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Ive finally finished my WE apache k CQB build and its come out better than i dared to hope.

Just purchased a CYMA Dragunov. Now for the inevitable DMR-ing and standing to one side of other projects for the new toy...

I'd consider myself one, but wouldn't pay extra for it, for the simple reason that with the mileage that I do, it's not worth my money to pay for it on a low value car that's already done enough miles to warrant it. I'd rather just save the money and take the risk. Likewise with airsoft guns. Consider how little use a typical airsoft gun gets, and how much difference expensive work makes, using an honest self audit. You can upgrade it to Tier Eleventy, and that might buy you an an extra few dozen hits out of the thousands of rounds that you'll put through it in a year. Meanwhile Hicap Harry is having just as much fun hosing BBs downrange making very close to the same hits per shot, game or hour. I might pay more for one that shoots empirically better when I try it. Based on a claimed parts list, not so much. This is why we test drive cars, especially used and Barried examples to see if they live up to the claims of Real Ultimate Power. What's amazing to me is that so many airsofters are prepared to pay a premium to be sent a gun shaped shell, that could, de facto, have pretty much anything or nothing inside it.

I’d say £350 is a reasonable price bearing in mind what’s included!

I'm thinking more gunmetal than bare metal, just need to decide on the exact colour. I'll probably be using Halfords rattle cans, and they're all specific car colours. Nissan gunmetal sounds good though.

Tbf, the grassroots and informal nature of this hobby has a lot to do with it. All you need to be a tech is to convince people to pay for your work, and all you need to be a reputable tech is to have enough people convinced that the work is an improvement. Mix in the combination of customers who dont check the work, after all if you posess the skills/knowledge to check then you more than likely just do it yourself. Just sprinkle on some confirmation bias and there you have it.

So ICS Galil Insert v2 was a partial success. It took BBs, but stopped at about 50 rounds which is far short of what it should take. I think the follower got caught at the base of the first turn. The initial turn to put the BB exit at the center of the mag was too twisting, leading to the follower getting stuck there. The decrease from double stack to single there also was too extreme, meaning BBs would get stuck there. The mags also squished onto my printbed slightly, leading to a slight edge on all edges which may interfere with feeding. So v3 now has a very slight rounding to all edges to counteract that, the insert that the hop unit goes into has been made slightly ovular to allow it to fit the hop easier, the BB pathing has been reworked with gentler curves to help feeding, the double to single area has been massively extended (may cause the mag to not feed the last 5 rounds or so, but thats an issue for future Spaz), and because I could I added about another 3 BB length to the feed tube. v3 is not going to be printed - instead I will begin on v4 which will integrate the 5 clasping bolts, the sole bottom retainer bolt, and the BB retainer and spring slot. v2: v3:

If you like it, go for it. Doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. It makes a change to see something standing out from the rest of the crowd, and, as already pointed out; if you don't like it, change it

Well that sucks then. Guess i will have to pass on this then as just another overpriced airsoft Enfield.

Don’t disagree just as many cowboys (if not more) in the motor trade , point I was making is that for some unknown reason Airsofters seem a lot more acceptant of shoddy tech work than most others are simply because of the ‘reputation’ of said tech ?

tbh i don't think it's that ridiculous a comparison, i mean the car world does have plenty of examples of cowboy mechanics doing sub-par work, people "improving" their cars (you know the type- cars that ground out if you leave a penny in the road and belch more smoke than a russian carrier every time they pull away) etc. airsoft teching is basically what car repairs/modifications would be like without the likes of the MOT system and related enforcement......

Now the problem with this comment is your applying real world expectations to Airsofting , when you take your car to a ‘reputable’ garage you have an expectation of an appropriate level of work being done AND an expectation of recourse if it isn’t ? Where as with Airsofting there’s a VERY VERY good chance even from supposed ‘reputable’ techs and retailers your going to receive a gun back that appear to have been work on by a monkey with Alzheimer’s , AND when you do try to complain you’ll be told either ; A, “it must have happened transit” B, “you must have done something to it after receiving it back” or C, “how dare you question our tech teams work !” 🤦‍♂️ Just saying 😉

M95 has seemed to do the job. Currently shooting 349 on 20s with no hop applied and 293 on 28s. Just under the limit but I think the hop will help bring it a little bit down more. Will play with it this weekend if all is well and will type up a in depth guide next week. It's a shame companies like patrol base do this to cyma aks by putting in such weak springs. I may have to start offering a Cyma spring upgrade service...

Oh, to clarify, what I really meant is that we tend to buy a private seller's claim about what they're selling. Even if they provide a real, legitimate receipt for work that was done, and parts that were fitted to something, unless you strip the toy down, how would you be sure that what you've been sent is actually the thing that's described in that receipt? Honesty among BB-bros? Well, the BT33 postcode is a thing. And some sellers might be flogging on a pig in a poke that was mis-sold to them, or genuinely forgotten what's in there, or got one of their dozen or so spare toys mixed up. I mean, we see some sellers list what they think they're probably selling, which I find refreshingly honest. If you're happy with what you receive, great, that's the whole point of airsoft. I just wonder how much stuff gets sold as "Tier 3" when it never was, or isn't still.

Yeah, well having just bought a car that is at 70k miles, and that's not had the work done - but was a great price, then I understand you entirely. I would've have paid a bit extra if the next car on the showroom floor had been attended to. So we'll agree to differ on that ! Oh my word that would be a great discussion to have! Absolutely true, but yet you know what human psychology is like, remembering the times you got out-ranged by a gun in a straight one on one shoot out tends to get the credit card info action later... 🥴 Yeah there is an assumption on my part that Dave's custom shop knows what they're doing and aren't out to fool anyone. I'm trusting shops I've heard of already. Maybe I shouldn't 😋. But you wouldn't walk into say Singers custom cars and demand they prove they fitted the parts they say have into their restomod Porsches. At some point a company gets a reputation sufficient that you can trust them. It's a question of where you draw the line

I've been playing around with the Sonic Mini 8K this week. Providing the model sculpters themselves can keep up - as they have been able to do already - these machines will probably exceed the quality of the GW cast resin minis (but be shy of the injection moulded classics) whilst being about 80-90% as durable. You're not going to see this from many quarters yet though as most are only just moving to 4K from the old 2K machines. Resin is also silly expensive for many.

It's the blue threadlock. The red is permanent! I used the blue on the buffer tube of my GBB M4A1. Not has a problem since. Edit: just looked on the Henkel website, and they recommend the purple loctite for low strength metals like aluminium and brass (and presumably pot metal too).

I’m glad I kept all my old stuff. Seeing the prices one eBay are eye watering and makes me happy that I didn’t part with mine, nor the books.

Working on this; put some nylon sheath over the wires so the stock can retract back and forth nicely.

@Fatboy40 The factory price for M906C is extremely low, they would never fit a spring with decent quality material sadly. Try removing the thrust bearing from the piston head, you should see the fps come down 15fps

So I've been stripping the handguard on my Ares mutant ready for a fresh coat of matte black as it was badly scratched, and decided to see what it looked like as bare metal. I kind of like it. I'm thinking I might spray it up in gunmetal, and do the buffer tube too. What does everyone think?

can't say, but given the zci 6.02's are well known, well regarded and pretty affordable sounds like the easier option to go with the known quantity?

Faketail mount surefake m300 and a spitfire tracer from ali express. And not bought but donated by a friend a ratech steel bolt carrier for WA which had gone in the golden eagle.

A gun metal finish is more subtle than bare metal But it’s your gun, for your fun We’re playing games for our own benefit As long as you’re not destroying other peoples ability to have fun then that’s fine

Didn't look like it was cut short it was just incredibly weak. Felt like it could either be a really poor grade m90 or even a m80. I think what currently happens is that Patrol Base order RIFs through TaiwanGun as they have a bit of "partnership" going on. Which do the work of reducing the fps as quickly as possible down to their low fps setting of 310. Replacing the spring is probably a bit quicker and more reliable than cutting the spring. Closing this particular gearbox on the cm048m was considerably easy - A magnet on the anti reverse latch and the trigger liked to play ball. In terms of springs the gearparts range at ak2m4 are very solid for the price. For some reason they are much easier to install than other springs as the coils on one end are much tighter than the other. I also installed a ZCI m100 during my testing which just loved to try and pop out towards me where as the gearparts preferred to stay put.

Tbh I'm not a fan, however it's your gnu so if you like it then go for it

The going rate on Japanese and Taiwanese sites for these rifles seems to be £260-300. I think it's just the scarcity over here that is driving the high price, the SMLE has been out in Japan for some time, but obviously being closer to the source they've had fewer supply issues.

I think this has gotten away a little from the point I was trying to make (but to other interesting points worthy of their own discussion....) And that point is really that in some cases the time spent / paid for carries its own residual value. Perhaps what I didn't make clear is I acknowledge that there's plenty that don't. So the timing chain example. Most of that work is labour. There's a risk in a car when that expense hasn't made and the car reaches a certain mileage that if the belt snaps through wear then the engine can seize, and you need a new engine for £2-3K. So a reasonably savvy buyer looks out for whether the work has been done, and is willing to pay something of a premium for it. Sure there'll be buyers who don't know, and some buyers who could try to do the job themselves, but most will be in the middle - I'd say once you're in a market for a used car with > 60-70k miles on the clock and you've watched a YT buyers guide, you'll know about it to at least ask if it's been done and factor that in to your purchasing decision. (I've just been there, done that, but ran out of money for the t-shirt) However with that same car, stuff like brake pads, oil changes etc ... they carry their own labour charges. Is that likely to hold much sway in my buying decision? Probably not. If the previous owner has spent a hundred hours tuning his car so it's perfect, will I pay extra for his labour(s)? Nah. Dave's custom stuff comes with a clear shopping list of components, and as a level 3 upgrade basically seems to touch every component then again a reasonably savvy buyer might well be willing to pay above the going rate for a 'shop done' upgrade, rather than having some unknown part-timer meddle with the innards. I'd consider the Dave's custom work to be very much an outlier because the work's been done to a fresh gun, out the shop. I'm in that area though where it seems to have value to me but I don't know how real that value actually is. TL;DR: Present me with the option to buy one of two guns - one upgraded at a shop I'd already heard of, versus one upgraded with the same parts, by Mr X at a game site. I would be prepared to pay more for the shop gun. If it's Mr X versus Mr Y doing the upgrades, I'm not going to be considering their labour to have any particular intrinsic / residual value.

Do it. I think it looks good as is and if you don't like it you can always change it back again.

I'm using an acetech brighter C, and the tracer rounds are bright even in daylight, they'll see me if they want to or not 🤣

Looks good to me. Might give your position away with the glinting 😉

We await your fondling report...

I'd look at the feed lips, compare the drum to your standard mags and see if there are any differences in dimension or shape.

Last Sunday's loadout. LT 933, 2x hicaps, no chest rig or secondary. Nice and lightweight.

^Yes and HSB, potentially buffer spring too if recoil speed is too high and Rhop if you super flush.

My two custom builds are coming along nicely

Plenty of empty toys r is stores around and they all have parking if some enterprising Airsofter wants to look into it.

UK Double Eagle Stock Springs I bought my son a DE M906C for Christmas, so far he's only fired it in the garden briefly, so before we play a game on 9/1/2022 I thought I'd swap in both a Maple Leaf 60 degree Macaron and Omega nub today (once my M908A arrives that'll be three DE M900's we have in the house). The hop up units "arm" is the variant that has a hole for a "captive" nub... https://imgur.com/m9rWHXB ... which my M904E's arm does not, with this nub removed and the Omega nub installed this appeared (a visual check) to be adding quite a bit of hop to the Macaron without any hop actually being applied on the hop unit. A chrono gave me around 280 FPS on 0.20g, horribly under powered, so I thought it best to put all the original parts back in a chrono again (I forgot to do one beforehand). This still gave around 280 FPS, and started to get me worried. I'm building up a nice supply of spare parts now, and have a few different springs to hand, so I thought I'd swap in a Gearparts M105 to see what the result would be. This lead to two negative discoveries, one the QC spring guide had its flat head screwdriver cut out mangled at some point... https://imgur.com/breI5D0 ... and secondly the spring was a hideously cheap and nasty one. So in goes the Gearparts M105, with DE M900's by default having both a piston head and spring guide bearing, and with no hop it shot hot at around 360 FPS and with a little hop it was consistently around 348 FPS so I was happy then and popped back in the ML Macaron (but the Omega nub will have to wait until I can buy a better hop unit). That's two incidents I've had now with iffy springs in UK spec DE M900's, both of which were purchased from Patrol Base, who get them from Taiwan Gun as the European distributor. I personally don't think it's a coincidence, but who's installing these crap springs, is it DE themselves, the distributor or the reseller? (I'm going with either the distributor or reseller so they're country specific legal). This is a shot of three springs... https://imgur.com/PvoZtwF ... a Gearparts M120 at the top (170mm in length, with tighter coils at one end), my original DE M904E in the middle (160mm, no tighter coils) and at the bottom the M906C (200mm, no tighter coils). Both DE springs feel so cheap and flimsy compared to Gearparts and Guarder springs, especially the 200mm one. I'm very much looking forward to getting the spring out of my M90A when it arrives, as it's not from Patrol Base but I'm assuming the Taiwan Gun is the distributor (let's see if it has the usual green "Krakman" Polish label). Luckily I've my own chrono, spare parts and tools, however the M906C could have gone to someone who'd not have known until a site chrono / a back garden plinker who'd never have known!

I've got a missus for that 👍

Tabs as in these? Yes, still got those. They're not magical quality, I did have to take one apart (bending and then re-squishing the tabs) to pop another shim under the shaft, there was just too much inny-outy play for my comfort. Decent enough in use for the money though, a big step up from any stock motor I've had. Could be (potentially) worse. I have a Tornado where the screws on either side go into a common collar inside the shell. Metal screws going into a common metal collar. The only thing that stops it shorting out are micron-thin non-conductive washers under the screws, to keep them isolated from the plates. If you lose or damage them and don't realise that they're vital while (for example) adding a diode, it will happily short out. That was a lesson hard learned.

I installed the coiled 2 core 0.75mm cable and although I can now hear the motor labouring to turn it doesn't quite manage to compress the spring. 1mm core might be the minimum.

For once nope not the case , it’s what the going price is . From HK it’s the same price in US $’s as it is in UK £’s so by the time you add all the ‘extras’ on there’s a very good chance it could end up costing more to import than buying in the UK ! 😳