I didn't own a Helios until NFStrike started carrying a 3D printed pump-action kit for them. Literally the day that they first posted an image of their upcoming kit, I knew I needed to have one, and I went out and bought a Helios, and then constantly checked their shop over and over until the kit was listed. I can't be sure, but there's a good chance that I was the first person in the entire world to buy this kit, since I was refreshing the page every few minutes the night that it went up for sale. I also bought a set of cheap sights to complete the look of the blaster. When I got the kit, I was so excited about it that I installed it, tested it, painted it and did some other work on the blaster all in the same day to create Esfandiar.
The first thing I realized was that while I love the Helios, the stock was too short and too slippery to be reasonably usable. I searched around my parts until I found the stock from a Deploy, and I decided it was a perfect fit. I simply cut the back off the Deploy stock and epoxied it onto the back of the Helios, with no cutting done to the Helios shell at all. I did, however, have to make one cut on the blaster itself. To get the kit's picatinny rail on top of the blaster, you have to cut down the front sight, but that was an incredibly quick and easy cut.
While I was doing that, I realized that the 3D printed barrel ended very abruptly, and wouldn't have a good spot for an orange tip. I cut a small circle of PVC pipe and glued it to the front of the barrel from the kit to add a proper orange tip. When that was done, I used some epoxy putty to smooth the transition between the Helios and the Deploy stock. Honestly, its probably my worst epoxy putty work ever, but oh well. I sanded the 3D printed parts heavily, trying to avoid the awful sound of 3D print rubbing against other 3D print. When I got to a point that I thought was good enough, I Started painting. I chose a bright green color for the blaster, since I realized I didn't have much that was green. The paint I chose was truly terrible. It was Rust-Oleum Premium High Gloss, and for some reason, it didn't want to stick to anything. I usually use Rust-Oleum paints, and they work well, but I have no idea what was up with this can. It took me a ton of coats, and I ended up having to re-tape and re-spray some parts, but I finally got everything painted.
I chose the name Esfandiar for the blaster, and my mom, who has much better handwriting than me, added it to a good flat spot on the blaster. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the name would be directly under the priming bars, so you can't actually see it on the finished blaster. The name Esfandiar comes from the name of a Persian hero from the epic Persian poem the Shahnameh. My name, Katie, is short for Katayoun, who was Esfandiar's mother in the poem, so it seemed a fitting name for my blaster.
With the blaster painted and reassembled, it was time to add the pump action kit.
The epoxy putty work around the stock still bothers me a little bit, but the blaster is otherwise awesome. From the metal rods and the 3D printed parts, its probably my heaviest blaster, and I love the overall aesthetic. I highly recommend the pump-action kit from NFStrike, it makes the Helios a lot more usable, and it looks good doing it! A lot of people were wondering if the spring-assisted return on the Helios still worked with the pump kit on, so I filmed a video of me firing it to show to people that it does indeed.
This was a pretty short mod overview because it was a pretty simple mod, but I do love the way it turned out. Someday I'll actually re-write the blaster's name in a spot where you can actually see it.
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