Colossus Usability Mods

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Andrew
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Colossus Usability Mods

Post by Andrew » Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:42 am

As promised, these are the mods used on my Colossus to make it more user-friendly in a combat situation.

Sling Mounting Points

As we all know the Colossus doesn't come with any sling mounting points, even though it's size and weight would make having such points useful. A sling also allows you to carry additional blasters easily.

What you need:
2x Philips screwdrivers (size 0 or 1 and size 3 or 4 [These sizes are guidelines only. A screwdriver at the correct size for the screw head, may not fit into the screw well.])
1x Packaging wire (from the Colossus box)
1x Thin flat plastic (from supermarket food boxes, broken plastic ring-binder files etc. Be inventive!)
1x Scissors or knife (strong enough to cut plastic)
1x Drill bit (whatever size you want to make the sling mount hole)

Optional:
1x Additonal drill bit (5 or 5.5mm)


Although it doesn't actually have any sling mounting points the Colossus is a very simple blaster to add loops to. If you look towards the front of the blaster, between the top of the PC and the casing, there is a small gap, just behind the PC mounting point. This load bearing mounting point is where we are going to attach the front sling loop.

Front Sling Loop
Open the blaster by removing all of the screws. Remove the small screws first. This is because some of the larger screw's heads may dig into the walls of the screw wells, forcing the blaster casing apart as you unscrew them. If you remove the small screws first there is no chance of you damaging the casing, and it reduces chance of stripping threads.

Below are the locations of the screws. The RED arrows point to the larger (size 3 or 4) screws. The BLUE arrows point to the smaller (size 0 or 1) screws. The PURPLE arrow points to the long size 0 or 1 screw (same size head as the other size 0 or 1 screws, but double the length):

Image

If any of the larger (3 or 4) size screw heads did bind in their screw well, you may want to carefully drill out the well to 5mm, or 5.5mm if it's still a bit too tight (remove the screw first).

WARNING! Be careful not to drill through the piece of plastic (with a small hole) at the bottom of the screw well, otherwise the screw won't do anything to hold the blaster together and you may ruin your blaster.

You can continue with these mods WITHOUT removing the pump cap. The pump cap is glued on and will need to be re-glued if you remove it completely. It is easier to perform these mods if you do remove the pump cap, but try to break the connection between the pump cap and ONE of the casing halves, leaving the pump cap connected to the other the casing half. I managed to remove one half of the casing by gently tilting one half of the casing, breaking the glue and pulling it away from the pump cap cleanly. If you aren't careful YOU WILL either snap the casing or remove the pump cap completely.

Gently lift the PC out of it's forward mounting peg.

Take the packaging wire, cut it to length (~3" long [you might want it longer or shorter depending on how big your sling clip is]) and loop it through the front mounting hole in the PC, as close to the PC as possible. Twist the two ends of the wire together and manoeuvre the wire so that the twisted section is hidden in one of the recesses around the mounting peg.

Image

Re-mount the PC and check the wire doesn't foul anything, check that the casing closes properly, check that all of the connections and linkages (specifically the trigger wire and valve lever arm), before inserting the screws.

If you want to perform the anti-lag pump intake mod, don't close up the blaster yet!

Image


Rear Sling Mount
This mod can be performed on a blaster in any state of assembly. This part of the mod isn't completely necessary. If you wanted to, you could skip this step and use the loop on the reservoir cap retainer. This would definitely work on smaller blasters, but considering the size and weight of the colossus, I thought it best not to use this cap retainer as a sling loop. If it breaks, you loose the sling and potentially the reservoir cap as well.

Take the piece of plastic and cut it into a rectangle large enough to fit around the filler neck of the reservoir (you can use the cap retainer on the Colossus' cap as a guide). If you are using a very thin piece of plastic (especially if it's less than 0.5mm in thickness, like the plastic from a food package) make the strip long enough to fold over and double up.

Mark out a hole at one end of the plastic (at the opposite end to the fold if you've doubled it up) large enough to fit over the filler neck of the reservoir (again use the Colossus' cap retainer ring as a guide). Use the drill bit to make a small hole in the centre of the marked circle, to give you somewhere to insert the scissors/knife. Cut out the circle, but try to leave some material to fit between the threads (similar to the three bumps on the inside of the cap retainer ring) to stop the sling pulling the cap off when refilling.

Drill a hole in the opposite end of the plastic (the side closest to the fold if you've doubled it up) large enough for your sling clip.

Cut the corners off the plastic to make it less sharp and to look nice! :goofy:

The finished product should look something like this:

Image

Or this if you doubled it up:

Image

Image

Fit it to the blaster beneath the cap retainer ring:

Image

Add a strap, and voila! A working sling :goofy: :

Image


Anti-lag Pump Intake

The pump of the Colossus does lag a bit when you really start pumping it quickly. This mod doesn't completely remove the problem (the internal tubing and check valves are a bit restrictive), and does involve removing the small plastic filter on the intake tube. This does mean you have to be more careful about the water you put into the reservoir. Nevertheless it did make a big difference on my Colossus.

The other issue with the intake tube in the Colossus is that it is far too long and lies in the wrong place in the reservoir to make use of all of the water. This mod also shortens the tube to make it lie in the lowest point in the reservoir. The blaster now uses, as near as makes no difference, all of the water in the reservoir, whereas there used to be a sizeable volume left which I couldn't seem to use no matter how I positioned the blaster.

What you need:
2x Philips screwdrivers (size 0 or 1 and size 3 or 4 [These sizes are guidelines only. A screwdriver at the correct size for the screw head, may not fit into the screw well.])
1x Scissors or knife (strong enough to cut thick plastic/rubber tubing)

Open up the blaster (see sling mod above)

Remove the reservoir completely from the blaster casing. It is held in position by pegs built into the casing, and is connected, via an o-ring, to the rest of the internals without glue. Hold onto the white plastic connector as you pull the reservoir out of the connector (prevents anything getting broken). It will take a fair amount of force to pull the reservoir off the connector the first time. The intake tube will easily slide out of the reservoir.

At the end of the intake tube is a white plastic filter thing. The bars are very thick and restrict the flow of water through the tube by quite a bit:

Image
(This pic shows the bars removed. I first tried to enlarge the holes, but then wanted to make use of more of the water in the reservoir by shortening the tube)

Cut the tube shorter. Cut it at such an angle (~45°) that the opening in the tube points DOWNWARDS when placed back into the reservoir:

Image
(yeah, I cut it the wrong way in this pic :goofy: )

Cut a small bit off at a time until the tubing just fits in the lowest point of the reservoir:

Image

Re-assemble the blaster! If you HAVEN'T drilled out the screw wells, tighten the large (size 3 or 4) screws before fitting the small (size 0 or 1) screws for the same reasons as when you took the blaster apart.

You now have a Colossus which doesn't have pump lag as badly as it did before, and that can make use of all of it's reservoir's water! :D


Sling Mounts on Other Blasters

The style of rear sling mount in this guide can be used on virtually any blaster, but is especially effective on blasters where the reservoir cap is the highest point on the blaster:

Image

You can quite easily adapt these guides to suit other blasters.

For example, to make a front sling loop for a blaster with a clip on (not glued in any way) nozzle cover, use the same principal as the rear sling mount and fit it behind the nozzle cover:

Image
(These XP70 sling mounts were my first attempt at sling mounts and were made very quickly a few years ago. Hence the really rough look. :goofy: Even so, they still work well.)
Last edited by Andrew on Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

marauder
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Re: Colossus Usability Mods

Post by marauder » Fri Jul 20, 2012 12:10 pm

I'm definitely performing these mods to my Colossus when I get back to the states. I'm very impressed. Have you been able to use your Colossus much? If so, what do you think of its combat abilities?
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Andrew
Posts: 519
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 1:10 pm
Location: Durham, England

Re: Colossus Usability Mods

Post by Andrew » Fri Jul 20, 2012 12:33 pm

Weather hasn't been brilliant over here, so not as much as I'd like (not easy to coax others outside for a battle if it's cold and/or rainy :goofy: ). From what I've done in testing though, I am quite impressed with it. Very well balanced, very rugged and easy to carry. It feels like a blaster I could run (and even dive/roll) very easily with.

My only gripe is the small stream nozzle size options, and the little difference between them (a 1.8x and a 2.2x [from isoaker stats]). I am actually tempted to drill the smaller nozzle out, to get a Gorgon style 4x nozzle (maybe larger) but I don't want to ruin what is otherwise a brilliant blaster. I quite like the burst spread, so I don't really want to drill that out (other than maybe making the individual streams larger).

I would have liked a trigger guard to rest my finger on when not firing, but I s'pose that's not as important with a water blaster. I can just rest my finger on the body of the blaster instead.

Glad you like the mods! :D

I'm sure I'm forgetting a mod actually. It's a really trivial mod, but I know I did it. :goofy:
Last edited by Andrew on Fri Jul 20, 2012 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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the oncoming storm
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Re: Colossus Usability Mods

Post by the oncoming storm » Fri Jul 20, 2012 12:38 pm

I was going to see about getting me a gorgon but now I think a modded colusios is a better choice.
If you ever bother reading these, I worry for your mental sanity. :oo:

Andrew
Posts: 519
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 1:10 pm
Location: Durham, England

Re: Colossus Usability Mods

Post by Andrew » Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:00 pm

Forgot the anti-rattle pump handle. See I told you it was a trivial mod! :goofy:

Anti-Rattle Pump Handle

Not really a necessary mod, and doesn't affect performance, reliability or functionality. Just a little annoyance which I wanted to fix (again originally on my XP70).

What you need:
1x Philips screwdrivers (size 0 or 1 [These sizes are guidelines only. A screwdriver at the correct size for the screw head, may not fit into the screw well.])
1x Thin flat plastic (from supermarket food boxes, etc. Be inventive! [Broken plastic ring-binder files are too thick. Look for something thinner than 0.5mm.])
1x Scissors or knife (strong enough to cut plastic)

First check whether the handle has lateral (side to side) or linear (back and forth) play.

Fix for Lateral Play
Remove the screws from, and open up, the pump handle. Take off the two halves of the pump handle, leaving the pump rod.

Image

Look at the pump rod locating peg(s) inside the pump handle, and cut a/some piece(s) of plastic to fit in the recess for the pump rod (I needed two). You may need more/less depending on the blaster and how thick the plastic is [I was using 0.25mm thick plastic]). Make sure it has pieces which go around the locating pegs.

Image

Place the first piece into one of the pump handle halves. Close the handle up and test for lateral play in the handle.

Image

Open the handle up and add more shims as necessary (try to keep the number on each side of the pump rod as evenly distributed as possible).

Image

Once happy close the handle up.


Fix for Linear Play
(My Colossus didn't have any linear play, so the following pics are of an XP70 pump handle for demonstration purposes.)

Open the pump handle as per the fix for lateral play.

Image
(note the gap between the pump rod locating peg and the locating hole)

Look at the pump rod locating peg(s) inside the pump handle and cut a piece of plastic to fit tightly around the locating peg.

Image

The plastic piece should not protrude through the locating hole(s) in the pump rod by more than 0.5mm.

Image

Close the handle and check for linear play. Adjust the shim as necessary.

Once happy close the handle up.

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