bigbisont
Well-Known Member
Yes, it’s yet another pulse build. This is my first attempt at such a thing, and it didn’t exactly go smoothly, but I had fun. Its not “finished”, per say...
- I have not decided what direction I want to go with the ammo counter, so for now I’ve left it off completely.
- I haven’t decided if I like the OD paint job. I mean, I do…but …eh. I kinda rushed the paint near the end too. A few lazy mistakes I will clean up.
- Also I intend to do some weathering…SOME! I mean, im talking less than the “less is more” mantra. But ill be doing something when I finally decide on color scheme
- I plan to either get rid of the sling, or get a more screen accurate one. The sling that came with the Thompson is a bit wimpy.
So my initial plan was a common one I guess. I would buy a Thompson airsoft, a resin pulse that I hollow it out, and fab up the extra bits as I needed to achieve a firing (airsoft) replica.
For the main grip, the resin kit one was useless. I decided I didn’t mind just filing the stock grip from the thompson down to streamline it. I then used a hacksaw to gently cut in the grooves. Not perfect, but I can live with it.
So my first problems came when it got to hollowing out the resin cast. I don’t know the etiquette on citing use of resin kits on this forum. I would assume giving credit to the kit maker is the norm, but I think I should defer as I was not real happy with the kit I got. It is my opinion the proportions were off (magazine area of shroud too small, carry handle angles too shallow, whole kit to thin & too short by a couple inches) and resin itself poorly mixed (when I got to cutting it up, I was constantly hitting pockets of clear goo that drained out leaving an empty air pocket). If I ever try this again, I’ll darn sure be spending the extra money to get a high quality one from spat** or proper shrouds from matsu.
**edit: I meant a newer black kit of his. I guess he has had a few over the years.
Anyways, back to work. Using a dremel tool and belt sander, step one was cutting out the “Thompson” parts and discarding them. Because I felt the kit was too short, I cut out the “grenade launcher” portion 2 inches deeper into the magazine shroud (I knew I wouldn’t be using that shroud anyways) essentially extending the ‘cage’ length. I cut the carry handle in the middle and added an inch worth of spacers to make the carry handle longer.
All this hacking of course made the resin shroud pretty weak. I essentially killed 3 birds with one stone by adding a channel of …some kind of trim. Honestly not even sure what it was. But it was metal channel that I used a 5-min epoxy to attach along the base rails of the shroud. It added strength to the carry handle top and base railes, it created clean grooves down the 'sights' of the carry handle, and it actually created a strong groove to wrap around the ridge of the Thompson to provide a tight secure fit of shroud to gun. Lots of Bondo filled in the gaps.
I bought a sheet of 16 gauge steel from Lowes that I cut out most of the metal bits from (using an angle grinder/cutting wheels). I used a cheapo stick welder to make the stock. I’m not a skilled welder by any definition, but I mostly made it work…mostly.
Vice grips and pliers for the bending and shaping. A Dremmel tool, lots of patience and LOTS spare wheels allowed me to hack out something reasonable for the detailing. Again, I know this was a hacky looking job, but good enough (for now) and doesnt look that bad when flat black.
To rebuild the magazine portion of the shroud, I decided to build it from scratch with Bondo. Not my best idea. Bondo is HEAVY. I did find some random plastic trim (drywalling material maybe?) that I could easily cut and glue to the basic shape I wanted. Coat with bondo, file, sand, and repeat.
A generous helping of 5 minute epoxy connected magazine portion to carry hand portion, then LOTS more bondo, sanding, filing, and more sanding. I also used the plastic trim/bondo to beef up the rear pillar of the carry handle while I was at it.
The resin grenade launcher was, as mentioned above, a bit thin as it came. So I added spacers before epoxy-ing the halves together. This worked out because I used the spacers to frame out where I wanted the 3.5” bolts to go in order to secure the grenade launcher to the Thompson. But thanks to the gap between the halves, lots more Bondo was needed (and more weight!).
To attach the grenade launcher to the Thompson, I chopped up the Thompson barrel. In addition to the cuts to fit the metal tubing that would be the Pulse’s barrel, I also dremeled out space in the stock barrel assembly to wedge a standard nut in there. I then drilled out the holes in the bottom to allow 3.5” carriage bolts to stick directly through the stock assembly to those nuts. One of the bolts is hidden by the front leg of the magazine shroud, but unfortunately one of the bolts is a bit of an eye sore.
Then a test fit. I drilled out the area where the bolts on the resit one were present and used real bolts in that spot. It held surprisingly well on it own (the metal chanel hugging things tightly no doubt).
When I see my 'test fit' is when i starts to sink in just how closeI am!
For the magazine, I don’t know if this was common knowledge, but you can reduce the magazine yourself. After trying to get a Tokyo Marui short stick (and failing/balking at prices) I decided to just cut mine down. I was surprised and pleased to discover the inner guts are surprisingly easy to reduce. There is a pin that holds the top guts in place to the mag casing. Push the pin out then bend the tab at the bottom of the stick to release the bottom plate, and you can just slide the entire inner assembly out the bottom. EVEN BETTER, the guts are in 3 pieces. The top loading portion, the bottom rotary portion and a BB travel path In the middle. The middle portion has no moving parts, appears to just provide spacing, and just pops out! After you remove the middle piece, the top and bottom portion snap together cleanly. Now you just cut the clip’s casing down to the desired length, re-insert the (now shorter) guts, reinstall the pin to hold it together, and you have what I believe is a fully functional short mag
*I have to admit…I haven’t tested it. I could just be full of crap and I actually destroyed the mag. I would think it has functionality, but have yet to actually load and fire it to find out. If someone wants to dispute this process, please do so.
So ive cut the metal bits. And primed everything.
Now the first coats of paint
The gun parts assembled (with satin black over grip portions
Shroud slapped on and secured with plates! Now is about the time I start feeling good
Last bits of bent and shaped steel and aluminum and I am now thrilled
So in conclusion:
I love my “airsoft M41A Pulse Rifle”. It was a super PITA and if I ever build another, I will NOT be doing it this way, but I think it turned out well. As I said, its not “finished” and it may never be. At some point I would love to replace the resin grenade launcher with a more proper build of actual SPAS12 and Rem 870 parts. Even though I think my sliding stock and barrel vent are passable, I know they aren’t perfect. I may try my hand again at fabing those up. Time will tell, but back to the point. I think it wasn’t bad for a first effort and I personally love it.
- I have not decided what direction I want to go with the ammo counter, so for now I’ve left it off completely.
- I haven’t decided if I like the OD paint job. I mean, I do…but …eh. I kinda rushed the paint near the end too. A few lazy mistakes I will clean up.
- Also I intend to do some weathering…SOME! I mean, im talking less than the “less is more” mantra. But ill be doing something when I finally decide on color scheme
- I plan to either get rid of the sling, or get a more screen accurate one. The sling that came with the Thompson is a bit wimpy.
So my initial plan was a common one I guess. I would buy a Thompson airsoft, a resin pulse that I hollow it out, and fab up the extra bits as I needed to achieve a firing (airsoft) replica.
For the main grip, the resin kit one was useless. I decided I didn’t mind just filing the stock grip from the thompson down to streamline it. I then used a hacksaw to gently cut in the grooves. Not perfect, but I can live with it.
So my first problems came when it got to hollowing out the resin cast. I don’t know the etiquette on citing use of resin kits on this forum. I would assume giving credit to the kit maker is the norm, but I think I should defer as I was not real happy with the kit I got. It is my opinion the proportions were off (magazine area of shroud too small, carry handle angles too shallow, whole kit to thin & too short by a couple inches) and resin itself poorly mixed (when I got to cutting it up, I was constantly hitting pockets of clear goo that drained out leaving an empty air pocket). If I ever try this again, I’ll darn sure be spending the extra money to get a high quality one from spat** or proper shrouds from matsu.
**edit: I meant a newer black kit of his. I guess he has had a few over the years.
Anyways, back to work. Using a dremel tool and belt sander, step one was cutting out the “Thompson” parts and discarding them. Because I felt the kit was too short, I cut out the “grenade launcher” portion 2 inches deeper into the magazine shroud (I knew I wouldn’t be using that shroud anyways) essentially extending the ‘cage’ length. I cut the carry handle in the middle and added an inch worth of spacers to make the carry handle longer.
All this hacking of course made the resin shroud pretty weak. I essentially killed 3 birds with one stone by adding a channel of …some kind of trim. Honestly not even sure what it was. But it was metal channel that I used a 5-min epoxy to attach along the base rails of the shroud. It added strength to the carry handle top and base railes, it created clean grooves down the 'sights' of the carry handle, and it actually created a strong groove to wrap around the ridge of the Thompson to provide a tight secure fit of shroud to gun. Lots of Bondo filled in the gaps.
I bought a sheet of 16 gauge steel from Lowes that I cut out most of the metal bits from (using an angle grinder/cutting wheels). I used a cheapo stick welder to make the stock. I’m not a skilled welder by any definition, but I mostly made it work…mostly.
Vice grips and pliers for the bending and shaping. A Dremmel tool, lots of patience and LOTS spare wheels allowed me to hack out something reasonable for the detailing. Again, I know this was a hacky looking job, but good enough (for now) and doesnt look that bad when flat black.
To rebuild the magazine portion of the shroud, I decided to build it from scratch with Bondo. Not my best idea. Bondo is HEAVY. I did find some random plastic trim (drywalling material maybe?) that I could easily cut and glue to the basic shape I wanted. Coat with bondo, file, sand, and repeat.
A generous helping of 5 minute epoxy connected magazine portion to carry hand portion, then LOTS more bondo, sanding, filing, and more sanding. I also used the plastic trim/bondo to beef up the rear pillar of the carry handle while I was at it.
The resin grenade launcher was, as mentioned above, a bit thin as it came. So I added spacers before epoxy-ing the halves together. This worked out because I used the spacers to frame out where I wanted the 3.5” bolts to go in order to secure the grenade launcher to the Thompson. But thanks to the gap between the halves, lots more Bondo was needed (and more weight!).
To attach the grenade launcher to the Thompson, I chopped up the Thompson barrel. In addition to the cuts to fit the metal tubing that would be the Pulse’s barrel, I also dremeled out space in the stock barrel assembly to wedge a standard nut in there. I then drilled out the holes in the bottom to allow 3.5” carriage bolts to stick directly through the stock assembly to those nuts. One of the bolts is hidden by the front leg of the magazine shroud, but unfortunately one of the bolts is a bit of an eye sore.
Then a test fit. I drilled out the area where the bolts on the resit one were present and used real bolts in that spot. It held surprisingly well on it own (the metal chanel hugging things tightly no doubt).
When I see my 'test fit' is when i starts to sink in just how closeI am!
For the magazine, I don’t know if this was common knowledge, but you can reduce the magazine yourself. After trying to get a Tokyo Marui short stick (and failing/balking at prices) I decided to just cut mine down. I was surprised and pleased to discover the inner guts are surprisingly easy to reduce. There is a pin that holds the top guts in place to the mag casing. Push the pin out then bend the tab at the bottom of the stick to release the bottom plate, and you can just slide the entire inner assembly out the bottom. EVEN BETTER, the guts are in 3 pieces. The top loading portion, the bottom rotary portion and a BB travel path In the middle. The middle portion has no moving parts, appears to just provide spacing, and just pops out! After you remove the middle piece, the top and bottom portion snap together cleanly. Now you just cut the clip’s casing down to the desired length, re-insert the (now shorter) guts, reinstall the pin to hold it together, and you have what I believe is a fully functional short mag
*I have to admit…I haven’t tested it. I could just be full of crap and I actually destroyed the mag. I would think it has functionality, but have yet to actually load and fire it to find out. If someone wants to dispute this process, please do so.
So ive cut the metal bits. And primed everything.
Now the first coats of paint
The gun parts assembled (with satin black over grip portions
Shroud slapped on and secured with plates! Now is about the time I start feeling good
Last bits of bent and shaped steel and aluminum and I am now thrilled
So in conclusion:
I love my “airsoft M41A Pulse Rifle”. It was a super PITA and if I ever build another, I will NOT be doing it this way, but I think it turned out well. As I said, its not “finished” and it may never be. At some point I would love to replace the resin grenade launcher with a more proper build of actual SPAS12 and Rem 870 parts. Even though I think my sliding stock and barrel vent are passable, I know they aren’t perfect. I may try my hand again at fabing those up. Time will tell, but back to the point. I think it wasn’t bad for a first effort and I personally love it.
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