Monday 5 January 2015

Mod: Minimised Rapidstrike

One popular mod for the Rapidstrike (besides the standard overhauling of its internals) is minimisation of the shell, as Nerf is lacking in a full-auto clip (mag) fed sidearm.
This is my take of an SMG/PDW style minimisation.

In terms of what major parts were removed, all I did was cut off the front portion, which removes the majority of the faux barrel and the battery tray. I then used the original muzzle and a short portion of faux barrel to give the minimised Rapidstrike (which I'll call RapidPDW) a proper muzzle and front iron sight.
With the stock extended. It's certainly not the shortest minimisation, many people also cut off the stock and the carry handle/rail to turn it into the much smaller "Rapidpistol". However I personally like having a stock on anything clip (mag) system, so I kept it on this.
The top rail still works fine, it's been untouched. I think the RapidPDW looks decent with an EPPS and 12 dart clip (mag), though I'd use 18 dart clips (mags) in games.
I didn't cut my Rapidstrike down as much as most people. I kept a length of the shell so that I would have a comfortable underbarrel grip, and also to maintain the two side tac rails. Additionally, the space in where the battery tray used to go now serves to hold the new battery system.
The standard barrel minimisation seems to be to cut the Rapidstrike right down to the curve of the grey magwell grip.
 Down the front, you can see that I basically took all of the Rapidstrike's old front and stuck it on. Everything's there, from the muzzle to the iron sight and even the battery tray front piece.
It's not very well adhered on, but for the most part the faux barrel keeps it lined up properly.
I've also used a segment of the BSUK Stryfe muzzle ring to help keep barrel extensions stable, as I find especially the Retaliator barrel is fairly wobbly on the Rapidstrike.
Currently I'm running this Rapidstrike off a pair of IMRs. Once I get around to investing in LiPos, this will be receiving a small 2S LiPo that should be perfect for my needs.
This Rapidstrike has had a basic rewire, according to Toruk's excellent rewire guide. I might do a full rewire if I get new motors for it, but as of now it's running of stock motors so a full rewire is not totally necessary.
Retaining the muzzle allows the use of barrel attachments. Pictured is a shortened Retal barrel.
And here's one with the Spectre barrel. I personally really like the Spectre barrel, as it maintains the PDW look and doesn't affect performance.
The RapidPDW is by no means a particularly short blaster. Here it's compared to the ERayven, and even with the stock retracted it's a few centimetres longer.
With the stock extended, the RapidPDW is about 10cm longer than the ERayven.
Here's the RapidPDW compared to one of my stock Rapidstrikes. You can see it's not actually a huge amount shorter, but for my purposes it's short enough.

Thanks to the IMRs and the rewire, the RapidPDW revs up fairly fast. Certainly much faster than stock. It takes about half a second to rev up to usable RPM, and another half second to rev to near max.
Range wise, the RapidPDW is comparable to my ERayven running Barricade motors, both blasters using 2 IMRs. Accuracy isn't great, particularly thanks to the removal of the faux barrel, but Koosh darts certainly help. I wasn't looking for accuracy anyway with this build.
ROF is greatly improved from stock, getting around 5.5dps with near full charge IMRs. Certainly enough for my purposes.

I built this RapidPDW mostly for fun, but as it evolved I found a great use for it in my Uni games. Its power is better than that of stock blasters, but not so much that it causes significant pain on hits, and seems to be within our current 80fps limits (using Kooshes at least). The accuracy is not an issue thanks to Kooshes and its ROF, which is significantly greater than can be achieved with the other blasters (Strongarms, Roughcuts) used by newbies. The RapidPDW also conveniently fits perfectly in my Uni backpack.

Do let me know what you think of my RapidPDW.

8 comments:

  1. Do another RS mod, but this time, take the stock off and add a fore grip, you won't believe how mobile it is.

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    1. I did buy 2 $15 Rapidstrikes for a reason.
      I personally feel that removing just the stock doesn't have a huge impact on mobility, based on what I feel when holding a Rapidstrike without using the stock. I feel that a barrel-less Rapidstrike is more maneuverable because its muzzle is closer to the shoulder than a standard Rapidstrike, while a stock-less Rapidstrike will not significantly affect muzzle position (at least for me). I also like the feel of being able to shoulder larger blasters, and the Rapidstrike (even a minimised one) is a blaster I feel should be shouldered.

      I did consider a stock-less Rapidstrike for my Minimised Rapidstrike project, but I dropped it in favour of the barrel-less Rapidstrike.

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    2. Yep, at Aussie Kmarts. Pretty much all out of stock now, but a while back they were full of them. I was quite restrained with regards to buying Rapidstrikes, I've seen pictures of people buying 7+.

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    3. I got mine for 25 at walmart. I'm pleased enough with that.

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  2. What does PDW mean?

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    1. From wikipedia:
      A personal defense weapon (PDW) is a class of compact select-fire firearm - essentially a hybrid between a submachine gun and acarbine, retaining the compact size and ammunition capacity of the former while adding the power, accuracy and penetration of the latter. Most PDWs fire a small caliber, high velocity bottleneck cartridge, resembling a small or short rifle round. This gives the PDW better range, accuracy and armor-penetrating capability than submachine guns, which fire pistol-caliber cartridges.

      In this context I use PDW to describe how the RapidPDW is a minimised version of a full Rapidstrike, but not to the point where it can be considered a rapidpistol.

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  3. Could you post some kind of a wiring guide some time.
    I am working on a minimized RS, and I need to find some kind of wiring guide/help/sheet.

    I cannot find anything on the internet

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