The Diablo has a few things going for it in terms of potential: Aluminum frame, adjustable trigger, mostly standard Nelson internals, full 1” ID pump handle, adjustable bolt, cool name, and most importantly small proprietary barrel threads.
This one needed some work before it would hold air so new valve seal, springs, and o rings went in and it aired up.
Upon testing the Brass hammer and chunky pump arm made the action surprisingly smooth and the trigger pull pretty nice as well. But alas I wanted a stock class marker for my dad to use so modifications were in order.
The Barrel: In stock format the barrel is kinda terrible, super heavy and tiny threads only a mother could love. This makes it a perfect candidate for AC threading. Local machinist got it done for me and the results were excellent. Almost no remnants of the ordinal threads were left and still plenty of thickness around the new threads. It’s also worth noting that because of the large ID of the pump arm it fit over the freak xl barrel with no modification and very little slop.
The VASA: I had considered using a CCI but just so happened to have one from a tippman 98 sitting around, so I used that. Took a little shaping to match the Diablo frame and drilling/tapping some 10-32 holes but after that was done it mounted up nice. Stainless air line was also borrowed from the 98 and with a few brass elbows the air lines were complete.
Last few steps were making a t stock and feed tube. T stock is just some 1/2” 6000 series aluminum milled ,bent and drilled then painted black . The feed is a CCI tube and gate with a copper elbow. Took some sanding and tiny set screws but it all went together without much issue.
Shoutout to the homies $L!mBo and HandmadePaintball for hooking me up with a metal 45 grip and CCI bucket changer (not pictured)
All in it would have been cheaper to just buy a phantom but I’m very pleased with the results .
Moral of the story? Don’t sleep on the DIABLO 🫡
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