TheFull9

Ha, yeah thanks bud, I'm glad there's the Aegis and VFC these days. Now I'm trying to figure out if the Guarder is the same as the Aegis...

Close enough anyway. Purchased the initial PTS kit release in March 2010 prior to them coming out with complete replicas. So I'd imagine this was manufactured in late 09 or very early 10. I have to say a big thanks to @JCB181 who turned the tub full of busted-looking parts I sent him back in to a complete gun that can actually fold and shoot. I've got no intention of even regularly plinking this let alone taking it to games, but I did want to keep it and have it be whole at least. Even though I've got the Aegis version now to actually use, this original version is dear to my heart. Despite only being taken to maybe 1 or 2 games, this thing has been through the wars. I'd say that out of the 15 years it's existed, it has spent at least 12 of them being either broken or just sat in a box in bits. It has a 'dusty' look as an overly enthusiastic, much younger version of myself decided to give it a camo paint job not too long after I bought it. I'd just spray painted my PTS ACR at the time and I was on a camo paint kick I recall. I had someone try to remove the paint and they got most of it, but the Krylon seems to have really worked its' way in to the pores of the plastic and I don't think there is any way of getting it back to black at this point. The selector looks ground down because it has been. The FPG needs a proprietary super low-profile G18 selector that's far slimmer than the usual one in order for the Glock slide to fit inside the plastic kit. When I initially put the kit together it had an issue where by in use it would not stay in one of the 2 fire mode positions (either semi or full). My idiot self in 2010 super-glued the original part in place to permanently fix it to semi, and over the next few years that particular brand of glue somehow hardened in to a Vibranium type material. The actual internal parts of the Glock pistol have broken in a couple of different ways over the years, both up in the slide and down in the frame, meaning that the slide needed to be fully disassembled. The original selector had to be cut off and the low profile FPG-specific selector pieces for KWA/KSC G18s don't exactly grow on trees to put it mildly. Hence JCB has very kindly modified a regular KSC G18 selector to fit. In terms of the kit, many parts have broken from just the small amount of usage it's seen. The catch that holds the whole upper shroud with the pic rail closed had snapped, but luckily that was such a common issue that an aftermarket company sold a stronger replacement part (back when these guns were actually in common circulation). Also another spring loaded hook piece in the hand web area that locks the pistol grip in place broke after a few opens/closes, and there's currently a 1-off replacement machined from scratch in there instead. The gun has the aftermarket extended inner/outer barrel kit that was available for a short time, along with the optional sling attachment point on the main hinge, which was either Beta Project or a PTS accessory I think. Thinking now, I also have the pic mounted carry handle/iron sights in a box somewhere, need to dig that out. Anyway, mainly wanted to post this to give credit to JCB for putting this old thing back together. I've not done much internal work on GBB pistols myself and I definitely don't know much about KWA Glocks or the proprietary guts of the FPG. I took this to a couple of different guys I know who do work on RIFs and neither could get it sorted or really were interested in taking the time to do so, which is frankly quite understandable if you're not already familiar with this specific gun. When JCB messaged me out of the blue on here and managed to see the whole thing through to the end I was chuffed to say the least. Thanks mate 👌

One of these? Takes Glock style mags? https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/lancer-tactical-lt-35-battle-x-9mm-pdw-aeg-gen-2

I'm very close to Ace; wouldn't avoid it like the plague but wouldn't rush to it on one of the few days I can get to a game either tbh. Had a much better time at Anzio myself overall.

Choose one of these: https://www.tactical-kit.co.uk/coyote-tactical-solutions-single--decker-placard-54137-p.asp https://www.tactical-kit.co.uk/f9-gear-ammo-hub-a1-48539-p.asp (shameless self plug) https://www.tactical-kit.co.uk/spiritus-systems-micro-fight-chassis-mk-v-31670-p.asp https://www.tactical-kit.co.uk/spiritus-systems-micro-fight-chest-rig-chassis-mk-4-23240-p.asp Plus one of these for inside: https://www.tactical-kit.co.uk/spiritus-systems-submachine-gun-magazine-insert-25975-p.asp?v=0&variantid=25977 (select MPX/Scorpion) OR just get totally bog standard common M4/556 pouches with velcro flaps and you can stuff 2 x SMG mags inside those.

So that'll be 3 former-prison sites now just under the UCAP umbrella? Plus I think there's another one or two around the UK? Be interesting to know what it is about a prison that seems to make the locations less ripe for repurposing than any other plot of land or big old building that's often (briefly) used as a skirmish site. Would just cost mega bucks to demolish and turn in to flats perhaps, but they're not all in bad locations to say the least. As to which type of place would be more likely to close, I'd say that if anything a better site has slightly more chance of being shut down, certainly anywhere that's in an easy-to-reach location or with anything approaching usable buildings. If you take 2 sites that were, for the sake of argument, run to the exact same levels and frequented by the exact same customers, but one is more interesting to play at because of whatever is already built there, then there will probably be slightly more chance of that location being interesting to businesses that have/make serious money i.e. not airsoft.

When I google any given product I might be interested in there's an ever-increasing number of online shops popping up; has been the case the past few years. The brain loves to be doom and gloom but I do not believe the business is in some kind of death throes. An actual walk-in shop in SE England is going to inevitably struggle a lot by comparison to an online only business in.. somewhere that's not SE England or in the valuable part of another large city. It's not like you can magically charge more for X product just because of your location, people will simply shop elsewhere; yet your running costs are far higher.

In the latter part of last year I was surprised to learn of an indoor site not too far from me, F&O Precinct 13, and when I checked last week they actually run games 5 days out of 7 every week - Wednesday to Sunday (obviously evenings on the week nights). I was pretty happy with £20 for a walk-on evening game in an old, disused shopping centre just on the outskirts of Birmingham. The site is in pretty good condition as it presumably hasn't been all that long since it fell out of use for its' original purpose. Alas of course it's no 'The Mall' and probably only 1/3 the size, but that place spoiled me for life. However Precinct 13 it is extremely easy to find and access, with loads of hard stand parking right above the site. While the play space is pretty small, I'd say the folks running it have done about the best that could be done with what is there. There's more than sufficient wooden barriers through the whole concourse and in almost every shop to basically maximise the gameplay potential. At first there was only 5 of us actual customers playing, then a couple more showed up and some staff joined and we hit a max of 10 before some went home. I'd say 10-14 players being optimal in there since there's only really a couple of lanes. Apparently the cap is 30 which they sometimes hit on Saturdays or Sundays and it gets too stalemate-y. Grenades are allowed and I took my FRAG-C for it's first outing, which was great in terms of weight and worrying less about hitting someone with it, but having the extra shots in my 3x TRMR would've been brilliant in such a compact arena. As with all such sites they tend to bring in the player base who want to play airsoft like paintball, so the very start of the first game I get a non-hit taking accusation from a young lad who hit me in the head "like at least 5 times" (I only wear a cap, no helmet) which had me worried for the potential course of the rest of the evening, but perhaps he did ping one off the very edge of my ear pro head band velcro that I had no idea about... 🤷‍♂️ Fortunately I didn't personally have any other problems like that, though one rental wondered in to the game area minus his mask then fired away in auto and argued with the head marshal over it, credit to that guy for keeping his cool and being polite but firm on that one. Overall, I felt like sometimes the boundary restrictions we often had seemed odd since the place is already very 'cosy' but they run good games and the staff were very solid. For myself, I was glad both AEGs comfortably passed the chrono, as my very-much-indoor-themed VFC AR that I'd taken to UCAP Vendetta at the tail end of '23 had failed and I very nearly wasted a the drive/game fee on that occasion (went back in to Negative Airsoft for a power downgrade in the interim period); trigger response on it is the best of any gun I've ever owned and it sounds pretty smooth indeed. Ideal for such game types/sites. The one piece of kit I had never used before did let me down, in typical fashion, but honestly it's such a weird one it's almost funny. I've been using primarily Blackhawk Omnivore holsters for years just so I don't have to go buying 1000 different specific kydex holsters for different guns and gun/light combos and different camos/colours etc - have not had a problem so far. I think I ran in to the old swiss cheese/stacking tolerance problem though where maybe the TM M9A1 has slightly thinner plastic in the area of the rail and my old SureFire X300 is maybe a hair looser/wider than some other lights in terms of mounting. Since the Omnivore grips the light that means of course the whole weight of pistol and mag is being held by the interface between the light and the pistols' accessory rail. I presume at some point while running around I maybe bumped the butt of the gun and it just ripped the light mount right through the plastic rail on the frame. Couldn't remove it in game, will be breaking out the allen keys to take off the rail clamps on the light and seeing what I can do (if anything) about replacing the frame on the M9. Initial google results don't look good so all fingers in crossed mode for the moment. You never find these things out until you actually use them though, so luckily it was only a sidearm problem that happened half way through a short Friday night game and I still had 2 nicely working AEGs with lights and my BFG.

When you promised her a full M16 but it was just really cold that day (swear).

Not many sites have what's necessary for a mirror selfie.

Amazing, lol. Call me a gelatinous mass because I'm jelly af.

That was definitely a bonkers-low price and tbh you have checked an option that says they're 'unable to take your order at this time', but I also hope they don't pull the rug on you because that'll be the bargain of the year.

There's very little manufacture of tactical clothing in the UK and what there is is expensive, so I'd be very very curious where these are made. The 'G3' pads look exactly like typical chinese airsoft copies of the Crye pads. Not saying anything without evidence, but even though the trousers are just a G3 Combat pant knock-off with no R&D expenditure that price is still surprisingly low.

Honestly the ranges people are always getting from their guns on here vs all the shooting I've ever seen at any game in my entire life are just amazingly impressive. I need to know what hop rubbers AFUK members are buying.