Cutting the Bumpy Side.

Uh oh, we are here already I hear you saying. Don’t worry, if you have checked your lines properly then all should go to plan now, that is of course if you can cut a straight line.

This but is really straight forward to explain, just get your dremel or multi tool and cut along the lines, when you reach the top of the jam door space, just cut straight across. One point I need to explain: if you are unsure of measurements fitting then cut slightly in front of your lines, you can always cut more off but you can’t add more on (unless you have a natural gift for reversing things).

When you are done with cutting, place the shells together and make sure your mag fits in between the magwell that has just been created in the other side. Also, you can see what parts you need to file down so the shells fit together almost perfectly without any gaps. Just don’t take too much off.

1 stryfe
1 recon/retaliator barrel
Talon mags
Worker suppressor and flash hider
Worker PDW stock
Worker extended mag release
Strong hot glue/epoxy
Primer (if you don’t use Plastic only paint)
Base coat
Camo hydro film
Hydro film activator
Clear coat
Large plastic tub
Masking tape
Tools like dremel, glue gun, files, sharp knife
Sandpaper
A lot of time and effort

Hi! This is a guide for building this PDW the steps will go through: minimising the stryfe, cutting it to fit talons, recon/retaliator barrel cutting and adhesion, worker suppressor mounting, and extras. This mod may cause you to destroy your blaster, I can not be held to account for this, a lot can go wrong and I have don’t this twice already so I get it perfect. If you have done lots of shell work before then this will be easy peasy. I am only 13 years old and I didn’t cut my blaster into a million pieces and destroy it so you should have a good chance at getting a great outcome.

I hope this guide is detailed enough, if you have any questions then please notify me in the comments.

To start, we are going to minimise the front of the stryfe, this is very straight forward as the lines are pretty much marked out for you in the shell. You can refer to the picture and see that you take out the sling point and after the slope downwards near the top, you just cut a straight line down, this is marked in shell contours for most of it apart from at the end but if you are attempting this mod then you should at least be able to cut in a straight line 😂. This will leave a small rectangular hole at the top and a gaping hole at the bottom. I would just like to mention DON’T CUT YOUR RAIL UP YET. Unless you plan on binning it, the picture shows it this way but it isn’t my picture because I forgot to get a snap of my progress at this stage.

Wow, if you have made it to here then you must be doing something right, now this but might get a bit confusing and you will seriously need to use your common sense here if you don’t want to wreck your blaster so listen in.

I started by taking apart the shells of my blaster and placing my talon mag against the wall with the mag release on (note: you might want to remove the mag release for now so it doesn’t move your mag about and alter the measurements) then I got my ruler and measured the distance from the front of the talon to the shell wall of the magwell on the other side and it should be around 3.1cm if I remember but don’t go off that, do it yourself. Then I subtracted a millimetre extra so the mag came out smoothly (Less shell cut away). I then got that measurement and flipped the shell over. I know I need to take away (insert measurement) from the shell, but I want both of the tall bits at the bottom of the magwell where the holes are and it is sunk in a bit so it looks smooth (refer to picture 1 if you are confused what I’m talking about) but I also don’t want to cut my battery door or pusher off. So after fumbling about and measuring (insert measurement) across from the door that I am going to cut a small bit from the door (picture 2) and skim the tall bits at the bottom slightly.
So after I found what parts I was going to sacrifice, I drew lines down the blaster for me to cut, I measure time and time again to get it right and I found that if you hold up the shell with the lines on then you can see visually if they are straight or not. I also found it helpful to draw a line along the contours of the flywheel cage bump on the outside and measure across from that and my lines to make sure they all measured the same across (so my line is straight, yay!). Use picture 3 to see what I’m on about with this flywheel bump contour thingy. Then I checked my lines time and time again and with different lines of reference to make sure I don’t mess up on the next stage.

This should be easy, you have done it before. I found a good way to start is by looking at the cut side and measuring how far across it is on each side from the edge of the magwell to the cut. Then mark the lines according to this and make sure the gap in the middle is the same as the gap you just cut off or the (insert measurement) gap. Then hold up the shell again to make sure the lines are straight and do some checks and if it all looks good then I oh can move on.

For tips refer to the first cutting step. Once you are done cutting, place both sides of the shell togeather and line them up, if it worked then you should have both of the shells put together perfectly with their cut away side friends. Being in line with no gaps. If there is a gap then you can fill it in with lots of hot glue or epoxy on the next stage.

I would recommend a test fit with a strong hot glue, I use Loctite sticks and they bonded so well that I didn’t need to use epoxy on the finished product but you can if you want an extra strong shell. When you have your hot glue test fit dried, try placing the magazine in and seeing if it is in line with the flywheels and the pusher doesn’t get stuck on anything, try firing a few darts and see if it works as well. If your mag doesn’t fit in and it isn’t because you have messed up and cut the shells too far in, the try shaving down the mag guiding points on the inside, but not too much or your mag won’t be straight and the darts will fishtail away and nobody wants that do they? If it works fine, either layer up the glop or use epoxy, that is the hard part done!

If you like your stryfe the way it is then you are finished, but if you want to add a snazzy barrel to the front for maximum tacticoolness then follow along.

You can choose what part of the barrel you want, or what length you want here, but this guide only shows you what’s on the tin. I am going to use the front half of the barrel (the bit with two long lines and not four short ones). The first marking was pretty simple, I just went across to the end of the fat bit on the rail (picture 2) and drew a line downwards, it is pretty self explanatory. I would recommend checking measurements and holding up the shell pieces again to make sure they are straight. Then repeat this line onto the other side making sure it stays straight.

The next part to cut off is the bit that houses the orange attachment section, I started off by just tracing round the join (picture 3) and then I placed the barrel behind the front of the stryfe and traced a line. This is because the front of the stryfe slopes up and I wanted the barrel to interface properly and not have a gap in between the barrel and the stryfe (picture 4). I then copied this to the other side and cut it and filed it. It fitted perfectly so I found an inner barrel to go through the middle (make sure you have a long enough one to go all the way to the end) and placed it in the front of the flywheel cage to help me align it properly. I then made sure that the seam where the shells open was a continuous line between the stryfe and barrel so that it wasn’t rotated to the side.

When everything looked good, I glued it in place, I found that wetting your finger and then moulding the glue made a nice and smooth finish. You can use epoxy here if you want to as well.

We are almost done on the shell work now! I used a worker smooth suppressor but found it looked too long, so I measured the length of the retaliator barrel, and added a centimetre and that was the length for me. So I cut the remaining bit out the middle (I wanted the threads still on and a smoot front cap) and glued the smooth front cap on the front.

For the flash hider, I wanted it sunken into the retaliator barrel so it looked like the suppressor was part of it and left no gap. To do this, I cut out a chunk of insides for it to fit, because originally, those insides were used to support the barrel but I needed more space for the flash hider so I cut them away just enough so the threads started where the handguard ended (picture 1).

Finally, I pressed the flash hider onto the barrel tightly and glued the barrel into the flywheel cage so it didn’t spin around with the flash hider when I tried to thread on the suppressor.

The extras bit is small but we will start off with cutting the jam door to size. All I did was put it behind the blaster with the pin/pivot where it is supposed to beans drew a line across and cut it out (picture 1).

Next, I added an extended mag release from worker.

Because I didn’t have any way of locking the mags in properly with the indent in the magazine that worker uses, I just used the stock mag catch and cut a hole in the magazines so that they would lock in with the stock release. (Picture 2)
You can do this by taking the shell apart, inserting the mag and drawing on lines where the mag catch sticks out, then just cut the hole and file it wider until it works flawlessly.

And that’s it on the body work, now you can do your own paint job or stay tuned for mine.

It’s painting time! If you are wondering, I got my hydro dip materials from Hydromonkeys and my base coat and clear coat (plasticote company) from hobbycraft. I tested that the paint worked first on a piece of off-cut plastic from earlier.

I would recommend sanding from 100 grit, 240, 320 and then 400 but I didn’t want to spend a precious 20 quid on sandpaper so I just bought 320 and went over it a lot of times which worked as well. For sandpaper, I would definitely recommend the wet and dry sandpaper from screwfix, it was £4.99 for 10 A4 sanding sheets and I only used one for this project! Great value for money. Anyway, after I sanded it decently and so no areas felt smooth and the existing stripes were worn (for more info on sanding just google it or look on YouTube, there are tonnes of detailed guides there). Then I gave it a rinse and thoroughly dried it and checked again for any smooth spots, there weren’t any, which is good.

Then I masked off the areas I didn’t want to get painted, for this I would definitely recommend watching FoamDataServices’ video on masking it was very detailed and helped me get very defined lines. I used frog tape for the big patches and STUK professional tape for the details and edges. You can see this in picture 1. I did this to both sides and then prepped for the next part.

Before you take on this part, you should watch a few videos on dipping nerf parts, again I would recommend watching FoamDataServices’ video about it and because this part of the guide is long and boring, you should definitely refer to the guide/link for your prep and dip.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/britnerf/hydro-dipping-an-idiot-s-guide-t3502.html

It is a very detailed guide and gave me good results, the only thing that I would change is when you have dipped it through the film, it says to wait a minute, I found this gave me holes and spotty results, so on my second try, I dipped in the shell, pulled the debris off the top of the water, took it out slowly and set it down on a tarpaulin on my garage to dry. However, this may be different if you don’t use the same film as me.

Also, I need to add that I taped off a stripe after the green base coat dried and then dipped.

Once you pull off the tape, you should start to see it come into action!

It was a long and tedious process but if you have made it to here with no problems the give tourself a pat on the back and admire your work. If you have any questions or recommendations please leave a comment.

Thank you for using my guide, have a good day!