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If you're running a tank and line whatever you go with I have a hard time not recommending a Billet series MTW. I've had two Billets and they've run great (both second hand), I picked up a Forged when they first came out because the quality of life changes seemed ace and I like having the 'proper' upper receiver. I can't recommend it though, not because I've had any issues thus far, just purely on the fact that Tier 3, Tier 4 and eventually lockdown happened so I haven't done any proper testing or played with it yet. I don't tend to give any recommendations/advice until I actually believe what I'm saying rather than allowing the 'hype' to overcome me. Worth noting I have zero knowledge or experience regarding the Tippman, though I can tell you anecdotally that I've seen a fair few go from the Tippman to the MTW and at least in terms of performance the MTW seems to be seen as an upgrade. Take that as you will, as I say, anecdotal.

Having had both I'm inclined to agree. Either way it's a decent chunk of change, if you've owned and know you liked one of your options it's a no brainer to me that, that is the one you go for. I found myself in the decision of MWS versus MTW recently. I'm sticking with the MTW largely because of the drop off on return on investment for selling out of HPA is too severe a hit for me personally. Had that not been a factor I would have gone with the MWS, with the main reason being ditching the backpack (the tank and line don't themselves bother me at all, but I miss running a 'slick back'). The MTW has CO2 and tank stocks available, but something never mentioned with those two options is the restrictions they put on your length of pull. Not a big deal at all for many, but I've run my AR stocks at the same length for years... changing that feels decidedly weird and uncomfortable. I also got lucky and snagged a backpack which is exactly what I've been after for carrying my tank on eBay, which cemented my decision for the time being. In case anyone wants to ask what it is, it's a Source 10L assault pack... they've been discontinued for a while (as far as I'm aware), hence the 'luck'. TLDR - Following 'Any help spending (or saving) my money would be most welcome.' If you're not already invested in HPA, go with the MWS imo.

I used a semi-opaque liquitex ink rather than a wash (stronger pigment), took 2-3 passes to get it looking entirely filled. Assuming the consistency of the ink is right it shoud just run in to the detail off the brush, leave it to dry and clean up the surrounding edges with a q-tip and white spirit (the exact chemical you use here will vary on what 'paint' you use). Some use nail polish rather than paint, at which point use an acetone free nail polish remover. Truthfully if I didn't already have all the stuff to do I probably wouldn't have bothered, but it was a decent bordeom cure for all of 10 minutes haha. I tend to cheat with most of miniature painting and use a combination of an airbrush and enamel washes to make things look like they look me far longer to paint than they actually do, so it was nice to something which required a slightly steady hand for a change. That’s probably the last miniature I painted (about a year ago I imagine). I have an obsession with glowing details and tinted metallics.

Haha, fair. My brain always seems to attach 'something to mess around with' as 'something to tinker on while we can't play'. TLDR - Performance wise the MTW is the best RIF I've ever used, maintaince is very easy, but the tank and line will be an issue for some... alongside the price of both getting a HPA setup and the cost of the RIFs themselves. I'll breakdown the engines first: Inferno Gen 2 - Controlled by an FCU so needs a battery, programmable in terms of dwell, rate of fire. Operating pressure is 60-140 PSI. Reaper Gen 2 - Being honest, I have no idea about the details of this engine. I personally see it as a choice between the Reaper M and the Inferno Gen 2 so have never looked into what the Reaper Gen 2 actually offers. Reaper M - Mechanical so no battery needed, semi only. Operating pressure of 80-140 PSI. They have 3 versions available: 'Cheapest' The 'Billet series' which is the OG one, upper receiver is pretty much naked on the right hand side so no forward assist or dust cover. Comes with an M-lok rail (7", 10 and 13/14" options available), can be fitted with a variety of the engines and runs on the Spartan board (you adjust your FCU settings using the trigger). Comes with the original plastic black hop unit, engine retention clip and feed tube. 'Middle Ground' The 'Milspec series' new release toward the tail end of last year. Conventional AR receivers so has the forward assist and dust cover (worth noting the dust cover doesn't close without modification). Comes with a quad rail (10" only I believe) and the Reaper M engine. Comes with the fancy Phoenix hop unit and an updated engine retention clip/feedtube (tldr, people kept breaking the old design of feedtube so they changed it on the new models, the Billet still uses the old one). 'Big Bucks' The 'Forged series' new release toward the end of last year. Conventional AR receivers so has the forward assist and dust cover (worth noting the dust cover doesn't close without modification). Comes with an M-lok rail (10" and 14" versions available) and the Inferno Gen 2 engine, runs on the Premium FCU board so a separate board with it's own buttons rather than having to program the FCU with the trigger. Comes with the fancy Phoenix hop unit and an updated engine retention clip/feedtube. I've only used the Inferno Gen 2 personally, largely due to operating pressures and the fact I run mine at the standard limits rather than as a DMR (turns out I hate minimum engagement distances). On the various groups surrounding the platform I see far more issues with the Reaper engines than the Inferno ones, how much of that is user error and lack of research versus issues with the engines themselves I have no idea. I'll leave a chart below regard AEG/real steel parts compatibility. All this is very much a brief overview. Worth noting that a variety of hop units can be installed on it, but require some modification to fit and hinder the ability to strip the RIF quickly. Entirely not worth it in my eyes, the stock plastic unit is fantastic. I haven't been able to test the Phoenix but reports seem to be that it's very good once you've taken the time to tune it properly. I've tried to be as concise as I can, but realistically you're best off doing some research of your own because trying to cover entire product lines via a forum post is... challenging haha.

I'd tend to advise away from the MTW if it's more for tinkering, mostly because internally you only really have the hop/barrel to play around with. And even then it's largely regarded as, stick with it stock for a bit and if you feel the need throw a PDI barrel and either a Maple Leaf or G&G Green bucking in it (depending on which version you get adding either a modded Maxx hop unit, or Wolverines Phoenix hop unit in is also an option, but the stock unit is great). If it's for more of a project to put some time into the MWS seems like it affords a few more options to play around with. Don't get me wrong, I love my various MTWs but outside chucking external accessories on them there isn't a huge amount to do with them!

It's actually the orange slide, but I think I much prefer the tone to the actual gold they use. Aye, I filled the lettering myself. I haven't done any in a fair while but my other on/off hobby is miniature painting and fortunately the black ink I had lying around seemed to do the job nicely. Curious to see how it holds up once it's getting used to play with. Hahaha, so what you're saying is you essentially have a direct line to your dealer at this point? 😂

What’s the best way to get in touch with him regarding incoming bits? I’ll shoot him a message on the off chance he has any black adv frames left because that’s absolutely what I’m after. I do indeed, with the caveat there is nowhere in this house that the lighting works for even half decent photos. Figured I’d keep the mag adapter on to see how many folks I can trigger, because that’s half the fun at this point. Hope the short versions of the the EPM1's surface over here at some point because that's what I'm planning to feed it with.

That seems decidedly not great. Silver lining being that it was the thread on the bolt itself not the thread within the mag itself? Either way, seems to be in line with the general opinion on Guarder parts unfortunately! I finally got around to throwing a decepticon into mine. I wasn’t going to bother until I managed to get my hands on an AM hop unit and my PDI barrel arrived... but boredom got the best of me. Side note, thanks for making me aware of hicaps hub. Very impressed by the level of service so far, now just sat camping the AM hop page and the advanced frame pages in the hope they eventually appear so I can call my capa ‘done’.

Side note, no idea if their stock levels are accurate so may be worth emailing ahead of ordering but FDE CTRs seem to be in stock here. I can’t give a person recommendation on the vendor but seems ‘legit’ enough. Outside of that I imagine restocks of pretty much everything are a decent wait at this point given the general situation of worldwide logistics and the impact of that on production pipelines, alongside Magpul seemingly winding up for their 2021 releases.

I could be mis-remembering but generally speaking you just get the tube screwed in to the point it’s flush (or as close to flush as you can get it) with the lower receiver, with the sling plate being correctly orientated. If you fit it and have issues with the bolt lock (or are using a HSB) just back it off one rotation and jobs a good ‘un. Trial and error is fine, the only thing you can really do much damage to (assuming you’re using the right tool to loosen off the castle nut, that ideally being an armourers wrench of some description) is the small spring which keeps the part behind the trigger in check. Just be sure to remove your buffer/buffer spring before you start taking anything off.

Haha, it's ok I'm already on 'the list' because I like AR stocks on AKs. Very much hopeful that a buffer tube attachment comes into existence for the AAP so I can run that with an AR stock and a primary adapter of some description (leaning toward the MP5 one). At which point I'll assume he'll insist the mod team have my handle changed to 'th3 h3r3t1c'... or y'know, just get banned.

Fair, I was eyeing some up a few weeks ago so was curious on your thoughts. I ended up getting the primary adapter instead because I'm a terrible person.

All airsofters are annoying to a point, because most people are annoying to a point. As many have said, if playing in a particular way is where you find your fun then you do you. Nothing I’ve ever had happen or seen happen during a game will ever come close to how annoying I find ‘safe zone chuntering’. But I don’t think any of the various sub-sets of airsofters are more prone to doing it. It’s a hobby, that is done to have fun. People draw that fun from different places. As long as that is acknowledged I have zero issue. At least I think that’s what my opinion is, it’s been that long since I’ve played I almost miss people grumbling in the safe zone after a game about alleged cheating that they ‘didn’t see the point’ of telling a marshal about.

I see you've gone 'all in' on mags as well judging on the background of this photo. Guarders?

Obviously depends on what you wind up needing to have your PSI set to, and just how much hosing you're doing. I've personally never managed to empty a single 48/3000 in a day so I'm struggling to see how you'd be able to churn through a pair of 68/4500s. Not to say you couldn't, but I dread to think what the ammo bill would be if you were to do so 😅. I will caveat that by saying I run HPA largely due to the ease of maintenance and the ability to set my FPS and have it sit there consistently. I use the MTW because of real steel compatability. I don't make much use of many of the other 'advantages' (read as, stupidly high rate of fire) and predominantly only fire in semi unless the surrounding foliage sees fit that I need to briefly switch. I believe @Adolf Hamster had a HPA'd MG42 at some point so he may be able to shed more light, but I could be entirely misremembering. I'll also say I ended up doing a u-turn on my eventual conclusion at the end of this thread.

Reliability is such a weirdly subjective term within airsoft. Could I honestly say HPA is, on the whole, more 'reliable' than the various other forms of slinging BBs down a barrel? Anecdotally, for my knowledge of the system I use, yes. But I'll qualify that with the fact that I know how to maintain my kit, and a lot of it comes with the benefit that maintainence is very easy. To a point that if something breaks (9 times out of 10 it'll be an o-ring), assuming I have spares on hand, I could very quickly get it back up and running in a safe zone. I tend to define 'reliability' as 'is it likely I can use this RIF for an entire day of play?'... hence my need to qualify my thoughts. Much like an AEG or GBB if you look after your kit it'll tend to last longer, but that's not to say typical airsoft QC can't give you differing results from the chap standing next to you with an identical maintaince routine and 'identical' parts. I've never run a support weapon, but I imagine another large consideration would need to be efficiency when it comes to air consumption. I'd expect a support weapon to churn through much more air than your typical HPA'd AR, which means you'll need to have a proper think about the type and size of tanks you're running alongside the engine you choose to use. Again anecdotally, Polarstar's tend to be more efficient than Wolverine engines. Even more so if you go with a Fusion Engine and slap a lightning banjo in it, but that's certainly not a small expense.

Aye, I feel like I'm in a constant battle with eye/face pro... though I imagine that's not something unique to me. Despite the large scope of things we tend to grumble about within airsoft the one thing I imagine that would land toward to top of everyone's list that struggles with it would be fogging. Given the general increase in pace of games and lack of (site depending) ventilation I just couldn't land on something that ticked all the boxes. Aesthetics aside (some think they look great, I'm not 'into them') the paintball masks seem to be a great solution, ultimately I'm wearing it for protection and will happily throw some 'cool points' down the drain for the peace of mind that comes with them. Simply a case of finding what works for you while providing a level of protection you're comfortable with.

Truthfully I've never found the colour of anything I'm wearing/using to make much of a difference. The only time it might have any degree of impact is in notably dark areas, but not enough to feel forking out for an entirely separate kit would have made much of a difference. Torches/tracers are useful to have, I think the biggest change I have between CQB/woodland kit wise is my face pro. I run herosharks and a delta mike lower face pro thing for woodland (sometimes Peltors if I can be arsed, getting shot in the ear isn't my favourite). I've recently picked up a Dye mask to use for CQB, more so because I'm less confident running mesh eye pro in CQB and everything else fogs up on me. Edit: Not intended in any way as a recommendation/advice to go pick up a Dye mask, given lockdown I haven't had a chance to play games with it yet. Post more served as a nod to the fact your eye/face pro in CQB may need some consideration versus woodland depending on what you usually use.

Red dots being mounted on the front end of an AK is nothing unusual, often they're even further forward on a rail that sits on/as part of the gas tube. Red dots are often (or at least are advertised as being) parallax free, as long as it's zero'd it doesn't make a huge amount of difference. I suspect what Hamster is referring to is the length, or lack there of, of the outer barrel haha. I dare say the front sight post seemingly being attached to the trunion is... uncommon 😅

I laughed at this far more than I care to admit.

FTFY

My personal preference going from least warm and most dextrous to most warm and least dextrous would go (worth noting that as far as dexterity goes 'least dextrous' still gives a great range of movement): PIG Delta > PIG Alpha > Outdoor Research Ironsight Sensor Granted my opinion of warmth will vary from others.

I think you might have a bit of a problem bud, dare say you might need an intervention before long. Not from me though, I entirely support it.