Nerf Stormfire Modding

This is a re-post of my original post over at the wonderful NerfHQ.

If you aren't aware, as part of the new Dart-Tag line up for 2009, Nerf released a package called the Dart Tag Capture the Flag, which has two stormfire pistols in it. They are pretty neat pistols, if a bit large for a pistol, with a fairly sizable plunger tube. This writeup will cover basic modifications to your stormfire pistol. Mod Details: -Storm Fire Pistol -Intended Ammo: Standard Nerf Micro Darts -Overall Mod Difficulty: medium to beginner Materials Required: -Silicon pip tape -Lubricant of your choosing -Super glue -Hot Glue -1/2" CPVC -Craft Foam -#41 Oring -#52U ace spring Tools Required: -Dremel with sanding attachments -Hacksaw -Phillips Screwdriver -Needle Nose Pliars -Hot Glue gun Step 1: Dissasemble the pistol, dont forget to remove the set screw for the barrel cap. Step 2: Once the gun is fully taken apart you should have something that looks like what you see below. If you have ever modded any nerf pistol the internals are fairly simple and should make sense to you. Dont loose any springs Step 3: We want to remove the barrel and plunger assembly. It should be glued together as one cohesive piece, remove the plunger spring assembly and set that aside  we will work on that later. The barrel assembly needs to be modified to accept 1/2" cpvc. If you look inside you will see the AR, pretty standard. You want to cut the barrel assembly with your hack saw where the barrel for the dart meets the slightly larger orange piece below: Make sure to sand down the outside of your cut so you have a nice smooth surface. Step 4: To remove the AR use a drill with a drill bit that will fit through the small hole you can see from the back end of the plunger tube. Making this hole too wide will reduce the effectiveness of the gun. Punch through with the drill bit, it should punch out the remainder of the dart peg on the front. Use your dremel, or pliars and pull out the rest of the ar assembly from the front of the barrel assembly. Step 5: Now take your dremel and bore/sand out the inside the plunger assembly (the orange bit) until it is wide enough for a piece of 1/2 CPVC to fit inside snugly. You want the CPVC to be able to fit all the way down to the disc with the small hole that you drilled through earlier:  Step 6: Cut a 2.5" length of your cpvc, make sure it fits down into your sanded out plunger tube first. Put some super glue or adhesive of your choice around the bottom of the cpvc and insert it into the plunger assembly making sure that it is flush with the bottom, and that it is strait. I used hotglue after to seal any loose gaps around the outside of the cvpc: Step 7: Now we move on to the plunger itself. Unscrew the plunger head, it comes apart into a few pieces. I would not suggest streching the exsisting spring. I kept the exsisting spring and added half of an ace# 52U spring. Re-attach the plunger head.  Now take your silicone pipe take and wrap approximatly a 16" piece tightly around the orange plunger head. Put the stock oring over this, and then your #41 oring below this oring as a stabilizer. Lastly you will want to put some hot glue on the face of the plunger head, and use this glue to attach a piece of craft foam to the top. Trim down the craft foam once the glue has dried. This will help cushion the much stronger plunger. Step 8: Lube up your plunger head, and re-insert it into the plunger tube. re-assemble the gun and you are done! Should look like this: Test fire the gun make sure everything works right. Ranges for mine with the black foam sonic micros are decent 55 to 60' flat 85+ angled This was at night on a very VERY humid evening, you could see fog coming out of the barrel due to the compressed humid air. Dryer conditions will yield better results. I am currently working on a second StormFire with some changes with the barrel assembly to allow for greater accuracy.