A few days ago, I was rooting through an old hard drive and ran across a folder of photo scans I haven't even looked at in probably over a decade and a half. Those scans were of paper photos (remember those? 
) and I think at the time I was re-scanning them since versions I'd uploaded earlier were meant for 400x600 monitors. With new ones at the time being closer to a whopping 1024x768. 
And, since I got my first digital camera (a cheap point-and-shoot Olympus with a massive 1.4 MP) in late 1999, that means these paper photos mostly predate that point.
AND... I know for a fact the timeline of this particular gun- it's quite literally the very first one I made after officially launching Doc's Machine.
That, ladies and gentlemen, was the very first Phantasm, or 'assisted pump' Phantom.
For some of you that may have only recently tuned in, the story behind that is there was (and may still be?) an airsmith named Brad "Q" Nestle- "Q", of course, after the Bond gadget guy. He had, years earlier, developed what he called the Super Sniper- taking Autococker pneumatics and putting it on a Sniper (they are of course the same basic gun) so that the pneumatics still cock the gun, but don't fire it- and are actuated by the pump handle, not the trigger.
The upshot is that the gun therefore has an extremely light and extremely fast pump stroke of about an eighth of an inch.
Just as I was getting ready to set up shop, a client contracted me to make a similar version, but on a Phantom. After some pondering, I said "sure, I can do that", and he immediately shipped me a Phantom and several of the necessary parts. (I think the Rock, definitely the AKA external adjustment cap for the WGP reg, maybe the ram and 3-way.)
Within about three weeks or so of launch, I delivered it, roughly the in the latter half of July, 1998.
The pump is free-floating, and can be removed with the barrel. The front collar adjusts the 'preload' on the pump and controls the overall pump stroke. The return spring is hidden in the little clearance recess for the ram- clearance which keeps the pump from rotating, too.
The customer wanted the vertical Rock, one of my P-stocks (that's only the second one I ever made) and insisted on the stainless hardlines.
Mike at CCI offered to anno it for me, and may even have done it gratis. If not it was at a fair discount, and that was a welcome bit of help for my shiny new little business.
Over the years, I made a ton more, though none as fancy- well, except for this one I made a few years later for Punisher:
The only real drawback with them is that as a breech-drop, a fast bolt speed like that is basically TOO fast, and they can be hard on paint. Worse is today's tiny paint. So they've kind of fallen out of favor.
But, I'm still proud of how it came out, and have often thought that if I could find the right parts- mainly the old-style Quickram and an AKA adjuster cap (or even one I could borrow to copy)- and presuming I had the time and spare funds I'd love to build a clone of it. That's THE gun that started this whole mess off.
Doc.
) and I think at the time I was re-scanning them since versions I'd uploaded earlier were meant for 400x600 monitors. With new ones at the time being closer to a whopping 1024x768. And, since I got my first digital camera (a cheap point-and-shoot Olympus with a massive 1.4 MP) in late 1999, that means these paper photos mostly predate that point.
AND... I know for a fact the timeline of this particular gun- it's quite literally the very first one I made after officially launching Doc's Machine.
That, ladies and gentlemen, was the very first Phantasm, or 'assisted pump' Phantom.
For some of you that may have only recently tuned in, the story behind that is there was (and may still be?) an airsmith named Brad "Q" Nestle- "Q", of course, after the Bond gadget guy. He had, years earlier, developed what he called the Super Sniper- taking Autococker pneumatics and putting it on a Sniper (they are of course the same basic gun) so that the pneumatics still cock the gun, but don't fire it- and are actuated by the pump handle, not the trigger.
The upshot is that the gun therefore has an extremely light and extremely fast pump stroke of about an eighth of an inch.
Just as I was getting ready to set up shop, a client contracted me to make a similar version, but on a Phantom. After some pondering, I said "sure, I can do that", and he immediately shipped me a Phantom and several of the necessary parts. (I think the Rock, definitely the AKA external adjustment cap for the WGP reg, maybe the ram and 3-way.)
Within about three weeks or so of launch, I delivered it, roughly the in the latter half of July, 1998.
The pump is free-floating, and can be removed with the barrel. The front collar adjusts the 'preload' on the pump and controls the overall pump stroke. The return spring is hidden in the little clearance recess for the ram- clearance which keeps the pump from rotating, too.
The customer wanted the vertical Rock, one of my P-stocks (that's only the second one I ever made) and insisted on the stainless hardlines.
Mike at CCI offered to anno it for me, and may even have done it gratis. If not it was at a fair discount, and that was a welcome bit of help for my shiny new little business.
Over the years, I made a ton more, though none as fancy- well, except for this one I made a few years later for Punisher:
The only real drawback with them is that as a breech-drop, a fast bolt speed like that is basically TOO fast, and they can be hard on paint. Worse is today's tiny paint. So they've kind of fallen out of favor.
But, I'm still proud of how it came out, and have often thought that if I could find the right parts- mainly the old-style Quickram and an AKA adjuster cap (or even one I could borrow to copy)- and presuming I had the time and spare funds
I'd love to build a clone of it. That's THE gun that started this whole mess off. Doc.
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