alxndrhll

An awful lot of builds that I can only imagine were intended to be 'forever RIFs' with all the bells and whistles going up at the moment. I think we've all been there where you pour a lot of either/and/or time, effort, funds into a RIF that you want to be an absolute dream peace... but ultimately just becomes too hard to justify having that expense tied up while getting out to play is so limited. Makes me genuinely a bit sad, same old story I guess. If you're going to pump a large amount of funds into a single RIF, you do you, but do so in the knowledge you're getting nowhere near that back should you want/need to part with it. I'm not versed well enough with AEGs to have any idea as to what could justify the price, but given it's also a pretty niche piece I suspect you'd be lucky to see somewhere around the £600 region.

For sure, I've been impressed by the incrimental upgrades/improvements they make as a company so I see no reason to expect them to be any worse than the previously available offerings. Definitely some nice 'quality of life' changes in there, assuming the changes to feedtube/retention and the hop don't royally screw feeding up it's hard to see how it could be objectively worse... I'm sat here hoping they'll turn their eye to the AK platform now, though I'm not holding my breath! In terms of playing around with hop components that's just the nature of the beast, and airsoft fallacies regarding 'the best length and bore barrel' certainly confuse things slightly. But it's all part of the fun, I love tinkering around... even if the end result ends up worse than where I started. It's such a simple platform to work on swapping things back is a piece of cake (Phoenix hop aside, but my experience is anecdotal at best).

From what I can gather your suspicion is correct in regard to the 'dust cover'. The thing I'm most intrigued to see in the new batch is how the pre-installed Phoenix hop is working out. It's a really interesting design, but as with anything that adds 'precision' at the cost of complication they seem very fiddly to get shooting better than the stock (or at least what was stock) unit... which arguably says a lot about how good the stock unit is. If it shoots well out of the box I'd strongly recommend not changing anything!

Some might argue this is inspired thinking given how much value seems to be placed on original packaging when it comes to second hand sales. Cut out the frustration of trying to sell the actual RIF, just sell the thing that's clearly so desired.

Not sure about the gloryhole grip, but this speaks to me.

I think this might be my favourite of the bunch, purely because it comes across as genuine disappointment that a ‘hop adjustment key’ is in fact just an allen key. No idea why I find it adorable, but I do.

Credit where credit is due they're decent suppressors, the modular features are useful and the 14mm CCW adapter that's included makes it something you can use on a variety RIFs. Likely slightly overpriced at it's regular RRP but the discount currently available makes it a decent buy imo 🤷‍♂️.

I must be behind on my loose understand of the general rule for AKs, is ‘Nyet. Rifle is fine.’ dying out? 😅 I guess I hadn’t really considered the receiver/finish of the receiver being worth the extra but that makes a lot of sense. I fear I’m straying in to territory of maybe finally actually ‘doing the thing’ in the not too distant future. This thread is so dangerous.

Haha, I look forward to seeing it nevertheless! There’s just something about Zenitco parts that draws me in, irrelevant of what they’re on. The stumbling block any time I’ve seriously considered doing it is the base RIF. Seems a little backward to spend a lot on the base RIF and then replace half the things which lead to it costing so much in the first place. Add the fact I’ve struggled to find much information on what exact modifications are required to get parts which seem to have been made to fit LCTs, E&Ls and GHKs (‘high end’ as I understand it, I know VERY little about the AK platform in terms of airsoft) to fit on a Cyma and that tends to be the point the temptation dies out. Well, those and the fact I haven’t worked on an AEG in lord knows how long so I’d definitely end up breaking it.

I’ve never been overly ‘into’ conventional steel/wood AKs, but I’ve always had a soft spot for short AKs with a bunch of Zenitco tat thrown on them. It’s a build I’ve never got round to doing, but have been thinking about more and more of late. This image is not helping.

More than anything I'd think long and hard before commiting to anything, you've kinda gone for 0 to 100 extremely quickly. I've seen many do the same when it comes to HPA, see a (heavy editted) video of a RIF doing really well and leap into 'must have now' mode. I wouldn't want to tread that fine line of discussing others financial situation/commitments but please think long on hard on how much 'need' there is, I think many of us have fallen victim to impulse buys what with lockdown and everything. This isn't intended as a 'go away noob' reply, so apologies if that's how comes across. I just know how easy it is for that craving for a shiny new thing can take hold, so please have a good think before rushing in. Reapers seem to be a massive gamble whichever version it is, some just don't seem to perform very well. I don't know the in's and outs of why, my pressumption is largely down to feeding/being closed bolt but I can't say for sure. Ultimately it just removes of the option of full auto/burst should you want it, it's aimed at the 'milsim' crowd more than it is for your general skirmish day. As for the electronics side of things, anything anyone here would be able to interject is relatively moot unfortunately. They're swapping out the electronics on the 'Forged Series' compared to what is in the what is now known as 'Billet Series' which the owners on here have. Regretably you won't really know the ins and outs until units are in folks hands, I suspect initially you're going to see a lot of folks not having a great time trying to get the Phoenix hop playing ball nicely. Putting that hop unit in them from stock is certainly a brave decision. Edit: Jesus I've just seen the price on the 'Forged Series', definitely struggling to see what is justifying that price difference versus the 'Billet Series'.

The biggest element to consider when looking at moving to HPA is the cost of your HPA set up itself as much as it is the RIFs. First and foremost you need to consider how you’re filling your tanks. The cost of this can vary depending on the sites you tend to play at and if they offer refills. Assuming they don’t a scuba tank of some sort which filling adapters is generally recommended, assuming you have a dive shop locally that can fill your scuba tank. The cost of your tank(s), line, regulator and ‘filling station’ will vary depending on what exactly to get, but in my experience/the experience of others I know which have done the same those 4 components will tend to run you £350-£450. So not a small expense by any means, and that’s before you’ve got any toys for that set up to power. Add in a £600 MTW, batteries and mags... you’re cruising over the £1000 mark. As far as the MTW itself I’d tend to recommend the Inferno, especially to those new to HPA. Having spent a lot of time in various groups Reapers seem to be a lot more fussy especially when you come to wanting to swap out hop up components. The ‘MTW builder’ is essentially there if you know exactly what you want, and exactly what you want isn’t available from a ‘stock’ configuration. Say for instance you want a 10.3” outer barrel, but a 7” rail and a CO2 stock installed by the folks at Wolverine. They’re very easy RIFs to work on, I’d tend to advise just picking up one of the standard ones and figure out what you want to change from there. Length of the outer barrel/rail is largely down to your personal preference. Upgrades wise, as most will advise you, run it stock for a few games and if you feel you ‘need’ more out of it you can start messing around with the inner barrel and hop components.

I tend to see PayPal fees as somewhat of a 50/50 split given the outcome of them being paid protects both parties. Though generally the perception is that it’s protection for the buyer. With that being said I list everything with an ‘all in’ price because I just feel it saves everyone the headache. Though as mentioned on multiple occasions I do feel at times that the actual cost of PayPal fees is dramatically inflated to aid in the justification of what could be seen as a ‘high price’.

Aye, I’ve set it... at least I think I have. Truthfully the process seems significantly more awkward setting it for CO2 because you don’t have the gauge on the reg, and aren’t certain that the hop is set correctly. Don’t have the benefit of ‘somewhere between 60-80 will get me where I need to be’. Ahh, that makes a lot of sense. Hadn’t considered how much easier it makes thing when you have multiple RIF you may want to use during a day. Aye, compared to many I’ve had before it’s a really easy front end to take off... historically I absolutely hate barrel nuts but no issues at all here. It’s just an extra thing you need to which makes testing take much longer. Likewise, I’ve got an EdGI dual bore in my SRS which is lovely but I don’t feel I need a barrel that fancy in this. At least not until I decide I want to DMR it (which I imagine I will, just not any time soon). I’ve also never done anything with rhop, I tend to go for durable, well performing buckings and a CNC arm because it makes life easy when it comes to maintenance. I guess there is no harm in picking up an S+ for the time being, it’s one of those barrels that will come in handy for a variety of builds should I want to swap it out for something different on the MTW.

Very much appreciate the in depth reply! I received my MTW a few days ago and I'm absolutely enamoured by it, beautful bit of kit! Slapped the 33g stock on it, because I can't help myself. Seems well made and I've had no immediate issues following the installation. Only thing of note is that I don't seem to be getting anywhere near 500 shots out a canister, most falling closer to the 300 mark. I suspect that's down to either the dwell needing adjustment or the canisters themselves not being particularly great. I'll probably look into it more at some point but I imagine the CO2 will see more use during Spring/Summer, sticking to air seems like a significantly better option for this time of year... assuming we're even able to get back out on the fields any time soon. Definitely going to be picking up an Aero following the updated version release, as the name would suggest it's such a modular platform that I'd like to have all the options available me! Running through the different fire mode settings was certainly a costly mistake to make, probably should stick to doing that with air hooked up 🤦‍♂️. I've got the 'bog standard' Balystik reg that most seem to start off with at present and haven't really seen much of a reason to replace it performance wise. As mentioned in my initial post I don't really use full auto at all and I don't have the RPS set high enough to feel the refresh rate is ever struggling. Though the SFR mini and Storm might be something I look closer at if I want to take a bit of the bulk away. So the recommendation is much appreciated and taken on board. Mine came (second hand) with a Maple Leaf barrel (I believe a 6.01, it's not a Crazy Jet) and a Maxx hop unit installed. I haven't been able to do any range testing of yet but I suspect I'll be either slapping the stock hop unit back in or picking up a Phoenix. More for the convenience of barrel cleaning than anything else, though it's certainly not hard to do it's a bit of a blag having to remove the front end anytime I want to change/clean the barrel and/or hop bucking. I've ordered both the '1.0' and '2.0' arms from Silent along with the Maxx spacer, again just so I have all the options available to me. Then it's just trying to make sense of the various bucking, nub and barrel recommendations. My initial plan was to pick up a TNT S+ barrel, a pack of the 60 degree TNT buckings and run those alongside the stock chamber with the 1.0 CNC arm but I'll happily take advice if there is a wiser route to take (assuming it's worthwhile information, mine has an Inferno Gen 2 in it). I'd certainly rather spend more now than buy twice. Truthfully part of that confusion on my end comes from the G&G green buckings which seem to be considered as very good, but from what I can tell there are two different types of G&G green buckings... and I'm finding it hard to figure out which one is the correct one. Aye, that's pretty much my experience. Had zero issues with purchasing something in stock, but any enquiries go entirely unanswered whether they be related to availability or general advice.

Words to live by!

Seemingly unjustifiably high price aside, I cannot fathom what would have anyone leave their phone number open to all on a public forum. While I'm here, time to be that guy again. Classifieds rules police back at it again 🚔 'Also on the way is a Steel Buffer/Recoil Kit and Adjustment Tool which should be arriving shortly.' Forum Classifieds Rule Number 6: 'You must have access to the item that you're selling. You cannot be selling items that you do not own, are not able to post immediately or being sold on the behalf of someone else.' Such a strange correlation between 'questionable ads' and 'not following classifieds rules'. Who'da thunk it.

Not to be 'that guy'... while absolutely being 'that guy'. It's also a breach of the forum's classifieds rules. '7. You must include a picture of every item that you are selling. It is not acceptable to just show a box or use a stock images. Pictures must be visible in the listing (whilst we do allow links to other forums, simply placing a link instead of a picture is not permitted).' While aware the rules can be an inconvenience, they exist for a reason.