h a l f b a k e r y"More like a cross between an onion, a golf ball, and a roman multi-tiered arched aquaduct."
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We've got a pretty large game of Humans vs Zombies
planned for next spring at my university, and naturally I
wanted to get a leg up on the competition to remain a
human as long as possible (ideally completely surviving the
apocalypse).
We are limited to marshmallows, socks, and Nerf guns.
Nerf guns are obviously a quality product, but the ammo
can be expensive with hordes of the undead on your tail,
so I want to make a fully automatic marshmallow machine
gun. Do not confuse this with the standard marshmallow
shooter of Marshmallow Fun, Inc. orgin. This bad boy will
have an electronic firing system at the heart of it, firing
solenoids to release pre-pressurized air into the firing
chamber (none of that pumping crap). Its gonna be a beast
to say the least.
I've been off and on working on this for a bit over a week
(finals are getting in the way), but one issue I keep
running into is the loading mechanism. So far I've got a
reasonable system that loads a tube of marshmallows into
the chamber, but in a perfect world, I'd like to toss them
all into a hopper and reign chaos on zombies without
having to preload ammo tubes. So, my main question is:
any ideas on how to sort an unorganized pile of small,
sticky, squishy objects in a light, durable and easily
transportable system?
I'll post more as it gets actually written out, but that little
portion of the idea has be driving me crazy.
HvZ Homepage
http://humansvszombies.org/
The official website of Humans vs Zombies. The documentary is worth watching if you have 40 minutes lying around. [fredcai, Dec 10 2009]
Marshmallowville
http://www.marshmallowville.com/
The shooter gun is about the closest thing available to what I'm thinking of, but its a purely mechanical system. [fredcai, Dec 10 2009]
[link]
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Would these marshmallows be fired with their wooden stakes? |
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Haha, I'm pretty sure that's vampires. With zombies
its all about knocking off the head, and yes, there
will be a laser sight to facilitate better accuracy for
head shots. |
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The difference in killing zombies and vampires is where you put the wooden stake. In the head for one, in the heart for the other. But I wasn't thinking of killing anyone, just roasting marshmallows. |
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Some sort of stirrer that traps a single marshy. |
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The Exair compressed air equipment website has various air-powered conveyors that pick up pills and such and then move them along inside tubes. I was going to build a paintball gun using one of their picker-uppers, but gave it up when I realized that continuous and rapid fire was against paintballing rules. |
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If you want rapid fire, you'll also want large storage - I was thinking a backpack, with a large diameter hose running from the bottom of it to the gun (think hand-held, chain-fed machine gun). A backpack also gives you somewhere to put your air supply.
Cloggage at the point of marshmallow exit is the main problem, but I think a very shallow slope to the central exit (at the bottom of the pack) would work best, and as you'll be running, it will shake plenty to dislodge and minor cloggage.
As for the transfer, an air powered venturi type system to suck the marshmallows out of the pack and blow them to the gun is option 1, but whether it's mounted at the base of the pack or at the gun (or both?) is the question.
I presume you have the firing etc worked out already.
Devious options: preheated marshmallows for sticky splatting, angled baffles between the launch air supply and the 'ready-to-go' marshmallow to rotate the airflow - rifling by air, double-barrel (alternating) for faster firing. |
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Surely if the hopper of marshmallows is backpack mounted, then a head-mounted trebuchet is the obvious solution? All you need to fix is the rapid-reload mechanism. |
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hmmmm, slingshots with shoulder mounted cock/load/release mechanisms for dual action. |
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Perhaps instead of firing actual marshmallows, you might want to find a way to fire gobs of marshmallow creme. |
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You would then pump your ammo from the supply container through a tube into the firing mechanism, where a gob at a time would be chopped off and then blasted with compressed air. |
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Obviously you'd need components which were non-stick, or very well lubricated, but that's not impossible. |
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One obvious advantage is that since there's no protective coating of cornstarch, the gobs would be super sticky. |
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What tactical environment are you designing for? Is your goal just to lay down a steady stream of marshmallows? Launching a backpack-load of marshmallows all at once, or having a long-ranged and accurate launcher, or being able to draw quickly but still blend in with non-players, might be better than something that sprays a 30-second burst. |
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Please also consider the safety and legal implications of what you're doing. |
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To win, you might consider building a pedal-powered enclosed vehicle to travel in. |
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[21Q] are you trolling? =) |
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//a way to fire gobs of marshmallow creme// |
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Sounds like the splurge guns from Bugsey Malone. |
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The smaller PVC guns are definitely not what I'm
talking about. I'm working on more of an
automated version of the one on think geek,
though it will work very differently. The Make link
to the 'advanced' one might be useful though,
even if is just covering the more obvious firing
mechanism. I suppose this isn't a new idea, but it
is a major evolution. |
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The backpack would be a bit overkill for my
current needs, but I'm planning on making an
automated turret out of the handheld device, so
the Exair suggestion is very useful. Thanks. |
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Marshmallow creme is out. One of the few rules of
HvZ is 'Don't be a douche,' and I think covering
someone in marshmallow creme would fall into
that category, lol. |
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The tactical environment is mostly urban, but
there will be limited room clearing. So, it'll be
mostly fairly confined outdoor areas with a heavy
civilian population. Because of this, I don't necessarily need something that will fire hundreds
of rounds, but to be able to have 90 or so rounds
available without reloading for dashes between
classes would be useful toward the end of the
game. So, it mostly needs to have reliability over
range and accuracy; I don't expect to snipe anyone
with this thing. |
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The marshmallow creme gun suggestion wasn't to cover any individual opponent with the stuff... it would shoot individual blobs of the stuff, each about the same size as normal marshmallows, only stickier. |
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Thus, you'd try to get one gob on each opponent. |
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the major problem with using your standard issue marshmallows is that they're roughly square in cross-section from any angle, so alignment of an individual marshmallow picked from a random pile, and insertion into a similar calibre barrel, is going to be problematical. |
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or a drum-mag... could make it cylindrical (3d) and built around the barrel as well. |
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Our marshmallow blaster is very sensitive to differences in size, even while loading one at a time by hand. Too small, no pressure build up, too big, jambs in the barrel. Maybe use an air activated piston, so the marshmallow is just physically forced out of the chamber, regardless of angle or orientation, at a very high rate. |
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ethanol could be used as both propellant and tracer. |
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I find that tazers work pretty well on zombies. |
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Accelleration splooshes the marshmallow outward (Poisson effect); a gas check wouldn't be sufficient to contain it. You'd need a sabot. |
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Or, change your launcher so that the deformation is to your advantage. Make a couple of plates which grip the 'mallo, squashing it out into a frisbee-like shape. Spin it up so that angular momentum tends to hold the equatorial bulge, then fling it much like a trap/skeet machine throws a clay pigeon. (A little puff of corn starch on each plate keeps it from sticking.) |
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In keeping with the skeet idea, the flying marshmallows could then be gunned down with a flame thrower... |
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Could you use the correct type of fine granules in the
magazine to keep the marshmallows free flowing? |
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freeze the marshmellows and use a vibratory pellet style feeder. |
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Or use stale hard marshmallows with the vibratory pellet feeder, and then heat the chamber just enough to soften the mm for safer delivery. |
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