Orange Mod Works Alpha Trooper Massacre Kit

Orange Mod Works polycarbonate breech. Notice hole drilled in plunger tube

Early in my modding days I decided that it would be a good idea to get an Orange Mod Works kit. I thought it would be a nice lead-in to real modding, since I didn't have many tools at my disposal and I wanted to take baby steps. Little did I know that I would be I for one hell of a troubleshooting journey!

Installing an OMW kit is supposed to be easy--all you need is a screwdriver and some skill and you get a 90-feet-per second dart-slinging monster, or so they say. My kit was an absolute nightmare. Everything that could have possibly went wrong, went wrong. It was a Murphy's Law kind of blaster. So here's how it went:

1. I installed the OMW parts, removed all the annoying locks, and even epoxied my priming rod to the bolt sled and the priming handle to make sure it had absolutely no wiggle. The priming rod is the metal rod running from the handle on the front of the gun to the bolt sled inside. Some people have problems priming their Alpha Troopers after a spring upgrade because the priming rod flexes under the increased force against the spring. This flexing can cause the plunger to not go back far enough to be caught by the trigger catch. I made sure this would never happen with a healthy dose of 5-minute clear epoxy.
2. It turned out that my plunger had been badly molded, and it slid into the plunger tube with a LOT of friction. I repeatedly sanded down the end of the plunger and tested its fit in the plunger tube. Eventually this scraped up my plunger tube pretty badly, but it was sliding decently well. I requested a replacement plunger tube from OMW and they sent me one free of charge.
3. I then attempted to prime my blaster, and noticed that it would not prime all the way forward! At this point in my career, I didn't know too much about modding so I embarked on a long journey through many forums and eventually found a post in the OMW forums that detailed my exact problem! It turned out that my breech was molded badly. Sigh. I had to file down one side of the front of my breech to keep it from slamming into the dart tooth door. Basically, one part of the breech would slam into the dart tooth door before another part (farther back) could push down the dart tooth. The breech was being stopped by the dart tooth door before the dart tooth could be pushed down to let the door open--if that makes any sense at all. I sanded the breech down with a hand file. Eventually, this breech would break and I had to get a new one from OMW, once again free of charge. Now my blaster could prime all the way forward! Woohoo!
4. I proudly primed my blaster, thinking "Haha! There's no way anything else could go wrong!" I fired the shot and a dart slid out the front of my barrel like a slug and plopped down by my feet. I fired another and it didn't even make it out of the barrel. My darts were getting vacuum loaded so well that no air was able to enter the plunger tube! No air means no power. I had to remedy this problem by drilling a small hole through the OMW logo on the plunger tube to equalize the pressure with each prime. Finally I took a dart in my trembling hand and loaded it, cocked the blaster, and fired a shot successfully!

All in all, my Alpha Trooper was one hell of a learning experience. I had to take the damn thing apart three or four times to get it working, but in the end I prevailed. I wouldn't recommend this kit to anyone unless they are prepared to put in a LOT of work. Anyways, T da B signing off!