V2 FireFly, A New Take on the Firestorm

V2 FireFly
A New Take on the Firestorm
Project by Bazookafied and Sundawg

After half a year of wondering what the heck to do about a new Firestorm Design, I had a nice chat with Sundawg that gave some promising ideas. If there was one shell out there that could easily take in a Firestorm Lens while ensuring it's accuracy by providing it with a reliable mounting point, we'd be set. After looking at the CS-6 Longshot and Recon, we started talking about other Nerf weapons. The Firefly Rev-8 came up. I had not considered this weapon for laser tag yet since it had a revolving chamber in the front that would be useless for laser tag. However, the area the revolving chamber seemed large enough to fit a Firestorm lens. Sundawg and I went to the store to check it out and after taking a Firefly home and gutting it, we found it almost perfectly set up to use a Firestorm lens with little to no modification.

The Firefly is already designed with a 2 AA battery pack plus a trigger sensor and has plenty of room to mount that massive Firestorm lens we all know and fear. This project should be relatively simple and will ensure the Firestorm lens will retain it's deadly accuracy while providing a smaller, more compact, and attractive housing for it.

This weapon is intended to serve as the infamous FirestormCamo's main weapon for Season 4 and is slated for a fully functional test run for the March 14th game to be tested in combat. Images of the V2 FireFly will be posted once internals start getting mounted.

Slated features of the FireFly are as follows:

* Firestorm Lens ( +1000 ft Range)
* Radar Extreme Internals (Max Blast and 25-round mag)
* Red Dot Scope
* Pullback reload feature
* Optional Equipment mounts
* Pressure sensitive trigger
* Discrete Fire Indicator
* Toggle Sounds

I plan to have all of this at least in working order for the March 14th Game. It may not be painted at that point yet. Paint will be applied after I know if FirestormCamo wants to use it or not. If he decides to adopt it, he'll have a say in it's coloration. If he isn't committed to it, this unit will probably have a paint scheme similar to my Scope Rifle.

Progress Pictures!

This morning I did some work on the FireFly with parts fitting for the massive V2 Firestorm Lens. I'm trying to figure out a good way to mount the lens in there accurately. I've had some success, but haven't officially mounted anything. I also took images of the parts that are kept from the original FireFly Rev-8 pieces. The trigger assembly, pullback reload, power supply, and on/off switch are still intact and will be used on the V2 FireFly.


FireFly opened up with all the non-essential parts removed


The pressure contact trigger


Nice AA Battery housing (complete with a door too!)


V2 Firestorm Lens


Possible mount for the lens


Possible placement of the lens


All closed up with the lens in there. (Still unmounted)

by pullback reload do you mean like lever I have to pull to reload? I'm not sure I'm crazy about that... but w/e maybe it will work i have no idea.

That could easily be changed for ya. Put a Reload button somewhere near your hands. I suppose now that I think about it, doing a pullback reload might be a little noisy for you. I know my manual reload hasn't always been "helpful" in those tight situations where you don't want to be discovered but you want a fresh magazine to work with.

Where would you want a reload button if I were to install one?

What do you think of the design overall so far?

If you could put a button close enough to the trigger that I can hit it with the same hand as my trigger, without moving.my hand. The design looks good. Thanks mike

I'll try my best to scout a good location for it tonight. I'm parts-fitting for installing the internals.

Just as a heads up, the internals (although it's being called the V2 FireFly) are NOT V2. I'm using Radar Extreme internals since they're easier to deal with and have the same features as V2.

Good News, Mikey. The battery system for this has a door on the outside so, unlike all my previous weapons I've built, you won't have to open this thing up just to get to the batteries. It'll run off two AA's that can be accessed via a door on the Right side of the weapon.

Did some internals parts fitting and setting. Also did work on the mount for the massive Firestorm Lens arrangement with much disaster and success. I'll save you the "disaster" images and just show what's actually going into this thing.

Shot of the mounted board, on-off switch, Fire Indicator, Speaker, Trigger, and Batteries. Reload and Max Blast have yet to be set so far.



Shot of the final lens arrangement mount I've decided to use. Sits a bit lower in the gun than I had originally intended, but it actually works better as far as firring in there and having a good sturdy mount point this way.



With the progress made on this guy, the basic assembly and construction will be complete by Monday, giving me plenty of time to range test it and check the design for bugs and flaws. I need to do additional fitting for the lens arrangement to ensure that it's an accurate mount.

I also did some sanding work on the exterior in anticipation of painting this thing. I've sanded off much of the warning texts and logos of NERF on there too. On the "Firefly Rev-8" logo, I only sanded off the "Rev-8" part, so the weapon will retain the FireFly name on there. I'm thinking of keeping the N-Strike shields on there too, just because I think those look cool. The big Nerf logo's near the barrel are definetly coming off though.

Here are the planned specs for the FireFly as I near completion of it. If they're highlighted in green, they're complete. If they're highlighted in yellow, I'm still working on them. If they're highlighted in Red, I haven't gotten to it at all yet.

* V2 Firestorm Lens
* Pressure contact Trigger
* Toggle Sounds
* Radar Extreme Internals
* Firing position Reload
* Pullback activation for Max Blast
* Sand off Logos/text
* Weaver Rail Mounting System
* Red Dot Scope
* Paint

Got some more done today.

http://sundawgz31.ath.cx:8080/recon/IMG_0142.jpg

Don't worry, the toy Nerf Scope won't actually be used. We just used it to see what a scope on the gun would look like. Changes the look a LOT.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b107/Kat...ed/IMG_0140.jpg

Here's that checklist updated:


* V2 Firestorm Lens
* Pressure contact Trigger
* Toggle Sounds
* Radar Extreme Internals
* Firing position Reload
* Pullback activation for Max Blast
* Sand off Logos/text
* Weaver Rail Mounting System
* Red Dot Scope
* Paint

She's basically ready for a test run at this stage.

damn thats a nice gun

Hopefully she looks a little better with some FirestormCamo

I had always promised Mikey that I'd put camo on his Firestorms he went through, but never did. Well, here we go!

Combat Test Report
Tested on March 14th, 2009

Post game reports from FirestormCamo revealed that the V2 FireFly's optics and lens have been properly aligned and continue to give him the impressive range that the Firestorm is known for. The Red/Green dot scope worked out nicely for him during the game and no problems were observed during it's 3 game combat experience.

With a dullcoat down on it to protect it's paintjob, the weapon now completely in FC's hands, and nothing else planned for this tagger, I believe it's safe to say that this project is complete. Here are it's final production statistics:

* V2 Firestorm Lens (+1000 ft range)
* 25 round clip
* Pressure contact Trigger
* Toggle Sounds
* Radar Extreme Internals
* Firing position Reload
* Pullback activation for Max Blast
* Weaver Rail Mounting System
* Red/Green Dot Scope
* FirestormCamo Paint

Status: Complete

Opened this topic up again since a major revamp of the FireFly's targetting is underway.

Here you can see the riddled top-half of the FireFly's rail mount. This will be getting redone and have a new weaver rail system installed that should also be sturdier than the previous setup.

New Scope nearly complete!

Well, plans to mount the red dot on the battered rail of the V2 Firefly have fallen through... literally.

My mistake with building the V2 Firefly's rail was A: doing it too quickly and B: building it for a specific scope. Because of these factors, reworking the V2 Firefly's scope rail has been pretty horrendus.

As such, my solution to the problem (which may only be temporary) is to fix the Nerf Pinpoint Sight on it. I'm painting it as we speak so it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb. Test fittings on the Firefly were flawless and while I don't expect this red dot to be the best, it should at least work/act as a decent aiming device for FirestormCamo on the game on November 14th.

It's also set up for a touch-up of it's battered paintjob. FirestormCamo's personal weapon should be looking pretty slick for the game. Adding some little details to help it "pop" too... plus I might have something else in store for it

V2 Firefly with Nerf Pinpoint Sight mounted, ready for a combat test.