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Eclipse launcher at D-Day *pics*

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:24 pm
by Solar
The launcher was approved for DIRECT FIRE shotgun style paintball grapeshot. Eliminating multiple players with one trigger pull was awesome! I took out an allied player from the tower during the final battle that allowed us to swap flags. Launcher performed better than expected in both direct and indirect fire modes. Deliveries finally starting!

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Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:32 pm
by jackssmirkingrevenge
Very nice, can it actually be fired with a belt as opposed to a drum mag?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:44 pm
by MrCrowley
Damn that's nice. How many years has this been in the making? Must've been about a year since you first showed it here.

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:58 pm
by LynyrdSkynyrd
that is a beautiful thing. It must have been fun paint balling with it

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:10 am
by THUNDERLORD
Best looking pics so far. And it was awesome already.
I really like the finish on it. Came out great!

LOL, I bet other Paintballers will duck next time they see it. :shock: :oops: 8)

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:44 am
by starman
Beautiful, looks like it's very versatile as well. If I was a paintballer, I would be drooling over it....as it is now I'm only lustily ogling it... :wink:

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:54 am
by FordGtMan
If I was a paintballer, I will be drooling over it.
Im not even a paintballer and i still am. Thats a nice paintjob you did there solar. It looks great and the attachments are terrific! :)

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:07 am
by Solar
Very observant JSR. If you noticed the picatinny system on the barrel and in back, that is going to act as the mount for the retention system and handle while using as a belt feeder. Technically I call it a radial belt feeder in it's current config. I lost my camera charger, but I will post some pics of the breech loader version of the launcher tomorrow as well. It will show you the makings of the next version which is a clip feed. Need to take care of business and sell these first ones though. Almost there with orders. Lots of new interest from the military and spooky types this week. With the differential surface piston valve I am going to try regulating the trigger and drive system to max out at 300, then let the ballast chamber pump up to about 600psi. We have a 2.65:1 surface area ratio that will hopefully do the trick.

Regarding the finish... Originally it was to be all black, but the plater made a boo boo on the first run, so subsequent parts got mixed around a bit to go with the two tone look. I like it a lot, but will probably go with the all black next time around. The hard anodizing is great. One of the launchers got blown over in the wind and landed on some rocks. The rocks lost.

Paintballing with it was soooo fun. There will be about 4 articles in paintball mags in the coming months and it is going to be in the next Greg Hasting's Paintball video game. Watching the shot round spread out down into a ravine through the orange smoke and sunlight during the d-day game was radical. Someone in the trench goes "what was THAT?!", someone else answered with " a paintball shotgun!", about a second later there were cheers down the trenches. :-)

People really liked it there and we had a demo set up where you could pull the trigger and index the rounds. We had some OCD 8 year olds that were fantastic product testers. I learned a lot and was very happy with the performance. 5 years in the making. 5 years? 5 years!!! wow... but it was worth it!

haha, it's come a long way...

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Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:23 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
It will show you the makings of the next version which is a clip feed
Now that is something I would love to see, please tell me it ejects spent carts as well :D

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:28 am
by Solar
jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:
It will show you the makings of the next version which is a clip feed
Now that is something I would love to see, please tell me it ejects spent carts as well :D

Only if you leave the clip catcher off. :-) In reality I made the launching system as a pneumatics toolkit to fool around with. Now that the basics are all there I can play with new designs without having to re-invent the wheel on each new launcher. I swear my father's spirit designed this beast. I now understand what is meant by sacred geometry. Funny how some things are just meant to work together... kinda like PB and J...

BTW, where are you located JSR? USA?

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:34 am
by starman
Solar wrote:BTW, where are you located JSR? USA?
Good luck getting that out of him... :wink:

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:35 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
You could always go for a Beta-C style mag with twin drums under the action to have an uniterrupted belt feed with greater capacity, if the ratcheting mechanism is up to the extra strain of course.

Currently I'm in Spain 'cause of work.
starman wrote:Good luck getting that out of him... :wink:
As to my home country I'm still open to educated guesses by PM ;)

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:35 am
by Carlman
That is great that it performed to expectations mate, will they be marketed in Australia too in the future?
starman wrote:
Solar wrote:BTW, where are you located JSR? USA?
Good luck getting that out of him... :wink:
yea it took me a while :roll: , and i didnt even get it out of him lol

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:18 am
by )DEMON(
The launcher is getting better each time I see it Solar.

Are you going to produce and automatic version? I'd imagine a slow automatic firing launcher would work wonders as a tank main gun.

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:48 am
by Antonio
Nice work Solar, it really has an impressive look! I am happy business is starting to roll now. This is my dream as well, making my own bb guns and selling them to ppl. I still have a long way to go:)
You inspire me, Thanks!