Little bit of a design update, I've almost finalised the list of interchangeable weapons for HardWired II, hopefully to give it the widest spread of advantages across the range of other weapons as possible:

Back hinged lifter,
Front hinged lifter,
Lifter with scoop/ shovel (as opposed to just a ramp)
Small drum/beater
Vertical claw crusher

And then the following are all potential additions:

Heavy horizontal spinning disc
Heavy vertical spinning disc
Horizontal crushers
Low pressure flipper
Hydraulic claw?

The reason the former weapons are all pretty much a given is that I can near enough get them to work using the same linear actuator (except the drum, maybe the claw), and I know how to make them all now. The latter group are a bit out of my comfort zone, or in the case of the pneumatics, way out of my comfort zone. They're very unlikely to appear in the 2014 champs (should I even get a place in it) but they're definitely something I'm looking into. Again, it seems like a lot of weapons, and over time it's almost a given that some of them will disappear from use, but I'm testing out what works best with the machine and against specific weapon types.

I've opted for as close to 20mm thick 6082 Aluminium for the shell, and probably some kind of either steel or HDPE for the baseplate - I very much doubt I'll be able to use the full 20mm, but I'm trying to get it as close to as possible for defense against the ever scarier spinners. May end up being along the lines of 15-18mm at most, but aspirations never harmed anyone! I'm working on getting the prototype as compact as possible now, got quite a sizeable chunk of empty space out of it, just need a decent car seat actuator then I'm good to go.