HomePaintgunsElectroProduction Alien Revelation 002

Production Alien Revelation 002

Around 2002, Jack Rice of Alien Paintball began development of his first paintball marker, the A1 (Alien 1) a boltless design which would become the Alien Revelation.

“MasterRich” posted photos of the initial design on March 15th, 2002 to pbnation. Removal of the bolt allowed the breech to be pushed back so the loader would sit directly above the wrist. With the breech so far back, a 12-14 inch barrel would only sticks out slightly further than the front of the body.

In the months to follow, the development of the Revelation from prototype to near (but not quite) production was chronicled by Jack Rice on pbnation. Rice posted as each piece was theorized, developed, prototyped and tested. Most components seemed to be in a constant cycle of re-development, as Rice, and those associated with the project constantly re envisioned and perfected what many saw as a fresh concept for an electronic pneumatic marker.

Left side view of the Alien Revelation.
Left side view of the Alien Revelation boltless electro pneumatic paintball marker.

Duane Parsons and Alien Paintball

Duane Parsons would become the machinist for Rice on this and other Alien Paintball projects leading up to 2006. Parsons first experienced paintball in 2001, around a year before working with Rice on the prototypes of the Alien Revelation. A machinist by trade, he became involved towards the beginning of Rice’s prototype development.
Parsons writes, ” I took the ideas and did all the CAD work to make everything fit to the guns up until 2006.”

As the Alien Revelation progressed, Parsons picked up more paintball machining projects, working for Twisted Paintball and machining pieces for the early Ironmen Matrix models.
Rice describes Parsons’ paintball contracts in a posting on the Revelation thread on pbnation.com, writing, “Plus my machinist is in quite high demand. He’s working on a new bolt kit for the Ironmen to make a more compact Matrix, and he’s still doing the work for Twisted Products.”

Jack Rice and Duane Parsons, of Alien Paintball, exhibiting at the July 2003 IAO Trade Show. Photo courtesy Bill Mills of Warpig.com.
Jack Rice and Duane Parsons, of Alien Paintball, exhibited prototypes of the Revelation / A1 design at the July 2003 IAO Trade Show. Photo courtesy Bill Mills of Warpig.com. Click for Warpig Album with more A1 prototype photos.

Prototypes at July 2003 DraXxus IAO

Development on the Revelation started in 2002 and release was slated for 2003, with Jack Rice and Duane Parsons exhibiting prototypes at the July 2003 Draxxus International Amateur Open trade show.

Alien Revelation prototype shown by Rice and Parsons at the 2003 IAO tradeshow. Photo credit Bill Mills at Warpig.com

Find photos of Jack Rice and Duane Parsons at the July, 2003 DraXxus International Amateur Open Trade Show with one of the prototype Alien Revelations on Warpig in the following link:
http://www.warpig.com/paintball/tournament/iao/2003/tradeshow/index3.shtml

Rachel Turner of Paintball.com writes “Although the [2003] IAO saw its debut, the Alien won’t be available for sale for about 3-5 weeks, and only initially through Alien Paintball’s website: www.alienpb.com. However, if the popularity of the Alien at the IAO is any indication of its success, we are sure to see the Alien at future tournaments. To Rice and Parsons, the Alien has been a labor of love for over two years and they are pleased with the end result. To the awaiting public, we are seeing an all-new innovative design for a marker, an extraordinary accomplishment in our industry.”
Find Paintball.com’s article at http://paintball.com/story.php?aid=1677

Duane Parsons' Alien Revelation 02.
Duane Parsons’ Alien Revelation 002.

Production Issues with the A1 / Revelation

Revelation Prototypes went out for testing to the Alien Factory Team. These prototypes supposedly worked well and production was planned with a few more tweaks added in. But as testing continued, problems emerged that ended up dragging the Revelation’s release into 2004/2005. Between the prototypes and production, the breech and door design changed and resulted in more minor issues to be straightened out in the final production run of around 100 Revelation paintguns.

Rice explains the Revelation’s issues in a post on pbnation as:
“That red gun was shot for a whole season in XPSL and shot great – unfortunately we added a last minute change to make it wear better and changed the arch of the door and then when we made the first run the gun wasn’t saleable as the change in the arch made the door hit the balls and some would break. After that we made the double stacked gun and that is all for the door gun.”

Alien Interceptor received with the Alien Revelation from Parsons.
Alien Interceptor received with the Alien Revelation from Parsons.

A2 / Interceptor

Eventually Rice and Parsons began designing the A2 (Alien 2) which became Alien Interceptor and took some design cues from the Revelation but used a platform more players were familiar with. The Interceptor was released around 2005/06 and used a more traditional poppit valve and what Rice refered to as the “Sweep Air System.” 
The Alien Interceptor manual states, “…The Interceptor utilizes a patent pending “Sweep Valve” and “Sweep Bolt” to minimize turbulence and to cause the air to flow under and around the ball. The “Sweep Air System” improves accuracy.”

Top down view of the alien head boltless breech on the Alien Revelation.
Top down view of the alien head boltless breech on the Alien Revelation.

Duane Parons’ Alien Revelation serial 002

Duane Parsons’ Alien was serialized 002 and was assembled from the initial run around 2004 to 2006. I asked Parsons if this Alien was used as marketing at events or for testing? He replied, “No events for that one, it was just the 2nd one we put together and I took it for [my own personal marker.”

Parsons’ Revelation 002 would be considered one of the production markers. Parsons writes, “Mine was obviously never released. Once it was together we used it for some testing.”
I asked Parsons’ if this Revelation worked and if it was used much . He replied, “Yes it worked reliably and I did play with it a little. You can’t shot fragile paint with it so I didn’t use it much, just for fun.”

Open back of the breech on the Alien Revelation allows the barrel and breech to be swabbed easily.
Open back of the breech on the Alien Revelation allows the barrel and breech to be swabbed easily.

This marker was purchased from Parsons with two different doors. One anodized a similar color to the marker, but a matte finish, and another in black anodized aluminum. Parsons could not remember if there was a benefit to either door.

Revelation Trap Door / Hatch Cover

Reading through the pbnation thread on the Revelation I noticed several different iterations of names for the door mechanism including hatch cover, trap door and breech gate. But at one point Jack Rice refers to the door as the hatch cover, writing, “Alien has a ram that opens and closes the dividing plate “hatch cover” that seals the chamber.”

Alien Revelation with Prototype Breech assembly (not factory) from Sergey Levkov at Lapco.
Alien Revelation with Prototype Breech assembly (not factory) from Sergey Levkov at Lapco.

Sergey’s A1 Revelation – Incomplete

I purchased another unassembled Alien Revelation from Sergey Levkov at Technical Trouble Shooting / Lapco in 2016. His Alien assembly was missing a few parts but included a few different breech designs that Sergey didn’t remember the origin of.

Three trap door / feed block assemblies from the Alien Revelation.
Three trap door / feed block assemblies from the Alien Revelation.

I asked Duane about these breech designs and he replied, “The design on the far right is the production design. The other 2 look like something Lapco did themselves. They are not Alien.” From looking at the Warpig photos above, the center breech appears to be from one of the prototypes that Rice and Parsons exhibited.

Find more on these Breeches at https://paintballhistory.com/alien-revelation-prototype-breech-feed-blocks

And find schematics of the production Alien at PBNation at http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=6945863#post6945863

Thanks to Duane Parsons for the Alien Revelation and details about his involvement with Alien Paintball. Thanks to Tim at Paintballtek.com for his general knowledge of all things electro pneumatic (and paintball in general). And thanks to Bill Mills at Warpig for allowing use of his photographs.

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