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2 weeks? You know nothing of the pain of waiting for stuff to turn up from HK. I ordered something at the start of December and it isn't here yet, such is the nature of wanting things that aren't readily available anywhere else!

Ordered a few bits for a project I'm reigniting over the past few days: From Taiwan Gun: CM045a CYMA Enhanced Safety Lever 6x CYMA Midcaps CYMA AK EPG Replicas of the following various other places: B11-U B19-N Rails to fit the B11 RP-1 Charging Handle PK-4 Front Grip/Hand Stop A-1 Sling Mount DTK-2 No prizes for guessing what's going on here. And no, I'm not expecting to see any of it anytime soon ?.

Ohh for sure, I like to think I made it fairly clear I think UPS are hopeless. But I, alongside many others in this thread, placed my order knowing UPS was the courier... and knowing UPS are pretty low on my list of couriers I think are any good. Venting frustrations is entirely fine, but checking in daily praying something will change isn’t actually going to make anything arrive any quicker. On top of that, if my brief experience in customer service positions has taught me anything it’s that insistent request from particularly irritated customers tends to slow down the entire customer service train. If I have 5 customers that I needed to respond to in an hour, but then I get a phone call or email from a single customer that I have to spend an hour resolving those 5 customers just got bumped back. The more frequently that happens, the more things get bumped back, the more broken the regular chain of operations becomes and frankly the more fucked the whole ordeal becomes for everyone involved. Is this the route of everything being a bit knackered? Probably not, but it’s at least worth thinking about. Is this a defence of the level of service, not at all, it’s piss poor and that should be unacceptable (but it isn’t because they still see an awful lot of business). Is it the ramblings of someone that’s simply very bored? Yup. I placed my order knowing I was in no rush at all for the goods to arrive, and with the current climate of logistics that would need to be the case for anything I was ordering outside of the UK irrelevant of precisely where in the world that is.

I tend to agree with Luke here, their customer service is absolutely dire. It may be me being ‘old fashioned’ but a company shouldn’t have a means of contacting them which they literally ignore. On the whole if I’ve ordered something that was in stock I’ve received it in a timely manner, but for general queries or chasing things up that weren’t in stock they’re awful. I shouldn’t have to contact a company for updates on something I’m waiting on, let alone have to specifically chase it up via a phone call because they can’t be bothered to reply to anything else. As for the actual thread topic, I popped in an order on the 25th of Feb and expect to be waiting a while (and would have done whether I’d read through this thread or not). I get why folks are irked, but when the flood gates opened on orders were you really expecting it to be expedient? Irrelevant of the fact UPS are generally useless we’re in a transitional period and logistics all over the world have been shagged for months. I ordered a face pro mask from the Netherlands at some point in early January and that eventually turned up mid February, it’s hard for me to look at it in any other way than ‘it’s takes as long as it takes’. Outside of making sure I’m keeping up on the correspondence from UPS there’s not much else I can do ??‍♂️. Some folks will get things fast than me, and some slower. It’s so up in the air at the moment that trying to attach any degree of logic is largely a waste of time, and that’s before you add in that the courier in question is Useless Postal Service. At least their uniform colour is appropriate to the level of service they deliver... or don’t as the case may be.

My best guess would be they can't be bothered dealing with the customer service aggro of having things stuck in the mess currently left on global logistics. I imagine constantly replying to impatient folks wears thing after a while, to the point it's not actually worth taking orders requiring shipping to those locations. At least that'd be my suspicion, not so much something they have to do, simply something they're choosing to do until things normalise a bit.

'I know there are kits out there for lots of money, but I am happy with just a M-Lok handguard plus the shorter outer barrel to go with it.' There are a variety of clone rails of both the BCM MCMR and various Geissele rails out there. Ultimately depends on how much you want you outer barrel protruding out of the handguard, once you've picked your ideal length then you'll have a better idea of what's available to you. Angry Gun MCMR clones come in 8", 10" and 13" if memory serves correctly. The clone Geissele rails run from 7" up to 13.5" (I think) from a whole host of brands in a variety of flavours. HAO seem to be regarded as having the best MK16 (9.3" and 13.5") rails out there for a decent price. Though I don't believe HAO are currently shipping to the UK due to COVID. I'm sure there are plenty of others, theese are largely just what are 'hot' right now. No idea on outer barrels for the MWS specifcally I'm afraid, and depending on which rail you go for as mentioned by @AlphaBearyou'll possibly need an adapter to get a rail made for AEGs to fit it (the adapters are essentially just a shim which keep everything locked in place).

My best guess is he's the proud(?) owner of a HSGI Weesatch [shudders] but they didn't have 13 (12 in the Weesatch, 1 in the RIF) in stock ?

Unfortunately he only had two tone left, or at least that's what he seemed to think when I spoke to him so I ended up giving it a miss. The frame is very much a want rather than a need, and having spent far to much on kit rather than RIFs of late it's probably a sign that he didn't have black ones left!

I very much fall in the camp of 'you do you', ultimately it has literally zero affect on me. If I put an aftermarket part in a RIF to improve the performance then I need to know what an improvement actually looks like... but I'm also more than willing to rip aftermarket parts out if they've made it worse and accept I've made a bad purchasing decision. Same applies to durability, how do I know if an aftermarket part is more durable without having killed the stock part to then compare how long it lasts to? In no way against swapping parts out, I just like to know what I'm comparing things to. If you couldn't careless and like throwing crap into RIFs for the sake of doing so, then all power to you. As long as you're enjoying yourself I fail to see how or why you should care about other folks opinion. (That last sentence potentially comes across as a bit passive aggressive, absolutely not the intent but it's hard to get tone across via a typed out message)

I wouldn't say it's a particularly blurred line at all. For reasons unknown to me the majority are the latter because folks are seemingly so reluctant to use something stock to know what benchmark they're even working with (I suspect this is only spreading wider courtesy of the prevalence of social media and YouTube). Lockdown has definitely exacerbated it, but it's by no means a new thing. 'Upgrade' doesn't mean much if you don't know how it was functioning before throwing various parts in.

I’m not generally into compensators but that looks smart. I definitely want to pick up a black slide at some point for when I don’t want to be ‘flashy’. Though I won’t go ‘full Ali’, literally just a second slide. Can’t decide if I’d swap internals between slides or just build a second slide to chop and change as I please, granted given this is purely a CQB runner for me I imagine I have plenty of time to make my mind up!

I'm aware it's not a particular exciting one, but these are literally £6-£6.50 new.

Very much ‘just another mayo AR’, but it’s my ‘just another mayo AR’. Finally got around to modifying the dust cover so it holds shut, and threw a PDI 6.05 barrel in there (no idea what effect that’s going to have until I get an opportunity to shoot it further than I currently can). Just waiting on a Mini2 replica to show up from HK (ordered mid December, so lord knows when that’ll show up) and I reckon the dishes are done. Turns out the colour of BCM FDE looks nothing like it does in person in photos ??‍♂️.

My slow grow on the Crye chest rig ended up not being particularly slow grow at all. A lot of inspiration taken from the Reptile House blog (read as 'largely stolen entire set up'), as many seem to with this particular rig. I am planning on picking up one of the Crye stretch panels at some point but couldn’t resist the draw of the regular detachable flap. Alongside that there’s a 6x6x3 GP pouch, a full length KYWI, a TacBelts AVS adapter and a bunch of WTFix straps. Looking forward to messing around with this over the weekend to see what setup I land on. Also had a BCM stock turn up which I completely forgot about ordering.

Good to know that hicapa nozzle springs do the job. I’d read in various places that swapping out the nozzle spring for a 140 is a great, easy improvement but ordering the AAP specific one by C&C seemed like more hassle than it was worth. Intrigued to know what your results are with the h-plate, mine never seemed to want to sit right to the point I just took it out (granted I didn’t need it for the weight I was feeding it).

I’m cynical so would tend to suggest the seller was more than aware that it being two-tone at some point in its life would hurt the sale price so the information was intentionally withheld, but ultimately there is no possible way I could ever prove it... simply seems to be the most likely situation. Either way the feeling of having the wool pulled over your eyes is never a nice one, if the buyer isn’t satisfied I hope they’re able to come to an amicable resolution.

Fair. Aye I've been toying with picking up a CAR-15 stock for a while, likely one of the B5 Systems repros from Brownells, and would likely pick up a slim handguard while I'm there because they're not wildly expensive. It's probably another to add to the list of 'I'll never actually do this'... but while we can't play it's nice to ponder on how I'd do it. Likely with a Cyma base, throw a new hop unit and a Kythera in it (as seems to be where most of my potential list of builds land) and call it day! Anyway, I digress, good luck with the next one!

Using one of the Cyma CM009 (E/F) as a base or is it a bits box special? Found myself getting increasingly tempted to do a similar build myself. Is the slim handguard RS or 'airsoft' 'spec'? Paint job isn't my cup of tea, but that subjective comment aside it looks smart... certainly not helping my temptations!

Looking good! Are those parts for the long awaited 4.3? How long is it till you do a chrome slide and barrel with carbon fibre-esq grip and detailing to match your Thompson? ? I love how this all started as a ‘modifying an SSP’ and has spiralled so wildly. In short, this thread is airsoft in a nutshell ?.

My obsession with gucci battle bras continues, was very happy with the Spiritus Micro Fight but couldn’t resist the temptation when the Crye AirLite came back in stock. Suffice to say ‘I have plans’ for that one, but I imagine that’ll be a slow grow project while waiting for the various components I want to be in stock. Frequently refreshing the Ferro Mini Dangler page in the hope they’re back in stock (in MC) before long, for no other reason than being impatient. Very happy with an eBay find a week or so ago with a 10l Source Assault backpack (predominantly for HPA tanks to live in). And a few PDI barrels for various RIFs.

Glad to hear it, as for the white ink the Liquitex White Opaque (Liquitex Titanium White 4260432) is superbly pigmented and I absolutely recommend it. Aye, I always find it strange when folks have a RIF 'set up and chronoing exactly where they want it' without having the hop correctly set up. And largely why I can't test anything at a long enough range to gauge if my hop is set correctly, thus, any tuning I'm to do is entirely moot... granted that's arguably one of the biggest advantages to HPA, once hop is set it's super easy to get it all at the correct power. Sites most local to me (an hour or below drive is what I tend to consider 'local'): F&O Anzio Camp - Mixed - decent site, don't think it's used as well as it could be. F&O The Mill - CQB - wasn't a massive fan of the site, but it's an option. Level 2 - CQB - my most local site at around 20 minutes away, courtesy of lockdowns and tier changes I'm yet to try here out, very much looking forward to doing so. Dagger Woods - Woodland - owned by the same folks that run Level 2, decent woodland site but it's only open half the year. One of the best run sites I've attended, hence my excitment toward trying Level 2 out.

I'd completely forgotten to check back in on this thread, I love that you still refer to the one in the post above this one as 'the Novritsch one', dare I say 'The Artist Formerly Known as the Novritsch One'. Markings came out super nicely, the inks make it much easier to do than it should be! Really helps tie the frame and slide together! I took delivery of a PDI barrel for mine yesterday, no idea what it does to performance because my ability to test is pretty much non-existent at this point in time so intrigued to see how that works out. At the very least it's a slightly tighter bore so means I'll be able to run at a lower PSI to get the FPS/Joules where they need to be... assuming we're ever able to play again/there are any sites left local to me when all is said and done.

Slings will always be personal preference, I’ve moved to using two point slings over single point because cracking yourself in the nuts in ‘the heat of battle’ is not my favourite and I find two points much more comfortable across a day of playing. The ‘new wave’ of quick adjusting two points are all very similar, my personal favourite is the Ferro Concepts Slingster (having also tried the VTAC and Haley slings of a similar ilk) just found it has the best quick adjustment system and the padding is perfect for me... but one of those plus decent fittings/hardware (I use the Ferro QD fittings) is going to set you back £70-80. Comfort is important, what works for one may not work for another etc etc. Some would like scoff at spending that much on a sling when others do the job just fine, these days I tend to use as much ‘RS’ kit as I can largely because it holds value much better than repro kit if you come to sell it on... aside the fact it’s better quality (for the most part). The reason holding value is important to me is because I sell things on if they aren’t working for me. Once you start down that rabbit hole of ‘perfecting’ your kit you have to accept that things you buy might not be suitable for you. Tldr, don’t skimp out on your sling because it’s the only thing between your rif, gravity and the ground should you let go of it. If your kit isn’t working with you, it isn’t worth using.