I think this about sums it up:

Chops’ Reaction
Langley’s Reaction

26 hours of driving, 6 hours of nerfing, 2 nights of heavy drinking, one night of moderate drinking, 12 welts (one having broken the skin), one really hot Canadian customs official, one less-than-amused American customs official, four hundred darts, one really big opossum, 6 orders of hash browns, 5 A Capella renditions of Mars Bringer of War, 2 hookahs, and one hell of a hangover later, and we’re back from our four day trip into the frozen north.  And holy hell was it worth it.

After getting dragged kicking and screaming back into the world of Nerf by my clan mates, ‘Chops and Jax at Apoc ’10, I resolved to return the favor by planning a road trip.  They unanimously recommended Hell Before Halloween, and with a most gracious invitation from FA at Apoc, we agreed our destination would have to be the Peoples Imperial Republic of Canuckistan.

After rounding up Chops and Gears from the outskirts of Philly, travelling back through New Jersey and into Connecticut we arrived at Jaxon’s place on Thursday night with one very important piece of business to attend before our real departure: Gears—long time ally of the LGLF—was to be inducted into the Clan as a full member.  Robes were dawned, chants murmured, forgotten gods summoned and forbidden beverages imbibed.  Our dark business done, we turned in early to get plenty rest before starting our trip in earnest.

The following morning, the trip started like any other: Jax was still asleep.  You see, Jax has roughly three possible states he can enter over the course of a Nerf war.  Crouching and shuffling around like he’s got a load in his pants, flying through the air without touching the ground for minutes at a time, or being completely passed out.  This was no exception.

Kiss the Cook

But chops had dawned his pink apron with the frilly stuff around the shoulders and had begun cooking bacon and eggs, and the smell had finally brought Jax down stairs some time around holy-shit-why-are-we-still-here o’ clock.  We scarfed down breakfast and quickly left.  Or at least we would have, if Jax hadn’t waited until then to start milling a plusbow out of a solid ten pound block of polycarbonate.  (That’s a metric fuckload of grams for you Canucks).  We finally departed around 4pm, and once past the Friday afternoon bridge traffic, we were hurtling towards Canada at an alarming speed.

Highlights from this portion of the trip include:

• Having someone who doesn’t drive and rarely even makes the trip as a passenger giving us a hard time about accidentally getting stuck on the GWB at 4pm on a Friday
• After waiting in the car for everyone to come out of a convenience store, having Chops hand me an ice cold bottle of Saranac as I pulled onto the interstate.  Apparently they make root beer.
• A New Jersey license plate works just as well as a cow catcher for removing lead-assed upstate New York drivers from your path, but you still have to get as close as you would with the cow catcher for it to be effective.

Finally, at around 11pm, we arrived in Rochester at the apartment of our good friend Darcy, bearing a 750ml of sailor jerry as a token of our goodwill.  Naturally, Gears couldn’t claim credit for acquiring the sailor jerry.  He can however take credit for sitting in the liquor store parking lot wearing the headgear of the noblest order of waterbuffalo.  We were probably lucky to get out of that place without a child endangerment of parental neglegence suit.  In any case, Darcey matched our offering with some of her own, in the form of some delicious blueberry woodchuck cider.  I can’t comment on gears’ affinity for the beverages provided, but I can say that on at least one occasion, his ‘head was swimmin’.

Throughly smashed, each of the members of the LGLF reverted to their basest qualities.  Jax passed out shortly after claiming his place as the big spoon in the designated gears/jax sleeping area. Langley as usual turned to his sodden ways, and thoroughly endrunkened himself as Chops egged him on from the side-lines.  And then there was Gears, who engaged in the most epically nipple stiffening tickle-fight any of us had ever seen with Darcy, our poor, poor, totally unprepared host.

It was not until after this abhorrent display of typical LGLF fare that we tucked in for the evening. Gears took his foreseen spot as Jaxon’s little spoon. Nestled comfortably between stump and chest scruff, he found himself lulled to sleep while the thoughts of totally not homoerotic nerf wars with his bed partner came to surface.  Phil and Darcy retreated to her room for a totally platonic evening while the sounds of Gears grinding his teeth was palpable.  Chops had to deal with hearing the above noises from a room over in an altogether too small couch, while plotting revenge.

What a terrible night to have a curse.

As expected, the morning arrived with hangovers and blueballs abound. The sensual workings of  Langley preparing Chops’ foot soles for the upcoming slaughter with the massage of a lifetime was a refreshing way to begin the morning. Gears, in typical bitch manner,  instantly called first shower, intentionally leaving his soap and shampoo (which to this day, he hopes Darcey has lathered over her perky, naked breasts).  Chops, being less then pleased with Langley’s wakening, proceeded to stomp out of the apartment, looking for individuals to harm.  As he waited outside, ready to kill, a single crow flew overhead, shouting its mournful call, ‘Caw, caw, caw.’  Luckily, Jax was at hand to translate those archaic, ancient words foreshadowing was is typical of a Canadian Nerf war. “Cocks, cocks, cocks, cocks, cocks!”

Note from the editor: It was roughly at this point that we utterly failed to finish this blog post.  For a year.  Sorry, I tried.  Anyway, here’s what we came up with on the drive up to Hb4H5 (’11).  It’s coming back to us, but it’s all sort of a blur.  Sorry if some of this doesn’t make sense.

• Trip to canada -  including customs  - Despite the previous night’s hangovers and awkward erections we arrived at the border crossing from Rochester without incident or fanfare.  It was at this point that a stunning redhead took a keen interest in what was ‘in our trunk’  wink wink.  By this of course I mean that we crossed the boarder in the sketchiest way possible, and the busty ginger working at customs rifled through all our shit, occasionally pausing to show our gear to her coworkers with an amused smirk.  We offered to return the favor and check out the junk in her trunk.  She declined.
• WAR
  • Arival – Lacking Rammstein’s “We’re all living in America”, we blasted “Te Quiero Puta” out of Langley’s Ford Focus.
  • The first few rounds we were A Clan Divided.  Repeatedly split between the two current teams, we fought our way through several variations on CTF.  Waging war, brother on brother, gnome against gnome, we bore the burden of hellish warfare with dignity and aplomb.  And silly hats.
  • Monster mash – awesome new gametype,  the best deathmatch alternatives we had played thus far.  Also, fucking exausting.  Some of us took our time working out the importance of taking a breather between sprints from the target to the spawn.
  • lunch – the bbq is engulfed in a gigantic fireball.  Langley becomes the pied piper after asking for help for a dart sweep.  Only attendees under 13 volunteer.
  • noob vs vets – DUUUUUUN DAAAA DUN DA DA DUN DADA DUN (Note: That’s “Mars: Bringer of War” not “Ride of the Valkyries”)
  • LGLF collectively abstain from the headshot rounds because….well…..Canada.
  • wingman round – ‘merica wins – After dragging on well past any reasonable time limit, Tank Rat is eliminated and the three remaining players–Chops vs Gears and Jax–nerf for several tense minutes before the Canadians grew impatient with their merciless defeat at the hands of the Americans and called the round.
  • cleanup/rain – the sky opens exactly after almost everyone has left and the LGLF have volunteered to help pack up the tarps and tape on the field.
• Restaurant – Gears doesn’t want you to think he’s a bad guy, but….
• Angel’s place – bees, story time, cola hookah, giant fucking possum in the parking lot
• Best hash browns ever at the same restaurant where we had dinner.
• American customs agent asks, “So, did you win?” “Yes sir, I believe we did”
• Long drive home – Jax wins Pennsylvania – “Moist like cake” and something about shitting in a pumpkin.
• The coolest Gas Station/Subway on 476 ever
• Seriously, this place was awesome.  Its like a the corner convenience store had sex with a deli, then abandoned the red-headed child in the woods.  That doesn’t make it sound so great, but it was.
• steven king like fog on the way back up to CT.
• FINALLY, Langley arrives at his better half’s place in Northeast CT, bringing an end to the epic journey.

 In the end, it was an excellent war, in the middle of an unforgettable road trip.  We could say more about it, but the fact that we’re doing it again this year–as we write this article–is a testament to how great a time we all had last year.  Thanks to FA, K10, and everyone else up in the unforgiving frozen wastelands of Mississauga.  Now step on it Chops!

* The title of this post is a reference to some trash-talking between Vacc and the LGLF in the NerfHaven thread for this war. Specifically, this post.

I plan to eventually construct a variant of this blaster which is similar to the Rainbow Pump in appearance, and write it up for RyanMcNumbers’ homemade contest on Nerfhaven.  Some permutation of this blaster will also go on to be the official loaner/backup blaster of the LGLF

Photo gallery after the jump.

Last year, Split and I wanted to have a gentleman’s wager, over the redesign of the +bow. We never really wrapped it up, but I missed the deadline by a bit if I remember correctly and what have you. First time it got used was May last year when I got to chill with the U3 and all my NJ friends. Anyways, a while before this wager, I had made a Solidworks model of the +bow and set to modifying it to change little things that I thought could use improvements. Making this model was at times…. frusterating.

Still, once this was all done, I could pretty much do whatever I wanted, in theory. This lead to the following final product:

Every piece of this +bow at one point or another touched either a mill or lathe. One of the features is a rectangular plunger rod like rev one but made of aluminum with lathed polycarb plunger head and nylon spacer in the middle of the skirt.

One of the other improvements I was looking for was to make it a little shorter than the normal +bow.

I also added some ¾” foam to the back of the stock for comfort.

Just before we (the LGLF) invaded Canadia, I decided to fix one last issue, where the 2 side plates meet was starting to crack a little bit… so I milled this 1/8” deep in the PC:

Here’s a couple more shots just because it’s been my primary for almost a year now and I never thought anything could replace my crossbow. This gun is the summary of a lot of work and effort and I don’t know what I’d be using without it. Three of the other features that were improvements from the get go were a comfy handle, a 3/4″ nylon rod as the top stock support, which coupled with a 1/2″ wide priming grip means there is no chance of any kind of face rape ever, as well as having the bushing entirely inside the plunger tube and mounted 15/16″ back so the support won’t be snapping. ever. I would expect the bushing to break first, honestly. Lots of little details make this what it is.

More recently, I was commissioned by Lucian to tune up his TornadoBow… which ended up being a lot of work, but it’s pretty freakin cool, totes worth the work. This was the first bunch of parts I made, I eventually had to change the catch, but it was worth it.

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The final parts and setup were as follows, using a 9in k25:








And very lastly, this arrived in the mail tomorrow, it is my new favorite vise ever. www.littlemachineshop.com because it’s a fantastic resource.

The airflow between the plunger tube and the turret is pretty sad, for what it is. It can be widened to 7/16″ without compromising the seal to the turret. This can be done with a dremel/drill/exacto/sandpaper, just be careful, alright?

Here is the stock Arrowstorm plunger head assembly, great, but the existing seal only makes a good seal for the last inch or so of travel, WHICH IS UNACCEPTABLE.

So just rip off the old seal, which is garbage. You’ll notice that either a U-cup seal or skirt seal will work, however the skirt seal seems to have less friction towards the end of travel.

Drill a hole in as close as you can get to the dead center of the plunger head (diameter of 27/32″ if you really needed to know, 7/8″ if you don’t wanna go to nuts)

Next, cut a circle of 1/8″ polycarb, between 1″ and 1+1/8″ in diameter with a 1/8 hole (up to 5/32, if you care) in the center. I chose to put a 1/16″ thick washer in the middle of the plunger head to relive stress on the skirt seal.
Then use a 6-32 bolt to assemble your plunger head, doesn’t matter if the phillips head is on the outside or inside, you can do whichever if you have a longer screwdriver or socket wrench. You can check to make sure it’s airtight by blowing air in the back of the plunger head assembly and see if any air escapes. If you’ve done all of this right, you should have something like what you see below. Throw a bunch of silicone lube/whatever you want on the inside of the tube and on the skirt seal.

That is what most people need, the rest of this write-up to show how to make perfect rear loading ports.

First off, choose your barrel material and length, cut all 6 barrels, and add enough electrical tape to secure them in place right up against the taper for the plunger tube’s nesting point.

You can glue them in place, but if you use the electrical tape properly, it’s not necessary.

Once the barrels are mounted, take a sharpie and put electrical tape on it so that both sections of electrical tape on the marker are the same as the ID of the barrel material (it should slide in and out fairly easily).

Assemble your Arrowstorm completely now, and drop the sharpie down the four barrels that should be rear loading (make sure they hit bottom) Now disassemble your Arrowstorm once more!

Now use the sharpie mark for the center of the rear loading holes.

A good way to do that is to drill a 7/64″ hole and tap it with a 6-32 bit. Use a screw to attach a washer, I used a 1″ diameter washer with a 1/8″ hole in the middle.

Trace around the washers with a sharpie and then remove the washers.

Dremel/drill/whatever until you’re up to the sharpie mark. Seems to work quite well, all the holes were just the right size for the washers to fit though. Finish with sandpaper, I used 400 grit, seemed to work great.

Looks off center in the pic, but it is quite well centered.

That’s about it, I have a couple more ideas, but it’s gonna be a while before I get around to them, so I figured I’d post this for you all to enjoy in the meantime. Also I don’t think I cursed enough in there, fuck it all, props to my boizzzz over at #justbutts.
Questions? Shoot!