mightyjebus

sadly the price has been creeping up. Used to be about £60 quid then £100 and the last one I seen sell was for £160, Even the Begadi knock-off's have been going up

a couple more new products: Well Pro KS-1 https://airsoft.tiger111hk.com/p54867/WELL-Pro-KAC-KS-1-GM-GBB-Rifle-(BK)/product_info.html A new company I have never heard of have released a bunch of Sig MWS GBB rifles (Salvo Precision) https://airsoft.tiger111hk.com/p54761/SALVO-PRECISION-MWS-GBB-MCX-RATTLER-.300BLK-5.5-inch-(Black)/product_info.html https://airsoft.tiger111hk.com/p54764/SALVO-PRECISION-MWS-GBB-MCX-VIRTUS-5.56-11.5inch-Black/product_info.html https://airsoft.tiger111hk.com/p54770/SALVO-PRECISION-MWS-GBB-MCX-SPEAR-LT-5.56-11.5inch-(Grey)/product_info.html Golden eagle CO2 3/6 shot shotgun https://airsoft.tiger111hk.com/p54782/GOLDEN-EAGLE-Alpha-Tactical-Production-A.T.P.-DOOMSDAY-CO2-Pump-Action-Shotgun-(Grey)/product_info.html

The quality doesn't seem half bad to be honest. Cheers for the tip on Aliexpress, always handy to have a few spare bits just in case.

Before going into my findings and thoughts on the Ares HPA conversion, it's worth setting the scene a little. I've been messing around with airsoft (BBwars anyone?) for close to 35 years. My first BB gun was a model kit of a S&W pistol that once built fired 6mm BB's. It lasted a few mags worth before I accidently landed on it while sliding over my mates Ford Capri bonnet while trying to shoot him. I'd probably get arrested nowadays if I tried that in Taunton again. In the following years I've owned pretty much every different style of airsoft replica. Not only every weapon type but also every mechanism that makes them fire. I've still got a GBB smg that takes duster cans that you screw into a hose, PTW's, GBRS, recoils, mosfets, snipers, both spring and gas and any other fad that has popped up. I've never really wanted a HPA replica for a few reasons, 1. it seems a bit of a faff, b, a lot of HPA'rs seem to be running around in lycra with drum mags hanging off a pistol and 3, I'm not much of a scuba diver. This changed when I was at a boot sale recently and someone was flogging a tank and regulator and with the Ares V2 HPA conversion popping up for sale, I thought it might be time to give it a try. Buying these parts looked to be at least removing some of the faff that I couldn't arsed with. Turns out that wasn't the case but that was nothing to do the the Ares HPA engine. Turns out the regulator I bought was goosed and even after watching a few youtube videos on maintenance, it still was goosed. The tank was at least ok until I tried filling it for the 2nd time and the 1.8k pressure valve blew. While I'm talking about faff, the filling of the tank is a problem. If you have access to a dive shop or an airsoft shop that offers a refill service then it's not to bad but the other options are, buy the foot pump or buy a compressor. Now I live in Wiltshire and since the sea is very very far away, there are no dive shops (or airsoft shops for that matter). I went for the cheap option and bought the foot pump. I filled the 3000psi tank up to 1000psi, went and lay down for an hour and proceeded to go buy the compressor. If you are old and unfit like me, or young and unfit or young and fit, don't buy the foot pump. Go buy the compressor but make sure you change the filter every fill as they get wet quickly and water inside a compressed bottle is a very bad idea. So I now had a compressor, HPA engine, air line, knackered regulator and knackered bottle. Thankfully the very helpful DJM94 from these very forums was selling a tank, storm regulator and air hose, which he kindly dropped off at his local airsoft shop for me to collect. I now had everything I needed to set up a HPA gun. My donor AEG was a ARES AM-008BK as I had one sitting in the gun rack. I didn't try to fit it into any other M4 style receiver as I thought I'd try to keep it as Ares intended and fit the HPA engine into one of their replicas. This turned out to surprising easy which was a case of stripping the AEG gearbox out of the AEG and fitting the HPA inside. I had to remove the screw from the bottom the pistol grip for the hose and the only really other annoying thing was the stock tube screw was too short so I had to order a M5x100mm from Amazon to put the whole thing back together. It would have been nice for ARES to include a couple of different sized screws with the HPA engine but sadly they missed this trick. One other thing I did was add an O ring to the plug that you connect your air line to. You can see the connector I'm talking about in the picture above. Adding the O ring stops you accidently disconnecting this connector when you plug in the air line. The last modification I did was cut off the XT30 connector and run a longer pair of wires with a Deans connector so that I could fit the wire down the stock tube and stick a 11.1v Lipo battery inside. The Ares HPA gearbox has the cutouts in the gearbox shell for this so it's a pretty simple task. So with everything connected, a full tank and flippers and wet suit on it was time to test. trigger response - fast rate of fire - 16bb's per second FPS variation - 1 FPS over 20 shots accuracy - surprisingly good for a stock hop rubber and inner barrel. misfeeds - none problems - none. Sound - very quiet Overall, this seems like a pretty simple way to get a HPA rifle. The low rate of fire means it's unlikely you will be donning lycra and combat rolling your way through the game zone. The lack of variation in the FPS is very nice, meaning that if your aim is true then shot to shot accuracy should be pretty good. Cost of the HPA engine is cheap compared to other higher end systems however if you shop abroad you can get it even cheaper (£115 from sixmm opposed to £200 in the UK but warranty will be an issue if bought abroad). There are other initial costs to consider if you are thinking about going HPA: compressor £160 Tank £65 airline £21 regulator £70 upwards Wet suit and flippers are option. final impression. It's a very quick way to get into HPA. I'm unlikely to sell all my other guns and go buy a bunch of lycra but I do see the appeal. Once you get over the faff of filling tanks and have all the bits it becomes just as accessible as an AEG. The consistent FPS and low noise make it nice shooting experience. One 3000psi tank will do about 1000 bb's on the Ares HPA engine so a 2nd tank might be worthwhile having. Now that I've lost my HPA cherry I think my next HPA venture will be the VFC M249 converted to HPA tank and a AEG nutsack.

23 in stock https://pts-steelshop.com/products/akm-160rd-magazine-for-magpul-pts-masada-akm-aeg-brown-semi-transparent

thankfully did pay UK prices, saved about 85 quid going to sixmm.

I feel unclean.

good to see something different being produced. Now up for sale on Octagon Airsoft. https://www.octagonairsoft.com/product-page/s-t-svt-40-g3-electric-gun-real-wood It looks good so the FG-42 and SKS should look good hopefully when they are released.

I've got an original one here with a hurricane metal kit fitted, plus the 550 and 551 with working burst modes. I've also got the GHK and a limited edition 556 conversion kit on a TM 552 but I think I'll be adding another as I like the look of that. The P90+ is nice to shoot with that mosfet and I'd imagine the 553 will be the same. The new mags look stupid with the daft spring thing poking out the top but I can live with that.

Picked up a Quark-R tracer for a tenner as it needed a little work. fixed it in 5 mins and looks good on my SBS.

went to the Red Alert boot sale today and got a bit of a bargain. Vector AEG, 3 long mags, 1 short mag, 1 drum mag, 3 Lipo batteries, sling, red dot, Odin speedloader with adapter, Lipo bag, Vector bag and few odds and ends for £160.

The one that's attached to the rifle in the picture

That ACR stock looks terrible. You should sell it to me immediately :)

KS-1 is 98% done. and the only thing better than a 1911 is obviously a 2011. Staccato P with orange RMR.