Fixing the wobble - why 3D printing isn't always the best solution.

We previewed our new Stock Extenders on Wednesday afternoon and got a great reception to them. They're going into combat testing this evening and there will be other posts about them forthcoming. One of the comments that came up (and has come up in several other threads and request emails) is to do something about the stability issue in the Stryfe/Rapidstrike front end barrel attachment space.

On the face of it, it would be very simple to mass produce these. They're a very simple piece of plastic printed to slot over the current muzzle attachment and it sits nicely behind my Longstrike barrel extension and steadies it.

See? It's a nice tight fit, it locks the extension in place. On the face of it, 90 seconds of print time per collar with lots to a tray means I can print thousands of these each day. Ideal, right?

Wrong. It's frankly overkill. I'm using a high powered piece of CNC machinery to do what I could do just as effectively with a craft knife and some plasticard or ABS sheet. It'd be a lot easier to customise that sort of contraption to your personal blaster, to your specific circumstance than it would be to buy a packet of ours off the shelf. Add in the fact that ours aren't exactly durable if you try taking them off once you've put them on.

It's all about selecting the correct tool for the job. Too often in the Nerf modding hobby do people look at 3D printing and think of it as some sort of magic process that will do anything. It really won't. Even with high infill ABS, the composite layer by layer nature of additive manufacturing results in something that's very different (note different, not weaker) to injection moulded plastic.

For example, when we realised that the vertical foregrips we had produced weren't going to work because of plastic fatigue failure, we went away and looked at alternatives. We came back with aluminium plates and retained our original plastic handles to give us the best compromise between weight, cost and future design changes. To get the best quality outcome, you have to think beyond a single method or process and not just accept its limitations.

As for us, we need a barrel extension on our in-house blasters to help us house some instrumentation for characterising dart ballistics. The model for the spacer came from some work we were doing to replicate barrel attachment holders and transplant them to blasters that don't currently have them. Though these were printed as demonstration pieces, it's still a lot easier to get the craft knife and cardboard out when the need arises.

I suppose that's a lesson for all modders: right material and process for the job and keep your tools in good order! :)

Combat testing - HvZ style!

Since we posted about the Stock Extenders yesterday there appears to be a little bit of confusion about how we go about testing our stuff.

We have a couple of stages to our testing. First there's the office test. We put our gear through it's paces in the office. We throw it around, drop-kick it, step on it and generally abuse it to find any problems before they become a problem. There are many days spent holding blasters at odd angles, throwing them at things and just down right being mean to them,

For the second stage, our guys head over to BUZAN (Bristol University's Nerf group) and test our stuff with their players. We hand our stuff over and let them at it. If it doesn't survive contact with the user base then it goes back to the drawing board. By testing with the people who actually use our stuff, we get all sorts of feedback from durability, functionality and pricing information. We've always designed for University HvZ players and having a group on hand that are happy to host us means we can offer products that are genuinely tailored to that market.

We hand kit out, have people play with and in some cases break it. It's always fun in the first term, freshers get handed a piece of kit and break it so you have to spend an amount of time explaining that we're encouraging them to break it. On occasion, we also have to explain that, no, if you break it you don't have to pay for it!

It's an effective means of putting our gear through our paces. We're very lucky to be able to get our stuff into the hands of eager people before launching to the public. Of course, there is the slight guilt factor of watching a piece of kit fail at a critical moment and seeing people get eaten by zombies! We like to temper that feeling with the many more successful moments where a holster provides that last minute hold out shot and the player in question goes on to clear that jam, down half a dozen zombies and goes out in style, rather than ignominy! :D




NOTE: All our testing staff are associate members of the University of Bristol Student's Union and of the Bristol University Zombie Apocalypse Network (BUZAN) with all appropriate dues paid up - we're very happy to support student projects both in a personal and business capacity. :)

Rapidstrike Tray Extension

The joy of being a maker is that very often product ideas come from what we need ourselves. A goodly number of your best creations are those that you use yourself.

I got sick of having 2 sets of batteries for my Rapidstrike CS-18. I got sick of having to keep two different sets on my webbing. I decided to make my Rapidstrike battery tray larger to accommodate my 1800mAh 3S LiFe Stampede battery so I can use it in my RS.. I've got a few more plans for this one, including an integrated torch kit and other things. If people want these then I'll happily pop them in the shop, I just thought it might be nice to show off. I can probably arrange custom jobs, too for different packs. :D

-Mike, BSUK

Rail Mounted Magazine Holder: First Look

While we produce a wide array of gear for carrying your magazines on your webbing there are times in life when you need something a little different. Perhaps you can't wear a rig because it's already full or because it's too warm. Where else are you going to put Nerf magazines? Well, your blaster has a number of hard points just waiting to be used.

Want more accessory than rifle? No problem! What else are these rails for?

Enter our Rail Mounted Magazine Holder system. We've designed this in true Blastersmiths UK fashion: to be combat effective and as customisable by the user as possible. The system will be supplied as a kit for users to screw and stick together as required.
 

We've designed this so it can be assembled into one of two configurations to allow magazines to be placed in either vertical or horizontal positions on your rails.

The mount plate of the main holder contains 2 part Velcro with each half sewn in place to prevent loss of the strap during fire-fights, transport or storage. Despite not having an elastic component, when sealed correctly the Velcro will retain its charge in all battlefield situations and has only failed under the most extreme of tests*. The lack of elasticity also restricts lateral movement of the magazine when swung back and forth. The Velcro also strong enough to allow the magazine holder to be used as an emergency grab strap for the blaster, though we don't condone this, there's a huge chunky ABS grab handle just a few inches away!

Each kit will contain 2 magazine holders to allow the effective carriage of either 2x 6 or 12 dart magazines or 1x 18 dart magazine. Despite what the photos show, 18 dart magazines are most stable when held by two adapters.





*For the purposes of this article, 'most extreme of tests is use of the rifle in question as a battle axe to smash your way through a table"