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Real Sword! I don't know a word of Russian... unless "comrade" counts?

Writing this kinda turned into a more general rant than a reply... So yeah, just throwing it out there early so people aren't like, "What?" One thing I've noticed about range, BB weight, barrel bore and hop up, is that a lot of the time, people will just swear by something based on one good experience. They'll never test it again, they'll never properly bench it against anything else, and they won't have the observational skill, or the time investment in the game, to actually notice minor changes in things under certain circumstances because they don't understand the science properly... Or they simply don't care. A lot of the "OMGBESTGUNEVER" stories are essentially just 'victims' of a placebo effect, I've seen countless people showing off guns to people saying stuff like, "This has the best range ever" or "Here, want to use this for a game? It's flawless" when I've been standing over their shoulders, witnessing the untold levels of awful their gun is demonstrating. So basically, it's all about getting your own guns, shooting to a point that you're content with. Those guys whose guns I saw were terrible, they were happy with them. They were totally fine with going into a game with something that in my opinion was too bad to be skirmished. Someone is always going to come along and chat shit without having 1/100th of a gram of sense in their heads. Someone on here might have been one of those guys. I didn't say, "No actually that's terrible, terrible performance". I just let them get on with it. But, I don't know who would see that gun performing like that and think it was amazing, and who would see it and think it was terrible, like I did. As you're happy with it, who cares? You might think .25s perform better when a target is under 50 feet away, the science says there's little difference. You'll chalk it up to experience, people flinching when they're hit, that epic shot through a keyhole you were standing 15m back from, you could never have done that with .20s, and the guy would've just shrugged the hit off if it'd been anything under .25g. That's fine, I do it too. Sometimes things might be better, scientifically, practically, theoretically, however-else...ally, but I don't care because I have my own beliefs. I refuse to believe widebore barrels make sense for example, but plenty of people are raving about them being the greatest thing for accuracy since rifling. I'm just not getting it, and I have yet to see first hand evidence. I think a lot of people who don't understand it, and haven't seen it either, are just taking people's word for it without waiting to see for themselves first. If something works for you, and everything says it shouldn't... Maybe it is a placebo effect. But... Placebos work. Some other guy might have better range and accuracy because he did it all right, but your mentality, your belief that it works, might just align the stars and put you in a better position, you might be more tactically aware, you might be a better player. It's all in your head that the gun is better, but your experiences so far have made everything work. You're just playing for the fun, you aren't playing because you get kicks from the mind games, you just think guns are cool, or whatever. If something works, it works. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that shit. I've have people use my pistol after showing me theirs, mine has had 3 times the range and they've just said, "Hmm, yeah, it's alright that". Are these people blind? Was their ego too damaged to comment what they really thought? Who knows? I just let people get on with it. However! Nothing less than .25g... .20s are for (exceptionally) poor people, support gunners, and people who just play to play, without caring how good their gun is in comparison to anyone else's. Not sure what I was really getting at with any of that tbh, just started typing. Hey ho. Take from it what you will, hopefully I didn't subconsciously type out my allegiance to Hilter's ghost or anything.

Fantasy/Scifi wargaming for me only at the moment! Play a lot of Warhammer/40k - also really digging Dystopian Wars at the moment but would like to start building some WW1/WW2 armor models for display only purposes! Will get some pictures of my better work up shortly!

Apologies for the slower than anticipated response... busy weekend! Milsim in the UK is very much a sliding scale; you've got your 'milsim' on one end which is midcaps only, slightly longer games with a vague military scenario or back story... As far as I'm concerned these are sunday skirmishes without hi caps, not worth the bother. In the middle (it's a pretty big middle) you've got guys like ambush adventures and brit-tac airsoft who do games with uniform colour requirements rather than armbands, mid caps only, better venues (normally MoD training areas, copehill, longmoor etc) but that's pretty much where the difference between that and a skirmish ends, there'll still be lunchbreaks and they very rarely run for more than a day. As with the other one-dayers you're unlikely to be put into any kind of 'squad'. At the other extreme end of the scale you've got tier 1 and stirling, the games run non-stop from game on to game end, usually 24-36 hours sometimes longer. Sleeping, eating, reloading etc is all done in-game. Ammo limits / kit requirements are rather more stringently applied. Typically you'll be put in with a group of players (unless you go as a group) and you'll be expected to remain with them and move around/complete objectives etc as a unit, your unit will be given a callsign and a command radio to enable you to keep in contact with your team commander and vehicle assets/other units. These games are pretty much the antithesis of the sunday skirmish, last one I went to was at the Sandpit in kent, I fired at most 600 BBs all weekend, spent 2 hours on stag at midnight (sort of, we chinned off sitting in sangars waiting and did some patrols around the compound instead) then went straight into briefing for a hostage rescue op; boat insertion under NVG to the other side of the lake, hour or so of recce/target observation before we grabbed the hostage (which was actually a 16st rescue dummy, FML), carried him about a mile to our pre-arranged RV for the boat to pick us up and get back across the lake, got back just in time for sunrise. 3 hours sleep and the baddies started chucking grenades over the compound walls... it was a pretty relentless but extremely fun weekend. Obviously you can tell where my interests lie on the 'scale of milsim', I prefer a long, rolling scenario with realistic tasking and a difference between the two teams greater than the colour of their arm bands! If you do fancy coming over to the UK for a more 'serious' (the people that play are often far from serious!) milsim game give me a shout, if we (Cobalt) are going along to the game it'd be great to have you along

Yours is bigger and prettier than mine. He says without a flicker of a snigger... not! And now for my latest me sized toy: Silverback PP-19 Bizon-2

wondered what on earth that was until I saw its scale XD

After Matilda tried to explode and kill me, I have had to do some repairs. I have therefore bought 225 O rings http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00EOO7XBM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 300 E clips http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0056FR7GY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The O rings seem to cover just about any size I will ever need. I only need 1 e clip and hopefully its one of these sizes Oh I also bought some moleskin trousers the other day, in the hope they would match my Aussie jacket and stand in as Aussie woolen trousers. They arrived today and look about right http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GQSWTSQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

+1 This whole post. much +1

DIE THREAD DIE!!

Dude I'm blushing!

Way.Too.Clean.

Fine Molds and a fine price

Boots? You don't need a pistol. They are fun and of course there are 'pistol only' games here and there, but you'd almost certainly get more use out of a BFG or even a back up AEG. How are you doing for batteries and charger? Cleaning rod and alcohol swabs? Silicone oil? You may find that a shemagh over your mouth makes you uncomfortably hot, but everyone has their own attitude towards the risk of losing teeth. Personally the idea gives me the shivers so I run mesh masks = ultimate BB protection and not sweaty like a cloth solution.

Still needs tweaking etc... but my S.T.A.L.K.E.R loadout is pretty much complete

To be honest your far more prepared for your first game than anyone else I've ever seen, better equipped than many regulars too

Lovely, Russe11, just lovely. Here's my latest acquisition: It's to add to the arsenal available to... ...Maiya Pavlenka

I generally tend to go down the 'it's like paintball with more realistic guns' line. People understand that.

TL;DR? Well you're lucky then, because I've now made 2 videos: Behold The Rundown Of Ed’s EPIC ICS L85A2 Out of the box rifle specifications: FPS: 345, 370, 410 – spring tension is adjustable. Values may vary for each gun. Barrel length: Supplied with a 480mm brass barrel, of 6.05mm in diameter. However, up to a 510mm (M16, AUG, M14) length barrel will fit without protruding into the flash hider. Supplied with: Two high capacity magazines (470 rounds each) unjamming/cleaning rod and a pot of ICS .20g BBs Rails: Top rail – 19mm Hop: Unique design, no aftermarket hop units available for this rifle. It has its issues but it works well enough. Gearbox: Again, unique to the ICS L85, supplied with very solid gears, bushings, factory shimmed and all around, pretty darn good to be honest, it's also heavily reinforced. Motor: Comes with the godly ICS Turbo 3000. This thing can pull any spring you gear it to. So let’s get started. I bought the rifle back in December 2011 with the intention of making it look exactly like the one currently issued in Afghanistan. The first things to order were the replica Daniel Defence RIS made by Madbull, as well as the adaptor for fitting to the ICS L85, I then bought a grip-pod made by god only knows what company, I can’t even remember where I bought it from, but it’s a nice high quality product for the price, works flawlessly and looks great. Once those parts came and were fitted I needed the correct ACOG mount, so I ordered that from Ant-Supplies, as I was a little weary about ordering from RSOV in Hong Kong because of all the horror stories I’d heard about import tax and such. I already had an ACOG at the time and back when I started the project I thought that would do, later on I decided it wasn’t accurate enough to the real steel, so I decided to order a new ACOG, but that wasn’t until about 5 months into the project when I went to the Arms Fair in May. So at this point I had the gun set up with the DD RIS, grip pod, ACOG mount and an ACOG, but not the right one. Since the RIS was fitted I needed to start running LiPo batteries, issues arose at this point, the connector that comes with the gun is for a large Tamiya and there’s so much extra wire that I couldn’t come anywhere even close to fitting the battery in with a connection conversion lead. So I rewired to small Tamiya and cut short the cables so everything fit. I was happy with this set up for a fairly long time until I ran into issues at a skirmish at The Stan. The gun just died, like there was no battery connected and the trigger mech kept making a strange clicking noise. I finished the day using my MP5. Once I got back I looked into it and found that from all the stripping and reassembling I’d been doing to change bits and alter the spring tension for different site rules etc. had caused the connection pins that break the circuit when the receiver is split as a safety feature, to be pushed away from their contacts. They didn’t complete the circuit once the gun had been re-assembled, as they should have. So I bent them upwards, which seemed to fix it. To fix the trigger mech clicking I dismantled it, couldn’t understand what the issue was, re-assembled it, and now it’s fine… That seems to fix a lot of things in my experience. If something doesn’t work, take it to bits and reassemble it before you plan to do anything else to it. Since I’d been looking into the internals, I decided I’d start doing some actual work on them, this is the first AEG I ever dismantled, so that’s testament to how easy to work on it is. I knew I wanted a Tanio Koba Hop-Twist barrel, but I couldn’t find the right one anywhere on earth, so I ended up getting one for an L96 from Land Warrior for about £70. Since the barrel cut was for a sniper, the barrel retention pieces in my gun didn’t fit the barrel, so I had to decide to either mod them, make some new ones, or remove them altogether. I realised they weren’t needed for anything other than a better air seal, which I didn’t realise the importance of at the time, so I opted for full removal. This meant that the barrel had to be held in by friction alone, so I wrapped insulation tape around the barrel so that it was a super tight fit in the outer barrel, it was damn hard to get in and out after that. Now the barrel was done I went for the hop unit, I’d been advised to get a Madbull Blue rubber, and so I did. I also experimented with different nubs, eventually choosing to use the biro ink tube mod, so I cut it to size and used that. I ran with this set up for about 2 months until I noticed Red Wolf had the correct twist barrel in stock, so I immediately ordered one. This gave me back the bug for adding stuff again… I asked for advise on how to make the gun the best it could be (thank you Mr. Finius) and was told I needed a better hop nub and a new piston head (amongst other minor, home grown internal modifications that so far I haven't attempted). So I ordered a big-out H nub and a Lee’s Precision Engineering piston head, which has an air brake on it to increase the life of the internals. In retrospect the piston head wasn’t really needed, the only change I’ve observed is that it’s more difficult to tell when the gun is dry firing because it sounds similar to when it’s firing rounds, and it’s ever so slightly quieter. At this point I was running the same externals as before but with a new piston head, proper twist barrel allowing me the correct barrel fitting and the H nub. This is possibly the greatest combination of parts for any rifle if you want immense accuracy and even more immense range. I have my rifle set on the middle spring tension, which is about 350fps on .20s, I run it using .25s and I can comfortably hit a man sized target at up to 50m. Twist barrels are said to work best at under 330fps, so if you want to stick one in a sniper running 500fps, it’s fine. Just use .40g or .46g BBs to bring the fps down and your sniper will become a laser rifle… Well, minus the projectile speed. After adding those parts I started researching into the real steel a bit more, I found out that the real steel L85 was now fitted with a new flash hider, a different ACOG to mine that's equipped with a docter site, I also noted that the L85 was now issued with Magpul EMAGs and an LLM01. So I ordered all of that, and some rail ladders for good measure. Shortly after making this order I realised that the docter sight on the ACOG I'd ordered didn't look like the proper one on the L85, so a quest began to find one. I eventually found it thanks to a tip off from CKinnerley about BritKitUSA, so thanks to CK for the final, finishing touch. A lot of this stuff was in the post for absolutely ages, I ordered the ACOG from G1098Airsoft and they messed me about for over a month, so I re ordered most of it from RSOV. Whist it was all in the post I thought I’d improve the internals. My aim was to increase the trigger response, as it was the only thing letting the gun down. I looked into changing the motor, but decided that the ICS Turbo 3000 was actually an amazing motor already, which troubled me somewhat, how can I increase the trigger response time if I can’t just get a new motor? I decided to look into shimming the gearbox, the idea being that if the gears are more properly aligned, the motor won’t have to work as hard to turn them over, giving me a more efficient use of battery and motor power. I’d been practising taking guns apart and getting to know and understand gearboxes over the last couple of months, so I ordered a few packs of shims from Patrol Base and managed to shim the gearbox pretty well, it did give a noticeable improvement, but the trigger response still wasn’t good enough. So I’m stuck now. The gun’s absolutely flawless in every way, externals, internals, accuracy and range. But the trigger response is still terrible. I would say it’s the only thing I can hold against the ICS. I think the G&G L85 has a pre-cocking system, which would make the trigger response literally instantaneous. I’d pay a lot if there were a way I could have that in my ICS. Since I can’t think of any solution to this that can be realistically achieved I’ve decided to let it go. I’d considered getting an even better motor or switching to higher voltage LiPos but I don’t want an unrealistically high rate of fire and I don’t want to have to buy stronger gears. The ICS L85 also has a proprietary piston, there are no after market pistons available. Meaning if my set up shred one, I can never run the set up, because that’s the only piston I can ever have. My current thoughts are that if the target is far away I have the range advantage about 90% of the time. If they’re up close and personal, I’ll just have to switch to auto to deal with them, as that’s the only way to overcome the trigger response issue, I’ll just have to learn better trigger control and not get greedy. Running real caps means auto is rarely a good idea. Edit: Motor packed in today, before the ACOG, docter sight and wing mount have even arrived! So I guess we'll see if changing the motor can get me a better trigger response, I've got a Systema High Torque motor on the way, from Zero One... £85. Gulp. Still planning on swapping to Deans connectors and at some point completely rewiring it with low resistance wiring. If possible I'll also fit a Mosfet. My quest for better trigger response has begun! The first step on the quest was successful, the Systema motor came today and the trigger response has improved noticeably. The gun actually feeds more powerful, you can really feel the shake of the internals in your shoulder when you pull the trigger. I tried turning this motor over by hand before installing it and it was damn difficult. I used to think my ICS motor was difficult to turn over, this thing must be at least twice as powerful. The power of it makes me feel like I have to do something to reinforce the circuitry a bit better. Edit: Trigger response has been massively improved by getting a new trigger mechanism. There's a small pin in the trigger assemly that acts as a guide rod for the trigger contacts and mine had snapped in half somehow, but I didn't realise it wasn't supposed to be like that until the new trigger mech arrived. Trigger is absolutely spot on now, response is perfect, ROF is perfect. New hop hasn't really made any change, even with an AEG cut barrel the barrel retention bits still needed modding, so I just used the pre-modded ones from the old hop. The gun is shooting straight as an arrow though, accuracy is above average, it could still do with a few hop tweaks, but I'm going to skirmish it on Sunday and see if the parts don't just all bed themselves in a little better. I imagine consistency will increase through use. I also now have all the parts, so after I've skirmished it and have a bit of spare time I'll get some photos added... Though I might not do it until something buggers up. Once I've set the gun up I don't really like taking it apart to do anything apart from change the spring, 'cos the barrel assembly is an utter arse to get back together properly. It's really hard to seat the hop rubber correctly because of how tight the unit is. I've recently decided that I'm going to get an M140 spring for this to whack the fps up to 450, then use .36s or .40s and field it as a DMR. I'm pretty certain the internals can take it and I've already shimmed it to perfection, the systema motor could probably pull an M9billion so that won't be an issue either. I'll let you know how it goes. Anyone know how to disable auto? 'Cos to me it looks like you NEED the fire selector mechanism to be able to use semi, without it there's no way to engage the cut off lever... Might have to just hope my site trust me. Which I think they do. Edit: DMR plans fell through, somehow the motor is unable to pull even an M130 (I couldn't find an M140 in stock anywhere) so for the time being I've decided to just use it as a regular AEG, it running at about 360fps at the moment because my new spring is yet to bed in, but with .25s it's running around 320fps. If I take up the DMR plans again I think I'll start it by changing the ratio of my gears, as it stands I can't really be bothered to work out what ratio I'd need, or which gears will be compatible. I'm also planning to make an L129A1 DMR at some point over the next year or so, so there'll be no need to have my L85 at DMR specs. Edit: Currently it's August 2012, the gun is about 8 or 9 months old and has had approximately 20,000 rounds through it since I bought it, so various parts have been added and removed etc. I don't think I'll be making any vast changes from this point forward, other than replacing parts as and when they break. I'll write an update for this around this time next year and see how everything's holding up. Edit: Just a little update on how the gun's performing. It's now December the 11th, so within 10 days of the gun being a year old. At approximately 3000 rounds, or one pot of ammo per month, that means it's fired something in the region of 36,000 rounds. Everything is still solid and showing no internal wear at all on any of the internal parts - Except, the motor gear and whatever the name of the gear that the motor meets, don't mesh 100% perfectly, the angle of the slope on the motor's gear is slightly steeper than the corresponding slope on the 3rd gear from the piston in the gearbox. This is causing wear on the 3rd gear and the motor's gear, resulting in tiny little metal chips building up in the gearbox and a very, very slow rate. I've only cleaned it out once in about 4 months and the little bits I had to remove were akin to sand, or very fine iron filings. It does not appear to have any effect on performance. Currently I'm running it with a 6.01mm barrel which I initially bought for a 16-17inch barrel M4 project but it was too long (455mm) so I tried it in the L85 and I've actually been seeing much better results. I don't know whether it's because my twist barrel has been used too much and the "threading" I'll call it, in the barrel has been knocked by BBs too many times to be effective anymore, perhaps twist barrels can expire, or wear out... Well either way, running a Version 1 Madbull 6.01mm by 455mm tight bore barrel I have been seeing better results than with the twist barrel. In the hop I'm still using a Madbull blue rubber. I keep meaning to experiment with different rubbers, but so far the Madbull is a signifiant improvement over the standard rubber. Additionally, when using the Madbull a smaller nub is required, otherwise even with hop off, the rubber will obstruct the barrel to such an extent that it will overhop literally everything you shoot through it. The nub I use to overcome this is the same as I had before, a Big Out H nub. I've changed the spring to an M100. I'm now seeing the fps sit at around 360 in the middle setting using .20s and as per usual, I run it using .25s. The rifle is effective out to around 40m. By effective, I mean I could hit a target with one shot. As for hitting a target at all, the max range I've ever hit someone was round about 70m and required me to aim around 6 feet above the target and just spray on auto when they were unaware of my position, so as not to see the BBs coming in and move out of their path. For reference to its effectiveness there's my YouTube videos (link to my channel in my signature), all of which, bar one (or two if you count the one that isn't airsoft related) I use the L85 in. Aside from the barrel change, I also bought a new charging handle and tappet plate. The charging handle replacement was bought because the standard one had become so wobbly that I just couldn't deal with it anymore, tightening it to the point where the screw wore away could be completely undone by simply racking it once. Interestingly, the replacement charging handle was different in this respect, instead of the bolt handle being screwed into the fake bolt, it was screwed in and then welded in place, so it physically cannot move. I've had no issues since then, and regularly rack it back and let it go for the fun of it. The tappet plate was bought more as a spare because the part is proprietary and I didn't want my current one to break for me to then be stranded without one. Again, interestingly, the new tappet plate was of slightly different design. Testing it in the rifle showed no performance difference from what I can see, but what ICS seem to be doing, is in some way or other improving all the individual components, separate from the rifle itself. So you buy the gun and it comes with all the standard bits. But, should they fail and you buy a spare or replacement, the part you get is different to the one you broke, despite it being by ICS and for the L85. So it seems that ICS are making up for the fact that these parts are proprietary, by making the replacement parts better than the ones supplied with the gun, so that replacing parts when they break, is akin to getting an upgrade. I also readdressed the DMR idea. I haven't skirmished it with this set up yet, but I bought a new Madbull M120 spring and put it on the highest spring tension. This put the fps up to 380 (average over 5 shots) with .20s Couple this high fps with .30s - the same 6.01, madbull blue and H nub as with my regular set up and this thing shoots an untold distance. As I said, I've not skirmished it yet. But I did test it when I took it to chrono at another site (they wouldn't let me use it because they don't have a DMR rule... ) and the BBs were flying out of sight before I saw more than 1 foot of drop and I could clearly see them for at least 60m. So in short, should I ever skirmish this with this DMR configuration, everyone I see will be within engagement range the only downside, is that there is no way to lock this gun to semi. The fire selector which is linked mechanically to the trigger mechanism is required in order for semi auto to work and the only conceivable way to remove the auto function is to remove the fire selector. Since I can't remove the fire selector without losing semi and not auto, there's simply no way to lock it to semi only. Which in all likelihood will make it impossible to field as a DMR legitimately. I'll also update the parts list and overall cost to account for me now using a different barrel and having 12 Emags. UPDATE - 13th April 2013 Since the above posts, my motor's pinion gear shredded itself to pieces. Rather pleasingly, the ICS gears and piston are still completely fine, so that's some evidence that ICS parts are of comparable quality to Systema. I worked out Sherlock Holmes style that the reason the motor gear imploded was because the angle it met the gears wasn't right, and since there's sweet FA I could do about that, I thought I'd use this opportunity to buy some new bits and bobs. So in the post I had some Ultimate High Torque gears - in the hope that they'd meet the Systema Magnum motor's pinion gear at the right angle, a new pinion gear of the exact kind I'd had before, a Systema version 2 cylinder head, some new shims and probably some other stuff. It's getting too much to remember all the stuff I've done to this rifle now. In short it took roughly 50,000 rounds for this part to fail (discounting the ICS motor burning out) and it wasn't even a standard part. I now have it fitted with: A Madbull Ultimate aircraft aluminium, 6.01mm tightbore, of 510mm in length. The hop unit has a Systema standard AEG hop rubber in it, and a Big Out H Nub. I also managed to grab an aluminium hop arm off someone on these forums. The air nozzle is the stock part, the cylinder head is a Systema V2, for the piston head I've recently gone back to the standard one, as the Systema cylinder head's shape renders the LPE air brake piston head pointless. The piston itself, piston head and cylinder are therefore all as they came when I initially bought it. The gears are Ultimate High Torque gears, I think the ratio is 28:1 and the gears are helical. The gears have been shimmed. Lastly the motor is a Systema Magnum High Torque. I use it with a 9.9v 1000mah LiFe battery, Blaster .25g BBs, Magpul PTS Emags and an M100 (I forget which make, but I don't think that matters) With spring tension on full, this is possibly the most accurate, long range, skirmishable AEG I've ever known. Hitting a man with one shot at 50m? Piece of piss. I can see it reaching out to up to 70m with the barrel pointing up a fair bit of course. Anyway, here's a list of absolutely everything I've bought to add to the gun, externals, internals and generic parts, as well as parts I've replaced due to wear, or fault. If you want to know where I got any of it from, just ask and I'll help you find a place to get it. Update - 30th July 2013: So the helical 1:28 ratio gear plan didn't last very long in the end. Since the motor had to turn so many more times for me to get one shot off, rate of fire and trigger response suffered quite a lot and since my batteries are only 1000MaH, they were running out pretty quickly as well. So now I'm running with all the same parts as the last update, except I've got the original 1:18 ratio gears installed and I also picked up a Systema V2 piston head, to better compliment the Systema cylinder head. I've also bought and sold a few ICS L85s and L86s since the last update, and one of them went to a collector who just wanted it as a display model; so now I've got a complete set of internals spare in case anything goes arse over tit. The only thing I really have to keep tabs on is the motor's pinion gear, since the angle of the gears don't mesh with the pinion gear, they do gradually wear each other down. I might have to buy a load of pinion gears in bulk just in case it packs in unexpectedly. But aside from that, I'm happy with it. Maybe I'll think about getting some high speed gears just to make the trigger response even more epic... Still need to rewire it all to Deans connectors as well =/ I had an art teacher at school who used to say, "You can't finish art" It's TRUE! Argh! Base cost: Rifle £320 Externals and related: RIS £130 RIS adaptor £16 Grip-pod £20 LLM £70 ACOG and docter £110 ACOG mount £26 Docter wing mount £11 Rail ladders £60 Flash hider £25 Total: £788 Current Internal upgrades: Barrel Madbull (6.01x510mm tb) £30 Hop rubber Systema £6 Hop nub Big Out H Nub £10 Systema High torque motor £85 Systema V2 Cylinder head £10 Systema V2 Aluminium piston head - Left it too long to update this... I think it was £12, not sure. Aluminium hop arm £10 Total: £173 Grand total: £961 (Minus postage and additional costs below) Additional costs: Magazines: Magpul PTS Emags x14 = £280 Batteries: 9.9v LiFe x4 - £60 Charger: Basic LiPo/LiFe charger = £15 Generic internal parts: Shim set x3 = £12 Replacement parts due to wear or other fault: Trigger mechanism = £23 Hop unit = £19 Charging handle = £14 Pinion gear = £10 Butt plate (lost the screw from the back that stops the motor adjustment screw from altering through use) - £22 Overall costs, including everything apart from postage costs and ammo = £1,432 Oh and here's a photo of a real Afghan spec L85: And here's a photo of mine:

Picked up two friends for last skirmish.. guitarcases for the win!

I've been through 3 paintball masks. All of them were entirely useless until I fitted them with fans. With fans they are perfect. You can get a 5volt 25 or 30 mm fan, a USB power source and a slide switch for under a tenner on eBay. It's the future I tell you. This is the mk 2. This was using 12v 25mm fans with 9 volt batteries. Used 2 for backup. The workings are all covered when in use, held in place with hot glue. The mk 3 is better but I was still experimenting. A tight seal was the big breakthrough.

Working CM16 for £50.

http://www.evike.com/index.php?cPath=25_101_271 A quick google finds a whole page of AUG barrels at evike. Steel of aluminium and different lengths.

So I may be working away in foreign climes, but it doesn't mean I'm not still on here, envious of everyone else having fun in the UK and also indulging in a little retail therapy, as a welcome home present to me, for when I get back!! http://www.tactical-kit.co.uk//tactical-tailor-removable-operator-pack-35000-5175-p.asp mmmmmmmmmm...............

The Focke Wulf: Hopefully it'll look better once painted! Shame I trod on the spitfire

You get what you pay for! That is a 1/72nd model so it's huge and FM make spectacular detail on their kits. There is a 1/144 scale Falcon too that is about £43 and far easier to justify.....

Gunman also do good themed milsims at different venues around the country. Okto Eight do weekender 8-hour milsims with pretty serious immersion around the home counties and Contego who are also a new kid on the block do milsims at Bentwaters an old airfield in Suffolk. There is also a very knowledgeable Facebook group called Milsim Central run by Dave Renniks.

Arh thanks looks quite comfy, really liking the rear setup.

Those numbers are based on hop-up settings to provide a straight and level trajectory for as far as possible. The amount of hop-up required is largely irrelevant as the maths is based on the muzzle energy rather than the energy output of the spring. A gun which only requires one click of hop-up to lift a .25g BB with a muzzle velocity of 350fps is functionally identical to a gun that requires 10 clicks of hop-up to lift a .25g bb with a muzzle velocity of 350fps. Only time the amount of hop needed would be relevant is if the experiments/models were done based on a gun which was chronod with hop-up off, a rule which I think when implemented is completely retarded!

Sawtooths have arrived! They are SOOOOO comfy! Well worth the money.

Even though I hate M4's and two tones, that PAS starter pack is a good deal. It looks like the eyepiece of those goggles is interwoven wire, not perforated sheet - which gives better 'seethruability' (which is a technical term used in the science of seeingwoturdoingversuslosinganeyeology). That said, they look shit and the interior of of the mask portion gets coated in condensed breath and spittal when you run around in it - which is unpleasant, but better than losing a tooth. The NiMh battery is a good quality one, as is the charger. But I'm wary of giving you the standard advice - i mean shit, as has been noted, we don't get many people whose first 'ambestestgnu' post is a FAL and, even more impressively, once directed to wombat machines, you came back with an AK! Good man yourself! To advise you better we need to know some stuff: how old are you? Does £200 sound like an easy sum to put together for a laugh, or more like a wallet frightener? Do you know anyone who is into airsoft? Where are you based and do you know where your nearest site is? Woodland or Urban/CQB (Close Quarter Battle)? In general, do you prefer stuff which many people have, or do you like your stuff to be unusual? The guns you chose: JG FAL - Jing Gong guns are Chinese, mostly either direct Tokyo Marui clones or developed from those clones. They are generally pretty good, although I don't think any of them stand out as being excellent (unlike some CYMA guns who are also a Chinese company who began by making TM clones). In this case though I suspect JG have based it on a King Arms design. The KA FAL is a decent gun, so I expect the JG is too, but probably not as robust. "Full Metal" in this case refers to zinc alloy, AKA 'pot metal', mind which is heavy and not much, if at all, stronger than good quality ABS plastic. I have never heard anyone in a position to know say that JG's EBB mechanism is inherently bollocks, but obviously an EBB gun has more to go wrong with it than an ordinary AEG and if there is one thing pot metal is famous for, it's metal fatigue induced cracks... Personally I would not pay £200+P&P for a pot metal gun, EBB or not, unless I had a real thing for that gun model and there was no other option. I also would not buy from a website with bbguns in the name unless they had something I really wanted and could not find in stock elsewhere - for eg Well R2 stamped steel midcap mags which are also compatible with my JG V61 Scorpion (a TM Clone which is very good) / guess what? Even though the price was ridiculous I bought 1... and now they are back in stock on the HK retail sites grrrrrrrrr! Before thinking of buying this you should find out what mags it will take, how available they are, and how much they cost. G&G RK47 - these are good guns. There is a bit of flex in the plastic body which makes it more resilient than a pot metal one - the hop up control is quite sensitive so setting it to achieve absolute max range is easy and accuracy is decent. IIrc they may be a little finicky over which mags will work in them, but the standard reasonable priced option most people go for, MAG, work in them just fine. This type with black polymer furniture look a lot better than cheap AK's with faux wood plastic furniture (which are really shit). If you want to swap furniture in future, to fit rails for accessories for eg, you may have to do a bit of dremmeling because G&G guns don't usually take 'standard' exterior parts.

I use the fabric drop leg holsters everyone hates lol! I have modified my OD and DPM ones with additional straps though, to stop the famous "flapping about". The one running up beside my packet is linked to the leg strap by a tube of 50mm elastic - it is there to stop the leg strap from slipping down my thigh and becoming loose. As Ed said of his, it is like it's welded in place. Both are excellent for quick draw, but getting the studs which lock the retaining straps done up again is a bit fiddly - that's why I use a lanyard, because under pressure i would not be able to do it. These are for my USP which weighs 790g including a CO2 bulb. A loaded spare mag weighs 280g. So yeah, without this additional strappage it would be a right mare... I have a black fabric drop leg also but this has an original strap higher up than most and neither of its straps are elastic - I really should make a crotch strap for it also, but I rarely wear my black kit so i never get around to it. Now that I have a spare mag for my USP this is something I really should do soon. I recently bought some 50mm OD webbing to make a drop leg set up with a serpa for my USP, to overcome the secure reholstering issue. I have tried the serpa on my waist belts, right hip, above left buttock, and left front cross draw, but it is not as comfortable for me to reach for as from my right thigh - my arms are too long. I spose I could go with a drop leg platform, but to get one with 2 straps so it is immobile means quite a lot of additional weight, just for something which can be attached by one fat and one thin strap. I have yet to try the serpa on my chest, molle'd to my RICAS. What I'd really like to try is to have it fixed to my left shoulder, at 45° so the grip is at the same angle as my arm when I draw it. To do this needs an additional panel of molle above that on the chest of my RICAS, but that said, I don't wear it often - it makes me too hot. I carry my Vz61 Skorpion as a sidearm too, in a modified Czech Police holster: That goes on my Soviet portupeya (faux leather webbing) right hip but it moves about a bit - I have a small leather strap which came off an East German AK sling which fits around the portupeya waist belt and sorta stops this massive leather holster from slipping forward, but I need a better solution. It's not much good for quick draw. You can also see my PM holster there, which I wear left of my belt buckle in the cross draw position. That said the only pistols I have which fit in it are either poxy or too hot for most sites, so it's decoration really. Which is just as well because it's really bad for quick draw... I also have a massive black drop leg which is intended for MP7's which fits my skorpion nicely. Trouble is it suffers really badly from drop-leg-flap. There isn't anywhere on it that immediately lends itself to having an additional strap attached, so I think the way forward with that will be to remove the top elasticated strap and replace with 50mm polypropylene webbing. I do like the look of that Stealth Weapons Catch though, which would allow me to carry the skorpion with a suppressor attached.

Unfortunately all three sets of it were binned, this is the one, its like twice the size of the ones linked! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIRFIX-D-DAY-1-72-Scale-60th-Anniversary-limited-edition-set-/251626169278?pt=UK_ToysGames_ModelKits_ModelKits_JN&hash=item3a9616a3be

Might be stupid but if you're hop is on too much that could be stopping it.

Here I am at last, nearly ready for my first game. What am I missing? Apart from a pistol? I've got ammo, rifle, eye protection, hydration, med kit, iPhone playing 'Ride of the Valkyries' on repeat through low-profile ear peice, monocular, spare gloves and shemagh.

I had to explain airsoft at work on Friday to a guy who questioned why I had a shemagh in my rucksack. I went with " It's like paintball but not sh*t". That seemed to get the point across.

If you really want to start using your SR-25 to it's full potential, open it's gearbox up/pay a tech to and start getting upgrade parts for it. An M120/M130 would be a good start, and you'll see immediate range benefits by using heavier BBs such as 0.30s, as they retain more kinetic energy through their flight than a 0.25g does. Have a look at upgrade guides or ask around if you want to know how to get the best out of your SR-25, as without upgrades it's basically an inconveniently large assault rifle locked to semi

They're* I'd try some 0.25s, if they aren't brilliant, 0.28s.

Hello again. I was wondering if there is any good starter packages that would be worth the money and I would be able to use at a skirmish and wouldnt be absoloutly destroyed and would be able to hold my ground with the gun and not outranged. Also I would like the package to contain prefebly a mask that wouldn't be shattered the first time I use it and for the mask to be a half head (doesn't cover back of the head) this is because I always seem to fog up my goggles. Aswell it should contain a battery and charger and maybe some decent bbs that I would be able to use. My budget is £180 ish this will probably be a christmas present as its coming up in 3 months (where has the time gone?) Thank you!

I've heard everything from: "that's a bit sad isn't it?" all the way up to "oh, so it's like paintball?"

pockets LoL

Chav loadout..

It's always so cute when couples wear his'n'hers matching outfits.

Americans will swap virtually anything for anything, mate of mine got a really nice matt black leatherman EOD for an MTP smock off a US Marine in Afghanistan. Apparently he'd tried one on and really liked the fleece handwarmer pockets. Mental.

Knew some lads who when asked by some yanks back in GW1 said that their T-shirts, with 55 TRG SQN on it meant 55 Terrorist Response Group For those T-shirts the americans swopped all sorts of kit, camp beds, doss bags etc loads of kit. Actually meant 55 training sqn, as those boys were straight out the factory

I really want to take my fencing sabre one day and do a WWI style loadout with a revolver and a sword. i just don't think its practical... or something people who don't know me would take kindly to.

Yes, you would love to be hit by a pink, greasy dildo which will bend much further than 30 degrees. I wonder what the reactions of other people would be.... "AWWWWWWWW SHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!"

I've mentioned this before but Op-Tactical sites and Tac House Spartan (and ex Op Tac site) attract some awesome melee weapons. I have a pair of sai, one guy has an infamous samurai sword that he uses so devastatingly it's made it's way in to safety briefings, there's a guy with a rubber wrench and I've seen a foam hammer of Thor on a bungee cord, a sword of omens from Thundercats and a load of lightsabers. My favourite ever melee kill at Tac House was a Google knife kill. The guy didn't have a melee weapon so he Google image searched for knife pictures, tapped someone on the shoulder with his phone and whispered in his ear "Google knife kill." I bloody love that place.

I have acouple of them awful nerf foam swords laying around, (Great fun for having spontaneous sword-fights anywhere anytime) Might whip one out at a game.

If I see any rubber ducks / foam swords at the supermarket from now on, I am getting one! Especially love the rubber duck idea. I wonder if a small one would fit in a frag grenade pouch