"Spartacus", my first Stampede modification
Posted: 09/11/2024
Transcribed and edited from the reddit post I made on this on /r/Nerf.
After a few months of checking out Facebook Marketplace I've ended up with a couple Stampedes. I knew about the reputation of these blasters but I thought that I could give it a crack since I feel a lot more comfortable with soldering and now have the tools and patience to get things going.
"The right hand of the foam world..."
This Stampede - which I have named Spartacus - has a 7kg Retaliator spring, a padded plunger tube, strengthened 3rd gear (although not a strengthened plunger...), an upgraded catch spring, a doubled up catch release spring, and has been through two rewires. The first time I followed Mortality's single switch setup, but I had problems with the bolt return not being pushed back on an incomplete cycle (at one point the breech cracked from magazines being forcefully taken in and out of it), so I then took everything out and replaced it with TyrXIII's switch setup. I wasn't able to eliminate runaway on a 3s LiPO using the setup until I doubled up the catch release spring; it looked like it was getting stuck back so the cycle control switch wasn't ever activated. After reassembly it worked quite well, but now a few weeks later I have since been getting runaway issues which take a few cycles to fix itself. I suspect it's because the lubricant I'm using is drying up, which is causing the plunger rod to not return properly.
Firing demo. You can even hear the beginnings of a runaway issue here.
The next thing I did was to reshape the Stampede in the style of the Spartan NCS-12 (you may be able to make a connection with that name) from the N-Strike Wii game, removing the carry handle with a dremel (I hate the smell of melted plastic... I should wear a mask next time I do this sort of shell cutting). I also hot glued in a little N-Strike rail to put a red dot sight on top. I believe the rail comes from the side of an old Recon MK.II and attachments fit quite tight on it for an N-Strike rail, which is nice. It has since come off, so I'm going to try and design a 3d printed solution and superglue it on.
I also managed to keep the on-off "safety" switch on the other side of the shell with a few bullet connectors, so although the circuit still covers both sides of the shell, taking apart the blaster is as simple as taking the switch out of the circuit with the connectors. In addition, it makes dealing with runaway issues on the fly much easier.
The next steps for this blaster are to (1) fix the runaway issue, (2) create the top rail, and (3) potentially give it a paint job; I'm thinking in white or in Elite blue. I also have access to some brass tubing, which makes me think of potentially doing a brass breech for a Stampede sometime; I still have one more Stampede, so...
What I had in mind...