Sifu Steve

Had a fun pistols-only event today at LAC in my new rig...

Yeah, it's definitely on the top end of the 'worn' scale. 😄 I recently finished a job for someone at my local club, weathering their bland 'stainless steel'-coloured DEagle into a rather nice black.

Just finished another weathered paint job. This is 'Starry'*. I wanted it to look like it's been dug up out of a Ukrainian garden after 20 years and recalled to active service... and I think it worked. 😁 Method: I stripped it back to bare metal, primed and repainted black so that when the paint inevitably chips, it's exposes the metal. I then used acrylic rust colours from brown to orange, dabbed on with foam in patches. The whole lot was then covered in an uneven textured 'technical' acrylic to give it the caked-up finish. The wood was sanded to remove the top layer then I used an aggressive sanding brush disc to carve runs into it. It was then doused in an oil-coloured acrylic wash to make it look distressed and a bit rotten. Finally, it was airbrushed with layers of matte varnish and chipping agent. Long live the 'Kraine! 🇺🇦 *Real name 'staryy brudnyy svoloch' (старий брудний сволоч) which is Ukrainian for 'Old Dirty Bastard'.

I have an AK-74 that I'm painting up to look severely weathered, rusty and old. It has a side mount. For almost purely cosmetic reasons, I want fit a really old Nikko Sterling 4x15 scope with the original 11mm dovetail clips. The problem I have is I want to buy a no-frills scope mount but they're all picatinny rails: So what I'm looking for is an AK mount with a dovetail rail (unlikely) or a dovetail rail I can replace the picatinny rail on this mount for. I must be using the wrong search terms because I keep coming across 11mm dovetail scope mounts but only 21mm picatinny/weaver rails. Any help would be appreciated.

I'm definitely getting a theme - if ain't broke, don't try and upgrade it. 😄 I've got fair few others, so it's not my only gun... but is my favourite gun. I just felt with all my new acquisitions, she might be getting jealous. It stung when, at my son's first game, his Double Eagle M89 (UMP) chronoed at 300fps and mine, a weathered 270-280. His reaction was golden: "What does that mean Daddy?" "It means your pokey little gun can shoot further than mine bud." "Don't worry Daddy... I'll cover you while you get closer. You did say you like doing that leapard crawl thing." Little sh*t. 😆

She still works reliably but she's underpowered. The only internal upgrade I've done is a 6.03mm barrel (that runs the length of the silencer) and she's chronoing at 275-285. I'd like to put another 50-60 on that. With the gun being so old and me just getting back into the hobby, I'm a little lost on where to start. How interoperable are designs now? If I follow a Cyma guide, will everything referenced there be suitable for my OG36 without exploding it? Cheers in advance. 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.