MOD: Modulus Blaster Stock

If you read my review of the Strike and Defend expansion pack for the Modulus, you might be wondering how you can improve it. Other than duct-taping a giant piece of cardboard to it, there's sadly not much you can do to improve the shield. But that backup pistol built into the stock? Yeah, that can shoot lasers.

Difficulty: Easy
What you'll need: Phillipshead screwdriver, Nite-Finder EX-3 spring, and wire cutters.

The key to this mod is a simple spring replacement. But it has to be the right spring, because very few will have the ideal combination of features: a) it fits, b) it's stiff, c) it's not too stiff, and d) it can compress enough to be able to catch.

Hmmmm. The real key is not so simple…

But by my magic arts, I have determined that the correct spring can be found in a (drumroll please) Nite Finder! Yes, the 2004 powerhouse, that good old easy-to-find Nite Finder EX-3. Its spring is just about right, but you do need to cut off a quarter to a half-inch of it so it can compress all the way. So without further ado:

1. Open it up
Pull out the screws, take off the top of the shell, and you're left with the mechanism, which looks like this:

Strongly reminiscent of a Jolt, no?

The stock, clamshelled.

Then carefully remove the plunger casing by taking out the two screws in the back, so that you can...








2. Swap springs.
Twist the stock spring off the plunger rod, that twist the new one on. Remember, if you're using a Nite Finder Spring, you should cut off a little from one end so it can compress enough. Whether you do or not, you should put the stock back together without the outer screws and see if you can cock it. If you can, proceed. If not, cut the spring a little shorter and try again.


3. Reassemble.
If you can successfully cock the gun, then you've gotten past the hardest part. The seal is already pretty good on my model, but if it's not on yours (i.e. air escapes out the back), you can throw on one or two wraps of e-tape or teflon tape. But that's probably not necessary, so you can just screw it all back together.


Boom. Nobody will expect the kind of performance you can dish out from your new backup. They'll think you're some sort of Nerf wizard when you use it against them. Your "Blaster Stock" is no longer stock.


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      [˘7˘˘           teehee!

Modulus Stealth Ops Upgrade Kit (Tacticool Stealth Edition)

Modulus Stealth Ops Upgrade Kit

Note: I painted this kit before reviewing it. So you guys instead get the review of the ultra-exclusive "Tacticool Stealth Edition*", which comes in black, rather than white. And certainly not that annoying green trim…  After all, it's for Stealth Ops. Black is much stealthier than white (not to mention cooler).

This kit is almost purely for aesthetics, since a Red Dot Sight doesn't even slightly increase the dart's accuracy, and a Proximity Barrel in no way does anything but look sweet. The Pivot Grip is the one strong point for those who only like functional attachments. But here's the good news- the kit can give almost any N-Strike, N-Strike Elite, or Modulus blaster an extra 1,000 style points! (Especially if you have the "Tacticool Stealth Edition"…)

Good:

• Ease of use. Slide the parts on tac rails. Attach the barrel extension to the barrel nozzle. Done.
• Folding foregrip. The Pivot Grip has a locking mechanism (that orange button on the side), so you can either lock it sturdily in a compact folded position, or unfold it to steady your shot.
• Ergonomic. The handle, when deployed, is very comfortable to hold on to. And when folded, it's also a rather comfortable place to rest your off-hand. It also happens to be in a quite comfortable position on the Modulus' bottom tac rail.
• "Red Dot" Sight. Yes, it has a built-in red LED that shines a dot on the center of the crosshairs. Pretty cool, right?
• Speaking of crosshairs…

• 

  A rather blurry view down the sights.

  Reduced barrel drag. While the Proximity Barrel does add some barrel drag (like all barrel extensions), it will add much less than most other options.

Bad:

• I have to say it here: the Tacticool Stealth Edition isn't real. It's just my own special paint job. Sorry.
• Let's be honest- white, green, and orange is far from stealthy. Once again, sorry if you're one of those who thought this kit would actually make you invisible.
• Red Dot sight. Sadly, it's not made with precision in mind, and the red dot doesn't always land exactly on the middle of the crosshairs.
• Not useful. Really it's only worth it to buy this kit for the style points. The Pivot Grip is cool, but you got a grip that's just as good when you bought the Modulus itself.

The best Modulus foregrip yet.

So overall, the only bad features are things that you would already know about without having to buy it to find out. If you think you would like it, you almost definitely will. If you don't like the concept of style points, you don't have to buy it. Of course, Hasbro might disagree; but who are they to have an opinion?  ;)

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And it even folds!

* Tacticool Stealth Edition comes in exclusive black, grey, and orange paint job with a satin finish for reduced glare. Features the Tacticool Nerfer's signature logo on the Pivot Grip and Red Dot sight. Not available at your local Nerf retailer.

-< Stealth Mode Engaged >-

MOD: Nerf Hammershot - Let the Zombie-Slaying Begin!

The Mad Hammer

The Mad Hammer!

Introducing the post-apocolyptic dream weapon: The Mad Hammer!

And yes, the cloth wrap is finally a reality.



The Mad Hammer is, at its core, just a Hammershot like any other Hammershot. It's the cosmetics that set it apart.




The first thing I did was take some gravel, 60-grit sandpaper, and other sharp and/or rough things, and scratched it up. This served two purposes: 1) to remove some of the paint and the "shiny new" look, and 2) provided a nice base for the battle-damaged look soon to come.

After removing the gleam, I got down and dirty to give it "battlefield experience".  DO NOT try this at home without an adult's supervision.
I lit the gun on fire.
I selected several points that I wanted to look as though they had made actual contact with a bullet or piece of shrapnel, then held a match up to each spot till it had its own flame, then quickly and thoroughly put it out. The effect it had was sooty and visibly deformed, as though it had been hit by a fast-moving projectile.

After that, I took a silver Sharpie marker and went over most of the corners, edges, and "damaged" spots to make it look as though some of the paint had worn off, leaving bare metal showing through.

May the zombies cower
to see this power!

Finally, I wrapped camouflage paracord around the holes in the front of the gun, cut up an old, stained green rag, and wrapped it thoroughly around the handle for a comfier, grippier, and more awesome-looking handgrip.

Oh, and yes; I added my signature crosshairs to the left side in black Sharpie.


So there you have it folks! The inside scoop on the famous revolver we've come to know and love as The Mad Hammer! And remember, you heard it here first on The Tacticool Nerfer!

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from
the Tacticool Nerfer!

Merry Christmas from the Tacticool Nerfer!

NEWS FLASH:
Nerf Darts caught in unnatural holiday positions! Who could be responsible for this?

In the spirit of the season, you my devoted readers get a special post dedicated entirely to Christmas! Well, that's not entirely true. It wouldn't be on my blog if it didn't also pertain to Nerf. Hence the dart-Christmas-tree, the dart-stocking, and the dart-wreath (which has been modified to be my signature crosshairs).

Merry Christmas from the Tacticool Nerfer!

Since I'm going to take a break for Christmas shopping, decorating, and family time, this will be my last post till the New Year. So that means you guys and gals get a break, too. Take advantage of it! "Chill with the Fam", eat lots of turkey, mashed potatoes, and plum pudding, and play lots of Nerf.

Remember to stay on the nice list, because Santa's watching! Good girls and boys get good presents, whereas bad girls and boys get bad presents. Like the N-Strike Deploy. Santa decided that this year, instead of coal, he's going to give Deploys to naughty children. Yeah, Deploys are that bad.

Anyway, enjoy your Christmas!

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Because I can. It's MY blog, after all…        <|:-)

MOD: Demolisher missile launcher

Unfortunately, as previously stated, this gun was not very well-designed for power-boosting. Yet at the same time, it does have a nice little wiring-clip so that you can completely split the two halves apart. Hmm. Didn't think that one through, did you, Hasbro?

I found that it will be more trouble than it's worth to me to improve the performance of the main gun. But the good news is that you can double the performance of the missile launcher!

Difficulty: Easy (but not for a gun that will be used by younger nerfers
What you'll need: A narrow phillipshead screwdriver and electrical tape (or plumbers tape). And, of course, a good arm with which to operate the launcher…
Optional: Drill with a half-inch bit, or a dremel tool with a utility bit.

There are two ways to do this. If you want to increase airflow, you'll need to drill out the grating in the front of the tube. To do this, I would suggest taking the whole gun apart. But if you just want to increase the seal, which provides almost all of the improvement, you hardly have to take anything apart.

Seal Upgrade 

1. Unscrew
You'll only have to take off the grey handle of the missile launcher to get to the little part we care about. I also like to take out the batteries just to prevent the possibility of any electrical accidents, but you don't have to if you don't want.

2. Remove Plunger
Pretty easy and fool-proof. Just pull it straight out.

This is actually what it looks like after the
mod, but it's enough to go by.

3. Seal Improvement
Pull the O-ring off the plunger head and wipe the lubricant off the head. This is so that the electrical tape will stick better, and you won't have to wrangle it around for ten minutes just to get it on there. Anyway, after you wipe it off, you should wrap the head with 1-3 full wraps of electrical tape. After that, pull the O-ring back onto the plunger over the electrical tape .Note: The number of wraps you use will proportionately increase the force of launch, but it will also make it much more difficult to use. It will be much harder to pull the handle out, and slightly harder to push it back in. I put two wraps on, but I'm a strong teenage boy. Mod wisely.

From here on out, you pretty much just reverse what you did in steps 1 and 2. The extra long screw goes on the top right of the handle.

Airflow Improvement

1. Unscrew and Clamshell

Take out all the screws. Short ones go in the topmost sections, and the super-long one goes just to the left of the stock attachment point. The rest are all the same size. And, while not at all necessary, I like to remove the batteries for safety.

Then just pull it apart carefully. There are some wires attaching the two halves at the tip of the handle.

2. Remove launcher

Here all you have to do is pull out the tube and apparatus that actually launches the missile.

3. Drill out grate

Get out your drill/dremel and make the tip look like one large hole instead of looking like a jail window. I won't tell you how best to do this, because it all depends on you and your tool. If you aren't familiar enough with it to know what to do here, you shouldn't be trying this. The final result should look like the hole has never had bars across it, or you might risk damaging your missiles. So yes, you should sand it down.

Put it all back together, screw it tight, and you will have better airflow.

Note: After removing the grate, it is possible to modify it to fire elite darts as well with a coupler system. However, you would slightly restrict the airflow again, and you'd run the risk of completely ruining the launcher if a dart got sucked back inside it. For moderately advanced modders only.


Congratulations! Now your missile launcher will dominate anybody on the field! (Unless of course they've performed this mod too…)

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Painted Sidestrike

Nearly a month ago, I gave you a preview of a project I was working on. I apologize for taking so long; I actually was hoping to get this out to you only about a week and a half after leaving you in suspense over it. Anyway, here it is: the repainted Sidestrike.

I never really was a fan of the green/light gray color scheme on the original (click here to see my review with pictures). I much prefer a simple stealth black and the regulation toy-gun orange for my nerf guns. For one thing, it makes night missions in nerf wars much easier. And all the orange is there for two purposes: a) I doubt anyone will have trouble recognizing that this is not an actual firearm, and b) it looks cool.
Mostly b.

So basically, I coated the main body pieces and the cocking slide with gloss black spray paint. I left alone the orange pieces and the handle insets. I did the orange detailing with acrylic paint, as with the bits of charcoal gray detailing. The handle insets received several coats of the orange acrylic paint. Then all the painted parts got a coat or two of satin finish top coat. The combination of the gloss black and the satin finish resulted in a really nice, tactical non-reflective texture (which, interestingly, also gives it a good feel in the hand). The top coat also means that the gun can get a bit beat up, without showing any wear on the paint job.
As usual, the little parts that were already orange stayed orange.

I didn't take a picture of it, but I also lightly dusted the holster with black spay paint for a shadowy look.

Detail of the handle.

My "signature", and a close-up of the
detailing on the Nerf logo.

Close-up of the cocking slide.

What do you think?

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Teaser

I'm working on a rather long and detailed project, which I think you'll all like. However, I don't want to give away what it is. Here's a clue:

I'm painting a nerf gun, and I'll be giving it the best paint job I've done yet… I'm very excited!
However, it's up to you to theorize what gun it is that I'm working on. :-)

As always, comments are welcome.
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MOD: Nerf DoubleStrike

Finally, the Mod Guide for the Doublestrike!

Really, there's hardly anything you can do to improve the performance of the Doublestrike. You can't remove the air restrictors because of the "Smart AR" system it uses. You can't really upgrade the spring because it's already so tough. And there's no need to upgrade the seal, because it's already about as good as it gets. If you want to get better performance, here's LordDraconical's mod guide:

If you do want to take it apart for some reason, though (like to paint it), here's my input.

Difficulty: Easy
What you'll need: A phillipshead screwdriver.

1. Unscrew
There's seven silver screws to remove. They're all the same size, so you don't need to worry about which screw goes where. Keep them in some sort of bag or container, so you don't lose them.

2. Clamshell
Take the top half off and set it aside. Be careful that the little orange piece on top doesn't fly out.

3. Reassemble

Closeup of the internals

Assuming you have already taken out the internals and done whatever it was you wanted to do in the first place, here is how to put it all back together. Lay the trigger spring over the left metal post, then patiently place the trigger on that metal post so that the upright part of the spring fits into the tiny hole in the top of the trigger. That done, slide the spring over the cocking mechanism, slide the cocking mechanism/plunger into the barrel assembly, and arrange it all back into place. Then take the spring stopper and place it over the posts at the bottom of the handle such that it also fits over the spring.

The "shield"

Finally, place the "shield" piece (shown to the left) back over the pins to hold everything in.  Then place the tiny orange piece back under the tac rail, and lay the other half of the shell back on. And you're done.


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Painted Doublestrike

I like Black. Don't ask me why; I have no clue. I just know that I like Black.

Conveniently, Black happens to go very well with Nerf orange. One need only look to the Gear-Up series to prove this. Sadly, Gear-Up was discontinued, and most guns don't have an orange-and-black paint job. Let's fix that, shall we?

Pardon the fuzzy.

In my opinion, the Doublestrike never looked so good. And the nice thing is that it was very easy to paint, since all of the little pieces were orange. All I had to do was paint the shell.

Here's what I did:

1. Sand

I took the gun apart, then gave each half of the shell a good sanding prep. Drac has a good explanation of how to do this in most of his mod videos.

2. Spray Paint
I gave it several coats of gloss black spray paint. 'Nuff said.

3. Hand Paint
I gave it a cool detail job with a thin paintbrush and a few acrylic paints.

The "cloth wrap" handle

The orange parts
were all left orange.

4. Clear Enamel Coat
After the paint had plenty of time to dry, I took the shell back outside and gave it one or two coats of clear spray enamel. Let that dry, screw it together, and…

5. Voila!

The Mod Kit

Do you find that every time you want to open up a nerf gun, you have to search around for all the necessary supplies? Here's a solution: make your own Mod Kit.

Difficulty: Easy
What you'll need: A shoebox to hold everything.
Suggested: A long, thin screwdriver. A magnet for retrieving screws from hard-to-reach places. A place to hold screws/internals (I use 3 small bowls). Electrical tape or plumber's tape (E-tape is better). Needlenose pliers for pulling things (like locks) out. Something with which to decorate your shoebox so that instead of looking like a shoebox, it looks like a nerf gun Mod Kit.

Screw organization, electrical tape, pliers,
screwdriver, "pole magnet".

The aforementioned "pole magnet" is actually a long, thin, metal pole glued inside the shell of a plastic pen, with a tiny magnet on the tip of the pole. It's long; it's thin; and it's comfortable.

In addition, I keep several different grains of sandpaper in my box, so I can sand for painting prep or to sand down certain pieces, like necessary locks.

I also like to keep all the locks and such that I remove in a jar. I don't know exactly why I do this; I guess I'm just afraid I might someday need to put them back. I pretty much keep everything I remove, because someday someone might want a stock nerf gun for posterity. I keep it all in my shoebox.
But that's just me.

Beyond that, I also keep a ziplock baggie of springs with which to replace/add plunger springs for a power boost.

Make sure to make it your own. Use what you like to use, and don't feel like you have to do anything the same as me. This is just an idea-sparker so you can build your own Mod Kit.

Happy modding!

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UPDATE

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I made a cool box in which to store my Mod Kit.

So yeah.

Mod: Nerf Sidestrike

The long(ish)-awaited Mod Guide for the Nerf Sidestrike. All you need to do to get amazing range from this already great gun is improve the barrel seal and remove the air restrictor.

Difficulty: Easy
What you'll need: A phillipshead screwdriver and electrical tape (or plumber's tape).

Steps:
1. Unscrew
There are 2 screw sizes in this gun - medium and short. Eleven screws total; 8 medium and 3 short. The three short ones go here:            ------------------------------>

It is of note that you'll have to pull the slide back a bit to access one of the medium screws.

2. Clamshell
The gun comes apart into two easy halves. One has all the internals, and the other one doesn't have anything really. Also, keep track of the little orange piece on the tactical rail (it tends to fly out).
The half with the internals will look like this:

3. Remove Internals

First, carefully pull out the trigger system, being sure to not lose the catch spring. Set those aside. Then, pull the plunger tube/barrel system out. That's what you'll be working on.

4. Seal Upgrade

It is important to note that this step will make the gun slightly more difficult to cock.

Pull out the plunger rod. 

On the tip, there is a black O-ring. Take it off and set it aside. Make sure it doesn't get dirty, because that will ruin the seal. Now, take you electrical tape and carefully wrap a section around the area where the O-ring was. If you're using electrical tape, you'll only want to wrap it once. With plumber's tape, you might want to do 2-3 wraps of tape. After that's done, slip the O-ring back on over the tape. Re-insert the plunger into the plunger tube.

5. AR removal

The AR (air restrictor) is designed to restrict airflow, reducing performance. In order to remove it, you'll have to take apart the barrel assembly. That would be the big orange tube near the top of the gun. Take it out, and on each side you'll see a latch holding the front part to the back part. CAREFULLY unlatch those (If you're under the age of ten, I'd suggest that you ask your mom to do this), and take the assembly apart. The only part you want to remove is the actual AR and its spring (see photo).

Once you've done that, you need to make a decision. Are you going to want to fire Streamline darts with this gun? If yes, then you can pull out the dart post piece from the back. Then snap off the long, thin post from its base, and put the base back. From there, you can put the whole barrel assembly back together.

6. Reassemble

Put it all back together. See above picture for arrangement of all the internals.

And voila! You just added about 25 feet to the range of your Nerf Sidestrike!


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