Chock

I've got a cheap PASGT helmet that i use regularly, like this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/M88-Tactical-Helmet-Black-SWAT/dp/B005RFOQC6/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1414589071&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=Nitehawk+Black+M88+Swat+Tactical+Military+Helmet It's fine for airsoft

Bloopertastic value at a mere fifteen quid for this toy, which would be easily converted to what you want, since you basically just need the shell of the thing, and it is (mostly) the right colour too. It's from Oz, but they do ship worldwide apparently. They declare them on the packaging as 'plastic toy' but I'd stick your UKARA on the order just in case Customs get snotty even though it is very obviously not capable of launching a real grenade: http://www.armouredheaven.com.au/product/td-2010-m203/

If all else fails, I can throw the pistol at them and yell 'fire in the hole'

No, probably not

Welcome aboard

Silencers work by muffling the muzzle blast and sonic boom of firearms, and since AEGS have neither of these issues, a silencer would not suppress the noise of an AEG. A suppressor could silence a GBB weapon to some degree, since they do have gas escaping out of the barrel, but the noise of a GBB isn't that loud anyway. Theoretically a silencer may affect range and accuracy (a tiny bit) since the BB is protected from crosswinds for a little bit more time before emerging from the gun, but barrel length itself does not affect a BB gun much anyway, since an airsoft barrel is neither rifled nor able to build up more pressure behind the projectile to increase its muzzle velocity as is the case with a firearm, since an airsoft BB is essentially 'batted' out of the gun, although with a GBB, there may be some small effect, since it is launched by a build up of gas.

Bought a cheap ass (25 quid) green gas eleven-shot Walther PPK from some dodgy 'pound shop' type place today since needed something quick for The Purge tomorrow night at Trojan because my 1911 GBB has gone tits up, and I'm a bit loathe to rely solely on a springer, although I did lend a springer pistol to someone there the other week and they actually got a kill with it. Being a PPK, at least I know that cheapo gas gun will fit in my holster lol. I checked it out earlier and it does actually manage to get all eleven shots off (at about 220 fps) and still have some gas in it after that, since the slide is fixed.

Oh I intend to. Apparently the order status was 'despatched' fairly early on today, so it is evidently on the way already, although I went for the cheap ass 'free postage' option, so it'll be probably delivered by mule train or something, still, I reckon it might be here by Friday, and as luck would have it, I'm off on Friday too since I'm supposed to be playing a gig on Thursday night, so I'll video review on Friday with a bit of luck.

I suspect it might not be easy to take the thing apart, since it is basically a very cheaply-constructed LPEG which might even be glued rather than screwed together, but I guess we'll know in a few days.

Grip the AK between your knees, with the barrel pointing down with the magazine (bottom of the rifle) facing away from you, cup the rear stock with your hands so that both thumbs are right over the top edge of the butt plate, then push the butt plate away from you. Doing it like that means you can push the butt plate away from you with both thumbs, whilst your fingers hold the stock still. That should give you enough strength in your thumbs to slide the butt plate off (it is stiff).

Just bought one of these for a bit of a laugh, as I was curious to see if it could have a decent gearbox transplanted into it. If not, it'll be an okay wall hanger for my collection.

As mentioned on the other thread about it, i said I might buy one of those cheapo Black Viper AK12s just to get a good look at one and see what they are like. So I just have done. If nothing else it will make an okay 'wall hanger' to go with all the other various AK types which adorn the walls of my home and 70 quid is not exactly gonna a break the bank, so i thought 'what the hell, why not?'. From what I can make out on the (admittedly) not very clear videos and pics of it online which I've seen, it looks like a CYMA metal AK gearbox will fit into it and engage with the existing redesigned AK12 safety lever without any modification, which would mean it could possibly be made half decent for another 40 quid and not much effort, so depending on how easily it can be opened up, I may just do that, which to be fair was half the reason I took a punt on it, as it might be a fun project to try and get it okay for skirmishes. That and the fact that I'm a bit of an 'AK completist'. When it tips up, I'll do of a close up video of it and post it online for anyone who is considering it as a similar potential project and who wants a closer look at how practical it may be to take apart and mess around with.

Welcome aboard

That screaming frog video is abuse. The creatures are making that noise because they are desperately in fear for their lives; that noise is part of their defence mechanism. It's not funny at all, it's a bloody disgrace to see people treating living creatures like that for their amusement. The people laughing at that sort of thing on the videos are morons, it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain why the creatures are making that noise.

I bought a pair of these for a bit of a laugh to use at Trojan's indoors CQB site: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400728582224?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Not that I'm suggesting these as an alternative. But ironically for something that is basically a cheap toy, they do actually work very well; the IR light is quite subdued, and does not give your position away, and even if it did, they can actually be used with that switched off and you still get a fair image. Ben Franklin, the guy who runs Trojan at Stockport, saw me show up with them and said he had one of these too and that it worked surprisingly well at that site, but he'd apparently bust his (not surprising since they are really only cheap plastic and would almost certainly break if you dropped them on a stone floor). He was right though, as I'd suspected, on the totally dark levels in CQB, they definitely do offer an advantage, particularly useful on totally dark stairwells to prevent you from tripping and breaking your neck lol. Being binoculars - so not being helmet mounted - I cut off the sh*tty strap they came with and added a decent long webbing strap so that they could hang out of the way of my M4 on its three-point sling, but even then it is a fairly cumbersome arrangement in the confines of interiors, however, when I stayed put in cover to observe a choke point, they really did give me quite an edge as unlike a tac light, they allowed me to remain concealed without giving my position away, as i would do when flicking a tac light on and off, although as you probably know, sometimes flicking your light on to pull people into an ambush is not a bad tactic, so stealth isn't always the way to go. I suspect the ones you linked to would be very useful for dark CQB when mounted on the sight rail of a short M4, or even offset on the left alongside the sights to use more for observation. Just be certain that you're gonna use them a lot, as it is quite a chunk of change for something if you aren't going to use them much, and if you are, then you might wanna go all the way and spend some more.

I'd like to think you are right, but as I say, these things skate very close to many bits of the legislation, so I'm inclined to think we won't get them. But if we do, I'll be among the first to flash the cash because I'd really like an airsoft M79 blooper which was more than a glorified scatter gun, which is all it is now in airsoft form.

Frankly, I think the only reason that fireworks haven't been banned from sale to the general public, is that they are supposed to be celebrating stopping an attempt to remove Parliament from the proceedings, and even the thickest MP on the planet (and God knows there are plenty to choose from) could see the irony in that one and how much flak they'd take for trying to argue it. There would probably be an outcry from us being stopped from having fireworks in our back gardens, since Joe Blow likes them. It's a different matter with replica weaponry; we are in a minority, and there are doubtless people out there who imagine that those of us with an interest in weaponry are one crap day at work away from going up a clocktower with a sniper rifle and letting rip on the public at large, when in reality we are nothing of the sort. And this is regardless of the fact that you could more easily kill someone with a sizable block of cheese than you could with an airsoft rifle.

Who knows, maybe someone has? Changes to the Law invariably require a Bill to be drafted, presented to Parliament, debated, voted on, receive Royal Ascent, then written into the Law. It can happen fast, but it doesn't happen overnight when a country is governed by democracy. Not trying to pour cold water on things just for the fun of it. I'd love to be able to use stuff like that, I just don't think we will be able to, or if we are, then not for long.

Except that what it actually says, is: 'capable of being used with a firearm of any description', and in the eyes of the law, the term firearm is broader than we might suppose - everything from a PIAT to a blowpipe (and yes, it really does mention those). In that same bit of the guidelines to legislation from which that quote was taken, 'firearm' is described as literally any device of any description which can be converted to enable it to launch ammunition for which it was not intended, as an example of how bizarrely the legislation stretches examples of what that can mean, it gives the example of a Bren Gun being converted to a smooth bore single shot weapon (like anyone would ever try that). A more well known example of such a conversion which people genuinely did do on numerous occasions (as the tabloids delighted in reporting at the time), before they were removed from sale, was the Brocock cartridge air pistol revolver, which was very easily converted to fire .22 long cartridges with nothing more sophisticated than a 5.5mm reamer and a tweak to the firing pin, thus it was reclassified as a firearm, even though it wasn't one, but it was nevertheless covered by the mention of 'easily converted' weaponry in that legislation So that certainly covers any airsoft weapon which was not originally designed, or legislated for, its ability to fire such different ammo. And that certainly includes ammo which detonates after it is fired, as is specifically mentioned. But even if none of that were so, any projectile which stores a charge that detonates after launch is almost certainly going to considered to be over the joule limit, since the definition of the joule limit for all weapons (including airguns and airsofts) specifically mentions the amount of energy the projectile possesses after it is fired, so the energy stored in any pyrotechnic charge of a projectile will also be counted and added to the kinetic energy it has. But even if that were not the case, consider the fact that pyrotechnics such as bangers, firecrackers, aeroplanes and all the other stuff we used to cheerfully chuck about in the streets in the Seventies, are now completely prohibited in the UK. The fact is, the law does not like pyrotechnics which can be launched (even by hand). It's a bummer, but it's better to accept that idea that the Rozzers and Parliament will almost certainly scour the existing legislation to make it fit these things, rather than to get all excited about the possibilities at skirmishes, only to be disappointed further still. 'The Man' will undoubtedly push for a reference to them in the aforementioned document, as they do from time to time when something slips through. I'd put money on it.

These will almost certainly be illegal in the UK. There are a few section in various Acts which could pertain to these things, but rather than quote them all, here's just one from the Home Office Guide to Firearms licensing: Those weapons and ammunition, which are prohibited, consist of: any cartridge with a bullet designed to explode on or immediately before impact, any ammunition containing or designed or adapted to contain any such noxious thing as is mentioned in (viii) above and, if capable of being used with a firearm of any description, any grenade, bomb or other like missile, or rocket or shell designed to explode as aforesaid

In practice, most airsoft players, sites and retailers do use UKARA of course, but it should not be mistaken for UK Law, it was merely a reaction from UK-based airsoft retailers to the VCR Act of 2006, in order to be seen to be doing something to prevent the misuse of RIFs. Or if you prefer, it was a prudent business decision. Thus you don't need to be on UKARA's list to sell airsoft stuff, nor to buy stuff either. UKARA is a private venture between some retailers, whereby they can check if players have played at an airsoft site via an affiliation they have with airsoft sites. But as long as a seller can be reasonably sure that a buyer has a suitable reason for wanting to have a RIF, then that's the seller's ass covered as far as prosecutions are concerned, in other words, UKARA helps them to stay within the law, but it isn't the law. Granted, it makes sense for retailers and airsoft sites to be involved with UKARA (even though I know some don't actually like it), but it certainly isn't compulsory. Beyond the buying/selling aspects of UKARA, the UKARA list does also cover some aspects relating to the importation of RIFs, so the Customs and Excise people do use it to assist in tracking that data, but even that part is just a convenience for them and not really anything official. And just for fun, it's worth noting that Essex actually is in the USA (although that company you are referencing is actually in Devon). You can find US towns named Essex in Vermont, Connecticut and Nevada, and US counties named Essex in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Virginia (and probably some other places as well I should think).

Some good shots there, and some appallingly bad use of cover and concealment from a few of the people you were hitting. One or two cheaters not taking their hits as well from the looks of things.

'Break' should really be used to indicate that you have finished addressing the current recipient, but will commence addressing someone else, without ending your transmission. i.e. 'Sexbomb One, hold position - break - Muppet One, continue to the target area.'