Rogerborg

On an M4 you can just split the receiver and (assuming a ported cylinder) give it a cycle and observe that the piston and nozzle are both forwards, with some play in the nozzle.

I like to think of it as "holding court".

Ahoy and welcome. Yes, AEPs don't have the grin-factor of gas blowbacks, but they do have the advantage of always working. If you don't have the lipo / mosfet version than I'd suggest the best value upgrade you can do on them is to rewire them with a Deans connector and squeeze in the biggest 7.4V lipo that can you fit, as it transforms the semi auto response and auto rate of fire. The power is always going to be less that you'd want, and I've had no luck getting it up beyond 0.6J or so even with the springiest spring and the air-seal parts more greased up than a Scotsman in an air vent.

To be fair, that's a lot of Mystery Boxes.

OK, I'm intrigued by what the finished plan is. Purely functional, or aesthetic?

Indeed, silicone is used to make bakeware, so unless you're tandooring chicken on your rafters, it's not going to be an issue.

Hmm, coming from PCP I can see why you'd gravitate towards that. What I'd strongly urge is to play at least a couple of times before making any decision. You'll likely get a big adrenaline hit off of the first day and it's easy to go mad and buy all the things. But the actual experience of playing is about taking hits, rather than what you use to make them.

380mm is still in the sensible range, it'll be fine. If it's not and you do end up wanting to shorten it a little, barrels are easy enough to cut with a cheap sub-£10 pipe cutter, and a pipe deburrer, or whatever else you have to hand.

The thing about airsoft barrels is that ~200mm is enough to comfortably reach typical 1.14-1.2J UK site limits (and you can get there with less). There's no real benefit to going longer for <1.2J, as the BB won't remember anything about its time inside the barrel once it's out. You might even find yourself losing power and consistency as you go longer, depending on your cylinder porting and air seal. https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/inner-barrels/xt-inner-barrel-aeg-601mm in 300mm would give you enough extra to support the suppressor, with some baffling space left. Airsoft is the art of the possible, there's no perfect configuration.

(Runs to get AAP-01C for comparison purposes)

Ahoy and welcome. Airsoft is a blast, just pace yourself and keep hydrated. Fogging is a sod of an issue for a lot of us, and the number 2 rule (after don't be a dick) is to never, ever remove your eyepro in the game zone, even to clean it. It looks like TM rent out paintball style sealed masks rather than mesh, which will make it more likely that your glasses will steam up. I've tried various potions and lotions for anti-fogging, with the most successful (and expensive) being Revision anti-fog wipes, followed by Cat-Crap (yes, really) paste. Ventilation is the real solution, and if you stick with sealed goggles, Ex-Fog fans (and knock-offs) are available, or you can DIY something with a computer/3d printer cooler fan and some ducting. I run goggles in CQB for the light transmission and lack of spalling, but for outdoors, I've switched to mesh. The gold standard is @heroshark who does made-to-order and custom goggles, which means you'll need to wait quite a bit as he's always got more demand than time. Jumping off point for that is https://www.facebook.com/Heroshark/ However, more basic mesh goggles or masks work too, and your glasses will deal with the fragment problem. While I've got no love for the brand, I do think the mesh on these Nuprol goggles looks solid enough for airsoft, and they're hopefully big enough to cover your regular glasses. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nuprol-Pro-Mesh-Eye-Protection/dp/B0797R9TJ4 You'll likely want to remove the foam on those, or anything else you get, to increase airflow.

Ahoy and welcome. Barrel and bucking is a perfectly sensible place to start tinkering. The issue with BBs clipping your suppressor may just be down to shooter's-droop, with the suppressor slightly misaligned. I've certainly had that on an MP5K where the front end isn't very secure. Once you have a longer inner barrel in there, you can pack it out with rubber rings, tape, stiff foam, whatever you like, to help support the suppressor and keep everything aligned. Huh, I'm seeing both 190mm and 210mm listed for the SA-12. Either way, it's the extra length of the suppressor, and how far down you want it to go, that really matters. AK2M4 would get a hearty recommendation, but inner barrels are a bit thin on the ground at the moment: https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/inner-barrels The XT 6.02mm is decent enough. Going too tight can lead to issues, I'm getting a few wild fliers out of an XT 6.00mm barrel, even with the end opened up with a deburring tool. Sight unseen, a 260mm or 285mm is probably what you want, pending measuring. Bucking and nubs, my default is Maple Leaf and omega-style nubs. Religious wars have been fought over the exact model and hardness, but you won't go far wrong with a 60 degree Macarona and an omega: https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/hop-up-buckings-nubs/maple-leaf-macaron-60-nub Macarons works and feed fine with every M4 hop and nozzle that I've used them with, and specifically the Specna Arms blue rotary hop, which is a decent enough unit. If you do come out a bit over power, the spring change on the Specnas is easy enough, and you can cut off a coil, or just heat and squish the end coil, to cool it down a little.

Huh, it's impressive that the seller managed to sneak it past the eBay "not allowed" commissars. But it does rather sound like you've been deliberately sold a pup, maybe out the back door of a retailer. If @Convert doesn't manage to sort you out, they're super easy to open up and then it's a case of looking for whatever's not engaging. Easy to do if you have a working example to compare it to, a bit of a mare if you're going in blind. But a few high quality pictures or a video of the internals might let us spot what's broken or missing.

I like to act as a firebreak for those by saying "It's airsoft, he's probably saying the same about you."

Is this for a milsim that mandates real-caps? I ask because if you want to shoot 30 rounds from a magazine, you can buy any midcap and put 30 (well, more like 34) BBs in.

"has worked perfectly" They usually do, until they don't. I love that he provides so many pictures of what he's not selling, that's a nice touch.

I'd ponder on whether you're being invited to do something that's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the thing that you enjoy being good at.

Nice, that's pretty committed. Loving the shinobi shoes. Inspires me to get a bayonet or stabber or chainsword.

And £60 plus postage for the AAP-01C at JustCos AirsoftWorld, if you want a stubby version. In stock, I don't know why "pre-order" is in the URL. https://www.airsoftworld.net/action-army-aap-01c-shinobi-gbb-airsoft-pistol-black-pre-order.html

We'll await the update in 48 hours.

Sorry to hear that. While I have no problem repairing airsoft guns after a reasonable amount of use, and have just bought an AAP-01C on that basis, I'd say broken-out-of-the-box is more of a case of haggling over whether you or the retailer is paying the return fee. If you don't like the answer, you can just start down the chargeback route with your payment processor, which can result in a retailer suddenly remembering your consumer rights. If you do want to investigate, I'd also suggest doing it with their agreement and under their guidance. It may be something simple that they can send you a part for, but if you go poking and prodding around, it might result in a warranty rejection. One thing, can you see any signs that you've been sent a "pre loved" gun? It wouldn't be the first time.

I hear a few of those cases are still being argued out.

Quiet, over AEG power levels, no cocking issues? Lightweight as well, right? How about going down the Mk23 route? Buy (e.g.) a mid-range ASG, feed it the heaviest BBs it will hop and see what power and consistency you get with and without the silencer / barrel extension, then start tinkering. There's no end of uPgRaDeS that you can do to them. Or skip to the end and buy an SSX303 carbine. One thing, if he's using something hotter than an AEG, then he should be carrying a sidearm as well anyway. The Mk23 is very popular for that purpose, so you could get it, run it without the extension as a secondary for close quarters (although it will shoot as far as most long guns) and then think about upping the power and using it as his primary. I mean, technically he could run a high power Mk23 primary, with a sub 1.2J VSR as his close-quarters secondary.

I would be a bit careful, as the plastic on the CM.5xx series is easily desiccated, even by isopropanol, let alone brake fluid.

After an unfortunately long hiatus, I finally got back indoors again, at Biohazard in Ardeer. What a blast, CQB is how I got into airsoft, and it's where I have the most fun. It's a small site, but with well thought out buildwork, and they know how to get the best out of it. Slightly overcrowded, and a bit too much "You all know what you're doing, right?" ass-u-me-ing at the briefings (turns out many people didn't), but a very good natured day with fair play all round. Top laughs when I found an alcove in the wall just big enough to fit an Imperial Guardsman, and started capping fools[*] as they walked past unawares, then popped grenades until they started to wonder out loud if I was spawning them from a magic bag. [*] With my delivered-last-night AAP-01C. Quite liking the little snappy boi, might throw some money at it.