New blasters coming from Hasbro!

Sup guys,

I know that most of you are just used to me posting ridiculously lengthy write-ups about my mods, or updates on my ridiculously long write-ups, so I've decided to change things up a bit. I'm going to give my opinion on some of the new blasters coming out this fall, now that enough information has leaked about the blasters and their internals. Sometimes it's good to see what the future holds to get a start on mod planning. Let's start out with the lamest of the bunch--the Blazin' Bow!

Tech Target Overhaul!

Sup guys,

It has been a while--I've been busy as a B working on Zero's goods. All I have to say is that it's going to hurt sending this one off. I believe this is one of my finest mods to date--no joke! A lot of time, thought, and experimentation went into this bad boy, and the results are better than I could have ever imagined. Not to toot my own horn, but I've really outdone myself with this one. Here's some of the fabulous features of this fine feisty firearm:

• 1'' polycarbonate plunger tube
• 6 1/4'' K26 spring at damn near full compression (over 4'' of draw)
• Custom paint job and other cosmetics (ammo holders)
• Delrin plunger rod
• Dual coupler setup (PVC/CPVC)
• No bolt through the shell! Plunger tube is secured via pixie dust and magic incantations

Let's get into the nitty gritty, shall we?

Something to whet the appetite...

Hey guys,

I wanted to hold out until I was completely finished, but I guess I'll just blow my partial wad right now. I'm a few days away from making this Tech Target something worthy of being wielded, and it has really been a learning experience for me. Painting isn't too intellectually demanding, but my god does it take a lot of work. I have earned a newfound respect for painters and the work they do. I enlisted the help of my girlfriend for this one and put her nail-painting skills to the test. I think I could really get into this painting business!

As far as the modding side goes, this mod has borrowed from the write-ups of yesteryore, but has its own dirty little secret as well. Unlike most mods that replace internals, this one will not be putting a bolt through the shell to keep things together! I didn't want to disrupt the cosmetic lines at the front of the blaster, so I found a way to keep the plunger tube from falling out as well as rotating all from within!

Just a few more days, I promise. Zero, send me your damn contact info!
~T

Giveaway Prize Teaser

Hi guys,

I have finally started working on my giveaway prize. I don't want to give it away completely, so here's a look at most of the materials I will be using:

I promised that I'd start painting blasters this year, and the time has finally come. I will be doing an initial coat of flat black, followed by some hand painting, then finishing it off with a few clear coats. This will be my first complete paint job ever, so I apologize to Zero (the recipient of my creation) if my paint job turns out looking like Honey Boo Boo's mother naked.

Sit tight!
~T

A winner for the giveaway has been chosen!

Sup guys,

I know I promised you all a giveaway, and I'm a man of my word! As you may recall, I said that after 10,000 views I would select a random winner from amongst my followers and only my followers. To select a winner, I used a random number generator from my favorite programming language, Python. Two lines of code is all I needed:

import random
random.randint(1, 9)

Alas, a winner has been chosen from amongst my nine followers! *drumroll*
The winner of my 10,000 view giveaway is:

Massive Update and Next up...

Hi guys,

I'm extremely excited for my upcoming projects--more than usual, actually. There will be one more "mod" (if you want to call it that) leading into the grand finale--100% homemades! Over time my percentages have increased from 0% homemade to around 90% homemade now. My Longstrike is about to receive some nice upgrades, with a clear 1 1/2'' clear PVC plunger tube and U-cup plunger head. It will be pull-back priming to begin with, and later converted to pump-action. It will also contain my first Rainbow Catch! For those who are unfamiliar with this component, it is basically the premier design for homemade trigger catches. It encompasses everything I strive for--simplicity and effectiveness! This is a rather large update, so I'm breaking this goddamn page.

Brass slide breech #2!

Sup guys,

At the last war I attended, I was stuck playing pistol rounds with a single barrel speedloader, which sucked pretty hard. I felt like the dudes in the Civil War that carried powder and ramrods--it took days to reload! I knew that it was time for an upgrade, and I decided to mod myself a 6'' slide breech to complement my original 12'' breech. This time I went with brass hardware to complement my breech, and I think it turned out beautifully!

This breech was specifically designed to be as short as possible to keep my pistols compact. The opening barely fits my 1 1/4'' Stefans. The overall length is 8 3/8'', which isn't too bad. Extra length is needed at the attachment point to keep the acorn nut from being stopped by the 1/2'' coupler, as well as at the front of the breech to keep the brass barrel from being exposed while opening the breech. This breech unfortunately has two problems with it:

1. The PVC/brass barrel fit is a little loose, so the barrel slides down if you open the breech and point the barrel upwards. More of an inconvenience than a problem I would say, although I'm not sure this is solvable.
2. My 1/2'' brass piece (thinnest piece) wasn't cut with a pipe cutter the flare the end inward, so some darts get pushed into it. I will be solving this by gluing a piece of 15/32'' brass into the 1/2'' piece.

Problems aside, this breech is extremely accurate and a lot of fun to use!

Overall, I like my second very much--it makes reloading a lot quicker and looks sexy as well. If you want to make one of these for yourself, check out my original post!

Thanks for reading!
~T da B

Almost 10,000 views!

Hey guys,

I can't believe that it's actually happening, but my blog is about to surpass 10,000 views! This is pretty amazing, considering the fact that I haven't been on the scene for very long at all. Like many other blogs, I would like to do something special for you guys--I would like to do a giveaway! It will be limited only to those who are following me--if your friend wants a crack at the giveaway, they will have to follow this blog first!

Now, I'd like to ask for all of your opinions first. What should I give away?

• A stock blaster?
• A modded blaster?
• A blaster attachment (like a slide breech)?
• Pictures of myself posing with just a blaster covering my junk?

I am leaning towards a small modded blaster, but please leave your comments below to help me make this decision.

Thanks for sticking with me!
~T

Brothers in arms

Sup guys,

You are looking at a band of battle-hardened warriors! Tonight was another great night of Nerf out at Bridges Rick Gym in El Cerrito, and I had a blast. We had a pretty good turnout, and I was pleased to see more modded blasters this time around. I don't think the game is fun at all with stock blasters, since there is no fear of getting hit, and sometimes you don't even feel the shot when you DO get hit.

This time around we also got to play some pistol rounds, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Unfortunately, my Longshot decided to take a shit on me this morning, and I couldn't get it fixed in time for battle (trigger catch). Of course something like that would only happen last minute....FFFFF. In any case, I had a lot of fun and I hope to see the same scruffy looking bunch of Nerf herders once again in the future!

Cheers,
~T