This is the Chaotic Shortbus - three flywheelers with the triggers linked internally such that pulling the trigger fires a dart from each magazine simultaneously. It’s seen use in several games of HvZ at the University of Waterloo and in various nerf wars across Toronto, and I think it came out very well.

It was made from a Demolisher and two Stryfes, plus parts from a Recon Mk2 (forebarrel), Rapidstrike (stock), Rayven (rail), Titan (muzzle devices) and Rotofury (internal forebarrel).

This was an unusual experimental build. I had originally planned to use it with magazines with secondary notches in order to allow a fast “reload” by tapping a mag upwards - but in practice, I’ve found that this style of blaster works best when used almost like a conventional single-magwell flywheeler expect that fresh magazines can be inserted more quickly due to not needing to remove the old nearly-empty one first.

This solves a dilemma that magfed blasters face in HvZ. On one hand, you always want at least enough darts in your mag to survive a charge - but on the other hand, reloading early will chew through mags. Being able to split the difference by inserting a new mag while still being able fire the darts in the old one is very nice.

The main lessons that I’m taking from this build are:

  • Weight matters. A heavy blaster will make you more tired over the course of a long game.

  • Being able to fire if surprised while reloading is nice - but having a quick (and non-distracting) reload procedure is even nicer.

  • Having only two magwells would have been almost as good as having three, while saving bulk and weight.

https://torukmakto4.blogspot.com/2015/01/something-bit-crazy.html

https://torukmakto4.blogspot.com/2015/06/it-has-name-now-progress-on-chaotic.html

https://torukmakto4.blogspot.com/2016/06/misadventures-with-painters-tape.html

https://torukmakto4.blogspot.com/2018/04/chaotic-shortbus-functional-completion.html

https://torukmakto4.blogspot.com/2019/03/chaotic-shortbus-further-tweaks-and.html

  • robmexx@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    The look is well balanced and super clean. Awesome work. Are there more picture available?

    • Herbert_WOPM
      1·
      1 year ago

      Thanks!

      Right now the blaster is in storage somewhere in a box in a loft after a move, so while there will be more pictures taken later, it won’t be soon (and I’m away from my usual computer, hence the delayed reply). There’s pictures in the linked blog posts showing the internals as well as the outside at different stages in the blaster’s development.

      One improvement that I’m planning on making is putting a latch on the top of the blaster for opening and closing the shell. One of the stock screws is currently used for the purpose of stopping the top of the shell from splitting open and repeatedly inserting/removing it (as that’s how the batteries are accessed) has worn out the hole in the screw boss. There’s a way to fix that - devcon in the hole, drill it out - but doing that repeatedly is a bit of a bother.

      The plan is to use the carry handle from a Modulus to create some extra space at the top of the blaster so that a latch or larger screw for the main shell can be hidden inside of the handle. When I do that, probably in a couple months, I’ll post pictures here.