Colin Allen

What are they (is he) doing that makes them (him) worth supporting?

It is hard to see what this Federation (a federation of what) is going to do that will be beneficial for the hobby. It seems to have had a FB page in some form for a couple of years with no noticeable impact on the hobby.

https://www.usedairsoft.co.uk/two-tone-replicas/electric-powered_1/cyma-cm-506-m4a1-ris-cqb-aeg-and-gear-bundle_i57013 Holy crap! £180??????????

The AM-014 is available from Dave's Custom Airsoft for £230, so a reasonable second hand price would be around £160-£170. The AM-016 is available from Extreme Airsoft for £260, so a reasonable second hand price would be around £180-£190. However, you could put them on sale for a bit more and negotiate down if necessary.

HPA users would have been ok.

The springs fitted to new guns are generally not of great quality and can lose power after initial use. From experience, G&G guns tend to have varied springs in them. The XT springs from AK2M4 are very good and very consistent.

Today was a return to Airsoft Plantation in Essex, one of my regular sites. I had not been since they improved the already very good safe zone; there is now a third large covered area, with table space for a lot more players. Fewer players were present than usual, possibly because of the rather poor weather forecast which turned out to inaccurate. During the safety brief, the site owner stated that the day would be more like naval warfare. AP can be a trifle damp underfoot; today, some parts of it were completely flooded, with the plane at the DEA base looking like it had just crashed into a lake. In order to give the open areas a chance to dry out a bit, we started off in the wood, with a two stage fallback game. As the defenders, we had two lives, one at the ridge line and one between the kill house and the wobbly bridge stream. The attackers, who had infinite regens on a marshal, had to get a bomb runner with a smoke grenade to, firstly, the Land Rover and, secondly, the wobbly bridge. The teams seemed somewhat imbalanced, with our team having a number of less experienced players. However, we fought hard at the ridge line, slowing down the enemy attack as they entered the woods and tried to push forward; communication was excellent, with our players calling out enemy movements. After being hit on the ridge line, I fell back to take up a position on our extreme right by the wobbly bridge stream, along with a few other players. The enemy pushed hard on our left flank, but we stayed where we were, anticipating a thrust in our area. They became bogged down in vicinity of the Land Rover/kill house, which delayed them badly. Seeking a new route, a group of them moved towards our position on our right, resulting in a sprawling fight, during which we were inevitably overcome, each having only one life left. Eventually, an enemy thrust from the left of the field got their bomb runner to the bridge and the game ended. After a pleasingly short break to mag up, the game was reversed; we soon discovered why the enemy's attack had bogged down despite having infinite regens. Movement through the muddy woods was difficult and the defenders were able to use the plentiful cover to slow down the advance. However, after trying several different routes and approaches, we broke through their centre and, despite being held up by a few players positioned around the Land Rover and the kill house, eventually got the first bomb to the Land Rover. We pushed on quickly, partly because a lot of enemy players seemed to have used up both of their lives, and a final push saw our bomb runner set off the second bomb on the wobbly bridge. Over two long, hard fought games, our time was approximately one minute quicker than that of our opponents. We then moved into the village for another game where we were the defenders. Ten players were issued with yellow armbands; initially, they were to fight alongside us but, once hit, they had to remain where they were until captured by the enemy. They were then taken to the enemy's regen, where they became enemy players. In addition, one of them knew the location of a bell in one of the buildings; the attackers had to set this off to win. We had two lives in the village and its environs, while the attackers had infinite regens on the firebreak. This was a hard fought game with lots of small firefights as the attackers tried to break into the village suburbs. Initially, I was in some bushes watching a track the enemy were likely to use; noticing enemy players moving to my right, I engaged them. Turning back to the track, I was surprised to find an enemy player shooting at me at fairly close range as I had not felt any hits; I shot back, hitting him, whereupon he became very salty about me allegedly not taking my hits. Immediately after, I was hit from behind. Pulling back into the village, I took up position with a few others in one of the buildings; we fought off attacks from several directions before I was hit and went back to the safe zone. After lunch, that game was turned around; we decided to attack from several directions. I was with the group that went for the far left of the village; it was a hard fight through the scrubland, being repeatedly hit as we slowly wore down the enemy and pushed towards the village itself. At one point, we were pinned down on the edge of the village by players in a two storey structure, but eventually managed to dislodge them, breaking into the village alongside our colleagues to our right and setting off the bell. Again, the times were close, but we were quicker by a few minutes. After this game, I decided to leave as I had things that needed doing. It was a good day's play with well designed and well marshalled games and great play from both sides. Having played for three consecutive weekends, I am not playing for the next two; we have rehearsals next weekend and, the following weekend, are headlining the Sunday night of a small festival in Cardigan, which seems to be beyond where proper roads end. Weapons used: Classic Army HK33 Classic Army HK53 ASG Commander XP18 CO2

Indeed; it does not apply to airsoft toys.

It isn't just you.

I have been here a lot longer than that; my previous account was hacked. I don't really see why people feel the need to mention being vegetarian or vegan or whatever all the time.

First, catch your Macaroni.

Me, but only because I do not eat meat.

Photos from Splatoon.

Ah, ok: I left at 15:00.

You won the spinner game very handily. What was the game after the missile game? I had to leave after it so missed whatever came next.

Well done for getting out there with a broken leg; that is true dedication.

Today, I went to Splatoon in Essex, a site I have been to a few times before and always had an enjoyable day. About 90-100 players were present, a mixture of old (I chatted with a 72 year old chap who was playing for the first time and was there with this grandson) and young, experienced and newcomers to the hobby. The first game was a fallback; we were defending and the attackers had to clear each of four areas in turn, not being able to attack the next section until they had cleared the current one. There was a 30 second time penalty for every enemy player still alive after the attacking team called the area clear. Defenders had one life in each area, while the attackers had infinite lives, respawning on a marshal who was just behind their rearmost player. We put up a great fight in each area, with the attackers finally taking the last area, by someone reaching the grey helicopter, with about 90 seconds of the game remaining. After a short break to refill mags, the game was reversed; we stormed through the enemy, setting a new site record for completing the objective, even allowing for a 30 second time penalty when we overlooked a still living defender. Following this, we played a game across the whole site, which involved controlling the three spinners that are situated across it; control of a spinner was shown by turning it so that your side's colour was facing upward. Both sides had infinite regens on their start points. This was a really fun game, with small groups of players roving over the site, popping up in unexpected places and many small and large firefights breaking out and then fading out. I was mostly in the lower section of the field, where the yellow team claimed the spinner in the last seconds with a brilliant run from a lone player. At the end they also controlled the spinner in the container field, while we held the central one. After another short break to refill mags, we played a search and recovery game. 15 small missiles were spread across the entire site; the teams had to recover as many as they could and store them in their helicopter (there are two helicopters on site, one at each end of the container field). A player could only carry one missile at a time and the regen rules were as in the previous game. This was enjoyable mayhem, with small groups roving the site looking for missiles, trying to get them back to their helicopter, trying to ambush enemy players transporting missiles, and attempting to raid the other team's helicopter. When the game ended, we had 9 missiles and the enemy had 6. It was a good, fun day of airsoft with some great play from both sides and interesting games. Weapons used: Hurricane/G&P SR47 DBoys AKMS ASG XP18 Commander CO2 (a massive upgrade on the Cybergun M1911)

Yeah, but it includes what he claims is a "leather Ww2 BAR sling", but is almost certainly a modern reproduction from Soldier of Fortune.

Possibly the worst airsoft pistol ever! I really want an L9A1, but the WE Hi Power is a steaming heap of poo.

If you are seriously considering using them, please have a long, hard think about WHY you want to use them. When you have done that, if you still want to use them, join the army. I have spent quite a bit of time messing around with serious pyro; no airsoft players should be allowed anywhere near a MK9.

Reported as well; I hope that the face of the utter cunt who set that up has a close encounter with a sledgehammer.

Like new but broken. 🤣

Well spotted!

This sounds like a really interesting site; unfortunately, it is probably just a bit too far :(.

This morning, I braved the journey into deepest Essex and the wonderful little site that is Dragon's Lair. Having paid and got my wristband, I was having a chat with the owner when he told me that the site would soon be closing as the landowner wants to open an adventure park and, as part of that, needs the land that the site occupies. Sadness was overwhelming; Dragon's Lair is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, sites in the UK, having been there, either as an airsoft site or as a paintball site, for 38 years. However, the good news is that they have secured a much larger location, for which they have great plans, including an Afghan village and vastly improved catering. Anyway, on to a description of the day. Around 100 players were present, being a good mixture of experienced and relatively new players, covering a wide range of ages. We started with a fallback game; as attackers, we had infinite regens on our rearmost player, while the defenders had one life at each of the ditch, the fort, the bridges (the stream could only be crossed by the bridges) and the village. We pushed them out of their first position quite rapidly, the SLR causing its share of casualties. Taking the fort and crossing the stream seemed to take forever but, once across, we wrapped up the village rather rapidly, despite not noticing a live bush wookie, which added five minutes to our time. The game was then turned around; taking up a lone position on our left flank, the SLR and I held off the enemy there for a long time before I was eventually hit, whereupon I fell back to the area of the fort and took up a similar position by the boundary ditch, again holding the enemy off for ages. My sojourn by the bridges was cut short by a magnificent shot which hit the only exposed paper of me (my left elbow). Falling back to the village, I again took up position on the left flank, taking out several opponents before they ran out of time to complete the mission. After this, as the labyrinth is being dismantled next weekend, we played a game entirely inside it. Each team started with 10 players attacking into the labyrinth, with the objective being to hold the centre of the structure for longer than the other team. Once players were hit, they moved out of the labyrinth and tagged in another friendly player. As this was not a game that any self-respecting SLR would wish to be involved with (as well as it being totally unsuitable for CQB), I swapped to the rather more practical QBZ 97 for the rest of the day. This game was really good fun and utter mayhem; we won! The final games of the day were based around attacking the fort and the labyrinth; at the end of the game, if either team controlled the labyrinth and the raised walkway in the fort, they were the winners. Within the fort, neither side could go past the centreline. Before this game, five of us were asked to move to the other team in order to balance the sides. It soon became obvious why we had won the earlier games; the team were a bit sluggish and hesitant. In the first running of the game, we lost both objectives, despite trying to push the team forward; when the game was turned around so that we were now attacking from the other side, it ended in a hard fought draw. It was a good, fun day of old fashioned airsoft. While the Lair is not somewhere I play very often, I feel quite sad that it is closing as it has been a fixture of our airsofting life for years. Still, on to a bigger and better version. Weapons used: Ares L1A1 (SLR) Real Sword QBZ 97 Cybergun M1911 Tactical CO2 (or whatever it is called)