Brownells AR-15 Builder
Brownells have developed an online AR-15 builder flash application. It is not the first but the ability to add the items to your Brownells shopping cart and order everything in one go is a killer feature.
It says it is in beta and it really is. The trash can does not work and so it appears removing items is impossible, you can only replace them. Some items can be moved around, while others cannot. Adding an item from one category can delete an item from another category. I have emailed Brownells. Hopefully they will fixed them.
Overall it is a great start and I think Brownells will easily recoup their investment.
Use the application here.
UPDATE: Mike @ Gun Noob has created a set of virtual ARs.
Good thing it is in Beta. Maybe when it is for real the parts will actually be in stock!
I just went crazy with it and built a bunch of different mods. It’s so fun dropping parts in and out to see what works best or design different builds for different purposes. If you want to check mine out, I just put them on my blog: http://gunnoob.blogspot.com/2009/01/ar-15-builder.html
Mike, very cool. I have added a link to your blog post.
That was quite fun to play with other than the final cost. Maybe Obama will buy it for me since he doesn’t have to pay my mortgage?
It was easy to buy AR15 parts 12 months ago. Now it’s almost impossible.
@Sven: I noticed if you drop in a barrel with a flash hider/break already on it, you can’t replace it with another one. It’ll stick to the end and clip through it a bit.
It’s really missing some of the better options available through the catalog and site
The C-Mag is inserted backwards.
AR15.com was doing something like this last year but the lead programmer (the only guy in the project) disappear. hahahaha. Good times.
I wanted to point out that the trashcan feature does work, you just have to make sure you drag a significant portion of the item on top of the trashcan, and it will go from grayed-out to black with the lid open.
LaRue has one of these too, called the “tactical weapon profiler”. This would’ve been pretty handy a month or two ago before I actually ordered all my parts!
http://www.larueprofiler.com/Profiler.html
LaRue’s uses only products available from the site, so some of my favorite stuff (the YHM smooth forearms for example) isn’t available. With the Brownells catalog I can see this concept going a long way though!
The prices for the complete custom guns are astronomical.
My flash hider stuck to almost the center of the 18″ barrel, btw.
This is basically Operation7 with physical guns… wow. Cool find.
(Operation7 is a online first-person shooting game where you actually use a similar process to set up one’s long guns before buying them, although it uses an upper/lower receiver joined together as the weapon’s Body.)