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Blue Alpha Trooper!
Honestly, I never got the obsession with the Alpha Trooper. It's a solid blaster, but I always preferred the Raider myself. Therefore I wasn't super excited about the release of the Elite Alpha Trooper (EAT) as I already had a few Rampages to call my own. I am however apparently in the minority on this front so I grabbed an EAT to see what we could do with it. Today we'll run through a basic air restrictor (AR) removal and replace the spring. Specifically we'll be using a Black Tactical V2 spring which is quite a bit shorter than the stock spring, which means we'll also need to do a few lock removals as supporting mods as well.
_________________________________________________________________________
Tools/consumables needed
Phillips head screwdrivers
Drill and 6mm bit
A long, round hand file
BTV2 Spring
Stronger catch spring
Small flat hand file/Dremel with cutting disc/small modelling saw
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The less than amazing Australian spec grey trigger version. Conveniently, we'll be replacing the de-tuned spring with our new BTV2 anyway.
Start by removing the end cap. It's held on with two screws that are thicker than those in the rest of the blaster.
Then the priming grip.
Then the rest of the screws in the shell.
The two on the top here are thinner than than the rest.
The two on the tactical rail are the same thickness as the standard screw, only shorter.
And this one in front of the clip well. Same thickness, just shorter.
Hooray! The inside of the blaster.
As always, take a minute or two to have a good look around the internals and try to get an understanding of how each part works.
Ok then, on with the dis-assembly. Remove the jam door and the top shroud.
Then this screw holding the dart tooth in.
So we can remove the dart tooth.
Then we can remove the whole breech assembly.
Separate the breech and the plunger.
Looking down the back of the breech we should find an AR.
Knock that out with a drill.
Normally I'd recommend separating the breech from the sled but in this case I just could not get the locator pin free. It's not particularly bad if you don't, you just have to be more careful when drilling through that it doesn't grab and break the mounting point between the breech and the sled.
Once that's done, clean it up with a hand file.
Then reassemble.
Here's the new beefier spring on the bottom compared to the stock spring on the top. See the difference in length? This causes us some problems.
So, lets get back to the shell.
Remove the trigger bar. It's held in by one screw.
These two locks are the problem.
Remove both of those.
Then replace the trigger bar.
If you're keen you could remove the spring, grind/cut off the front nub, and glue the bar in it's forward position. This would provide added reliability in that when it you pull the trigger, it would fire; but it would also mean the blaster could fire with the breech only half closed, which would cause jams. Provided you're consistent with your priming, and your trigger discipline, you will get improved reliability from your blaster.
Next up is the clip release lock. We need to grind/cut/file this lip off.
Like so.
Doing this allows us to depress the clip release button, even when the blaster is primed. This is again necessary due to the shorter main spring.
See.
Then reassemble.
One last mod is a stronger catch spring. The new main spring puts a lot more strain on the catch and we need to improve that.
This spring in particular is one I grabbed from bunnings forever ago to use in a Longshot catch. I have no idea what the product number was unfortunately but it came in a pack of three and has a diameter of 9.35mm and an uncompressed length of 17.75mm.
Here it is compared to the stock spring.
Due to the increased diameter I did have to cut away some of the inside of the shell here, but I'm sure you'll figure out your own requirements based on your chosen spring pretty easily.
From here, reassemble and we're done. My camera died right at this point so there's no photos of said reassembly, but I'm sure you can work it out.
Honestly, I never got the obsession with the Alpha Trooper. It's a solid blaster, but I always preferred the Raider myself. Therefore I wasn't super excited about the release of the Elite Alpha Trooper (EAT) as I already had a few Rampages to call my own. I am however apparently in the minority on this front so I grabbed an EAT to see what we could do with it. Today we'll run through a basic air restrictor (AR) removal and replace the spring. Specifically we'll be using a Black Tactical V2 spring which is quite a bit shorter than the stock spring, which means we'll also need to do a few lock removals as supporting mods as well.
_________________________________________________________________________
Tools/consumables needed
Phillips head screwdrivers
Drill and 6mm bit
A long, round hand file
BTV2 Spring
Stronger catch spring
Small flat hand file/Dremel with cutting disc/small modelling saw
_________________________________________________________________________
The less than amazing Australian spec grey trigger version. Conveniently, we'll be replacing the de-tuned spring with our new BTV2 anyway.
Start by removing the end cap. It's held on with two screws that are thicker than those in the rest of the blaster.
Then the priming grip.
Then the rest of the screws in the shell.
The two on the top here are thinner than than the rest.
The two on the tactical rail are the same thickness as the standard screw, only shorter.
And this one in front of the clip well. Same thickness, just shorter.
Hooray! The inside of the blaster.
As always, take a minute or two to have a good look around the internals and try to get an understanding of how each part works.
Ok then, on with the dis-assembly. Remove the jam door and the top shroud.
Then this screw holding the dart tooth in.
So we can remove the dart tooth.
Then we can remove the whole breech assembly.
Separate the breech and the plunger.
Looking down the back of the breech we should find an AR.
Knock that out with a drill.
Normally I'd recommend separating the breech from the sled but in this case I just could not get the locator pin free. It's not particularly bad if you don't, you just have to be more careful when drilling through that it doesn't grab and break the mounting point between the breech and the sled.
Once that's done, clean it up with a hand file.
Then reassemble.
Here's the new beefier spring on the bottom compared to the stock spring on the top. See the difference in length? This causes us some problems.
So, lets get back to the shell.
Remove the trigger bar. It's held in by one screw.
These two locks are the problem.
Remove both of those.
Then replace the trigger bar.
If you're keen you could remove the spring, grind/cut off the front nub, and glue the bar in it's forward position. This would provide added reliability in that when it you pull the trigger, it would fire; but it would also mean the blaster could fire with the breech only half closed, which would cause jams. Provided you're consistent with your priming, and your trigger discipline, you will get improved reliability from your blaster.
Next up is the clip release lock. We need to grind/cut/file this lip off.
Like so.
Doing this allows us to depress the clip release button, even when the blaster is primed. This is again necessary due to the shorter main spring.
See.
Then reassemble.
One last mod is a stronger catch spring. The new main spring puts a lot more strain on the catch and we need to improve that.
This spring in particular is one I grabbed from bunnings forever ago to use in a Longshot catch. I have no idea what the product number was unfortunately but it came in a pack of three and has a diameter of 9.35mm and an uncompressed length of 17.75mm.
Here it is compared to the stock spring.
Due to the increased diameter I did have to cut away some of the inside of the shell here, but I'm sure you'll figure out your own requirements based on your chosen spring pretty easily.
From here, reassemble and we're done. My camera died right at this point so there's no photos of said reassembly, but I'm sure you can work it out.
