mightyjebus

well that turned up quicker than I was expecting. Ordered the 9th and arrived 5 days later from Hong Kong. DE ACP556 pictured below the Arrow Airsoft ACP9. I can do a seperate review if people would think it would be useful.

from here: https://airsoft.tiger111hk.com/p49711/Double-Eagle-B&T-APC556-AEG-Rifle-(Black)/product_info.html just need to have the usual fight with Border Force to get it out of customs

I've got one winging it's way to me right now. fingers crossed it get here.

the TM MP5 looks nice (even nicer once magazines become available) but I've got my eye on this. It uses the Falcon gearbox

through no fault of my own I now have another one.

to be honest I'm not going to chase UPS, as I have a account with them for work. If they get around to sending an invoice then I'll pay but I don't think that will happen as the time spent by UPS sorting it all out will outway the actual amount. I spoke to Pawel from TWG quite a bit during thr lost/delayed parcel saga and he is quite happy as he got a full refund. Just to recap on the whole thing: Taiwangun were really good Parcel force were good but slow (staff shortages are pretty well documented in Parcel Force in the media currently) UPS were terrible. UPS support wasn't very helpful and continued to promise updates that they never delivered. Am I going to chase UPS just to give them money when I used up all my patience chasing them to sort out my delivery. well no is the simple answer.

actually UPS paid compensation to TWG for the full sum so it's UPS that has lucked out.

so after the inital order, stuck in customs, refunded by Taiwangun etc which was all done and dusted about 2 months ago....guess what turned up today. Yes my order. no notification and since it was all refunded I was expecting any and actually bought a similar AEG from patrolbase.

I'll give it a try

no complaints. As fatboy40 says there isn't much needs doing unless you want to lift 0.3g bb's

nice idea. Also ADMINS, if you happen to stumble into this thread can you rename/move it to something/somewhere more suitable.

Not a bad idea to start listing what works and what doesn't for the GBLS. I'll start and feel free to add as this thread progresses. The HP polymer magazines can be set for 20/30/40/60 or 85 bb's. To take them apart push the retainer on the base up and slide the magazine base off. This can be quite tight on the first attempt so a bit of gentle presuasion might be needed. This exposes the 2mm allen bolt and once that is removed the base plate comes out along with the retainer. There are 2 springs in the retainer and can be easily lost. it is possible to super glue the springs to the retainer if needed. Push the bolt stop lever on the top of the magazine upwards and slide the magazine downwards in the shell to remove. Once apart pry out the silver rod and slot into whatever number you want to set the magazine for. If you want 85 then put it in the hole that has no markings (like mine in the picture). I actually don't know who many you can get in the magazine if you leave the silver rod out completely. for BB's it might be worth cutting and pasting this list so that it continues to grow. So far I have tried and had no failures with Blaster Devil 0.3g (diamond) Vorsk 0.30g Green tracer For optics I'm running a Vortex Crossfire Red Dot sight (designed for real firearms) and once zero'd it has stayed zero'd. (ask the blue team from Echolon Airsoft site yesterday ) I tried some clone sights but they don't hold zero for long.

yup, I got that wrong and you are correct. on another note I seem to have acquired another one. Things worth mentioning are: any attachment on the front end of the gun have a tendency to work themself loose because of the recoil so you need to make sure you tighten them up well or use some sort of thread lock. They destroy chinese optics or at the least throw off any zero within a couple of shots. The FPS is very consistant even to the point that I thought my chrono wasn't registering shots because the results were the exact same. The standard hop/inner barrel with a FPS of 320 feels very Marui like in accuracy and range. with the slightly higher FPS than a standard Marui it reaches out accurately to 60/65 meters once the hop is set (I'm using 0.3g BB's). because the trigger has a soft uptake before the break I'm finding that I can hold the trigger on the break for long periods before snapping of a very quick first shot and because the break is solid I'm not too worried about shooting myself in the foot by accident. I'm a few full days in now with these and I really don't feel like I want to go back to TM recoils, PTW's or GBB's. I'm not saying the GBLS is a better AEG but for me the shooting experience is better.

to be honest I chucked it in my smock pocket and forgot it was there. I've got a load of different smaller power banks so might run one of those next week

first trial of the glasses fan went better that expected. Ran it for the whole day on a power bank and started the day with 4 bars and finished the day with 4 bars so it's not very power hungry. Didn't steam/fog up once and I was running around like an idiot for most of the day, so I'll call that a result. I had sweat running into eyes at one point but still no fog. Also worht mentioning that there is a slight noise when you wear them but people standing next to you can't hear anything so that's a plus. Need to tweak the design slightly but now that I know it works I can get fancy with the design.

Patrolbase call it a B so B it is. no complaints to be honest with either as they both work well out the box. new player, good little backup or someone who fancies a quick firing AEG should consider one of these.

aliexpress I think. I used this part for the speeds and USB connection. https://www.amazon.co.uk/ELUTENG-Ventilator-Computer-Compatible-Raspberry/dp/B07F1NV9T7/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=20mm+usb+fan&qid=1627598440&sr=8-4

surprising quiet compared to other goggle fans I've used in the past

in the continuing quest for a fog free day, I've made this. 2 20mm fans housed in a 3D printer enclosure. Slides onto the side of the glasses and blows air across the inside face of the lense. 3 speed settings controlled by the switch and all run off a usb power bank. First real trial will be this weekend.

decided on a Mk16 look. Also picked up a spare bolt that needs a little work. Had it in bits so thought I'd share a photo for those that might be interested.

the skeleton kit doesn't have the trades and the pistol grip is AEG spec so you can use any AEG pistol grip. Stock choice is the same as a NGRS so if you can fit a 11.1v in it then it will work. I was going to comment on the fact that some people are going to swear by GBB's and forgetting the reason they bought a GBB was that no AEG had a decent recoil but then I noticed you mentioned WE and I came to the conclusion you are just clickbaiting as the 4 WE GBB's I have here a testiment that they are the worst airsoft guns out there.

The only way to lock it to semi would be to mechanically lock the selector which is doeable but means drilling and tapping the lower receiver for a grub screw. It does fire like a spring gun when you cock the AEG without a battery connected. reminds me of my KSC HK33 in some respects.

I'm going to do this review slightly differnetly from normal. Usually I'd take the AEG to bits and talk about the good and bad parts but there are plenty of youtube videos out there comparing the GBLS to other platforms and very little on what it is like to use one. I'll cover the elephant in the room, the price, later on in the review and give my thoughts. So this is my GBLS and I bought the budget/skeleton kit for a couple of reasons. As much as the full rifle is nice I was never going to keep the supplied rail and was probably always going to make my own verison (Mk18 ish in my case however this might change to a MK16 or L119A2 depending on what I finally settle on). If you have been living under a rock a little bit about what the GBLS is might help..or not. It's not a GBB rifle but it uses a similar design, it's not really a typical AEG but it uses a similar design. Confused? Well the closest thing to it would probably be the TOP M4 shell ejecting M4 but the GBLS doesn't eject shells. Inside the lower receiver you will find the gearbox and in the pistol grip is the motor. In the upper receiver you will find full sized bolt. Inside the bolt is the piston head and spring. The way it works is you pull the charging handle to the rear and when you release it it pushes the bolt forward and chambers a BB in the hop unit. You pull the trigger and this releases the compressed spring which pushes air out the front of the bolt propelling the BB out the barrel. At the same time the gearbox kicks in and cycles the bolt again and loads another BB. If set to semi it does this once. If set to auto it does that until every BB is fired out the magazine and the bolt locks in the rear position and you then take out the mag, replace with a fresh mag and hit the bolt release which loads a BB in the hop. I'm going to be aiming these next comments to people who have been skirmishing a while and use PTW's, GBB's and NGRS's. You know that way on a PTW you can get a quick double tap off quickly and both BB's will mostly likely hit the target. On the GBLS that's not going to happen. Well it will but you are going to have to train with it to get a grip with the recoil as after the first cycle of the bolt your aim will be off by quite a bit. You know the way when you full auto a GBB rifle and the FPS drops about 30 or 40 from the first shot to the 35th shot. Yeah that doesn't happen. The FPS is consistant from BB 1 to BB 60. You know that sound and slight recoil you get when you fire a NGRS well that doesn't happen. You get a very nice kick and quite a loud sound as the bolt slams forward. I'm not having a go at these other platforms as I have them all and enjoy them but the GBLS is just a bit different and in a good way. I'll do a few more comparisons to the other platforms so that the more experienced players get where I'm coming from. On the GBB it's great to have the bolt lock back making you do a mag swap, slap the bolt release and get back in the game. When I run a GBB (MWS, GHK, VFC, or any of the others I run) I'm always concerned that the gas I'm using which was under the site limits at the start of the day is now pushing the BB's above the site limit because it's now the afternoon and it's 10 degrees hotter. I'm also concerned that in the colder months in the UK I'm not getting the best from the platform because it's cold so tend not to use them. The GBLS gives me the mag swaps and the recoil I get from my GBB's but at a consistant FPS the whole year. The recoil is probably just as good as my MWS running sub 350 FPS and if there is a difference it's hardly noticable. On the PTW or a NGRS with a Titan fitted I get some nice snappy shots off. I don't get this on the GBLS. My first shot is snappy and on target but the 2nd shot will need adjusting (GBB people will know what I'm talking about). On the GBLS the trigger pull feels very real. I've heard that the trigger pull was about 10 lb but mine seems to be about 8. It feels very realistic with a nice break and reset. It feels more realistic than my GBB's never mind the PTW and NGRS. My opinion at the moment is the GBLS DAS is more realistic than a PTW or NGRS and more reliable than a GBB. Before I move on to price I'll mention the following. I ordered 2 Nupol 11.1V 30C Lipoi batteries as I thought the GBLS might eat through a battery since it's shifting the heavy bolt back and forward. I used 16 full mags today on 1 battery and there is still plenty of juice left in it so it doesn't seem to be current hungry. I had zero jams, stoppages or feeding problems with the 8 mags I used (although I did loose one somewhere along with a Glock 19 but thats another story!). I took it out the box, set the hop with 0.3g blaster BB's and was easily hitting 55 meters with accuracy and the FPS is running at around 320 (on a 0.2g BB). To be clear I have done nothing to it, straight out the box if fires flawlessly and that leads into the price. So £1350 for a toy gun is quite excessive or is it? Let's have a look at the other toys out there. Let's start with the GBB as this is probably the cheapest platform when comparing it to the rest unless you look at the running costs over a long period of time. So a MWS is around £500 then you add 7 more mags at £45 a pop. Let's also remember that carrying 8 BGG mags is a chore as they weigh a ton. Let's say you want to get the best range out to 55/60 meters so you might chuck in a tightbore and maple leaf rubber and possibly a NPAS to control the FPS. So you are probably looking at about a grand now. TM NGRS can be a bit of a money pit when it comes to getting the best out of them. £550 for the AEG, £150 for the titan, 8 mags at £25 each, tightbore, S hop, new spring and spring guide and possibly reinforced gears to replace the soft TM gears. We are probably at around £1200 now. PTW's are anywhere from £1200 to £2000 depending on the model you buy but then you have spare mags, possibly get the hop sorted, have the electrics waterproofed and then maybe have the motor rewired. God knows the final price of a full tuned PTW. I hate to think how much I've spent over the years on them. At this point you might be seeing the point I'm trying to make. £1350 plus £35 a mag doesn't seem that expensive when you don't have to upgrade/replace/rewire anything and it justs works as advertised out the box and is more realisitc and reliably than the other platforms. Are there any negatives? I know of 1 and heard of another but never experienced it. The electronic board in the gearbox doesn't like to get wet or so I have heard. Tell me a titan or Systema board that does. My only slight gripe is the metal mags rattle a bit inside the magwell. This is genuinely the only negative I could find with the GBLS. Is it the best airsoft gun in the world? well no but it is the most reliably realistic one out there and it's very much a nice experience using it. I'll finish this review of with a couple of notes. I handed it to about 10 team mates today and everyone had a stupid smile on their face after that first shot. I think a few AEG's will be getting sold off shortly to fund a GBLS. I'm probably going to be one of the ones selling other AEG's as I see that there is now a HK 416 GBLS. I'm not in anyway associated with GBLS but if you want to send me the steel bolt and Type B buffer I'm not going to get upset. Just saying.

only real difference is the rail is metal instead of polymer and the pistol grip is a new shape. I actually like the stock on the G as it's really easy to take on and off to swap out the battery (anyone who struggles with the Magpul CTR stocks would like this stock).

GBLS DAS Skeleton kit