The theory: compressed gas cylinders in a utility side arm able to fire a range of options
In practice: Less reliable with lots of leaks and unreliablity.
A side arm cannot be unreliable, particularly in HvZ. To that end, if I can't find a fix for these issues then the Mayday will be relegated to a utility secondary to be replaced by a Nightingale or similar.
Testing
Cylinders were numbered 1 to 5 and then loaded with gas. Tests were then under taken with fires and misfires recorded. Testing was stopped after 18 shots after only 4 successful fires the cylinders. Testing is restricted by the nature of the compressed being used. Green Gas comes in bottles and can cost up to £20 a tin so there's not a bottomless well of gas for testing.
A single cylinder was then selected as test cylinder and disassembled for lubrication of the seals. After reassembly, the cylinder was tested again as per previous tesitng. Was stopped again after 4 successive failures to fire with a view to investigating further.
Next steps:
The next steps will be seeing if it's possible to determine where the leaks are coming from in a given cylinder by using a submersion test. After that, I'll have a look at replacing the seals and seeing if there other steps I can take to try and improve the seals.
Reflections:
It's an interesting reflection on acquisition processes and a lesson learned that further research ought to have been conducted. Speaking to some airsofters that have drifted over into the hobby, it seems that 40MAX shells have a bit of reputation for being a bit leaky. I did not think to ask before I took the plunge. Instead, I opted only to see the positive and didn't really ask around. That's on me but it's a curious example of a blind spot. Hopefully I can get these working so I don't lose a couple of £100 that have been invested in the Mayday, it's shells, gas and shells. Failing that, I'll take it as a lesson learned and grab a Nightingale with a couple of magazines.
High FPS CQB in a church? Only a little way from my house? Interesting proposition. A local church has recently opened up its games to BritNerfers and has run a couple of games. Set over 3 floors of a modern church, it essentially feels like a modern version of the old Student's Union environments I used to play in back in my BUZAN days.
tl;dr Not sure it needs to be >130FPS but it's fun and well run, would recommend.
Equipment review:
This being my first attendance at this venue and being sceptical about the format (see below), I opted to pack light.
Pictured above is the load out from the day. I opted for the skirmish belt and Tempus combo that saw me through 28 Darts Later. The Tempus has had new Krakens put in it and is now only firing 1 in 5 shots sideways rather than only shooting 1 in 5 shots straight. Progress! I still need to fettle with it to work out why it's not shooting lasers but it was fine for the evening. The Mayday and it's 40MAX cylinders are being very leaky and temperamental. I'll do a seperate post on them later but it's looking more and more likely it's going to get relegated to specialist secondary rather than dedicated side arm.
The magazines I took were a complete reload set for the belt so I could rapid swap a complete load if I needed to. I removed the spare dump pouch since I would have access to a safe zone and put it back on my main vest. Otherwise, there were no other changes to the belt from 28DL.
It all fit into my handy dandy Warhammer rucksack which I obtained from Warhammer World in February having made very poor financial decisions. It's an under-rated thing being able to shove a load out straight into a ruck sack rather than having to lug a suitcase around but it's pretty effective. It also forces you to be a little more thoughtful about what you take with you. After Foam Fest, my travel and packing planning is improving which is nice. This load will probably form the basis of my Caves and similar events going forward.
The only thing that's new and unique equipment wise for this event can be seen under the hat in the top photo. Higher energy levels particularly at close quarters create a risk of kinetic dentistry. I picked up an airsoft snood with built in facial and nose mesh to cover me in close quarters against Harriers and the like. It worked very well with it not fogging my goggles at all. I was lucky enough not to take any direct facial hits but I did get a round to the ear in the dark at one point which the fabric was able to mitigate the sting of.
Going forward, I suspect a Nightingale and new holster might be in order if the Mayday can't be fixed. Likewise, the Tempus might get replaced by a Protean in a similar colourway over Christmas. I love the Tempus form factor but serviceability and the mushy trigger are starting to become an issue. I'll keep them under review but they should consider themselves on notice!
Games review:
The folks running it are clearly experienced youth organisers but the game is 18+ because of the energy levels involved. That's pretty neat because it's nice to have a game close by that's catering to the older crowd. Games were well run and varied though did run a little long. A set timer with the ref calling an end to things to keep things fresh would help. I'd suggest some radios or at least a whistle that could be heard across floors to mark start and end of games. We played Blob (or Tribes) and a variant of Tiles which actually worked because it's being run with older players. That's the other advantage of 18+ is that games can be a little more involved and a little more tactical.
I was (and still am) a little sceptical about the energy caps at the venue. There isn't any need for more than Cat C 130FPS in this environment but the organiser has set the caps closer to UK Cat E caps. There's no HPA, Springers are capped at 250FPS, flywheels at 200FPS and there was no full auto on the night but locked out blasters were fine. If the insurers are fine with it and the venue is happy at those energy levels then there's no reason to not attend. Knowing in advance means protective equipment can be worn and it's not a problem. Higher energy doesn't really add much in this environment but it does let folks play with their slightly spicier toys and that's what we're here to do.
I think that as the player base matures and more folks realise there's potential to upgrade their equipment, there might be a review of energy levels if venue damage starts to creep in. This is only the third or fourth open event this group have held and the player base is very green in comparison to some of my regular groups. They're a lovely, open and sporting bunch who are great to play with. Howver, I get the vibe some of them are at the top of the rabbit hole and we'll start to see much spicier kit coming through as folks realise what's available.
For £10 for an evening's game play, I'd certainly recommend it if you're in North London. It's 10m for me on the bus so I'll be back for sure and probably in greater numbers (well, greater darts numbers).
I didn't get any photos of the event itself, I was too paranoid being a human to really stop and get pictures. There will be other places that post photos, I'm sure but the only one I got was the rushed photo of the train as I hastened onto it at Waterloo.
I like trains!
Event Overview:
Run by the Royal Holloway HvZ Society, this event was an invitational event open to the public and promoted by Games of Foam. Running for its third year, 28 Darts Later is a US style HvZ event set across the very scenic RHUL campus. I was last there in 2009 to visit a friend and several of my current closest friends are RHUL grads so I know of the area fairly well. However, my legendarily bad sense of direction meant I was no use to anyone. They use the TaggerOS bot on Discord to manage their game with each human being issued a brain code that they hand over to a zombie when tagged. In all, the game was well run, a very loose overhanging arc themed on Dying of the Light. Ostensibily there was an human v human element with players being run in three factions but it had very little effect on gameplay from my perspective. More on that later. It was a great way to spend a day, would recommend for folks wanting to try Nerf a little different.
Equipment review:
In all, my equipment was great. I need a sidearm of some sort just because the holster felt empty and there were a few CQB spots where I felt that the rifle was a little bulky for close in work. The hydration bladder in the rucksack was a god send, it meant I stayed hydrated and fuelled all day without needing to think too much about it. Skirmish belt was a good choice and worked wonderfully. I think I might need to look into a 3 point sling in future events because it felt very odd walking around safe zones with a rifle hanging from my hip. I shifted the belt around just a little bit so the buckle was off the midline to give my right thigh more range of movement when running. The Tempus did what the Tempus was going to do: it fish tailed basically every dart in the universe and scored maybe two or three tags the whole day. I mean, HvZ is more about situational awareness and non-blaster skills but having a blaster that was only semi-functional was an experience.
Highlights
It was fantastic to be back in a fully immersed environment. It's been years since I've been expected to carry my full fighting load for the day on my back. I arrived to site with no room or car to stow my gear so everything I had had to be carried on me. It really forced me to think about equipment utility and my own limits which was fantastic. Being in a full threat environment at all times was great with needing to plan runs between buildings for things like acquiring food. Managing perimeters and making bug out plans when folks needed to be in exposed spaces for various reasons was great fun. Of course, it's a lot of hurry up and wait, a lot of tension and jumping at shadows but it was great fun to have that for a day.
Getting tagged was a fantastic lesson in situational awareness and happened at just the right time in the day. I'd been hoping to get tagged sometime after Mission 3 thinking there was more play after that but it happened on the mini-mission between 2 and 3. A zombie had managed to infiltrate our lines getting close and then respawned just on top of us tagging two of us in the vanguard before we noticed they were a threat. It was a combination of fatigue, complacency and solid play by the zombie and a well deserved pair of tags. Turns out it was perfect timing, too because I got to play Mission 3 as a zombie with all the carnage and chaos that entailed before heading home.
The zombies were also very welcoming once I came over to their side.
Just pacing behind a large group of humans and feeding the zombie chat
intel on their location and movements was great fun. I'm not the running
sort but quickly found a niche wearing humans down, keeping a constant
low level pressure on them.
Something else that occurs to me as I write this is how these sorts of HvZ games make for great outreach for the hobby. A couple of times we were approached by randos on campus asking what we were up to, including a couple of curious international students. Explaining why a bunch of nerds were dressed up in brightly colorued tac gear with toy blasters offers a means to showcase the game in a way that closed site games don't give you the option.
Other stuff.
I might be a purist but I'd prefer a simpler HvZ game for an
invitational. I understand why a society who is running games year round
might want to try different things and how a HvHvZ element will mix things up for them but I wouldn't necessarily port it across to the open inivitational. There was some effort to make alliances and co-ordinate humans efforts in the day play which added another dimension but also led to issues around some factions feeling targeted over others.
There needed to be a clearer ruling on zombie head bands. Other HvZs I'm aware of allow zombie bands to be worn around necks and heads with them being removed when stunned. RHUL allows for them to be on the neck and requires in play zombies to have them around the head. That was confusing because the bands were blue and my hat is blue. I did my best to obscure the BritNerf patch when in play to make it obvious and acted like a zombie. It also meant it was difficult in places to keep track of zombies that were in play or not because there would be bands around necks not making it immediately obvious if they were in play. The distinction between absent band and band in different place is important and ought to be maintained. This is probably my only gripe with the game. Otherwise, it was well run and I had a great day out.
Thank you to all the mods and RHUL staff who made yesterday (and today, it's run over 2 days but I could only do 1) possible. I know you folks are working on this in your free time and you gave up your weekend to do something awesome. Thank you to Games of Foam for co-ordinating with the society and everything else for getting this together. If it runs next year, hopefully I'll be back with a functioning rifle this time!
I've never actually played a campus style Humans vs Zombies in all my years of Nerfing. We simply don't have that culture here in the UK - our stuff is very much focused on private games on private land. That has created a unique cultural environment in the UK but at the cost of not having had that experience. Royal Holloway, a College of the University of London, is the exception in that they have done outside invitational HvZ games for the last few years. With the career change, I've been at scohol so not able to attend but finally this year I've gotten around to it. Promoted by Games of Foam and run by the university's Human's Versus Zombies society, it's running tomorrow at their Egham campus in Surrey. It'll be a 2 day event but I'll go for the Saturday to check it out. Between Foam Fest last weekend, this weekend and then Bristol Blast likely next weekend, it's a lot of Nerf in August so I'll be fine with 1 day.
The design philosophy of LARP and HvZ have some considerable overlaps. First, you're not expecting anywhere to be safe so everything you have must be portable on yourself. Second, reliability is king so nothing complex or over the top. I would have opted for the Gryphon but it won't be safe for use on campus hence the Tempus being repaired as best posible to be reliable. I've learned from kettle HvZ games at Bristol Blast and BUZAN that lightweight mobility is key and that pitched engagements with heavy exchanges of fire are not to be expected. To that end, I've opted for the skirmish belt, moved some pouches off my vest and will keep things fast and light as a result.
Regular viewers will notice that I've swapped the location of the medium zip dump pouch with the position of the mag pouches. That removes the steric hinderance that comes from the pouch on the front of my thigh when running while keeping loose ammo sufficiently close by that I can top off after engagements. 5 mags (4+1) ought to be enough for most engagements. There is a full refresh of mags in my back pack in the event of exhaustion but I figure if I'm at that stage, we've made a grave error of some sort. The sling is a quick and dirty single point sling I made to let me drop the blaster while doing other things. The stock strap design was inspired by real steel firearms while the remainder of the sling is just a simple strap assembly linked to the blaster mount. I did consider a 3 point sling for this sosrt of game but don't have the brain power to make it happen this close to an event with everything else going on.
I've moved one of my small zip dump pouches off the vest and onto the other side of the belt to carry mission McGuffins and other bits as needed. It's currently carrying the hat, OTG eye pro and gloves I'll need to keep the sun off, darts out and hands clean from injuries. The holster is empty because the local regulations prevent use of compressed gas blasters and I've not been able to find a replacement for the Mayday. I might borrow something on the day or I've got a handy jolt if not. Finally, there are two socks in the front pouches for when everything absolutely goes sideways and I need a last ditch escape mechanism.
Not pictured is my day rucksack which will contain my 3L hydration bladder, sunscreen, medications, first aid kit, spare batteries and probably my will to live. It's packed such that everything I carry to site will fit in it so I don't have to leave things lying around. It'll make running around as a zombie an interesting experience but I'm very much more a long term stalking zombie than I am a sprinter zombie. It's better to wear humans down than wear yourself down!
This past weekend was Foam Fest 2024. I ran a table for the first time since 2019 and here are my thoughts on things. Most of my event specific feedback has been relayed back to the appropriate game organisers so this will mostly focus on logistics and other meta remarks about information in the hobby etc.
The stall...
With life being a little bit on fire and covered in bees it wasn't exactly certain whether I'd make it to the event. The day job is a demanding mistress and I'm on short notice changes to shifts so things were not planned as well as I'd have liked. Supply chain problems on my part meant I didn't have the sort of stock that would be useful at a convention. Remember, folks, be sure to order your thread and keep an eye on fixings stock levels if attending a major event!
Things I learned include to ensure you've got lots of drop-leg holsters in both black and left handed varieties. I think less space on the table for the machine with maybe some sort of back board to display more pouches and holsters. MOLLE is a hell of a thing so something laser cut wouldn't hurt as a back board weighed down with the dummy and other bits so it doesn't fall over.
I spoke to one attendee who gave very effective feedback about the convention in general. They made a good point about it needing to be different from what you can buy online. I did a lot of attaching Velcro to patches, some minor repairs and knocked together some custom slings for folks while on site which isn't something you'd get anywhere else. I think a better focus on the tactical gear advice service would help, too since I can advise better if I've got the person in front of me. I guess for other vendors, promoting the try before you buy aspect of having the target ranges on hand to try things out would be a good idea, too. I had my swatch book, too which was new for me since I forgot it in 2019. That makes it easy for a customer to flick through and find a colour they like for delivery later. Payments worked fine even though I did forget my tablet for the terminal and had to rapidly install it on my phone. Not taking cash didn't seem to turn people away and I appreciate the faff of not having to manage a float and banking side of things there.
I'll see what I think about a table for next year. With the day job moving into a new phase as of today, I'll see what I can commit to. I was very close to shutting up show prior to the convention but getting to see folks in person has reignited the love of getting the tactical gear message out there.
Driving...
Those that know me know that I like trains. Well, I like well planned urban spaces that move people efficiently and quickly. I don't like driving because it's stressful and inefficient to do so in London. I only learned to drive because I needed to for work and this Foam Fest weekend was the first time I'd ever driven solo - without either a crewmate or instructor in the passenger seat. I hadn't realised how much of a different skill set driving logistics is versus public transport. I very much bought into the whole "bring what you want and dump it in the car" mentality which made for a miserable experience. In particular, transferring between the car and the venue I used some boxes that I'd stuff all my gear into from the stall. I hadn't realised I'd be walking through a public area between the car and the site. To that end, I needed to bury my blacked out blasters in the bottom of the box at the last moment. I think grab bags with event kit in the same way I'd set up for public transport are a must for next time. It's possible that if I'm regularly driving to events then some sort of trolley apparatus to reduce the number of runs between vehicle and site will be in order. I'm sure those with more driving experience will be very keen to share their logistical insights.
There is a myth to the convienence of driving when you have to consider parking and other down time. My rental van opted to drop the fuel gauge from half full to nearly empty in the course of a single journey leaving me with little option to take an unexpected detour in the middle of the night after what was already a very stressful day. There was a lot learned there.
And don't get me started on multistory car parks! They can get in the bin! The massive dent I put in the van will attest to that.
Forgetting stuff...
I do think most of the issues were a lack of planning on my part coupled with a lack of experience behind the wheel. It's an interesting albeit uncomfortable realisation to note how rough the last couple of months have been personally and how that's impacted my ability to plan. I've learned a lot of lessons over the years on how to do stuff and apparently I've begun to forget that with time. That doesn't just apply to me, however. There are areas in the hobby where we've learned lessons and folks have started forgetting them. I need to have a think about persistence of memory and information in the hobby space because the idea of progress is to allow for hard learned lessons to be passed to the next generation and there are spaces where that is starting to falter.
Future plans
Enough moaning. Future plans will see me tackle my high energy rig as the next big project. In the meantime, I'm going to try to get to 28 Darts Later on 17th August for the day to try the campus HvZ there. I've got a planned rig for that but I need to sort the Tempus out and get it firing in a straight line rather than the current mess. There's also Barnet Battleground on 16th August that I'll probably get to, too. High FPS in a CQB space will be interesting. It's only a short bus ride and I'll head down for the evening to see what's what.
Equipment gets tried and tested in the cauldron of playing. With being back on the field now much more regularly, documenting my kit journey and the lessons learned after each event should be something I get better at.
To that end, I've reviewed a bunch of changes to my kit and made a note of anything else I need to change going forward. The 130FPS rig is pretty mature at this stage and I'm very happy with it over all. There are minor niggles and changes that ought to be done but it's tweaking, nothing fundamental needs to be changed.
Tempus Blaster:
This thing continues to be a frustration. I got it on field this morning at the start of the event and rapidly realised that darts were fishtailing out the front and generally being difficult to keep on track. I swapped back to the Gryphon for the rest of the day but it's an aging platform that's wobbly and in need of it's own refreshment and upgrade. I pretty much concluded that I suck at building blasters and should stick to tactical gear. I'll see what I want to do with this. I might send it to someone to fix it or I'll take a period of time to properly work on it. Frankly, the former is more likely.
40MAX Shells
This was my first time trialling these in anger. For those not in the loop, they're compressed gas canisters that use Green Gas to propel darts from a blaster when it's actuated. I fire these from my Mayday Mk2. The test two shells I have here are for firing two MEGA darts (great for shield busting) or 10 half darts in a scatter shot which is great as a secondary in HvZ. The printed parts are from files created by Old Fusion Designs and screwed into the canisters. They go off with an almight crack or pop and spread foam down stream. You need to charge them between each shot so they're not the most efficient things but they're great as secondary options. Dual MEGA for shield busting and I'm investigating MEGA XL or Demolisher rocket for even more shield busting. I need to consider the mix of shells I want going forward since I've got 5 canisters to hand (and one lost to Royal Mail). I also need to modify the Skirmish Belt pouch for these since they're far too small and I can only carry them securely on my main vest.
OTG Eye Protection
I've relied on my spectacles for eye protection at 130FPS but the recent prospect of a high energy CQB game caused me to look at further options. I've looked around and OTG specs that sit over my main frames seem like the best option. With wrap around cover and no need to look into bespoke lenses, they're less likely to fog up, too. I wanted shooter yellow because it's easier on the eyes and reduces glare much better when you're out in the sunshine. These are a pair of DEX FIT OTG Safety glasses that I got from eBay. They're rated to the usual EN!66 which should allow them to dissipate any incoming eye shots and protect the expensive frames underneath. Thanks to Sam for the nod in this particular direciton. They didn't steam up today despite the rain and I'm pretty happy with the clear visual field they offer.
Hat!
Sun and sweat and whatnot mean that a hat is a good idea in any weather. I use a DPM boonie when I'm in my high FPS field kit but a field cap is a much better option for something like a low FPS game. I added some extra velcro to the front for a patch. My modern BritNerf patch seemed like a pretty good choice for front and centre. This is a cheapy Beechfield field cap off eBay but it's cotton so light weight and keeps sweat out, hair in and sun off my head.
Mayday Mk2 Holster
The Mayday Mk2 holster needs a slight adjustment in the form of a muzzle strap. I was finding it with was working it's way down deeper into the holster which opens the latch making it tricky to draw. A muzzle strap will support it in place and prevent that up/down movement. I might also consider half dropping it so that it's easier to grab when wearing the full over vest.
And finally a train related photo. Two GWR Class 802s wait beneath the Brunel designed ironwork at Paddington.
Small iterative changes ahead of the next game continue. I noted in my original specification that I'd need an auxiliary pouch on my vest. Given the need to carry spare spare gas for my Mayday, spare ring caps and other bits then having a standard small zip dump pouch to cover the last bit of black patching under the arm.
You can see in the background of that photo that I've started to populate the Velcro of my water bladder. The one of the best bits of this design is filling up the space with the various morale patches sourced from around the community.
Linen strap sheaths:
I picked up some linen for my new shemagh in royal blue and figured I'd use the off cuts to break up the black up even more. They're just a simple tube of linen with the straps threaded through and tucked into the ends. The additional thing about linen is that it'll be softer on my neck skin.
I've got a blue field cap en route that I'll add some Velcro to so that I can put some patches on that, too. The main thing with a hat will be to keep the sun off and my hair under control. Other next steps for the 130 rig will be looking at communications. Otherwise, I'm starting to mull porting the lessons learned on this rig over into my high energy DPM load out.
Oh and I need to get the Tempus field ready again but we don't actually need blasters to play this game, right? :D
I noted after my initial deployment of the Mayday Mk2 holster that it had a nasty habit of releasing the latch on the blaster preventing drawing or allowing the hinged muzzle to flap about.
I essentially just removed the sloped material at the spine of the holster and accidentally made it ambidextrous. The grip on the blaster is now essentially entirely on the muzzle of the blaster itself. There's precedent for that in other holsters so I'm not overly concerned about retention.
The trigger guard then also provides a very handy depth limiter to prevent over insertion and the blaster falling through. The muzzle shape doesn't make the return the smoothest but if you're trying to return this that rapidly then you've gone and goofed. Remember, the Mayday Mk2 fills a specific role for me: either as a shield busting system or a last ditch hold out scatter shot. Neither situation means return speed and transition back to primary.
I'll go back and review my specification post and see what's next. The next game I'll be at will be Bristol Blast on 20th July at Wigton Crescent. It's the last guaranteed game I can attend due to starting the full time post in August so I'll be sure to make the most of the day.
I might have mentioned in one of my after action reports that having the correct equipment for the environment you find yourself playing is essential. I'm not sure I ever actually posted that report but I do remember distinctly being in field and remarking on the necessity of grenades for breaking stalemates in enclosed spaces. Bristol Blast and Games of Foam have grenade rules that see these snap powered grenades clearing rooms if they go off. Of course, that means I need a means of carrying these. Fancy Impact Blaster did a wonderful job of putting my logo on the top of these.
The pouch also includes a slot for my phone and some pens as needed. There's also a slot pocket for maps and other documents as needed. It's a simple MOLLE mounted panel otherwise.
The orange and blue are slowly taking over the black of the base vest which is nice. I'll probably source a metre of orange linen in order to replace my black shemagh. There's a good chance then I'll be able to use the left over to make some linen wraps for the shoulder straps to cover them over. In terms of the remaining coverage, there's a small amount of black in the lower right region that I might co-opt for communications equipment. Bristol Blast doesn't typically need radios, the sites can be co-ordinated using runners. That being said, future proofing the rig and giving me the option is certainly something to think about.
I realised after putting my Bristol Blast May/June review that I hadn't actually remembered to post about the hardware I've acquired for the 130FPS load out.
I'd shared this on Instagram but forgot about putting it up here. We have a Tempus blaster as a primary with snap grenades and the May Day Mk2 that uses the 40MAX shells to fire a variety of ammunition. I've got dual MEGA and half dart scatter shot shells for use.
The Impact Grenades use cap gun charges to set off a bang. The folks over at Fancy Impact Blasters were able to pop the BoffTac logo into the caps so I can identify who the grenades belong to after I've thrown them.
I've been managing to get to Bristol Blast the last couple of months and testing out my 130FPS equipment load. I moved to London a number of years ago and being able to get back to my spiritual home and one of the UK's Nerfing back bones is fantastic.
Choo! Choo! We're a train blog now!
Now, Bristol Blast is a 130 FPS event run in a pair of chapels in Bristol, UK. Playing in the chapel and its grounds means you've got both corridor and open spaces to play in creating a mixed play environment. You have effective shield rules which see Demolisher Rockets and MEGA ammo have special roles but no snap grenades or pyrotechnics. There's a range of player ages and abilities and it really is a great entry point for players entering the UK scene.
Being back in the field, I was reminded of something I learned during my Master's degree: it's possible to forget stuff and sometimes you forget what you knew in the first place. This was the case with a few lessons that I rapidly relearned. At the top of the list being that Humans vs Zombies rounds require light, mobile play and that the vest isn't the kit for that. To that end, the skirmish belt with its four magazines and dump pouch are essential. I also plan to remove my water bottle from the skirmish belt and leave the hydration bladder solely on my vest in order to allow the belt to be as light as possible.
The holster I built for the MayDay Mk2 needs rebuilding as it has the nasty habit of the latch opening and spilling the shell from the blaster when drawing. I've got a few ideas on how to fix that. The shell holders themselves work fine but need relocating and I think a Demo Rocket shell or two might be in order rather than the scatter shot half dart shells I've got at the moment. Better that way around to give me shield busting capability. I've not had tactical situations where the scatter shot is more useful than portable shield busting.
The skirmish belt design itself is working out really well. The only draw back is the inclusion of hook tape on the inside of the panel to affix it to my duty belt which I modified to add loop tape to. The abrasiveness of the hook tape has damaged some of the orange edging tape around the edge of the belt. I think I'll either need to remove it or add some blanking tape for transport.
I initially wanted to run the Talon holder inverted but found I was dropping magazines during HvZ games when running at pace. Inverted was fine in human vs human games where I was rarely running but outright sprinting proved too much for the elastic retention. Upright, it's working fine and I've found a position where the mags don't argue with the vest too much when they're in place there.
The zip dump pouch works fine, I just need to add more patches to it in the same way as the hydration bladder because patches are cool!
Blasters:
The Tempus I debuted at Bristol Blast in May while the Gryphon served in June. The Tempus was on its debut outing and I rapidly ran into trouble with the trigger cluster. I hadn't accounted for thermal expansion and as the afternoon worn on, there wasn't enough tolerance in the moving parts and it began to stick. Follow up shots became maybe and given that most of my in field shots are two shot bursts with correction after the first shot, that is a problem. I took it home and stripped it down. Real life got in the way (Oh boy did it get in the way in short order) and I wasn't able to get everything together in time for Bristol Blast in June. To that end, I pulled my Gryphon off the wall, stuck a LiPo in it and ran it.
The problem with the Gryphon is that it has been in service a long time and is well over due for an overhaul/replacement. This thing has gotten a serious beating in its life and was built in a time before a lot of modern build standards and design. The stock point and muzzle block were screwed into plastic and the screws stripped over time finally failing during the event. I managed to tape things back together as seen above. There was just enough thread left in the flywheel cage to keep it attached but it needed constant tightening. The photo below also shows the residual damage from the time things fell off the wall and the blaster took the entire arsenal falling down on top of it.
Now, I don't have my own printer anymore since I prefer to let other folks do the tricky bit for me. Additionally, the rest of the plastic is sound so I'd rather keep it if I can. The use of heat set inserts would be perfect in this case since the holes are already piloted and I can just pop the inserts straight in for a tighter bond.
With these a little bit of thread lock, it should prevent a repeat of the failure.
The problem is equally visible at the back end. This can be partially fixed by the use of heat set inserts but in the long run that back piece of plastic is going to need to be replaced entirely.
All buttoned up and ready to run again. Working on both blasters side by side has taught me the value of soft factors in blasters. I mentioned above about forgetting things, well this another of those things. Sure, the numbers don't always mean things are the best and my preference for the Tempus over the Gryphon is the feel in hand which is a soft factor in itself. However, the Tempus is much, much less servicable than the Gryphon. I was able to remove the forward block of the Gryphon and repair the stock in less than hour with just a few screws. Configuring the Tempus' trigger group has involved entire disassembly of the blaster almost down to basic components. Side by side, the Gryphon is less robust and feels much lighter in hand which is not what I want from a primary blaster. However, if the Tempus proves to be less servicable once it's set up then it might just be out competed by it's svelter predecessor.
Future thoughts:
I don't have a compelling case for a 130FPS blaster in blacked out colours now that Green Cloaks has imploded. Any close quarters work done at high FPS games where I'd be using the DPM colour way can be completed by whatever secondary/sidearm that I opt for in that use case. To that end, the future for the Gryphon might be a reprint in blue/orange and reusing the existing hardware.
In terms of tactical gear, the changes I noted about the May Day holster need to be made. I also need to get some 40MAX shells reordered since my last lot when missing in the post. I still need an effective way to carry my snap grenades but obviously while I'm at Bristol Blast that's less of a priority given the lack of rules for them. It'll probably fold into an general admin pouch for myself anyway so I guess I'll revisit the spec I put together for it and go from there. Otherwise, I need some sort of field cap to keep my hair out of my face. That or a bandana.
I'll hopefully be headed for Bristol Blast on 20th July. I'm in the process of moving house and starting the new job so hopefully I can capitalise on life being more flexible until then. Once I start in August, it might be a little trickier to attend things. I've sorely missed classic 130FPS Nerf in the wonderful spaces that we get to play here in the UK.
Until next time, here's a Class 220 sitting at Bristol Parkway...
Has it been over 2 months since the last post? Yikes... I've not been keeping up with things. I should probably write up Bristol Blast and Caves bceause there's a lot to cover there in terms of gear and other bits. However, before I get to that I promised a good friend I'd throw together some thoughts in response to their podcast. The wonderful Archer has started their Fast Track'd podcast talking about all things Nerf foam hobby related. This episode, which you can see below, talks about medical cover within events and how we can keep ourselves safe.
So I'll answer the first question first: who am I? And why do I get to have an opinion? I'm a (fairly recently) qualified UK paramedic which makes me an Advanced Life Support responder that carries both a bachelor's and master's degree in healthcare related fields as well as multiple years in hospitals in various healthcare and nursing support roles. I've got the full gamut of assessment skills that come with the day job as well as a good chunk of experience dealing with illness, injury and everything in between. I can chuck drugs at you (legally) and have the authority to carry and adminster some medicines not available to the public without the need for a doctor's oversight. I also have medical liability insurance baked into my professional body membership for any volunteer work I do. That said, without my big yellow van and my drugs I'm mostly a very over qualified first aider. It will become very clear why that sentence is important over the course of this post.
Quick note on terminology
I will avoid using the term medics in this post and instead will use the term first aider to refer to non-registered healthcare providers offering their services at events. The reason for that is two part. First, medics is the shorthand we use at work for paramedics. In the UK that is a legally protected title that creates a specific set of legal duties of care and requires us to carry specific insurance when we are practicing to protect ourselves, our patients and the public. The second is to keep in mind the role that these volunteers are filling: that of a first responder dealing with low acuity injury and anything else needs to be escalated to those of us with the training and experience to manage it.
UK Context
For a quick context reminder, the UK has the National Health Service (NHS) where all healthcare is free at the point of delivery (well, for now, the Tories are doing their best to scupper it). That changes the dynamics since it's free to call an ambulance or stumble into a minor injury unit. The assumption in the podcast is that volunteer embedded first aiders patch folks up to allow them to keep playing. That's a powerful motivator to manage things on site but health insurance being a requirement in the US for care is probably a key difference worth noting.
UK Legal Framework - Organisers Edition
So event organisers here in the UK have a duty of care to reasonably ensure the safety of their attendees and that can be fulfilled with risk assessments and generally paying mind to the risk of injury and ensuring safety. We also require event insurance for most things that will cover liability up to a certain point. Insurance needs risk assessment and mitigation to be valid. Player on player injury isn't usually covered in the insurance since it's beholden to the player to act reasonably. However, if the injury arises from the failure of the organiser to take due safeguards then that's when claims arise. Interestingly, there isn't a set number of first aiders or other cover needed for specific events. Organisers just need to create a system that any reasonable person would consider safe. The courts have lots of opinions on what consitutes reasonable so when we get to larger events, event medical companies sell their services because they've taken the time to go into all that and do their thing.UK Game Organisers (GOs) are welcome to reach out to me if they need advice on medical cover for events.
UK Legal Framework - Responders edition
For most volunteer first aiders, the main thing you need to remember is your own scope of practice. If you've been trained to a thing, you can do a thing provided you're able to do it to a reasonable standard that your instructor would agree is reasonable. If you saw it on telly and try it, you're a mug and the courts will take a dim view of it. You have a duty of care to the person you're attending so if you fuck it up, you're liable.
When the courts consider things going wrong, they hold you to the standard of the training you say you've had. That can cause some hesitancy for us medical professionals to step forward to volunteer because we're expected to operate reasonably within our day job's level of professional competance but we don't have our gear, we don't have our systems of governance or the back up we get from operating within an institution. It doesn't mean we won't pitch in but it does mean that we have to be mindful of those factors.
Medicines
The podcast made an interesting point that I think bears expanding here. One of the folks mentioned about carrying aspirin and paracetamol (well, he called it Tylenol but we'll forgive him). Here in the UK, there's a common misconception that you can't give meds as a first aider. You absolutely bloody can give folks two categories of medication. First, their own prescribed oral medications. If it's got their name on it and it's been prescribed by a doctor for them and they're awake and able to swallow, you can give them their own meds (injectibles are a little different so please don't). Second, any over the counter medications you can buy without a prescription. Someone is in pain? Chuck 'em some paracetamol! Low blood sugar? Suck on a glucogel! Hayfever? Cetirizine down the hatch! Obviously, read the back of the box, make sure it's in date and follow the instructions accordingly. It also pays to ask if they've ever been allergic to the medicine before you give it to them. If you ever wanted brownie points from an ambulance crew or triage nurse, you can score them easily with self-administered pain relief and a good effort at self care.
Knowing when you need help
The biggest, biggest point I would take away from all this discussion is that game organisers for larger games need to have a serious discussion about the trigger points for calling an ambulance or (ideally) evacuating the player from the field and taking them to hospital yourselves. They need to sit down with their first aiders and agree that this is what we can deal with, anything else we call for help. Having set an effective ceiling on the scope of practice of in-field first aiders will often make them feel more comfortable knowing the bounds of their practice. It also sets an expectation in players that they can expect a certain level of care from their first aid team.
Then break the rest up into "Can the patient walk or be helped to the car to be taken to hospital?" and "Hmm... Maybe we should call for help on this one". The latter category is basically anything where the patient isn't awake, isn't breathing or doesn't have a pulse. Most bleeding you can pack out and put them in a car, you'll get them to help faster. If you call for help then you are at the mercy of response times which in the NHS vary wildly right now. Don't get me wrong, making the call between staying and moving the casualty is tough but if you've got a car and bodies to help and you can't deal on site then moving isn't necessarily a bad thing. The A&E triage nurses would prefer you brought them a warm, slightly bloody patient fresh out the car rather than a cold, very bloody patient in the back of an ambulance because you had to wait around out in the elements for a big yellow taxi while the patient leaks everywhere.
That being said, there is one very, very, very big caveat about having awake patients move. If they have fallen from a height of more than 1.5m (excluding their standing height) or is at any point presenting with pain in their necks after a traumatic injury or has had anything fall on their head from a height then do not move them and encourage them to minimise movement. Seek help and talk to the 999 call operator for advice.
What to do when you've do called for help
This section comes from my professional experience and frustrations of dodgy security companies trying to guide us to jobs on sites and making my life harder. Essentially, if you call for help and an ambulance is dispatched then please have two people at the gate to meet them. The first leads the attending resource to the injured party while the second stays on the gate for any further resources and marhsals them down. First person once they've dropped the crew off at the patient asks them if there are any further resources en route and goes back to the gate to await the next resource (or to tell person two that there's no one else coming). Either they'll meet it en route or they'll get to the gate where they can repeat the process. In the most serious cases, you'll be expecting an ambulance and a response car so please keep someone around to meet that second resource. If you start expecting helicopters to start landing then please don't ask me how to handle that, the police deal with it in my day job.
Next keep hold of the person who witnessed the event that seems the most reliable and keep them nearby then designate one First Aider to stay with the casualty and liaise with the crew. Clear everyone else out of the way. If your site is big enough, you can move play away. Do not crowd the injured party. They're having a bad enough day as it is.
The folks on the podcast made a great point about radios. We use them in the day job for a reason: it's push button and talk. No faffing with dialling numbers, just ask for help and give location. If your event is big enough and doesn't have line of sight with more than 10m walk between spots then seriously consider investing in some radios.
The wound sterilisation myth
Another thing that popped up in the podcast is the notion that you need wound sterilisation fluid to wash out wounds. Plain old bottled or clean tap water will do. If you can safely drink it, you can wash a wound out with it. Make sure it's a gentle flow so you don't force stuff deeper into a wound. Most superficial abrasions can then be patted dry with a clean towel (don't use tissue) and only need covering if they're going to be exposed to dirt regularly. Being too keen with dressings and plasters risks more infection since you're locking potential bugs into a warm, damp and dark environment that is really good for them to grow.
Skill fade is real
Skill fade refers to the fact that skills that don't get used, fade with time. Always bear that in mind and if you are taking courses, you need to refresh them every so often. If you've not used those skills before and you're not sure, defer to the lowest risk and ask for help. The only legal requirement in the UK for bystanders is to call for help. I could talk about bandwidth and mental load all day but skill fade and knowing your limits are the most important bits.
The power of self care
Finally, I'll make a quick note about the power of self care. Each of us is a playing adult with the capacity to make decisions and as such we all bear a level of responsibility for our own health and wellbeing. Sure, there are incidents where you lose that capacity to self treat (see concussions etc). However, a small pack of plasters, a sweet snack, some water and a pack of painkillers doesn't take much space in a pouch in your bag or on your person. I'd argue everyone should carry that as a bare minimum with the expectation to self treat as far as possible. Even if you do an oopsie and have a bit of a meltdown, someone can just go through your bag and find something to help you. If everyone does that then it's just a case of grabbing your stuff from your pouch and helping someone out.
Oh and yeah, if you've got an inhaler then please carry it with you! Salbutamol won't teleport itself into your lungs!
Sometimes a client comes along and asks for something very novel. Vortex must have been out of production for something on the other of a decade now but it certainly it has a dedicated following in some corners of the community. The client wanted a means to carry their drums to the field with them. It would require a more robust solution than my usual single ply Cordura pouches.
Establishing the shape of the pouch with the outer shell worked pretty well. I'm glad I opted for the 25mm buckles rather than the over large 50mm buckles.
Setting the liner into the outer and fitting it into place ready to be fixed in place with a first pass fastening stitch. It'll then get a second stitch from the binding.
It was at this stage that I can get a good feel of the heft of things. I thought up to this point that the 3mm padded spacer mesh and the Cordura would be enough to hold this thing. However, in getting the drum in and out of the pouch just the two ply caused some fouling issues. I cut out some 4mm closed cell foam and inserted it into the side and front walls of the pouch. It holds things a bit more securely when open than without the inserts.
With the edging tape on there, you've got a finished product. Sure, it's my usual brutalist approach to design but it does the job. There's a secure MOLLE panel on the back to hold it to the panel and of course you could probably belt mount these, too.
A nice big aperture, rugged fabric and you can get this thing onto your MOLLE vest just fine. I'm pretty sure these won't ever become a line item purely due to demand. That and they're a pain to make. Still, it's fun to make something different occasionally.
I opted for the Invader 6094 plate carrier in the end instead of waiting for the Condor Operator plate carrier to come back in stock. The two are very similar in their design insofar as they use large hook and loop panels layering things up to allow it to be taken on and off. You've got front and back panels joined by a cummerbund around the waist with the shoulder straps forming channels for water, power and other lines to be run from the back.
I tossed everything very quickly on the dummy as a sort of preview. In its stock form, it's designed for a much larger chest than mine so that will need some work. The dummy's chest is 38" and you can tell I could readily fit it over the top of the other vest I already had in place. The slack in the cummerbund panels is what's causing the side pouches to swing out. Resolving that lack of tension will be key to this being manageable.
It doesn't look like much but the cummerbund panels tuck under the loops in the back. Normally, those would be linked using a threaded series of eyelets to create a quick release feature. I've brought the edges of the cumberbund panels together to reduce at least 6" of girth. I've then tied the MOLLE of those panels together and fixing them down under the Velcro panel. That should hold it down and it's now nice and snug and tight.
With the water carrier on the back it sits a little lower down the back below the vest. There's nothing on the skirmish belt at the back so it won't interfere at all.
It needs more panels on the plate carrier to cover the black. In particular, the black shoulder straps need some covering. I'm not sure what I'm going to go with there. There are two options there. The first would be a Velcro panel that would let me add patches on. The alternative (and more likely) option will be two add some linen sheaths over the straps in blue or orange. That should then break up the black while also keeping the roughness of the Cordura from my neck. Bonus points is that it's a wicking fabric so it'll be cooling, too.
I've tried the carrier with the skirmish belt and it works pretty well. I've not managed to add the 40MAX shell carrier or the holster to that just yet. It'll probably be the next few steps I suspect. Then I'll come back to the plate carrier and add the neck guards along with the administration panel I'm going to need above the mag pouches. That will need a design spec of its own.
Long games require the squishy meat sack operating the blaster to be replenished. With a large equipment load and running about all day, you're going to need a lot of water. The back of a vest is usually a large spot that's left empty since it's harder to reach behind you to grab stuff that's placed there. Sure, you could pop spare mags for team mates there but it's not always guaranteed you'll get them back or have folks to share them with. Sure, you could cover it in Velcro and then patches but surely you could manage do both and make use of the space.
Enter my MOLLE mounted hydration bladder. Containing a full 3L water bladder and hose, between this and the 1L bottle that will sit on my skirmish belt, it should give me enough water for a full day's play. The MOLLE tape is entirely loop tape so there's plenty of footprint for patches to be mounted.
The bladder itself is hung from the Velcro closing loop sewn into the area just below the closure flap.
The pouch then contains two pathces of MOLLE mounting to secure the pouch to the MOLLE panel. Considering that 3L of water is 3kg and it has a liquid inside, that's a lot of shifting mass that needs to be properly secured. It's unusual that I won't just let a thing hang off a single MOLLE mounting panel but this is unique in terms of equipment hence the unusually secure attachment.
Next steps on this one will be to find a hook to clip the pipe hose into on the front of the vest so I can access the hose when the vest is worn. They're available via eBay usually and pretty handy for securing ready access to water. I might also create a hose cover for the pipe itself using some orange waterproof nylon. The clear blue of the bare hose looks a little weird over the fabric of everything else. Pipe covers tend to break things up by having a bit more of a wrinkled surface texture while bringing a splash of bright colour over what will be the black of the vest.
With uni finishing, I've gotten a better work/life balance and more time for hobby things. I've been spreading my personal project stuff between sewing shop orders. While that does mean more sewing thread changes for the orange and white thread on my project, it does break the monotony of sewing black all the time. The shop has basically paid for all the materials for this project at this point and is going a good long way to securing the blasters that I'm going to eventually pair with this lot, soon, too.
Skirmish Belt
First, the Skirmish Belt. With the friction fit Talon holder positioned so that my knee doesn't occlude it when kneeling, it sits next to my zip dump pouch. You can see why I don't do the zip pouches as a line item in the photo as they're an arse to get to sit square and the corners are always inconsistently shaped. However, this will do the job. I'll add a nice little bit of white shock cord to the zip to bring out the theme colours.
Just a few demo shots of the skirmish belt set up. You can see some of the threads where I had to take it down to replace the internal hook tape on the padded spacer mesh panel. The idea is that loop tape is going to be sewn to my duty belt and then the skirmish belt will only have to attach to that and the front two loops of my trousers to remain in place under load. We shall see. The belt itself is my old Viper belt, holding everything together for the moment. I might invest in a new one or even see if I can find amore appropriate colour match.
This is a better shot of the friction fit mag holder. It's probably the first time I've said that a friction pouch is safely rated to be used in the inverted position. Sadly, getting colour matched flat elastic remains very tricky in the UK and the options were either white or black. I opted for black since white would have dommiated the panel if it went out to the full 100mm. Between the grey tabs and the black, I think it breaks it up nicely. Then the edging tape offers a solid Elite style tie in.
Magazine Pouches:
Now for pouches. Lots and lots of pouches.
There's not much new here. There are 2 Talon hex stacks (2 wide, 3 deep) and 1 high capacity Talon pouch with 12 mags in. They're presented on an olive green vest while I wait for the black tactical vest I've ordered to arrive.
Not pictured is the prototype 40MAX shell holder that's sitting under the arm bit here. It occured to me that I'm going to need some sort of administration pouch with a Velcro loop tape fronting to hold my mag flaps open during use. I'll have a think on what I need out of that pouch. It'll likely just be a slot panel for my SD card holder, maybe a slot for some snap grenades or similar. Nothing too bulky since it'll be right up under my chin and no-one wants a snap grenade to the face.
