Write-Up: Nerf Alpha Trooper General Modifications

Hey guys. It seems that there are no write-ups on the actual Alpha Trooper. The Alpha Trooper itself is an extremely easy to mod blaster as the air restrictors dont' seem to be glue in and can be knocked out VERY EASILY with a flat head screw driver. I will be showing you how to get started.

Materials:

- Flat Head Screw Drver
- Hammer
- Phillip's Headscrewdriver
- H4000 Food Grade Silicone Spray (purchase from Mitre 10 OR most dollar stores)
- Fix-A-Tap / HydroSeal Tap Grease (purchased from bunnings)

Step 1: Opening Up the Blaster

Opening up the blaster will require a small phillip’s head screwdriver. Make sure you get all the screws out before you try to pry it open.









Internal Pictures



Step 2: Spring Replacement

The spring I’ve used can be purchased from OzNerfNerd. Please support Australian Made products and don’t buy your crap from Orange Mod Works, they both produce the same results. http://stores.ebay.com.au/oznerfnerd?_rdc=1



You will need to dremel some of the blaster’s shell before you uses the spring if you want more ‘smoother’ priming. I took this picture from SgNerf as I had forgotten to take pictures from this step. The owner of this picture has the right to ask me to remove this picture.



I know it’s a picture of a Raider, however the Alpha Trooper, Recon and Raider has these here to prevent using bigger springs, but this can be easily modified

Step 3: Removing the Pin to get to the Barrel

Use a small screw driver or nail to tap out the pin that holds the boltsled to the barrel with a hammer.





Step 4: Air Restrictor Removal

Removing the Air Restrictor from the Alpha Trooper is the easiest process by far out of the all reverse plunger systems I have come across.





You will need the following tools displayed below, (Flat Head Screwdriver and Hammer).



If you look carefully the restrictors are held by ‘small prongs’; all you need to do tap it out using a flat head screw driver. Make sure your screw driver is long enough. As you can see below, the AR’s are removed cleanly.




Air Restrictor Remains



Step 5: Reverse Plunger Reinforcement

Many people think, “oh my god, I can purchase OMW aluminium plunger parts and my Alpha Trooper will last forever!”; However, you don’t need to spend $20 on something that can be fixed for less than 50cents. Here is what you do... Sand down the back of the reverse plunger. Make sure you clean off ALL the grease in your plunger before doing the following step.



Use 3day Araldite (for the strongest bond) epoxy and paste a generous amount on the back.



Place a 10cent coin carefully, making sure it’s CENTRED, so that when you prime it won’t get stuck obviously.



Now, grab some plunger padding (rubber tyre bladder or buffers purchased from oznerfnerd) and place epoxy on it as well and slide it down the plunger. http://stores.ebay.com.au/oznerfnerd?_rdc=1 - you can purchase buffers from oznerfnerd here.





This will give you a reinforced plunger as you basically have given extra layers to your plunger. This will ensure that your plunger will NOT break when using it. You don’t need all that ‘aluminium crap’ when you can do this for a very small fraction of the price. Please note, this method has been done by Sairex as a trial run and he has accidentally dry fired his AT approximately 100 times during times he ran out of ammo and didn’t notice and has not left a single crack or damaged mark on his plunger. It still shoots well =).

Step 6: Cutting the black attachment stock bit to fit the reinforcement

As thickening the plunger with the 10coin increases the length of your plunger slightly, your blaster may not be able to prime as the plunger won’t be able to go all the way back. I’ve marked where you need to cut it, once again I have forgotten the before and after picture.



Step 7: Deadspace Reduction

This is basically to increase the ‘air flow’ to your dart. You can use a macca’s straw to do this, make sure your straw isn’t TOO small or else you will limit too much air. Here I used a 12mm aluminium tube wrapped with e-tape to reduce the dead space.



Step 8: Air Hole in Barrel Plugged

Most N-strike blasters will come with this ‘hole’ to decrease the amount of power delivered to the dart. You can fix this by wrapping ONE layer of electrical tape. I forgot to take a picture of a plugged barrel, but you get the gist of it.



Step 9: Lubrication

After doing all those steps, you will need to regrease / relubricate your plunger. You will need the following lubricants.



Apply Hydroseal tap grease / fix-a-tap grease on the o-ring AND inside the plunger.



After applying the tap grease, spray the o-ring and INSIDE the plunger with the H4000 Food Grade Silicone Spray



Step 10: Removing the Boltsled and Prime lock Locks.

I removed these so that the blaster had smoother firing. Please note, if you do remove these locks you will need to place your hand on the
priming handle FORWARD in order to fire your blaster.



Remove that lock by taking it out with a screwdriver.



FINISHED!
There you have it, an Alpha Trooper that has a decent range and ROF to compete against all degrees of blasters. PLEASE NOTE: The strategy used for this blaster is for RUSHING by POPPING OFF SHOTS at your enemies. Standing from afar and trying to aim is not using this blaster at is maximum potential =).

Average STOCK Ranges
PTG: 25ft
ATG: 35ft
Average IMPROVED Ranges
PTG: 50ft
ATG: 65ft

Very nice mod Lilbro, looking good.

Nice work littlebro

excellent writeup. might have to try the straw thing see if it makes a difference =D.

and yeah, i have a tendency to get overzealous with my AT. so yeah at wars, lots of dry fires, but no cracks or wear and tear yet =D

lol lilbro watch out, Luke told us a long time ago it's illegal to deface Australian currency.

Expect the cops soon

--------------------------------

I did this mod, well except the spring part, and I can say this gun is amazing. Though mine vaccuum loads, and that's had disastrous consequences.

How thick can you have the padding and is the con necessary?

-James

Wow,

Thanks for the rap littlebro!

May I point out a few things about the reverse plunger kit:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/280728477914?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649

It comes with 2 satchels of teflon based grease which is ideal for Nerf blasters, so you shouldn't need any other lube.

The buffer pad supplied is the thinner type, as the thicker one's cause jamming issues in reverse blasters.

You shouldn't need to glue it in, but for it to stick properly inside the plunger tube you need to clean the inside base of the plunger tube with some metho to remove the grease.

This can be done by dipping a wad of kitchen paper/tissue/whatever in metho and pushing it inside the plunger with a screwdriver and twisting it around (be careful not to scratch the plunger tube).

Then sit the pad on the end of the plunger and push it all the way into the base of the plunger tube.

Please remember to stick it inside the tube, not on the plunger itself.

Then you can use about 1 and 3/4 of the lube satchels on the plunger and inside the plunger tube. Save a little bit for latches, moving parts, etc.

Mate, I wouldn't bother with gluing the coin on the back.

That's more of a Recon thing, the AT isn't known for that problem.

You shouldn't need to dremel out the tail stock as well, although some times the plastic molding can vary.

One tip is that the spring is just slightly tighter at one end than the other. Slip the looser end over the plunger and leave the tighter end in the tailstock. Not critical, but it can help a little.

The AT is an excellent choice of all the reverse plunger blasters.

It is by far my choice out of all the reverse plungers, and excellent value to buy at Target.

Thank you for buying Australian and recommending our product!

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

the coin and the epoxy adds additional strength. while 3mm or so of padding adds some force dampening, without the coin the padding maybe sufficient enough for a 6kg spring but the plastic will definitely start to wear, even minimally. better to be safe than sorry =D

also i doubt the AFP will be busting down your door over 10c

2120 wrote:I did this mod, well except the spring part, and I can say this gun is amazing. Though mine vaccuum loads, and that's had disastrous consequences.

Hey SS you listening to this?

1: Follow LBs writeup.
2: Instead of straw, use 2 inches of PETG or whatever fits
3: Darts vac load into PETG
3½: ????
4: You have now created the reverse-reverse breechplong!

Fortunately I happen to have a spare 2" of PETG, now all I need is an alpha trooper that vacuum loads.

Good writeup LB. Gets me thinking.

Believe it or not OzNerfNerd. There have been reports of ATs' plungers breaking after AR removal. It's still very thin and light plastic. Even with padding.

The 10 cent coin with 3 day epoxy gives it extra strength as it kind of becomes the 'extra' layer of plastic. I would do it to ALL reverse plungers. Better safe than sorry right?

I know that you can just slide those buffers down but I wanted MORE strength. Like no joke, the more strength you can get out of the plunger, the less you're needy you need to spend extra $20+ on aluminium parts. It's kind so that you're adding extra layers of extra. The padding to 'decrease the force' delievered to the plunger, but at the same time the epoxy in the padding helps with strengthening the plunger.

We all know they're all prone to breaking haha.

@2120 haha, because I put the 10coin on there = therefore less breakage = less purchase = AUD goes down?

Yeah, the reason I concur with lilbro is because I've had to do the 10 cent mod out of necessity, i.e. the back of my plunger tube fell off after a stupid case of dryfiring.

It might not be needed, and my mate argued it could decrease range due to a heavier weight, but I think that's negligible. I don't use a plunger padding though, that could've been the case.

littlebro05 wrote:Believe it or not OzNerfNerd. There have been reports of ATs' plungers breaking after AR removal. It's still very thin and light plastic. Even with padding.

The 10 cent coin with 3 day epoxy gives it extra strength as it kind of becomes the 'extra' layer of plastic. I would do it to ALL reverse plungers. Better safe than sorry right?

I know that you can just slide those buffers down but I wanted MORE strength. Like no joke, the more strength you can get out of the plunger, the less you're needy you need to spend extra $20+ on aluminium parts. It's kind so that you're adding extra layers of extra. The padding to 'decrease the force' delievered to the plunger, but at the same time the epoxy in the padding helps with strengthening the plunger.

We all know they're all prone to breaking haha.

@2120 haha, because I put the 10coin on there = therefore less breakage = less purchase = AUD goes down?

Well each to their own.

Certainly there's no harm to come from it, and too much is better than too little.

I've got 5 of them and had no problem, but we are careful to minimize dry firing.

The other thing with Nerf plastics is that you certainly see bad batches come through, and I don't doubt that there have been batches of brittle tubes time to time.

That is very true oznerfnerd. Since it's so mass produced there's always bound to be ONE weak plunger. Well. Taking 'care' of not dry firing is pretty hard when you're in the moment of slam firing to push your opponents back, it's bound to happen when you run out of ammo.

I'd like to see it as if you can be rough on your blasters, and it survives, means that you've reinforced it enough. Especially if you have a younger player who will treat it rough unintentionally, you'll want to know it can survive in all conditions.

@2120 yeah that '10cent coin' could reduce range, but I don't think it's too noticable. Yet again, debatable though.

Personally, I'd be inclined to use an appropriate-sized washer in place of a 10c coin. You can get more epoxy on the tube this way, allowing for better adhesion. It probably decreases the weight as well, and you don't have to worry about the AFP rocking up...

Cheers,

clunk07 wrote:Personally, I'd be inclined to use an appropriate-sized washer in place of a 10c coin. You can get more epoxy on the tube this way, allowing for better adhesion. It probably decreases the weight as well, and you don't have to worry about the AFP rocking up...

Cheers,

That would be one wierd conversation with the AFP...

I AR'd my girl's AT today. When I was done I noticed an extra piece:



Yeah, anyone here that's seen the inside of a CS gun, you uh, you know what that is. That's the bit that stops darts going wherever they damn well please and channels them to the reciever. I could've sworn it was pretty important.
Fortunately, someone in times gone by issued a decree, whereupon, 'The AT is like the AK47 of nerf', and henceforth alpha troopers everywhere have known unparalleled reliability.



That was 2 rounds of single shot, 4 slamfire. It's completely reliable, just as they all are (without the locks)

Isn't that the AR peg? That or the little piece around the sled that keeps the darts in line with the barrel

Hi in my AT i removed the AR but theres like this piece floating around in the tube still

hey man i dont mean any 'attitude' but why are you so down on orange mod works if you said the are just as good? im only ordering the pistol springs and massacre kits?...
Ps I still dont understand the ten cent coin part?

The coin is to strengthen the back plate of the plunger as when the spring is upgraded it puts extra strain on it, and can literally pop off the back.

I'm not a big fan of Orange ModWorks (they're springs might be good) because from all the Brissie guys who have bought their aluminium kits, they're plungers have all been broken.

It's no wonder why it's so cheap. The parts are poorly made. I'm now awaiting a broken polycarb plunger. If there isn't any reports, then I may think OMW actually has up their game this time around.