Daveoc33

thanks for the advice, guys. I'll give it another go

First attempt at weathering not gone so great. I stipped the paint off the top slide of a pistol and painted 5-6 coats of nuprol UFP allowing a day between each coat for it to dry. When sanding down the edges of the slide the paint is coming off in small flakes giving a jagged edge to the weathering. The lower of the pistol, with it's factory paint, is much tougher and not flaking at all and lets me get some very neat fine weathering. What did I do wrong? Should I have used a primer?

https://www.wgcshop.com/products/vfc-original-parts-hk45ct-slide-catch-left-vgc6urv041 They have them on backorder and appear to ship to the UK still. £12 delivered. I mention this in case you're happy to wait for a restock. I've used wgc a few times and they are good and the one time I've had to use their customer services they were helpful and spoke english. Either that or this guy might do you a deal: https://www.usedairsoft.co.uk/bone-yard/umarex-hk45ct-with-1-gas-tight-mag_i28658 This has been on usedairsoft or ages

This could be nothing but I saw this picture of a LK33 on prefired this morning and noticed the box cutout around the stock just happens to be the same shape as the thumbhole stock you see on some H&K rifles like the SL8. Unless LCT start doing a G36 I can't see them doing an SL8 but thumbhole stocks do exist for a g3 and there's also an SR9 - although the angles don't look right on the SR9 for this cutout. I just wonder what LCT were planning/thinking when they chose this shape for the box cutout as it can't be a coincidence can it? I love a thumbhole stock are IMO there just aren't enough in airsoft. g3 thumbhole stock: SR9:

I had this problem too last week. They came in stock on skirmshop.co.uk on thursday and they're already out of stock now. There are 3d printed ones on ebay. (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304158737377?hash=item46d14603e1:g:GE4AAOSwUk5gBJSD) Not sure if these are any good but the action army ones are just polymer/plastic. Rear ris mounts are still in stock if you just want to run a small red dot.

This isn't new news I'm afraid - it was publicised in March this year but I thought I'd post in case it's of interest. 81m is the guinness world record for a sub 1 joule airsoft rifle using less than 0.32g bbs. The video is a reproduction rather than the actual record being broken and it's in itallian. From what I can tell using google translate he used the following setup to do this: g&g sbr tr16 mk1 zero-shock piston (green) double lapping stainless steel cylinder 275mm "diamond" barrel blue hop rubber "without internal groove and without internal hump" he mentions Omega but it's not clear if this is an omega nub or not he also mentions the word "flat" but it's not clear to me if this is a flat hop or just a description of the hop rubber. a bag of g&g bbs I think Looks like you can buy most of this stuff at this guy's shop which is lucky... They don't go into how many shots it took him to do this and I wonder what kind of a tail wind the record breaking bb had when it hit the target. Good on him though. It sets the bar at least.

I know it's a touch above your budget but with your 10% discount at onlyairsoft you could get an arp 556 for £270. I have one and although it is a bit "boingy" it shoots really well and has a mosfet with a 3 round burst option.

10% off at jdairsoft.net this weekend with #itscominghome coupon code.

Should work yes. The elite force 1911 is made by kwc. Elite force, cybergun, umarex co2 1911s are made by kwc. I do think heroshark makes a good point here though. The gas is indeed coming out the top not around the sides, which makes me think I've told you the wrong seal is at fault. Might be worth removing the exhaust valve and giving the valve itself a dose of silicone oil and there's a o ring is inside the mag itself which will need silicone oil too. If you look at this diagram you'll see the 2 o rings: https://www.airsoftstation.com/elite-force-kwc-1911-co2-blowback-airsoft-pistol-magazine-release-valve/ If the o ring inside the mag has gone you can likely just replace it so long as you can find out the correct size. If the o ring onside the valve has gone I think you'll need an new valve. I've had a quick look on one of mine and I can't see how you get inside it to replace it.

If you've switched co2 bulb brands you can get that issue. Different brands of bulb can have slightly different shapes on the top if the bulb. Some are tapered and some are flat. The seal in the mag can bed in to one type and when you give it a different type it no longer seals properly. You can buy seal replacement kits. Assuming this is a kwc mag you could try https://ebog-designs.co.uk/collections/cybergun-kwc-1911-co2/products/ebog-deisgns-cybergun-kwc-1911-co2-co2-bulb-piercing-valve-replacement-seal (which I'm guessing are home made) or you can get official replacement seal kits for more. Best of luck with this!

I had a similar issue on a stark arms g18c (I think vfc oem) in semi only where the slide would catch the triangle shaped part of the trigger bar that runs along the right hand part of the slide. When I pushed this part down into the lower receiver it felt quite grindy so the lack of smoothness was making it catch the slide. I completely disassembled the lower but couldn't find a positive point of failure. The only solution I had was to lubricate and bed in this trigger bar piece until it was smoother and now it cyles fine. Mine was a boneyard buy rather than new though. Good luck with this!

+1 for friction on the slide. Or it could be a problem with the valve knocker - perhaps not resetting properly. If it's flapping around then the sping has got loose.

Surplusstore are doing a tan Ares AS03 for £125. They've been like this for a while now, but I noticed the voucher code asforum5css gives you an extra 5% off. So with £4.99 delivery it's £123.49 all in. Gunfire have these on sale at £105 but with delivery and vat/charges etc this still comes out cheaper I think. It looks like there is only 1 tan one left and then they're all gone as I can't add 2 of these to my basket. https://www.surplusstore.co.uk/ares-amoeba-striker-as03-tan.html

Targetszone are doing the arp556 at £200 and a firehawk for £100. A few other deals on this page too. https://www.targetszone.co.uk/special-offers-7-c.asp

Having this exact same issue. Really helpful thread. Thanks both of you! Spring ordered @ak2m4

Double bell do one. I've no experience of it but negative airsoft mentioned it in one of his videos. He didn't rant about it which is a positive I suppose... https://fubarbundy.co.uk/shop/double-bell-416-geissele/

So where are the best places to buy parts? Or does it really just depend on what you're looking for?

I'm an airsoft newbie too and I bought a GBBR as my 2nd rifle. Fielded it a few weeks ago for the first time and at some point all of my mags dumped out their gas and it just got annoyingto the point where I just ran my pistol till the end of that game. Maybe it was because it's a cheapo GBBR or maybe I was doing something wrong (shooting too fast perhaps) I love my GBBR (an army r36) and it's my favourite rifle still, but I was very pleased I had my AEG to fall back on and not have to worry about anything apart from playing the game.