nerfarmourer

[nerfarmourer]

I wrote a thing... It’s useful.

[nerfarmourer]

Have you come across a company called Looyat for nerf darts on amazon? They claim to be soft and child safe but it doesn't say whether the have a CE rating. They do have soft heads though. Just wanting to know if these would be allowed as no point in ordering a big box of them only to find they are banned

Hey there,

Just did a quick Google and turned up these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Looyat-Compatible-N-strike-Practical-Cardboard/dp/B0765W54QW Judging by the tip geometry, those are Voberries and you’re not likely to be able to use them at most events. Plus, the ballistics will be terrible due to their poor weight distribution.

Honestly, these days going to Lightake.com and getting a crate of Accufakes is your best bet for cheap, reliable darts: http://www.lightake.com/p/1000pcs-Dart-Refills-Flat-Soft-Head-Foam-Bullets-for-Nerf-Toy-Gun-7.4c-1.3cm-Light-Green-Grey_2255119.html They come in a range of colours and usually take less than 2 weeks to arrive to the UK. :)

-DNA

[nerfarmourer]

The Importance of Organiser/Player Covenants To Keep Trust On Safety - Or Why I Quit Green Cloaks

Photo courtesy of the wonderful Jo Perridge. If I can find a back link to your photo blog that isn’t Facebook, I’ll be sure to update this post.

Before I begin, if there’s anyone at Virium Entertainment (VE) that wants to exercise a right to reply to what I’m about to put to text then I’ll replace this paragraph with a link to your published response here. This would benefit from growing into a discourse and I’ll happily promote that. I would also stress that this is aimed squarely at the senior team at VE; the management structure responsible for developing and implementing policy, those responsible for leading the team, setting the example for those under them and those responsible for ensuring their juniors are properly equipped for their roles. You owe it to the legion of keen players and those who labour with such love within your own staff to create a world for them to inhabit to fix the problems identified here. There are a lot of good people at GC who want the system to work, who have been failed for too long.

--

The above picture is of me at my last ever Green Cloaks event. The weekend of 10th March saw my regimental Sanctioned event run at a site in Hampshire. The disinterested shrug of ‘fucked if I know, much less care’ sums up the event for me. The long and short of it is that it was probably the worst GC event I’ve been to. It’s not that the monsters didn’t do their thing or that the refs didn’t work hard to provide a good event. No, it was simply the worst event because it made apparent the management culture at GC (and it’s parent company VE) isn’t capable of maintaining the trust of their paying customers to provide a safe and engaging fighting environment. Conduct both on site and after the event have shown that many players do not trust the organisers to keep them safe. I have sent my extensive feedback to the team, as have others, but I do not trust there will be an effective response.

There was a single incident where all this came into sharp relief and I will make an effort to recount it as best possible. Essentially, on Saturday evening the refs arrive in camp to direct an encounter to take the regiment out to an encounter in the dark. Over the course of a few hours, I had been taking the barometer of the people around me and to say they were mutinous is more than fair. Had I tried to order them as the regimental Lt to go on this mission, I’d have been told out of character to take a long walk off a short pier. Now, to the refs credit, they went off and consulted and came back with a second encounter of differing specification a short while later. However, it was still clear to us that the regiment was in no mood to fight in the dark - that trust was still lacking. In character, we asked for volunteers but it was clear there was no will to actually head out and do this thing. I sat out the encounter because I knew I wasn’t in the head space to fight safely and off the regiment’s volunteers went. Things happened, the event played out but there was a lot of bad blood on both sides with a big old gulf opening between refs and players towards the end of the event. The bunker mentality of the team was one of the symptoms of the problem I’m working at here.

Now, those are the facts as I understand them from my point of view. I’m not going to labour the point or go into the mud slinging detail but state the simple reason I won’t be returning to Green Cloaks (and do not recommend that others try it for the time being) - There has been a fundamental break down of trust between the customers and the system’s management team. To accuse your players of being ungrateful, to stick your fingers in your ears to feedback and fail to drill down into negative feedback that is being thrown at you is not only negligent but it threatens your very business model. Event organisers exist in a covenant with their customers to trust them to provide a safe play environment that is responsive to growth, development and feedback. Green Cloaks has been having problems with providing a safe night fighting environment since at least 2015 but they still haven’t fixed it. Yes, they can produce a solid universe that I want to play a character in (and I am very, very sad to have to leave for that reason) but continued failure to keep the the trust of myself and my peers that they are able to keep us safe is a breach of that basic covenant.

You cannot simply hide behind the excuse of ‘we put this event together in 14 days because the last team cocked up’, you can’t put posts up that imply you only want a certain type of feedback and you should certainly be responsive enough to stamp down players that are blaming other players for the clear and evident failures of the system’s management. VE needs to take a long hard look at itself and address those critical shortcomings before I will begin to channel new LARPers and Nerfers who want something different back to the system.

Negative feedback is going to come in but the most basic, legal requirement of any event organiser is to keep people safe. If you’re getting it, drill down into it. Publicly respond in a meaningful way and make it obvious that you’re reflecting. And above all, some degree of insulation for your internal processes to the outside world is in order. Running everything on Facebook with your refs’ personal profiles being used to respond to questions creates an ‘always on’ mentality and a bleed between personal and professional. It creates attrition and stress that can often leave junior staffers exposed and not supported by senior management. Equally, if you have solid areas of quality junior management that feel obliged or elect to ignore or circumvent the senior team to get shit done then that is another symptom of yet more problems in your culture.

So what are some good examples of Organiser/Player covenants? I usually single out the Bristol Blast team as a pretty solid example of this - probably because I have a lot of recent experience with them. Whether it was the discussion around close quarters tags and the adoption of the hand tag ‘bang, you’re dead’ rule to prevent younger players taking 130FPS close in or the guidelines they adopted on shields, they’ve done good work keeping that covenant in tact. Equally, I understand that the folks at Grim Up Nerf are scaling their events to meet demand and have long adopted a 100/130FPS limit paired to a 8+/’13+ split session to ensure the safety and enjoyment of younger players. Foam Dart Thunder are a good commercial example that VE could follow with their solid training for their marshals and the management’s trust in their juniors mean they’ve managed events bigger than anything in the UK at present.  Big events can be safe, as FDT prove but keeping players trust that you can keep them safe is the most important and basic of things and yet VE fail to retain it.

I hope that in future I can be proved wrong and things change. I hope that GC are able to sort this out, earning their customer’s trust to keep them safe back. 

--

Post script - A quick note on LARP as a medium: I think one of the really wrenching things about my decision to leave GC is that the event actually showed me the true power of live action role play as an immersive gaming experience. I’ve been a tad sceptical up to now but the this weekend showed me it can do things that no other medium can do. For one or two heart rending moments, some player to player RP left me fully inside my character’s head in no way any gaming, theatre, film or other media experience ever had. For one moment, I was the superior officer to this soldier, a doctor and a mentor with a very difficult decision to make in a way no other experience can offer. After nearly 5 years, I saw the true power of LARP and it was enough to shake me and realise GC in its current form is not the vehicle for those experiences.

[nerfarmourer]

Bristol Blast 14 - After Action Report

Yesterday was another day, another war here in Bristol. The weather held off and it was cool but sunny and dry. The Bristol Blast organisers were down a couple of bodies so I volunteered to lend a hand to help set up and get everything moving. I certainly don’t miss event organising with all the responsibility for lost property but it was good to be back on the field with a full complement of hardware. This is mostly a retrospective on gear and the like.

I ran my Rapidstrike with the Stryfe as a side-arm and 16 18 round magazines on a Blastersmiths UK battle belt and a H-harness. My radio was a Baofeng 888S and the headset my Cobra with a chunky push to talk module on the strap of my right hand side. The Cobra needs some work. Either I need to screw the damn thing in place so it doesn’t come apart from the head band mount or I need to get a better headset. It’s pretty clear and useful but it’s currently held together using zip ties which is awkward. The 888 radios continue to be perfectly functional workhorses though I would recommend that any team leaders on a field look to a dual band system so they can listen on a moderator channel while still having their tactical comms. There were a few ragged ends to games yesterday because I moved off the moderator channel during games and when the time came to call game, we were on different channels and forgot to change. Either that or we could just use a whistle since the site is small enough. 

Tactical comms were useful on a few occasions where my sub-commanders were requesting fire support while being pushed by a Nemesis on the open car park down one side of the chapel. More work is needed to propagate their use through day games but the foundation is there and people are starting to get the idea. I’ve written a lot about integrated the more ‘serious’ players into a broader player base. I have to say, it continues to work. Those of us who are at the higher edge of the game are able to keep having fun and doing our thing without impairing the game of others. Provided that example continues to be the case, we can groom potential players and then cream them off to run into more adult only games like FFS.

Future bits and pieces need to include teaching effective room clearance. Yesterday, I organised my team to hold a room during a Kill Confirmed game and we won pretty cleanly. Not only did the team effectively hold the room but two of the junior lads I had assigned to hold a sector showed the initiative and cleared off an entire section of the red team. That sort of tactical thinking is showing how the Bristol Blast player base is starting to mature and get more tactical. I’m very proud of Dusty and Banterman for that one, it shortened the game by 10 minutes and sealed the blue team victory. Next to get people clearing rooms properly in Kill Confirmed. If November is wet as expected then we might have to opportunity to get some inside only games of really intense room to room action. That’ll be the perfect place to show people how it’s done. I’ll make sure to pack my whiteboard.

Returning to my gear, my Rapidstrike is in serious need of maintenance. Since GC3 this year, the gear box has been a bit grindy. It’ll miss shots when you pull the trigger and generally be a bit argumentative. I think a strip down and inspection is in order so expect an armoury post at some point in the not too distance future. The Stryfe continues to function flawlessly and is now into its third year with a MOSFET loom. Take that anyone who doubts power silicon! :P

More broadly, I have discovered a flaw in the Blastersmiths UK Miranda magazine pouches. It hasn’t become too readily apparent but it’s a flaw I’ve been noticing since GC4. As the density of fire has risen, I have been forced to make far more effective use of cover. My traditional use of the Miranda is to leave it open to allow me to readily cycle through three magazines at high speed in order to sustain a suppressive stream of fire. Problem with that is that when you drop prone or are kneeling, the contents can spill. I need to look again at the pouch design and see if I can come up with something that will function effectively and allow a sustained rate of fire. The Miranda is solid for 90% of players but I’m not sure how much life they’ve got left in my rig if I keep having to fire prone.

The Bristol Blast team are a credit to themselves. They’ve built an excellent community in the highest standards of British Nerfing. They are just one of the regular UK games that mean we are training a corps of world leading Nerfers. The hobby is growing here in Old Blighty and as it does it is keeping hold of the espirit d’corps that us old hands have worked to foster.

Now where did I put my screw driver? I need to strip this Rapidstrike...

[nerfarmourer]

Bristol Blast 12: After Action Report

I turned up to Bristol Blast 12 on Saturday with nothing more than 3 6 magazines and a Stryfe with 2S LiPo and Rhino motors. Yes, it’s underpowered but my primary hardware is elsewhere right now for reasons. Bristol Blast is the community war that runs regularly here in Bristol. You can find their Facebook Page here and they always post their wars in BritNerf’s own Nerf Wars forum.

The first thing I should point out is that the difference in my speed with a much lighter load. Normally, I can keep up with people but not having a full rig meant I was running circles around everyone, ducking and dodging as I needed to. No longer was I the plodding heavy.

I got lots of reload and top-off practice with those 6 mags. Constant ammo supply is critical so having a dump pouch with a pair of spare 6s and a bunch of loose darts kept me in the game. I would almost suggest that everyone runs this configuration for a game just so you learn first hand the importance of top-off and reload drills. I might consider it if I ever start teaching again properly.

We played a couple of rounds of HvZ where being able to run silly fast was a nice change. Normally, I harass and harry the humans, keeping them on their toes by slowly pushing them around the field at walking pace. Then I’ll let the kids take the tags. This time around, I could be a bit more aggressive, charging at fracture points and splitting them up. Nomming a few humans that aren’t watching their corners in quick succession is one of the great things about being a zombie in HvZ. Always play a zombie if you’re given the chance...

Kill Confirmed is always a firm favourite. It rewards tactical play and it was interesting to see the stuff I talked about suppression come into play. I watched a player with an RS pin their opponent being a desk and properly advance to tag them out. That sort of suppression got me thinking of my previous posts on squad level tactics. I should probably start making more of an effort to teach and get that stuff in play. The player in question wouldn’t have had enough ammo to keep that sort of aggressive play style up for too long. With a proper team behind him, he’d have been able to do it for the full 15-20 minutes the game lasts.

During the Kill Confirmed game, I put into practice a bit more of the cover based shooting. There were a series of grit bins down the wall of the chapel and I found that lying prone, I could cover the corner of the building pretty nicely and prevent the opposing team from sweeping round onto the control point. Very few people took the time to clear their corners correctly and would get shot in the side of the head. Obviously, it required someone to watch my back to make sure people didn’t sweep around behind me but for short bursts, it worked pretty well. Even people who did spot me had to deal with me being nearly entirely covered by a grit bin. Pro-tip, go wide and exploit the fact I’m laying flat so not able to pivot to respond to a fast moving threat. Even I do stand, it’ll take me a second to manage it.

As usual, the BB games were well run. The guys are pretty chill with plenty of down time between games. Personally, I prefer to be in play, shooting people but the BB player base consists of young ‘uns and running them ragged for an entire afternoon is going to tire them out pretty quickly. Thanks to the guys for having me down again and sorry NewportNerfer113 for breaking your voltmeter. I didn’t realise it’d come apart like that... :/

Here’s to next time! Hopefully I can make it more frequently than just once a month.

[nerfarmourer]

Hello NerfArmourer, I'm a fan of your work and I've been working on my own modded stampede for some time. So I have a few questions. I saw in an old post you used 4s lifepo4 with a 9kg spring to produce a very impressive ROF. Did the gears or gearbox hold up to the high spring load and ROF for long? Were there any other issues with the modification? Thanks!

Hi there!

Gear durability in Stampedes is like trying to divine the weather at a given hour on a specific day in 3 months time. When you’re not even in the same country. And you don’t have a dedicated meteorological super-computer and model.

I’d recommend 3S LiFe and a 6kg for maximum longevity. The 9kg and 4S system might have worked but given that I’ve stood most of my Stampedes down in favour of my Stryfe and RS, it’s hard to give you a longevity figure in combat hours, I’m afraid.

Sorry I can’t be more help!

-DNA

[nerfarmourer]

Hi, came across your site searching for the dart paddle / tooth or whatever that broke off my retaliator. You know know where I can get parts for it? Shame to just throw it away...

Hey there!

Head over to BritNerf.co.uk, I expect someone will have an old dart tooth or similar you can grab from their spares bin. Lots of brass breech and like systems toss the old stock parts. :)

-DNA

[nerfarmourer]

Armoury Session: 11th May 17

A friend of mine was having performance issues with his Retaliator. Since it’s not often I get to work on springers these days and he made me quite a lot of tasty shortbread so I offered to have a look.

First up, the Xplorer pump grip. It’s easy enough to take to bits but uses the stock rails to guide it and forces a piece into the bolt sled to make it stick. Not a fan of that. The grip itself is pleasant enough, however. It looks like its been CNC milled. I can’t see any injection mould points on it at all. Onto the actual issues at hand...

Those of you that know Retaliators will see the problem. For those that don’t the groove that is where my finger is is where the black O-ring should be. It would have come away on the inside of the piston housing and then worked its way into the breech. Had the latter seal not failed as well, there would be a chance of it falling out the muzzle eventually. However, both air seals in the piston assembly are borked.This first one is a simple enough fix, just pop it back in place. Given I can’t see any swelling and it lines up just fine so a bit of Lithium grease and it’ll be fine.

This one’s a bit more fatal. I was surprised this had happened given the AR is still in tact. I suspect rough handling, a dodgy AR in this batch and Broadstone’s dust and crap conspired to damage the piston head. Thankfully, I have a couple of spares in my pile from past builds so it was a matter of a simple swap. With a bit more grease, that was all fine.

The other thing I noticed while cycling the blaster was the trigger was a bit dodgy. I layered in a second spring above the catch plate having checked it for stress and wear. It’s in good nick so an extra bit of tension ought to help. The pull’s a little heavier now but there’s a much smaller risk of mis-firing.

I plonked a Worker stock on the back for chronograph testing. They do these in white (just sayin’) and it’s much steadier than the Retaliator stock. It averaged 80FPS which for a Retaliator is pretty respectable on a 5kg spring.

The magazine lock on this one decided to play silly buggers first time putting it back together. During my second attempt, I couldn’t get the receiver to sit forward properly until I noticed on of the Xplorer grip pegs occluding the breech assembly. Ick. Not a fan of that interface design. Give me a depth controlled bolt with locking nut any day.

Engineering niggles aside, it’s nice to be fixing things again. I spend too much time playing and making stuff these days (oh woe is me!). Simple hardware like Retaliators and Stryfes make this hobby a joy. Plus this rifle might save my GC character’s life next weekend... :D

[nerfarmourer]

Nerfing Theory: Squad Level Gear, Tactics & Integration with a Varied Player Base

This post with thanks to BritNerf users Franksie, OldNoob and blindgeekuk who all helped me bounce ideas around.

With the advent of various specialised ammo types at Bristol Blast and preparation afoot the Battle of Britain 2017, I got thinking about about squad level stuff. This all assumes 0.50cal Elite sized darts, Rivals will shake things up a bit.

Currently, we find ourselves approaching the game like a militia. Everyone provides his or her own equipment, piles in and plays. Generally speaking, there will emerge squad and team leaders during games and stuff is a lot of fun. There will always be the space for the person that rocks up and goes ‘charging into a line of opposing players with just a Jolt and a sock bomb? Why not?!” and that cannot change.

However, more experienced players can widen their utility by forming squads and spread the load of ammo carriage by lending a hand. With special rules in place like rockets breaking shields or even when you just need a little extra fire power, squad based ammo carriage starts to make sense. Back in WW2, British soldiers in a section used to carry 2 magazines for the squad’s Bren gun. It meant the Bren gunner (for those that don’t know a Bren is an LMG designed for support fire) didn’t lug all of the ammo. If the Bren gunner got shot, it saved time pulling mags off of him to return the weapon to service and shared the burden between squad members. Well, the British call them sections but there you go.

Functionally, the basic Nerfer is a rifleman. You’ve got semi-automatic blasters, mag fed and ready to go. The focus is on having as much ammo on board as possible. You might get the odd RS user and they can straddle  the rifleman/heavy line. The role of the rifleman is to be the backbone of the team. They advance and shoot with blasters that are up to the game’s legal FPS limit, generally making themselves useful.

Then you have the heavy gunners. Sometimes when clearing a room or corridor, you’re going to need a stream of continuous darts to encourage the opposing team to keep their heads down. For this, I think that each member of a squad carries a 25 round drum to pass to the heavy when he goes from rifleman to heavy mode. If the squad leader calls for suppressive fire, out goes the 18 and in goes the 25 (initially using his own carried 25). When the 25 is spent, it’s returned to the squad mate who’s job it is to reload it. When not in suppressive mode, the heavy will top off his own mags and the 25 drum he is carrying for himself. The social contract here is that the heavy provides fire, loads his own carried supply and in exchange for help from his squad mates that keep their supplies loaded and ready. More on social contracts later.

Shields, Terminator zombies and the like require special ammo. Compared to Stryfe clones, Demo rockets and similar capable blasters are scarce on the field. They also take up a great deal of space that could be reserved for more magazines and .50cal Elite darts. To that end, again, each squad member carries a small number of Demo rockets and MEGA darts to hand over when the time comes. You have a designated squad grenadier who’s job it is to bust shields and the like. The rest of the time he is a rifleman like everyone else.

Discussion of Designated Marksman did arise and I don’t think it’s necessary. Given that a properly balanced flywheel blaster shooting X-Tips taken up to the limit of most UK games will be be reasonably straight shooting there’s not a lot of reason to have a DM in your more committed echelons.

That brings me to player behaviour and more on social contracts. Nerf wars are amazing for the breadth of people they attract. Everything from sneaky 8 year olds that run away from you luring you down into the jaws of the two 0p3r4t0rz with Stryfes to the dads that rock up with a mid-level modded springer to guys like me who have the full nine yards including radio, camera and enough fire power to level a continent. The thing to always remember is that you’re here to have fun. Winning is incidental. How you have fun is different to the guy with the Jolt charging an enemy line on his own. The social contract is ‘let people have fun in their own way’. If people want to link up and join squads, great but you can’t tell people they’re doing it wrong if they don’t. If you find a member of your team has latched to your squad then awesome. Teach them, show them how you play and if they find that fun they’ll stick around. Otherwise, they’ll wander off and find another way to have fun within the framework of the game. If you’re looking to start directing your team then remember the fundamental thing: they’re here to have fun slinging foam. I find the most effective way to organise players that aren’t attached to squads is to direct them as they respawn. A simple instruction like ‘There’s a lot of guys on the left, go tag ‘em’ or ‘Our guys in the corridor could use some help’ will often send younger players scurrying to assist. Once they get there, they’ll find plenty to shoot at and do their thing. You can then direct your more experienced squad leaders as you would expect.

Encouraging new and younger players not to fall back in the face of the opposing team is also key. Between setting the example by standing your ground and words of encouragement “They’re not so tough” and general friendly trash talk, you can put the wind back in team mates. Showing them that getting tagged is nothing to be scared of is key. They can get more tags facing the opposing team and shooting at them than with their backs turned. Players that are organising squads like this will need to set the example and foster the a community spirit. Separating and ignoring those that play differently is at best unhelpful and at worst elitist and toxic. Again, social contract: you have fun your way and help people have fun in their way.

A word on Rivals and general technology:

A lot of what I’ve covered up there is specific to 0.50cal Elite darts. Some alterations can be made for including a Rival heavy gun instead. For example, each team member could carry a hopper for the Nemesis or a Khaos magazine. There is also an argument to be made for fire control modules on the heavy blasters. Less experienced players tend to struggle with SA fire discipline on FA blasters. By locking out FA when their blaster is in rifleman mode, it opens the field to lowering the threshold to entry/raising the effectiveness for players who want to play in that area. Training and teaching can then be given to reduce the reliance on fire control modules until it’s no longer needed.

I think that covers everything I wanted to discuss on Squad Level stuff for today. I’ve generally rambled about sharing specialised ammo types and how to play a more focused squad in a varied player base akin to the one that we get at Bristol Blast. I think future articles will cover effective squad leadership, radio communications and basic tactical doctrine.

[nerfarmourer]

Bristol Blast 6 After Action Report

I went to Bristol Blast here in Bristol (duh!) yesterday. Organised by a group of BritNerfers, it was a lot of fun and I got to try out some new kit.

My main after action report is here. I got through the various game types and make a few notes and recommendations. I’ve cross-posted the gear section here. I was testing the belt mounted magazine pouch system I posted previously to see how it fared. Results are below.

Gear:

The Stryfe gave me an early scare when I put the pack in and it didn't rev. I quickly whipped it open, reseated the acceleration trigger and closed it (less than 5 minutes folks!). It served perfectly for the rest of the day. I guess it wasn't happy that I had my side-arm with a pretty new Artefact Cage in it. The belt system was fine and I've done the write up for it here. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that holstered side-arms are a neat little safety blanket that you use to make yourself feel better. Mine didn't get any use yesterday beyond the first KC round where I fired 12 shots from behind the shield and returned it to its holster. It did give me a nice little bruise on the side of my knee because I didn't holster it correctly so it wasn't totally useless. One point sling configurations are glorious for day games. The ability to hand your blaster across a 180 arc in front of you is great. I could leave it hanging at the front during games or stick it in reserve between games if I pushed it around to the back. It really is a case of 3 belt mounted Mirandas and a QR sling and you're set of most UK games. The vertical fore grip on the Stryfe was an interesting experience. It really does give you a greater amount of control on the muzzle end which is great when clearing corridors. However, I did find it got in the way now and then. I have a habit of drawing a full mag from my pouch, keeping it in my off hand, using my wrist as a shelf for the muzzle of the blaster and emptying the loaded mag before swapping. This is usually during engagements where I expect a lot of heavy fire and I had to slot my wrist between the back of the grip and the mag. Thankfully, I'm a skinny git so they fit but it does raise the risk of a breakage if I get knocked over. I'll try again with a vest configuration because that will have a lower risk of pouch fouling which is why I had the mag in my off hand. Boots, knee pads and my Viper belt all held up just fine. I need to tighten the Viper a little bit for next time because it was a little loose and I needed to keep one hand on the mass to my right while at full tilt.

[nerfarmourer]

Recommissioning Katarina Pt1

My Stampede was 6 years old yesterday. It’s been a long while but I’ve been looking at rebooting it for 2017 and beyond. I had FDS do the paintwork and I’ll do the internals. I’ve put in upgraded gears from LZ Mods, a BSUK Stampede upgrade kit, 6kg spring and a 3S LiPo. Well, that’s a bit standard. There are many Stampedes out there with similar or identical builds so I thought I’d go for something different.

Parts for the electronics arrived this morning. Devcon shown for scale (and probably because I’ll need some to mount things with.

The plan is to have a motion sensitive set of lights in the magazine well around the mechanism and at the front where the grilles are. The Stampede has a lovely length to it that makes putting an accelerometer in the forward section worthwhile.

From front to back:

I’m using 8 unit WS2812//WS2811 boards, sold by Adafruit as Neopixels. Essentially, they are a programmable RGB LED capable of ~16million colours driven by a PWM signal. Like most electronics enthusiasts, I’m lazy and use an Arduino and the Adafruit library to drive them rather than running the timing signals myself.

The forward section also contains a GY-61 3-axis accelerometer. This chip uses some serious voodoo silicon to produce 3 outputs (x,y and z) between 0 and 5V depending on the g force on that axis. It has a relative range of -3g through to +3g. That should be more than enough for my needs. The final effect will be a purple colour that goes more red as it moves from side to side and more blue the more up down it goes.

Finally we reach the back and the control board. For this build I’m using an Arduino Nano and its ATMEGA328P 16HZ microprocessor. It’s a touch overkill for this build (I could have used an ATTiny167) but it gives me a bit of head room if I want to do more sophisticated effects in software later. I plan to solder straight to the  board with this one. The board is sited at the rear of the blaster for accessibility to its on-board USB port. I might change that if the wiring becomes difficult to route. Ideally, I want to test EMF suppression on long leads with ferrite beads and capacitors for later builds. A Stampede provides a better test-bed for proof of concept before I move over to the radiation hell storm that is a flywheeler.

All parts are linked above and I will be publishing the code and circuit diagrams for this going forward. However, I won’t be unveiling the paintwork until it’s all done. ;)

[nerfarmourer]

I put together a post over on BritNerf about a load out I’m trialling for Bristol Blast 6 on 18th February. It replaces my normal vests with a belt configuration to see if I can get it to work as well as my vest set ups. Results will follow: )

[nerfarmourer]

Nerf Modulus Tri-Strike

We’re suckers for bolt action rifles over here. Back in the heyday of BUZAN you had the Longstrike and its ability to hit targets at the close ranges we were working with. With the release of the Tri-strike, I felt compelled to try Hasbro’s latest offering.

The premise of a Tri-strike is that it has pretty much everything built around a central blaster. Its bits and pieces can be readily put onto other blasters to make whole new things. I think the summary of the Modulus line still stands. If I’m nine years old and I get this at Christmas as my one big box gift (that still happens, right?) then I’d be pretty happy. For a kid, it’s awesome. As a modder and adult, it’s disappointing to have all this crude wrapped around the only bolt action option Hasbro has put out in ages.

Well Tumblr decided to rotate my image. Weird. Anyway, from top to bottom you have the HAMP stock which feeds the rail mounted rocket launcher. The core blaster. A 10 dart box magazine, yes a 10 dart box magazine.At the bottom of the photo is the smart AR MEGA dart launcher.

The core blaster is pretty compact in its pistol form factor. It’s slightly longer than a Retaliator but that’s to be expected. For some reason bolt action rifles were always longer despite using near identical internals (citation: Longstrike vs Recon). The core blaster also features slam-fire.

And so we start assembling the stuff around the basic blaster. First the rocket launcher. That stock is connected to the rail mounted tube up top. you extend the stock out and press in collapse it again to fire the rocket. I nick named it the black eye because that’s what you’ll get if you’re not careful with this thing.

Add the HAMP Mega launcher on the front to complete the boxed rifle. You pump the front end and with each pump, it fires (in theory) one of the MEGA darts up front.

The ricket launcher can be used as a self-contained unit, too. It has its own stock attachment on it for that reason.

This is where I get a little pissed off. Why under the sun did Hasbro elect to produce a 10 dart box magazine. Seriously? 10 round curved, I understand because they got lazy and wanted the aesthetic and couldn’t be arsed to deploy a solution to fix the problem to give us a full 12 rounds. However, a 10 box magazine just feels like ‘screw you’ we’re just making stupid mag sizes for the sake of it. Yes, 6, 12 and 18 are fine. It gives you a good distinction between all of them. You can shove a 6 mag in and then sell the 12s and 18s separately as a vale added purchase.

Anyway, the Tri-strike is £65 odd in the UK and if you’re a kid, it’s probably OK. What I don’t understand is the sheer noise of this package. Where’s the theme? It just feels like Hasbro chucked all their old tech at one package and went with it. I mean, if you’re going for a bolt action rifle then surely you’re looking in the DMR/sniper theme space? You’re looking at long blasters with sleek profiles and scopes. If you’re looking at assault rifles, you’re looking at slide or pump grips with under-sling launchers and what nots. Someone put the two in a lbender and you’ve got Frakenstein’s monster as a result.What started as a little bit of discord back in the Modulus ECS-10 has developed into a full blown riot of clashing ideas and aims.

As always, sort your shit out Hasbro. 

Foot note:

I’ll get this one open once I get the tool kit out of the car. Apologies for the 2011 grade photos, my DSLR’s in there, too and I had to use the bridge camera on my phone like a scrub. :D I’ve never actually done that before! I guess between ordering pizza at 70 miles an hour in the car last night and this I’ve actually joined the 21st century at last.

[nerfarmourer]

I have to agree with you on hating the bulk of the Rapidstrike, but I would really recommend checking out torukmakto4's Tacmod builds. I hate the battery tray on the stock Rapidstrike so much, but I'm working on some body work inspired by the Tacmod right now. Holding it side by side with my stock Rapidstrike is such a huge difference. It feels sleeker, sexier, and way more usable. If you want to keep using full auto, give it a look. Sorry for the anon message, I go by Jaxmeh on r/Nerf + NHaven.

Hey there,

Thanks for getting in touch. I looked at slimming out the RS tacmod style ever since Toruk first posted it way, way back. However, getting stick packs like that here in the UK just doesn’t happen. I’ve been looking on a way to slim it down but powering it is a pain. I’m currently considering putting a pack atop the pusher box and trimming the front of the tray.

All of that is by the by, however, since the main problem isn’t the bulk; it’s the mechanic of push button receive darts. For some reason that disconnect between action and reaction bothers me. I think I’ve been using semi-auto for so long that not pulling the trigger every time I want to drop a dart down range unsettles me somehow. The idea of the pusher drive doing the work for me puts me off. It’s a really strange feeling and I suspect I’ll get over it but for now, I’m not convinced by full auto. :D

Oh and I’m /u/NerfArmourer over on r/Nerf

-DNA

[nerfarmourer]

At Bristol Blast yesterday, this was bounced around and I felt compelled to write my thoughts out in full. Hopefully it’ll run into a much larger discusison but the lt;dr of it is that can we just not? :)

[nerfarmourer]

Post Bristol Blast 3 Report

So we went to Nerf on the Downs here in Bristol again to day. We were supposed to be at a venue in Downend but last minute things meant we had to move to an outdoor location. Thankfully, the weather held. it was a good day to Nerf, lots of interesting game types from Infection HvZ to Kill Confirmed. The organisers are a credit to themselves for getting their shit together and dealing with a short notice venue change together.

Kit Analysis:

First and foremost, I need to add pop snaps to my MkIV drop leg to secure it with the weight of the Stryfe in it. It kept coming away today and it was annoying as hell. It’s a simple fix that won’t be a problem for next time.

The new rig worked wonderfully. To have so many magazines (12 total in pouches) but it be so stable was incredible. Keep an eye out for more on that in the not too distant future. No changes are needed there.

The crotch on my ripstop trousers gave out so that’s going to need some reinforcing. The belt loops I added to them need improving because  only one at the back results in it going pop halfway through the day. I’ll have to find a way of sewing 3 or 4 around the back to stop myself from putting too much load on one loop.

Blasters:

Well, the Stryfe as a sidearm works pretty damn well. The noise is good for intimidation and keeping people at bay when your primary is out. There is something great about just being able to hold a pistol at arms length and go ‘Try it’ to a zombie that’s trying to close with you. It really is getting to be #stryfe4lyfe.

And this brings me to the most disappointing part of today. I realise that I really don’t care for the Rapidstrike style of full auto. In fact, I’m not entirely convinced by FA at all. Yeah, I could drop a crap tonne of darts at a target and with proper cycle control I can SA as well as the Stryfe but for some reason ‘push button, receive darts’ didn’t feel like fun. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m so used to the Stryfe at this point or because the RS wasn’t as potent but there was something wrong. The manual semi-automatic action of the Stryfe just feels good. You pull the trigger for every shot, you go through the act of target selection and choose how many rounds you put there. I was able to one-shot one kill with the Stryfe through clouds of incoming fire from other Stryfes built the same way as mine. The RS just didn’t feel as connected to the shots I was putting down range and it caused a lot of discord in my internal combat reflexes.

I’ll try the RS again with MTB Hellcats and Worker flywheels to give it some real teeth. The emergency need of putting Falcon 130s and Blasterparts flywheels in there probably didn’t help matters. I think between that and the different form factor compared to the Stryfe, threw me. The bulk of the RS isn’t something I’m used to, the Stryfe/Raider stock is far more compact. I’ll resist the impulse to put it up for sale now and give it another spin.

[nerfarmourer]

So the Desolator...

The new Nerf Doomlands Impact Zone Desolator is a lovely little SMG blaster with an air of a spiritual successor to the Stryfe/Raider stock combo. The down side is that the front end is flimsy as anything and it’s a pig to work on inside.

The bright side is that you can get some lovely LED effects in the clear section to one side if you are prepared to put the work in. I think I’d grab one to replace the Stryfe if I suddenly needed a sci-fi looking blaster for whatever reason.

Reference photos because they are useful. This is after rewiring with a MOSFET wiring kit and Rhino 130 motors for a 3S LiPo. 117FPS average over 17 shots.