The slowest Pulse Rifle WIP ever! (pic heavy)

Xhiwar

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi there!

I thought I‘d post this here too.
So about 15 years ago, I decided I wanted to build a Pulse Rifle. After much research, I knew I wanted a full metal replica as close to a real steel as possible (but without the hassle of real steel). So airsoft it was. Took me a few years to source the SPAS cage and stuff, and even though I came pretty close to finishing my first build (see the only existing image here), there always was something I wanted to do differently: exchanging the Maruzen, metal shrouds, moving bolt, etc.

So here we are, 15 years later, and I believe I finally have the parts to finish this baby.
First of all, I need a grip to hold the whole thing. Here are pics of my modified real Thompson wood grip WIP:


Sanding of the sides done, reshaping partially done:
gripsanded.jpg


With the “lines” filed into the grip. I’ll have to throw away the file, because the angle is now crooked (due to the nails I used as a guide for straight lines…)
gripfiled.jpg


OK, now to the reason I’m excited about this WIP thread: I got a WE Thompson M1A1 GBBR airsoft gun and upgraded it with a steel kit (which was way too expensive…):
lower.jpg


The whole Thompson is now full steel externally, and most of the internals too! It iis reeeally heavy already!
It can use real grips, so that’s why I used a real wooden Thompson grip (although I had to re-tap the threading as the angle was way off).

I couldn’t help it and had to make a video (you can really tell the weight of the steel bolt):


So, here’s a shot of the parts I have next to me right now, I should be getting new parts in the next few weeks and still have other parts in the basement that I will be working on, amongst them the HCG aluminum shrouds.
thompsonspas.jpg


Stay tuned, I might even finish this thing within the next 10 years!
icon_biggrin.gif


Cheers!
Roman
 
I dont know what internals you are using but.....on my live fire PR, racking the bolt was a chore because the shrouds made it difficult to pull back the bolt. IE hard to get a good grip on the bold handle. Thompson/Kahr sells a soft spring kit and extended bolt handle. Easy peasy now.
 
Good things comes to those who wait...er, 15 years:eek::eek::eek: No prob, it's going to look very nice when finished! Eager to see your next update;)
 
Good things comes to those who wait...er, 15 years:eek::eek::eek: No prob, it's going to look very nice when finished! Eager to see your next update;)

Well, it took quite a while to source all the parts (most importantly the SPAS parts), and then I was constantöy swapping parts and improving it. But yes, no alternative to make a moving bolt caused me to shelf this for quite a while. Bit now it‘s back on! :cool:

Staying with the all-steel theme, I was able to get an airsoft Dominator. Full steel! Check out my video here: (Dominator DM870 on top, APS CAM870 at the bottom)

Cheers!
Roman
 
Alright, I got some parts out of storage:

92F113D8-B6D7-4F9F-8FCF-3AD544F08DF4.jpeg

The stock is a very tight fit over the upper receiver. I‘ll need to bend the sides outward a little bit, but haven‘t had any luck (I tried hammering a wooden wedge between the sides and left it in there a few days, but I think the wood was too soft). Any ideas?

Cheers!
Roman
 
If I see it the right way the material of the stock is about 2mm thick and its made from steel.

That will need a lot of power to widen it. How much must it be widened?
I think it would be much easier to mill it out from the inside.
 
Hah, time for a necro post, that's great!
I actually have been up to a lot, I prepared my mag bottoms (there's a thread on the Aliens Legacy forums), and also, I was able to widen the stock through the wonders of technology unheard of: A set of "reverse pliers" I found on eBay. I managed to comfortably widen the stock at the problematic place, so now it fits like a glove.
IMG_2320.jpg


But there's been alot of progress with most parts, I'm just very bad at documenting it the rare times I actually can work on the rifle.
But stay tuned for updates, I'm making progress here! ;-)

Cheers!
Roman
 
pretty col stuff!
any idea where you got those steel stock and front piece?
cheers
 
Yes, I‘ve had them custom machined based on the plans by Bug Stomper. I think you can find them on the Aliens Legacy Forum somewhere. The parts are made from 40mm x 40mm x 3mm steel square tube.

Cheers!
Roman
 
Last edited:
Alright, time to update this (once every few years). :)

IMG_4016.jpg

It has been difficult and I had a huuuge lot of help from Stefan (Bug Stomper), but I was finally able to have all the steel parts bent, welded and blued. The NG steel kit (M1A1) seems to be parkerized instead of blued, but I‘ve grown a bit fond of it, so it‘ll stay that way. I was reluctant to let the SPAS cage out of my hands, so I painted it myself with matte black paint for ovens (high-temp paint) and put the whole thing in my baking oven at 280 degrees Celsius for an hour to „bake“ the paint. The paint is very tough, but we‘ll see what racking the pump a few thousand times will do to it. :)

I had to redo the front block as the mag tube of the Dominator airsoft 870 seems to sit a few millimeters higher than on the real thing. I should get the replacement by the end of January.

Next step: modifying the HCG aluminum shrouds. They don‘t really fit yet at all, seems the SPAS cage on the HCG sat a bit higher, and I‘ll need to make room for the stock and the plate holding it to the Thompson. Also, I had to enlarge the opening for the barrel/barrel vent in the front. Will update again at some point in the future. :cool:

Cheers!
Roman
 
Hi there!

As a matter of fact, I just ordered one of the last parts I need to finally finish this build. More specifically, once the part gets here, I can finally paint the shrouds etc. The only thing that will then remain (besides some mods to the front block) will be installing the ammo counter. Everything is wired up, but I'll only be able to give it a test run once I glue in the counter, which requires painting the shrouds first.

As for the stock: I actually planned on using a small metal plate screwed onto the top of the Thompson (using the holes where the Thompson sight was attached) to hold the stock to the gun. You can see the plate in the pic a few posts up (from December 2022), this was how the stock was held on on the original "prototype" Pulse Rifle.
However, this would have required me to mill out additional space in my HCG shrouds. The shrouds themselves had been milled out by Matsuo so that the Thompson with the stock will fit exactly, but not the additional plate (nor any screw heads). But since the shrouds themselves are aluminum, I figured that the shrouds will hold the stock in place once they're securely attached. This seems to work (I still would not hold the Pulse Rifle by the stock entirely though, since this thing weighs a ton). I did still use screws in the Thompson sight holes to work as a "guide" so that the stock does not rattle from side to side (the HCG shrouds prevent any vertical rattle though).

I'll keep you posted once I get around to painting the parts.

Cheers!
Roman
 
Thank you for the update.

I'm currently getting some parts. I have the Thompson GBBR. The shotty is arriving. I'll soon purchase all the parts from Matthew (except the shroud. I'll wait a bit).

Can you also explain/show me how the two screws are fixed on the shotty/Thompson ?

Is this how it is supposed to be attached ? Through the inside of the shotty ? Or just through the spas cage and the shotty stay intact ?

1723478705279.png
 
Thank you for the update.

I'm currently getting some parts. I have the Thompson GBBR. The shotty is arriving. I'll soon purchase all the parts from Matthew (except the shroud. I'll wait a bit).

Can you also explain/show me how the two screws are fixed on the shotty/Thompson ?

Is this how it is supposed to be attached ? Through the inside of the shotty ? Or just through the spas cage and the shotty stay intact ?

View attachment 1849797


Well, I made that 3D image you posted and I believe this to be how the M870 shotgun was attached to the Thompson.
There is some dispute about this, other people think that only the SPAS cage was connected with screws to the Thompson (i.e. not through the shotty).
In any way, you can either screw the SPAS cage (with or without M870) to the Thompson M1A1 foregrip mount (you'd have to drill holes through it though and tap them) or use some sort of adapter like Tommin made long ago.

The reason I believe that the screws went through the shotgun too is that I can't explain how the M870 was held in place otherwise.
It was a live firing M870 (even though it most likely only fired blanks). The friction between the SPAS cage and the M870 is not enough to hold the shotgun in place securely on my build, and certainly not a firing one. Oh sure, it holds the shotgun roughly in place, but whenever I rack the pump, it shifts ever so slightly until it sits completely crooked inside the SPAS cage.
But there are no other indicators how the shotgun could have been attached. In fact, the shotgun was neither screwed to the SPAS cage from the side (all the holes are visible at some point or another) nor held in place by the front block. While on the 8-hole Pulse Rifles, the front block was attached with a screw to the SPAS cage, this was not the case on the 10-hole Hero. In other words: unless it was attached from the top, the whole shotgun including barrel and front block would have been "floating free" inside the SPAS cage, which I find hard to believe. It is likely that the shotgun barrel was held in place with a screw (through the barrel vent and the SPAS cage), but that still seems very unsafe for a firing shotgun...

Of course there are other theories, but I don't quite buy them. The "Delta" Pulse Rifle was clearly assembled after filming had wrapped and is never seen in this configuration on screen. But even on the "Delta" Pulse Rifle, it seems that the M870 is held in place somehow by the metal block that sits directly above the SPAS cage, which again supports the theory that screws went through the SPAS cage and held the M870 in place somehow.

Cheers!
Roman
 
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