Splatmaster Rapide
I started Cushman Custom Creations because of my passion for
paintball. I played my first game in New Hampshire at a field were the
rental gun was the Splatmaster pistol, this was a co2 cartridge pistol
that held 10 rounds in a clear tube that was slipped into the front of the
pistol. You had to hold the pistol up right and cock it for every shot. It did
not have much range or accuracy but never the less I was hooked on the
game. I purchased my first marker about a year later when the
Splatmaster Rapide came out. It was the first semi automatic marker
made and came with a 20 round drum that could be rotated after every 5
shots, I also added a 40 round ammo drum to carry extra ammo into
battle. Several years later I retired the Rapide for the Tippmann 68
special.
The marker kits began about 10 years ago while I was learning to
vacuum form plastic to make a Star Wars costume for my oldest kid for a
Halloween party, I made her a Stormtrooper costume out of .060 plastic.
After finishing the costume I decided to dress-up my Tippmann 68
special for an up coming paintball game. Since I was a big WWII
weapons buff I decided to make something from that time period. I
made a Mg34 master mold out of wood and PVC pipe. It turned out pretty
nice looking and I brought it to the playing field for the game, while
playing with the Mg34 kit I had several players come over and ask were I
have gotten the dress-up kit. I told them I had made it myself and they
asked if I had a website or anything, I said no and went on my way into
the days battle. At the end of the day one of the players who also was
using a 68 special asked if he could purchase the kit from me, I agreed
and made my first sale. I returned home and began to think up other
marker kits that could be used over my marker. I made several types
including a Tommy and Mg42 which I would build and sell on Ebay. After
a while and several 100 emails from non-winning bidders asking if I had
more to sell I built my first website. The first kits were made from .060
plastic but after a while I started to test different gauges of plastic and
went with the stronger high impact .090 plastic to increase the durability
of the kits. I found out that there was a big difference in the gauges of
plastic used for the kit bodies, to thin and the kits could get damaged by
a direct hit, to thick and the plastic could crack when hit. I found a good
gauge with the .090 plastic.
Along the way I began to purchase newer markers to use for the kit
bodies and spent many hours searching for new master molds to use. I
always liked to play army as a kid and now being able to run around and
shoot other players using a Tommy or Mg42 was a dream come true.
I started to think of other items that could be added to make the feel even
more realistic, I tried to play wearing a real WWII G.I. steel pot helmet
and my neck felt like I broke it by the end of the day so I vacuum formed
it, added a strap and release clip and painted it olive drab, boy what a
difference it made the next game and it fit so nice over my mask I
decided to add them to the website. I purchased the most popular
helmets used during WWII (German, G.I. British and Russian) for the
master molds and continue to add more as they are located.
Items like the grenades were added after I purchased an expensive
brand name grenade and after pulling the pin watched it hit the ground
and just bounce around and not let out the paint. I took it home and after
emptying it figured out how to make my own. I made about 20 of them
and brought them to the next game, everyone of them worked like a
charm and took out a ton of players who where defending the area in a
small town. There were no roofs on any of the building they were
defending so I gave the grenades out to all my team mates and we
rushed the town while keeping the enemy's heads down with a good
amount of suppressing fire. We tossed in a grenade at each of the
buildings and there were no survivors.
We are always looking for new kits to add and better ways to build them.
I am sure we will always hear from a few people that plastic is not the
greatest thing to use for building a marker kit but as I always say "if I am
going to go to one or two scenario games this summer I am not going to
spend $800.00 dollars or more for a marker kit". This is why we make
the kits easy to add and remove from the markers and not use real gun
parts or heavy metal pieces, it just gets to expensive and the cost has to
be passed on to the buyer. If I am going to dress the part I want my
marker to look the part also but without costing a small fortune and best
of all I can always remove the kit if I am not going to be playing in a
scenario game the next time. I see it as plastic is a very durable material
and can take a great deal of abuse, its flexible so it can bend a bit before
it will break and if there is a mishap, its very easy to repair. I have been
using several kits on my own markers for over three years now and have
only had to touch up the paint jobs. Its also nice that by the end of the day
your arms are not worn out from carrying around a ton of extra weight by
using real wood stocks and metal parts.
As you can see from the pictures we are always looking to improve the
look of the kits, we use real guns or deactivated ones as the master
molds in most cases and if real ones can't be located we look for 1:1
scale replicas to use instead. A fun fact about the Browning .50 and
Browning .30 master molds used by C.C.C., they were purchased from a
auction house in England after being used in the filming of the HBO
series Band of Brothers.
paintball. I played my first game in New Hampshire at a field were the
rental gun was the Splatmaster pistol, this was a co2 cartridge pistol
that held 10 rounds in a clear tube that was slipped into the front of the
pistol. You had to hold the pistol up right and cock it for every shot. It did
not have much range or accuracy but never the less I was hooked on the
game. I purchased my first marker about a year later when the
Splatmaster Rapide came out. It was the first semi automatic marker
made and came with a 20 round drum that could be rotated after every 5
shots, I also added a 40 round ammo drum to carry extra ammo into
battle. Several years later I retired the Rapide for the Tippmann 68
special.
The marker kits began about 10 years ago while I was learning to
vacuum form plastic to make a Star Wars costume for my oldest kid for a
Halloween party, I made her a Stormtrooper costume out of .060 plastic.
After finishing the costume I decided to dress-up my Tippmann 68
special for an up coming paintball game. Since I was a big WWII
weapons buff I decided to make something from that time period. I
made a Mg34 master mold out of wood and PVC pipe. It turned out pretty
nice looking and I brought it to the playing field for the game, while
playing with the Mg34 kit I had several players come over and ask were I
have gotten the dress-up kit. I told them I had made it myself and they
asked if I had a website or anything, I said no and went on my way into
the days battle. At the end of the day one of the players who also was
using a 68 special asked if he could purchase the kit from me, I agreed
and made my first sale. I returned home and began to think up other
marker kits that could be used over my marker. I made several types
including a Tommy and Mg42 which I would build and sell on Ebay. After
a while and several 100 emails from non-winning bidders asking if I had
more to sell I built my first website. The first kits were made from .060
plastic but after a while I started to test different gauges of plastic and
went with the stronger high impact .090 plastic to increase the durability
of the kits. I found out that there was a big difference in the gauges of
plastic used for the kit bodies, to thin and the kits could get damaged by
a direct hit, to thick and the plastic could crack when hit. I found a good
gauge with the .090 plastic.
Along the way I began to purchase newer markers to use for the kit
bodies and spent many hours searching for new master molds to use. I
always liked to play army as a kid and now being able to run around and
shoot other players using a Tommy or Mg42 was a dream come true.
I started to think of other items that could be added to make the feel even
more realistic, I tried to play wearing a real WWII G.I. steel pot helmet
and my neck felt like I broke it by the end of the day so I vacuum formed
it, added a strap and release clip and painted it olive drab, boy what a
difference it made the next game and it fit so nice over my mask I
decided to add them to the website. I purchased the most popular
helmets used during WWII (German, G.I. British and Russian) for the
master molds and continue to add more as they are located.
Items like the grenades were added after I purchased an expensive
brand name grenade and after pulling the pin watched it hit the ground
and just bounce around and not let out the paint. I took it home and after
emptying it figured out how to make my own. I made about 20 of them
and brought them to the next game, everyone of them worked like a
charm and took out a ton of players who where defending the area in a
small town. There were no roofs on any of the building they were
defending so I gave the grenades out to all my team mates and we
rushed the town while keeping the enemy's heads down with a good
amount of suppressing fire. We tossed in a grenade at each of the
buildings and there were no survivors.
We are always looking for new kits to add and better ways to build them.
I am sure we will always hear from a few people that plastic is not the
greatest thing to use for building a marker kit but as I always say "if I am
going to go to one or two scenario games this summer I am not going to
spend $800.00 dollars or more for a marker kit". This is why we make
the kits easy to add and remove from the markers and not use real gun
parts or heavy metal pieces, it just gets to expensive and the cost has to
be passed on to the buyer. If I am going to dress the part I want my
marker to look the part also but without costing a small fortune and best
of all I can always remove the kit if I am not going to be playing in a
scenario game the next time. I see it as plastic is a very durable material
and can take a great deal of abuse, its flexible so it can bend a bit before
it will break and if there is a mishap, its very easy to repair. I have been
using several kits on my own markers for over three years now and have
only had to touch up the paint jobs. Its also nice that by the end of the day
your arms are not worn out from carrying around a ton of extra weight by
using real wood stocks and metal parts.
As you can see from the pictures we are always looking to improve the
look of the kits, we use real guns or deactivated ones as the master
molds in most cases and if real ones can't be located we look for 1:1
scale replicas to use instead. A fun fact about the Browning .50 and
Browning .30 master molds used by C.C.C., they were purchased from a
auction house in England after being used in the filming of the HBO
series Band of Brothers.
1st thing I vacuum formed
1st marker kit
1st Mg42
Newest Mg42
1st Thompson
1st Browning .30
Newest Thompson
Newest Browning .30
