Colin Allen

Losing a shop is a shame, but it was a rather unfriendly place. I suspect that more shops will close over the next few years; rising costs and competition from online only retailers will drive them out of the market.

No mistake; I knew what I was buying. I buy kit to play pretend war in; UTV is far more practical than the grey rubbish which I initially used, although I do still have a set of that tucked away in the dressing up cupboard. I have: Helmet with camo netting. Shirt Trousers Braces Webbing Mag pouches (7.62 and 5.45) Backpack Water bottle and cover

Moments like that are what make airsoft days memorable.

Thanks, that is very helpful. I have most of the East German kit, although my webbing is the later version.

I was undecided about playing today. The temptation to head out for a long walk instead was very strong, but I promised myself that I would do that next Saturday. Therefore, I headed off to the site where I play most, Airsoft Plantation; more than 200 other players made the same decision, making me feel very smug that I had got there early and was able to grab a good area to set up, where I was joined by a couple of friends. For the first game we went to the woods, which pleased me immensely as it is my favourite part of the site. As the defenders, we had two lives between the Border and the ditch which is spanned by the Wobbly Bridge. Our task was to prevent the dastardly reds, who started at the Border and had infinite regens on a teammate after a 30m fall back, getting three crates onto the Wobbly Bridge. Each crate had to be carried by two players. When the game started, I took up a position on our left; it soon became obvious that the main enemy attack was coming towards our right, so most of our early engagements were across the field in that direction. As the enemy slowly pushed forward, I fell back towards the Kill House, from where I continued to engage the enemy, including two who I suddenly realised were on the other side of the fence from me; as they had no idea I was there, they were very surprised to suddenly be shot in the back at close range. Eventually, I was hit and fell back towards the ditch; by this point, we were starting to be overrun; I was hit again and the enemy got their crates onto the bridge. When the game was turned around, we decided to make our main attack down our right; our initial advance was delayed by a smoke grenade setting fire to the undergrowth, which was quickly dealt with. We stormed forward, overwhelming the enemy and, after clearing the area around the Kill House, launched an attack on the Wobbly Bridge which saw our three crates deposited there in a significantly shorter time than our opponents had managed. After a quick break to reload, the next game involved our team, starting at the far end of the firebreak, getting one of our bombers, who were indicated by yellow arm bands, to the heliport on the roof of The Cock Inn in the village, where they would set off a smoke grenade which was in a case. If hit, our bombers, of whom I was one, had to return to the firebreak and find a marshal to regen; each such regen incurred a time penalty. Regular attackers had infinite regens on a 30m fall back, while the defenders again had two lives on a 30m fall back. I set off with the group who were attacking from the far end of the village; we quite rapidly fought our way through the Suburbs into the main part of the village, where one of our bombers completed the objective. As we walked back to the safe zone, I was accosted by a very upset marshal as he had lost a mighty £1 bet on me being the one who would set off the bomb. After lunch, which saw Emily and her team feed over 200 people, the bomber game was turned around. I started off in the suburbs, helping fight off an attacking group until I was hit, whereupon I fell back into the village, holding a position covering the rear path into it and taking out a lot of attackers, some of whom seemed to think they were hitting me, although their BBs were dropping a few metres in front of me of me. Eventually, I was hit when the enemy broke into the rear of the village, and trudged back to the safe zone. After reloading again, a new game was started. Starting at the Comms Shack in the village, we had to get smoke grenades to three locations in the mortar pits, which were unknown to the defenders; these were the Bedford, the Land Rover Discovery and the bus. We had infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had one life each. Initially pushing right across the site to attack via the Comms Truck, we made rapid progress until we ran into a layer of heavy enemy resistance, which saw a lot of us repeatedly having to find the regen marshal. Of course, the enemy defence crumbled and we were able to achieve our objectives. This game was then turned around; I took up a position in the middle of our defence, taking out a number of attackers until I had to make a rapid tactical withdrawal (which coincidentally looked like me running away!); a while after, I was hit. As there was no way of getting back to the safe zone without getting shot, dead players congregated by the tree line at the rear of the mortar pits, from where we had a grandstand view of the attackers' attempts to reach their objectives; they struggled somewhat! Halfway through this game, the bolt release catch on my SA58 disassembled itself; fortunately, I managed to find the key part and effected a repair that was better than the original assembly when I got home. That was the end of a really good, fun day of airsoft that was played in a good spirit; the games were well designed and tested the teams. Next Sunday, I am probably going to try a site that is new to me, which several people have recommended. It should be interesting. Weapons used: Classic Army MC51 JG SA58 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

No, he drilled it.

As the lad commented: "It does work surprisingly well in dead brush. There's been a couple of times you've been about 10m away and I haven't spotted you until you move."

The Blu-Link works with a Gate Titan or Aster, enabling you to programme it via Bluetooth from your phone.

30 is reasonable; I will look at dates and book.

Vegetato doing its thing at Splatoon.

It might be.

C'mon! You know what that is!

I had some in my youth. I have done some Gunman filmsims at Battle Lakes. The problem there is that numbers tend to be very low.

I might have to join in at some point; I have a complete set of NVA gear, an MPiKM and an MPiAK-74N. I have an SLR, but no 58 Pattern kit.

This sounds interesting. How many DDR players were there and how strict were the kit requirements?

I think I was there that day; it looked fantastic.

At Airsoft Plantation there is a reasonably deep pond on the site boundary at the edge of the village; it is not unknown for a player to mistake it for surface water.

I play all year except when there is very heavy rain. Getting covered in mud is part of the fun.

Kudos to you for asking. You'll fit in well here.

Agreed; I lost some of my hearing and developed tinnitus in service and then did more damage while managing very loud rock bands, including Hawkwind.

It might help if you asked the question.

They are decent pieces of kit.

Having two guns to set up, I trundled off to Splatoon this morning in order to use their well marked out range. Around 50 players were present, with Mothers' Day potentially impacting attendance. Having set up my A&K Masada after maintenance and checked the power on my recently modified G36 (Hey @Asomodai, that G36C I bought from you has grown up to become a G36K!) which was, as I suspected, a bit low, I went through the ritual of chronoing the guns I would be using followed by the subsequent ritual of the safety brief. The first game was a simple attack and defend in the middle section of the site. With one life each, we defended Checkpoint Charlie, while the attackers, with infinite regens on their starting point, had to raise the barrier at the checkpoint. Taking up a position near the rear on our far left, I had great fun shooting attacking players and a marshal (in my defence, all that I could see were his legs moving around), with the ARX160 reaching out across the playing area. Eventually, of course, I was hit, being the penultimate defender to die. After a shortish break to mag up, the game was turned around. I joined up with a group of players who I then remained with for the rest of the day. Initially probing down the right, we soon switched to the left and pushed slowly forward, during which I had considerable success taking out defenders behind the larger structures. We completed the mission in a time that was eight seconds longer than it had taken our enemies, which was pretty close for a game that lasted just under 30 minutes. The next game involved using the entire site. Both sides started in the container village, with infinite regens on their helicopter (black for us and grey for the other team); the mission was to collect the three smoke grenades, which were at the other end of the site in the foxhole area, and use them to blow up targets in the container village. While some of our team set off to try to grab the smoke grenades or prevent the enemy bringing them to the targets if they got them first, the rest of us fought those of the red team who had stayed there to gain control of the first target, which was the black car. As in the previous games, our communications were on point, with good information sharing around enemy movements and positions. There were some great firefights among the containers until a couple of our players returned with the first smoke grenade, which was duly thrown into the black car, whereupon the red car became the next target. We quickly took control of the area around it, fighting off determined attacks by our foes until, fortunately, the next smoke grenade arrived in the hand of one of our players; the red car was soon belching smoke! The final target was then identified, which was the tyre pile, which is in an exposed position in the middle of the container village. Initially the red team seized control of it, but we eventually pushed them off it, holding it until one of our team ran towards it with the final smoke grenade; his throw missed the target but, as we gave him covering fire, he was able to scoop it up and lob it into the middle of the pile. 3-0 and game over, just like Aston Villa! Luncheon was then taken, which seemed to go on for a long time! A fair number of people drifted away, probably to be nice to their mothers. Following that, we went out to play Spinners. Each of the three sections of the site has a spinner; the winners would be the team who had two or more of them with their colour pointing up at the end of the game. Each side had infinite regens on their start point. Starting off in the middle section, our little group got to the spinner there; being the middle section, there were no secure flanks and we fought off attacks from the foxholes and from the enemy's regen to our front. Being hit, a couple of us regened and went to the container village to see what was happening there; the answer was not a lot. Our colleagues had secured the spinner and had pretty much pinned the enemy back, effectively locking them out of that area. As we were pushing into the enemy in the middle section of the site, the game ended. 3-0 again! It was noticeable that energy levels seemed a lot lower in this game. After a long break, during which more people drifted away, another game took place; it was not a very good one. The red team were divided into three groups; one group had to get on the red bus and defend it, the second group had to do the same on the lower deck of the white bus, while the final group were upstairs on the white bus. They could not leave their designated areas. Defenders had one life each, while we had infinite regens on the grey helicopter. The biggest problem with this was that there were not enough openings for all the defenders on the white bus to shoot out of. We killed them all. It was not exciting. After another long break, during which more players left, presumably to take flowers and chocolates to their mothers, this was turned around. They killed us all. It was not exciting. The general view was that it was a pointless game. At this point, quite a few of us left, so I have no idea what happened after that. It was a strange day; the morning games were very good, particularly the smoke grenade one, while those after lunch were neither particularly interesting nor played with much energy. The bus games were poor and were a waste of time. Guns used: S&T ARX160 Ares VZ58 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Perun Hybrid; an excellent control unit.

I don’t know the unit, but it sounds like it is time for a Perun.