very well built. It feels nice and solid, has no excessive plastic squeaks and no rattles. Everything fits together quite well and stays in place. The only part I found to be a little flimsy was the bipod legs, but these are designed to come off their mount if they are knocked to prevent them from snapping if they get snagged up, so not too much of an issue there.

Max Force Shadow Hawk: The spit-ball sniper

In the box, you get mission glasses, 120 paper pellets, a clip and an ammo container. It also comes a removable barrel extension, stock, and scope. I think this makes room for more customization options later on, a big plus in my books, after all, that's one of the things that makes the Nerf N-strike line so great. The scope is essentially a plastic tube with cross-hairs inside, and while it sounds as useless as a Nerf scope, It's actually kind of useful. I found myself lining up shots with it and usually hitting what I aimed for. The scope can fit on a  Nerf rail, but it's a bit of a tight squeeze. Likewise the other way around, you can't really slide Nerf accessories on to the rail, you have to wriggle it on to the rail until the sides lock in. This could be solved by shaving down the locking pin on the base of the Nerf accessory.

The first tagger to be deserving of a scope?

Now, to the good stuff, loading and firing. The way I loaded my ammo was by first pushing the ammo into the clip and then soaking the clip in water for 10 seconds or so, but you can also pre-soak the ammo. Once soaked, you push the clip in from the left, then push the bolt forward and down to lock in the first paper bullet ready for firing. Then, you pull back the pump handle, and let it go to fire. The next pellet is loaded by lifting the bolt up, back, forward, then down, just like a real bolt action gun. To be honest, I love this feature. It feels very solid, and just like real bolt action. Another massive plus for me. Performance wise, It fulfills the 100 foot claim, and it's much, much harder to dodge than a Nerf dart. Accuracy is pretty good, but beyond about 60 feet, wind and the spin or tumble of the ammo mid flight can sometimes take over. That said, the paper bullets are still more accurate than Nerf darts at comparable ranges.

The bolt loading mechanism feels perfect!

As a long range blaster it fares really well, and even at short range without the extended barrel, the Max Force Shadow Hawk is a force to be reckoned with, though the process of using the bolt then pulling back the pump handle and letting go repeatedly is a bit slow, so if you were caught off guard  by someone with a slam-fire or full auto Nerf blaster, you would be in a tough spot for sure. Luckily, the optional flex ammo belt (sold separately) also fits this blaster, so digging in for a long time in a tagging war is certainly an option (and is an option I'll totally go for).

Even fantastic as a marksman tagger

In summary, the Max Force Shadow Hawk is a brilliant piece of work, I was impressed right from the start with this blaster, I looked forward to it's release, and was not disappointed at all. There are so many good things about this very powerful spit-ball launcher, and many promising signs for the progression of Max Force. The build quality is brilliant, the range and accuracy is amazing, the Shadow Hawk even has it right in the looks department. In fact, the only drawback I can think of is the fact it does not feature a trigger mechanism, however, this is most likely due to the strength of the spring powering this bad boy. Still, that doesn't stop me from being really happy with the Shadow Hawk. I would definitely recommend this blaster, and though I haven't yet had the chance to use it in tagger wars yet, I have a feeling this blaster will do really well. Than you very much to Jakks Pacific for giving me the opportunity to review this great piece of kit. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Max Force line grows, and I'll definitely be picking up the rest of the Max Force line when I can. for more on the Max Force line, including the online store, go to the Max Force home page.

Drac explains Humans vs. Zombies

This is a link to a video on the Nerf mods and reviews made by Drac, which explains quite well, the way the Nerf based game "Humans vs Zombies" (or HvZ) is played.

I have never played this style of game before, reason being is that it's really big in the US but not so much here, but by the sounds of it, it's a really fun game style that can be played almost anywhere for any length of time.  I'll probably get into more in the summer months, because at the moment it's the middle of winter and apart from being cold all day, there aren't too many hours left in a day after work. Links below.

->Humans vs Zombies explanation by Drac
And:
->Humans vs Zombies homepage

Max Force commercial - pretty extreme!

The last couple of months, Max Force has been working away at getting information about their new line of blasters out to the public. What better way is there to do that, than producing an advertisement that's just a tad more extreme than anything else? Seriously, I saw this commercial last night and was pretty stunned, there's a guy that frontflips over a barrel, blasts out more Max Force ammo than you can imagine in about 2 seconds flat, and then there's a shot of a water balloon being burst by a paper bullet with what seems like a decent amount of force (pun intended)... I think that their marketing department have done pretty well to show off these products and get people really excited about them, so they certainly deserve this post.

For some reason, blogger reduced the quality a fair bit from the original file, but hopefully it will give anyone who is a bit uninformed about these blasters an idea of what they are and how they work. Definitely worth watching in my books!

Custom Nerf Nitefinder

In between writing for this blog, riding and working, I've also been moving house, so I have been really busy. The upside of this, Is that I've found well over 100 Nerf darts (from places you wouldn't even think of looking), and this, my custom Nitefinder. I did a review on these and also a mod guide a while ago, but I had no idea where this one was to include it in the pictures or write up.

Anyway, This was the very first Nerf gun I owned and modded. It started out as a simple stretched spring, then later I decided to drill the restrictor out, and I got some great ranges out of it. But, me being me, I wanted more power. So, I added an extra spring to work inside the original one. And then I went further, and added a stock fabricated from a piece of L bar and a short piece of box section steel. I cut a small section out of one side of each L bar piece so that it could be screwed flat to the side of the Nitefinder's body. This stock gave me added stability in Nerf wars to be able to hit 80 foot ranges with decent accuracy. A while later, I bought a Longshot and attached the scope to this, and did my first painting attempt .

2 bolts either side secure the stock

This Nitefinder is one Nerf gun that I can say I'll sill keep using for a while, though not one of my best modding jobs, it looks OK in my opinion, I do like the minimalistic stock look. Performance is still quite good, it's short, so very easy to get around with, powerful enough to get good ranges, and pretty accurate for a Nerf gun. The downside is that it is slow to reload and quite loud. But, like I said, I'll still be using this blast from the past.