Water Gun Names

[cjang94]

Who has named their water gun? Who has painted said name on said water gun in bold colors and proudly shown it off to all of their friends?
I've named my WW Vindicator "Trogdor".

[HBWW]

Paintjobs are more common than names. I only give names to homemades and if I gave them to stock guns, it would be based on a letter-number system to abbreviate them. However, no one would understand them anyway, so naming stock guns is pretty much pointless.

Homemade names are often tricky enough to try to get through. We end up using the same basic terms (i.e. CPH), and with our water balloon launchers, they may be eventually refered to as "76mm" and "50mm" as opposed to "PWN323MB" or "PWN312BS". (the second 2 names which are based on a rather strange naming convention for my line of WBL's)

I personally like the letters and numbers naming better. "CPS 2500" just sounds more badass than "Mega Saturator Cannon", which sounds rather lame. The names on old blasters were cooler, even if they didn't have much sense to the numbering. Usually the number system seems to be slightly based on the ordering of how models are designed. In WWII, the U.S. had numerous weaponry with the M1 designation (or some variant, such as M1A1) so they simply called them by other names. Germany had a system that gave more names. If the Super Soaker followed their convention, the SS50 would have been named the S1 or perhaps PR1 or AP1.

However, since even in warfare, technical names weren't always used, they are nearly completely unecessary in water warfare except to shorten things. "FF" instead of Flash Flood, "AB" instead of Arctic Blast. Most WW's won't be able to follow the abbreviations as easily though, and since there is no real, official standard of abbreviating current soakers, I only abbreviate the most common ones.

[Hyper]

Nope, I would never do it. Writing things on them or painting them is likely to make the gun lose its value, unless you're a skilled artist.

I leave the colouring to the designers.

[HBWW]

I'd never write anything, but I'm not against painting. For writing, unless you're writing something like "15 PUMPS MAX", it could end up looking stupid. Seeing a CPS 3200 with something lame like "TORNADO BUSTER" in permanent marker is just plain annoying to me. As for color, I am not skilled with painting and prefer to keep them unpainted. Of course, if it is painted, there's not much reason to paint them anything else other than black/black+silver, or camo. (though some people have painted theirs a medium-dark red, but IMO, it's not worth the effort since you get no concealment advantage to it) There are alternatives to painting for concealment though, such as cutting up tarps to place over it, sticking leaves/grass (whether fake or real) on, etc.

The only exception to writing and painting is for homemades. Paint helps keep the sun from wearing out PVC (which is designed to be underground and not exposed to light), and homemade names can be painted in. The farthest I went with this was shaping "CPS" on my CPH with leftover epoxy I couldn't use. (while gluing up something else) That's about it.

[marauder]

Speaking of painted guns...



Just finished a brace of pistols (XP 20s) yesterday. I don't really have any names for my current guns but my old modded out 1700 was named Tribulation it was more than just a 17k I dunno what you'd call it now... and modded 3200 was named Colossus which is where the name for the mod comes from.

[Shadowstrike Prime]

I named one of my XP-270's "Phil Collins."


Nobody ever said anything I did had to make sense.

[isoaker]

I named one of my XP-270's "Phil Collins."

Hmm... do your targets feel it coming in the air at night?

But on a more on-topic note, I don't have specific strict name for any of my water blasters, though my XP215s are often referred to as "the little green guys/guns".

[marauder]

I named one of my XP-270's "Phil Collins."

Hmm... do your targets feel it coming in the air at night?

But on a more on-topic note, I don't have specific strict name for any of my water blasters, though my XP215s are often referred to as "the little green guys/guns".

Haha, nice. I often get the impression that the XP 215 is your favorite.

[DX]

Generally, painting is for guns you intend to use for quite a while and do not want to sell. Those who practice the hobby care about performance and style first, resale value a much distant second, if at all. I don't paint names on guns though - what if you want to change its name at some point? :p

The RM usually did camo paintjobs on most of the guns we used. Instead of just splotches, we had a lot of streaks and lines so as to resemble the stalks of the riverbank reeds we hid in. Camo painting guns is usually overkill, but in places like WB's Forbidden Grove, Echoponton, Brier Hill, and the RM's Vietnam Trail, Goffle Island and southern hideout, a camo gun was potentially completely invisible at point-blank range. My furry 21K was covered in cut-up burlap, along with Robin's 15K and a few others. Lighter color burlap acted as sand-camo, again overkill except in the mulch rows and at High Point at the Goffle park. If you wanted to throw an effective ambush, you just had to have it.

Some RM guns were named. "Douchenator" for a series of inline launchers is the best known. Mike's Douchenator was named "Veronica" after much discussion. My first CPS 2500 was "Killer" then the "Miracle gun". I used to name homemade series [CPR, N-REV], but have not built any homemades in quite a while. I call my water cannon "Boomer". I take no shame in naming that one...