Colonel Kurtz

JG is a TM clone company so should be fine i'd guess? I know first hand the JG M4 is direct clone of TM M4, exact same dimensions. So i'd hope it's the same across the board.

Was just in reference to someones comment about TM G3 being made o creaky plastic. I prefer plastic regardless, I care not for 'realism' and prefer not to have an extra kg or two to carry around. What's your favorite bit of HK BigAl?

Wow I never thought my 6 months working in a plastic factory (mostly thermosetting) as a kid would have any use/relevance in later life. The milling will indeed leave it rough and not see-through, 3D printing would be much worse/rougher. You can make it transparent again with combinations of buffing/polishing/heat-treatment/solvent, but it'll be painstaking to do if your just using a standard milling machine and a block of standard acrylic, and easy to ruin. Another concern is if your are doing it in one-man-and-his-workshop fashion, then the milling process can warp the acrylic due to heat. (not its shape, but consistency so it's cloudy/wavy inside). The milling machines at the factory i worked at had massive cooling setups to keep things at specific temperatures, tailored to the compound (which was also tailored to the task) In my time working there, I mostly did finishing on BP garage signs. There's one out there in the UK somewhere which has a delightful sketch of an oil-barrel with a penis f*cking a whale scratched into it, and a couple with a standard 'woz ere'.

The site is primarily a paintball site. This means everything is covered in a grey paste of rotting paint, which has perished to the state where it will stain clothing if you allow it to dry further, especially stuff made out of plasticy materials (like every 'Viper' or similar bit of belt/vest/pouch), so don't wear anything you don't mind getting ruined, or don't lean on any surfaces (trees included) It's got a reasonably good layout, different arenas, few interesting bits like an old bus, which makes for fairly interesting game scenarios. Although several times ended up waiting for paintballers to finish their game in an area. They usually see the airsofters, all their camo and rif, and assume they're playing like the premier league of paintball. can make for some amusing passing comments. Absolute Airsoft was my first site and does get a couple bits of criticism from me in terms of how it's run; - They pander to regulars too much. Several times saw people with hot guns be allowed to use them as long as they promised to increase their MED. Also experienced them getting cut more slack in terms of marshaling. - Marshaling can be pretty lazy, meaning it's usually reduced to a bitch-off due to them not having witnessed anything occuring. although when it comes to the serious stuff (like people kicking off or being totally reckless) they jump into action and do what's required. - The site shop is run by a scammer called Mark (Special Airsoft Supplies), who basically lists all sorts of stuff in stock on his website, takes orders (and the money) and sits on it until he's got enough to order a bunch of sh*t from china. He's had all sorts of trading standards and lynch mobs at him to try and get money back for undelivered items or things being cheap equivalents, or just plain wrong. He's not been allowed into the UKARA club. Bitching aside, as long as you don't buy anything from them that they don't have at the site shop there and then, and don't wear any valuable clothing, you'll be perfectly fine and it'll be a woodland skirmish day as good as any other. For Absolute Airsoft I much preferred their site on the edge of Maidenhead (mostly due to lack of paint)

Then you could put it in an ICS sportline clear body. Somehow the idea makes me feel like an airsoft pervert.

I've got an SL8 which i turned into a 'DMR' *shudder, i hate the term* . It's a V3 gearbox so easy to do that bit. There's not much aftermarket hop-up available, i found a 'CNC ProWin' which was alright. I started with the Classic Army one, as it's already got a fair bit o upgrade in it (bearings, piston, cylinder head). All i replaced was the piston head (comes with metal, i put plastic in there), motor, gears (lower ratio) and spring. Locking to semi required a bit of surgery. Swapped some body bits as well. I haven't given it a good performance testing yet in terms of range etc (my garden aint that big), so not sure if it was worth it yet. But is doing about 25rps @ 430 fps. M14 is universally considered easiest/best gun to DMR, followed by anything in the AR series (only due to amount of available parts rather than suitability)

I do like a bit o MP5K, nearly bought two. And a trench coat. And shades. Lack of kung-fu and blind-fire rules prevented me.

I'd love a modern G3-SG1. There is a G36 'pro-line' recoil, but it's TM so would take whacking a metal receiver in there. Doesn't get much publicity out the recoil series, everyone just goes sopmod or scar I'm currently working on my own mutant SL8/36K hybrid, similar been done by others many times, so nothing unique. My current favorite bit o HK is my TM MP7 AEP. Has a new Laylax front grip, TM Pro-Sight and Tracer. Gearbox has a fair bit of Laylax in it too, but not much you can do with it due to no available aftermarket motors or gears

Flash is all good, but it's virtual footage, and I think the suggestion was based around seeing exactly how it actually ends up all smacking together, to examine timing issues etc.

£350 takes you out of the ICS/G&G £150-£200 leagues. I'd say just pick a gun type you like the look of and get the Tokyo Marui version of it, they're the godfathers of modern airsoft guns. There's lots of exotic options for that cash, but for a first gun you can't beat a bit o Marui, as it'll be a stable foundation to build your collection from, and will probably never break unless you give it a helping drop/kick. It's a gun you'd not really need to upgrade ever, perhaps buy it with a stronger spring installed or treat yourself to a higher quality barrel, but that's about it. If you're picking a gun type you've not held before i'd recommend going to an airsoft store to give it a feel, even if you buy from elsewhere.

Might as well buy a Tokyo Marui fan mask if you're willing to spent close to 3 figures. I've got one the fans clear the fog well, and aren't too noisy.

Ares are notorious for gearbox issues, but there's plenty who have a bit o badger without issue. Personally i'd avoid it for something similar by a better manufacturer What's your budget?

There's a jungle (gym) on the top floor, it's in between the SWAT outpost and Reading Festival clothing bin

Good points about blind firing and that not being a true safety concern for strobe lights, anymore than darkness. I'm just used to playing at a site where they make a big song and dance about kicking you out even if you look away for 1 shot out of a burst. I'm still sticking by disorientating an opponent in this manner being a tad unsporting as kriegar puts it (i hope your named after Archer, love that show) I have walked into a few things due being strobe in the face, but plenty more due to it being dark and me clumsy. Perhaps a different question; Do you think that there's a kinda 'fair-usage' line in the sand somewhere, and that it can be abused? For example; would it be legit to take a bunch of high power ones to a game and set them up in strategic places, rather than having one attached to your gun or used by hand? Or if someone made some kind of e-warfare backpack that could kick out enough light/white-noise to proper mess with anyone without earplugs or sunglases (within the limits of injury ofc)? Would it be a pain in the ass if everyone had one and used it at the slightest sniff of tactical opportunity.

I've been thinking about strobe torches and their use in airsoft and come to the following conclusion; The only purpose of using strobe on a torch is to blind the person your pointing it at, to the degree where they can't see what they're shooting at, so you can shoot them first. To me this seems very dangerous, and I'm surprised that most sites allow them, but will kick you out for any kind of blind-firing. If someones under attack by someone using a strobe on them, they're still going to try shoot in the vague direction, even though they can't actually see wtf is there. For the same reasons blind firing is considered dangerous, this is dangerous. It's also possible someone could be surprised by a strobe burst while they're moving, then there's all sorts of potential for walking into things/people, falling down stairs etc. It's vaguely possible to do the same thing to someone with a torch on constant beam, but nowhere near the same degree. (Or perhaps its just me and i see in a lower frame rate of something) So whatcha all think? Is strobe torches a legit tactic and I'm a whining bitch, or do you share the sentiment? Is there guidelines you feel might allow them to be used fairly/safely?

Yeah barrel bore for sure! Main one i'd like to know is exactly how force differs between bb weight at various ranges rather than just out the muzzle, with and without hop (myth bust joule creep basically)

I'd love to see myth busters or someone with some kind of lab get to work on all the voodoo physics people cite around airsoft.

I have a MP7 and count it as an AEP as it shares half the internals of the TM Glock etc. And it can just about fit in a leg holster. PRO Not limited by gas in terms of reloading times/frequency, mag capacity, or temperature Pretty similar to an AEG in performance CONS Easier than gas but still have to change the battery every game if used as primary AEP gear boxes are tiny little bitches to fiddle with/upgrade No recoil/blowback, but if that kinda thing tickles your fancy you could probably make your own running off the battery using one of the items for sale here: www.annsummers.com

There is/was a pub in cornwall somewhere called 'Excalibur' i think, and the owner had a bunch of the original armor sets from Aliens out on display, as well as some suits of armor from film Excaliber. I also got to see a bunch of stuff at the LFCC this year (f*ck paying £100+ for a photo with Mrs Weaver and the power-lifter though) As for the armor linked by the OP, I'm pretty sure that's a replica of the armor worn by the soldiers in Transformers. It's basically 1 of the 2 commonly found bits when googling 'airsoft armor' (the other being GI Joe lol), and is child sized costume which has issues with the panels catching on each other and ripping off.

Probably bigger than it looks in pictures, but not huge plot of land in terms of square feet for an airsoft site. However that's space all well used across 3 levels not just trees! The layout is what makes this place so fantastic to me, so many more options than the usual square CQB 'arena' and much less choke-point queue of death (although it's proved to me that people still do it regardless of whether they've got another route or not lol) This sunday I started Orange for the zombie game, and was moved to green when they split the teams, was 2 groups of regulars i recognized this time, the larger being on the orange team (although who knows what they got up to as don't think i ran into them once) Orange team was pretty timid this time (and lost), think i'd rather have been on their side and had more to hunt/shoot!

Magpul seemed novel/cool looking until everyone had it, just like DD etc. I await the next M4 fashion season... One thing though, the gun in the picture has part a caption saying the "customer came in wanting a scope that works for CQB and the 'outdoors'". If that massive 4-50 scope is what they sold him then Patrol Base = cunts

Most AEG barrels are listed as being for a specific gun based on their length, the hop-up end is usually the same

Def take that ICS MP5 back to shop and get it swapped! Glad you had a good 1st time, a definite marmite site, I love it, hate marmite though. Was there with a MP7 myself, good day i thought, people kept calm and behaved well. Last game was a bit of a comedy dodge-ball shambles, but there was only 20 minutes left of the day so can't expect too much, did see a couple milsimers leave then in disgust (fighting to get into a central room where you can only play dodgeball not use your guns didn't meet their sense of immersion!) First time there I've heard people moan about no full-auto after lunch, usually it's people moaning about getting sprayed with full-auto when '1 shot will do'. I did notice a 'squad' talking to the marshals about their dodgy Scar L/Hs that didn't do semi properly (meaning they couldn't use them after lunch) and it was a day where i didn't bring a 25+rps gun. I'm just gonna assume a few people didn't like having areas/games where they couldn't use their primary, and not enough people got high ROF over-killed, to explain this reverse in the usual sentiment. P.S I only spotted one person with a shoty, if you're the chap with a blue shirt on then kudos to you for a first time, very proactive player

Sometimes things can be well one-sided in terms of wining points/objectives, but they don't seem to split it up unless one teams spent a game or two pinned down outside their spawn.

But that's what you pay for! Can sit at home dressed in camo, stroking a gun while not getting shot for free! Actually when i think about it is probably how most airsoft related time is spent by the majority, i retract my statement