We had what we call a "Mod Night" with fellow hobby enthusiasts who happen to be good friends of mine. They're all active members of the OLCA and avid Laser Taggers and Modders. We get together every now and then to collectively work on projects so as to capitalize on each other's insight, help, and skills. One guy was working on rebuilding an LTX's Ammo Core while another fiddled with his Longstrike Laser Tag/Nerf blaster. Whatever our individual goals were going in, at some point everyone ended lending a hand to work on mounting a new Screen-accurate stock for my M41A Pulse Rifle.
Preparing the Pulse Rifle for the new stock was quite the overhaul. Much harder than swapping out stocks on an N-Strike Blaster, THAT's for sure! The entire rifle had to come apart, then the Airsoft Thompson at it's core had to be lifted out of the shell, then the wires running INTO the Thompson had to be removed. Once that was all done, I removed the components that once worked for the old stock. I wasn't too heartbroken taking out those parts, since I really hated how the locking mechanism worked on it.
The new parts had to be tapped into the metal receiver to fit, so we got to work lining up those parts. The pin in the middle lifts up to lock the stock in place while the other two pints keep the stock on-track and securely connected to the receiver. It's a rock-solid construction that's much more stable than the original version that came with this kit. There's some tweaking to be made as far as it's adjustment to the actual Pulse Rifle Kit goes, but I'll work that out later.
All closed up, the new stock feels (and looks) great! Instead of a 3 piece flimsy POS, it's now a one piece sturdy screen-accurate stock. I have Matsuo from the AliensLegacy Forum to thank for the stock and the bolt parts to make it work. The new stock is great looking and really does improve the look of the blaster (in my honest opinion) It's another step in the right direction for this project that's starting it's 3rd year of work!
Of course, no Mod Night would be complete without us all drawing blasters on each other. In general, I enjoy the time on the workbench almost as much as I do using this stuff in games... but it's much more fun and worthwhile to do it in the company of good friends who know their stuff.
As usual, I'll have more updates on this tedious project as I cross more milestones. Next up, I've got parts for Airsoft Magazine Covers coming from Noble of the AliensLegacy Forum. I'll likely have the Airsoft side of this blaster working and completed before the Laser Tag side is done, but I'm hoping to at least have some sort of Laser Tag functionality for Summer of 2012. Patience is a virtue!
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