Makeshift Unorthodox Costume (In Progress)

[DarthProdigal]

Your saber should look dirty…unless you are a space chicken who doesn't fight but just looks pretty?!?

Or a master of the Force, whom can crush opponents without using a lightsaber...

Also, the white leather wrap has already started to get pretty dirty, I suppose it will become grey soon. Apparently my saber doesn't want to remain entirely on the light side.

You can see here the greying of the white leather, as well as the additional tape strips on either end of either leather wrap.

Yeah, I was going to say something but figured done was done, or you'd use them enough that you'd find out soon enough anyway. Rigorous training leads to sweat, and it's a catalyst for natural transfer of dirt from the hands or "staining". Part of why you have to rewrap sword hilts periodically in addition to them just getting looser over time.

Luckily since it's a seemingly "easily" replaceable wrap you could just trade the white out (if desired) the day before a convention style event. Then they'd look more pristine, and clean gloves help to reduce dirt transfer some.

[SirLiftaLot]

Or a master of the Force, whom can crush opponents without using a lightsaber...

Yeah, I was going to say something but figured done was done, or you'd use them enough that you'd find out soon enough anyway. Rigorous training leads to sweat, and it's a catalyst for natural transfer of dirt from the hands or "staining". Part of why you have to rewrap sword hilts periodically in addition to them just getting looser over time.

Luckily since it's a seemingly "easily" replaceable wrap you could just trade the white out (if desired) the day before a convention style event. Then they'd look more pristine, and clean gloves help to reduce dirt transfer some.

Good points. The wraps are a hair under $10 each, including shipping, and they should be able to provide two wraps. That is, each one should be good for the initial application and a subsequent replacement. I'd imagine I'd perhaps have to clean any residual adhesive off the hilts before reapplying the wraps, but it's a pretty simple process. So it's really $5 to replace the white leather wrap. And good point on the gloves. I do have the fingerless gloves, which would be half a solution, and then the motorcycle gloves which are full gloves and can help. But I have dropped the saber more than once in grass/dirt, so some level of it getting some discoloration is inevitable. But good call on perhaps replacing it before an event if I want it to look pristine. But it does seem to be achieving the intended purpose of being more "stable" than the o-rings, after the addition of some tape that is. I just ordered some white gaffer tape as well, so I'll see if that looks better than the black tape on the white leather.

I also have another fun little project I think I'll give an update on soon. Stay tuned!

[SirLiftaLot]

Got in some practice with some scenery. Excuse the sloppy form on some of the spins, it was late, and I was tired. My best (first) run wasn't recorded as my camera fell down halfway through, so this was the best I actually have recorded. Full costume here would be nice I'd say!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2HwATAbq8M" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2HwATAbq8M</a>

[SirLiftaLot]

Picked up a NERF Galaxy's Edge Bounty Hunter Blaster (the same as the Qi'Ra one, but with different colors). Of course the first thing I did (after testing it out with a single on-target shot, but more on that later) was paint it using the black and silver spray paint I already had on hand.

From this:


To this, making sure to leave plenty of orange tip, as not to have it be confused with an actual gun. This also helped to allow the front of the "barrels" to still light up properly:



I taped over the small strip where you can see some blue, as the strip between the two blue portions lights up red when the trigger is pulled, and I wanted to retain that feature.

Here you can see the light, as well as the blaster sound it makes, which has decent speed, much faster than you can shoot it, considering it only holds two darts and has to be cocked before each shot:

https://i.imgur.com/JnpS8mC.mp4

The darts it came with (4) sort of glow in the dark, which is cool, but their accuracy was hit or miss. The first shot I took was good on a person-sized target from 20', but from after that, it was "only" good for torso-sized accuracy from 10-15', with very variable results from 20-25'. I thought I had messed something up with the paint, since I had only fired a single shot first, and it happened to be perfect. But after picking up a pack of 200 Adventure Force darts for $10, the accuracy has been vastly improved. 15' is essentially a lock on a torso-sized target, and 20' is also impressively accurate. Pushing out to 25' brings the impact lower than the point of aim, but still pretty impressively on-point laterally. I have read that these darts sacrifice some range for accuracy, which seems consistent with my experience. See the video below for a ~20' shot on a torso sized target. Note the sound effect, s well as the front of the barrel having a light when it's cocked that does off after shooting, a nice little feature.

https://i.imgur.com/gqONiuW.mp4

For $20 (with 4 darts that are hit or miss but glow in the dark a bit), after painting I'd say it's quite impressive. And 200 improved darts for an extra $10, and it's a really fun item/prop for $30. A review I read said it's ~45-50 MPH out of the barrel, so a bit slower out to 15-20', so the next thing is to see if I can BLOCK BLASTER BOLTS WITH A LIGHTSABER!

[For Tyeth]

Hi SirLiftaLot,

Yes it does seem as if great minds think alike! That S-195 does make a nice looking prop, especially with the dulled silver grey barrel colour.

Regards darts and accuracy, there are modifications you can do to NERFs such as spring replacements (improve range) You can see a short tutorial here:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYOUZRJs-1Q" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYOUZRJs-1Q</a>

The accuracy problems are the darts themselves - upgrading to Adventure Force brand was a pretty wise move. Another thing to remember with this pistol is that it has twin barrels that operate off one plunger tube using a Smart Air Restrictor to channel the airflow to each barrel in turn - and I think the second barrel may shoot decidedly weaker than the primary.

I have yet to modify/paint mine yet but this is the model I chose - Firestrike (with "Laser" targetting system)


I'll keep you updated as and when I make progress (I have to wait for better weather so I can spray paint outdoors as I live in a tower bock!)
point incoming.

[SirLiftaLot]

Hi SirLiftaLot,

Yes it does seem as if great minds think alike! That S-195 does make a nice looking prop, especially with the dulled silver grey barrel colour.

Regards darts and accuracy, there are modifications you can do to NERFs such as spring replacements (improve range) You can see a short tutorial here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYOUZRJs-1Q#

The accuracy problems are the darts themselves - upgrading to Adventure Force brand was a pretty wise move. Another thing to remember with this pistol is that it has twin barrels that operate off one plunger tube using a Smart Air Restrictor to channel the airflow to each barrel in turn - and I think the second barrel may shoot decidedly weaker than the primary.

I have yet to modify/paint mine yet but this is the model I chose - Firestrike (with "Laser" targetting system)


I'll keep you updated as and when I make progress (I have to wait for better weather so I can spray paint outdoors as I live in a tower bock!)
point incoming.

Sweet. I'll check out that video, and I'll have to check out if the second barrel is weaker than the first. Looking forward to seeing your customizations. I'm really thinking about seeing how lightsaber sparring would work with NERF guns added into the mix. One that have to be cocked or pumped before each shot, to keep it fair, that way you can try to dodge or block darts, and the reload time leaves you vulnerable to being rushed.

[For Tyeth]

I don't know how easy it would be to get hold of one but NERF did make a motorised tank that could fire off rounds almost like a Terminator Hunter Killer. You might find one in a Goodwill or similar thrift store but one with the remote control might be rare.

It might have a bit too high a rate of fire for your training purposes but it would be interesting. Non motorised, "Springer" blasters would be the best choice and fair.

[SirLiftaLot]

I don't know how easy it would be to get hold of one but NERF did make a motorised tank that could fire off rounds almost like a Terminator Hunter Killer. You might find one in a Goodwill or similar thrift store but one with the remote control might be rare.

It might have a bit too high a rate of fire for your training purposes but it would be interesting. Non motorised, "Springer" blasters would be the best choice and fair.

So you CAN block them! I had someone shoot some darts from the painted Bounty Hunter at 15-20', and I managed to block a few with my saber. I got hit the same number of times as I blocked them, but still, pretty cool to see that it's doable. I think the stock spring is perfect for this application. It's fast and accurate enough to reliably hit a person from 20 feet away, but still slow enough to have a reasonable (if not easy) chance to deflect or dodge it. I feel like a kid again. Probably the closest to a Jedi I've felt.

[mrg149]

Ok…now y'all are making me want to go NERF shopping…

[SirLiftaLot]

Ok…now y'all are making me want to go NERF shopping…

Dew it! I'm reading that the Adventure Force Aeon Pro is $25 and shoots ~135 FPS with the Adventure Force darts. It also doesn't look half bad:


But I'm still glad my first purchase was a Star Wars design with lights and sound, and a speed that's a good compromise between short-medium range accuracy and still being able to block with a saber. Still tempted to pick one of these up though. Having longer range accuracy means I can try to block the darts from farther away without having to lob them in an arc, which means more time to try to track them in the air to deflect.

[For Tyeth]

I like the look of this blaster but at 50 Euros ($60 or £43) it is a bit more than I can probably justify spending. However I have had my eye on the Nerf Rival Kronos and the Zuru X-Shot Meteor (round ball ammo) blasters which I have seen priced at $16 and $22 respectively.

The Kronos probably looks more "in-universe" and would fit a holster better but the Meteor has a cool "knuckleduster" handgrip like a beefier Biker Scout blaster with the magazine built in the foregrip.

Man, I really seem to have fallen to the Darkside and embraced these uncivilised blasters!

[SirLiftaLot]

I like the look of this blaster but at 50 Euros ($60 or £43) it is a bit more than I can probably justify spending. However I have had my eye on the Nerf Rival Kronos and the Zuru X-Shot Meteor (round ball ammo) blasters which I have seen priced at $16 and $22 respectively.

The Kronos probably looks more "in-universe" and would fit a holster better but the Meteor has a cool "knuckleduster" handgrip like a beefier Biker Scout blaster with the magazine built in the foregrip.

Man, I really seem to have fallen to the Darkside and embraced these uncivilised blasters!

Those both look pretty nice, and I can totally see both of them looking like they’d belong in-universe with the right paint job.

It looks like the balls are intended to be faster/harder than the darts? I’m reading that the one I have is ~70 FPS, while the Aeon is around 135 FPS. While the Kronos and X-Shot are 90-100 FPS with the balls. Are the balls a lot heavier to the point where a ball at 90 FPS would have a lot more force behind it than a dart at 90 FPS? From what I read, people were really surprised that the Aeon was shooting 135+ FPS stock. I guess the balls would last longer and be more durable than the darts?

[For Tyeth]

I think the idea was that Ball Ammo would be more dense than a dart so theoretically fly more accurately and further but I'm no ballistics expert so am not sure. I do know that the Ball Ammo had higher FPS than regular NERF Elite darts but the numbers vary so much (I have seen a stock Firestrike hit 100fps).

It's a case of win some/lose some with the Ball Ammo (they are easier to lose apparently) and only in the past fortnight or so Hasbro announced a new range/generation of Ball blasters called the HYPER range. This has fps around the 90-100 fps range but the ammo is around two thirds the size of a current NERF Rival ball (meaning you can have 4x as much ammo in a magazine hopper). And some numbers that have been calculated for rate of fire are around 30-40 rounds per minute - from a motorised flywheel blaster!

But the Adventure Force Aeon did surprise a lot of the experts online. I think (though not 100% certain) the improved FPS might be down to the Aeon having a brass barrel as it comes with replacement  O-Ring seals for the breech.
And finally, I think Ball Ammo would keep their shape better over time than a dart would but as with all things this could vary depending on how you treat/store and how often you use them.

[DarthProdigal]

So you CAN block them! I had someone shoot some darts from the painted Bounty Hunter at 15-20', and I managed to block a few with my saber. I got hit the same number of times as I blocked them, but still, pretty cool to see that it's doable. I think the stock spring is perfect for this application. It's fast and accurate enough to reliably hit a person from 20 feet away, but still slow enough to have a reasonable (if not easy) chance to deflect or dodge it. I feel like a kid again. Probably the closest to a Jedi I've felt.

Yes, more training or focus certainly required... though I guess it's very Jedi to not be able to block them all.

That sounds like great fun, all kidding aside. I think, from a bit of experience, if I remember properly then the ball style do last better over time. And should be better suited to deflection without damage over time. Though this was all soooo many years ago, idk if they fire much faster in comparison these days. Getting plenty of training in deflecting shots sounds like a super good time. I'm wondering if you used the full staff or with it separated? I hope you used a blindfold...and of course the Force.

[SirLiftaLot]

Yes, more training or focus certainly required... though I guess it's very Jedi to not be able to block them all.

That sounds like great fun, all kidding aside. I think, from a bit of experience, if I remember properly then the ball style do last better over time. And should be better suited to deflection without damage over time. Though this was all soooo many years ago, idk if they fire much faster in comparison these days. Getting plenty of training in deflecting shots sounds like a super good time. I'm wondering if you used the full staff or with it separated? I hope you used a blindfold...and of course the Force.

I do agree the balls would likely hold up better over time to impact, but at $10 per 200 darts (5 cents each), it’s not the end of the world if a few get messed up by being blocked.

I used just one single blade, as it was indoors due to it being dark out at the time. I’d prefer to use the staff, due to having more blade area, and I also want to see if some spins can block the darts effectively or not.