Sifu Steve

Battleaxe powered drum mags from £26+ at Patrol Base. Pretty good given they were around the £60 mark last time I looked. https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/battleaxe-ar36-electric-sound-control-drum-magazine The billy bonus is that Project Airsoft, that make adapted versions, sell the adaptor separately. I was going to buy their complete mag for my lad's UMP for £65 but it's cheaper to buy a complete G36 drum and the adapter (£56) https://projectairsoft.co.uk/collections/drum-magazines/products/ump-drum-magazine?variant=41985759772896

Cheers for the input guys. The JG 74 is due to arrive tomorrow. I didn't pay a lot for it and got plenty of mags to make it skirmishable. The plan is to strip the gun down and then strip the paint off entirely, down to the bare metal. I'll then build it back up using my old wargames miniatures skills. I've even researched how to distress wood properly, so I'm hoping the furniture is at least workable. I've bagged a dirt cheap damaged Nikko Stirling scope which I'm hoping I can fashion into something like the Eye of Reach in Sea of Thieves. It's a purely cosmetic item but despite the planned paint job, the airsofter in me couldn't leave the gun as stock... 😄 That's very authentic. 😄 I'll use these for reference on the paint job. Cheers!

Cheers bud. You've changed my view of Cyma in that one comment. When I left the hobby, Marui had the majority market share by far and a 'Japanese engineering' reputation for quality. When I recently read that Cyma were Chinese Marui knock-offs, I immediately wrote them off. But despite my prejudice, I keep running into positive reviews of their kit. In the hours since posting this I've actually managed to find someone selling a JG BAEG AK74, all metal with wood, with batteries and 5 mags, for a price that doesn't terrify me in case I bodge the strip down. I've not encountered a BAEG before so it's a learning experience...

I've recently completed a weathered paint job on some DEagles that I'm happy with. I'd like to branch out and make a really rusty-looking battered AK for my next project. Having been out of the sport for 15 years, I'm not really sure what would make a good base. Ideally, I'd like a decent amount of metal components and will even stretch to real wood furniture. Pic attached is an idea if the look I want.

Recently finished painting a couple of Deadpool-inspired Desert Eagles (hoping to fix the horrible dense red paint job they came with). The first was 'movie-warn', but with the second, I wanted to try a maroon slide (with doodles). 😁

CQB setup ready for testing this weekend. "You have 20 seconds to comply!" 😁

I think I can sure this up further. I received 2 of the full auto versions from Patrol Base in November. They came in a box very similar to the black one, but had an orange instruction manual. The manual actually has instructions for both semi and full but re-uses the semi pictures. That 'might' suggest that I got mine as they transitioned from one style to the other.