Ian_Gere

Oh yeah, in case anybody is interested in a similar project, I bought the NVG from tdm_electronics. I can fully recommend their customer service and their prices are very good compared to most places which have this gear for sale regularly.

Some of you may remember that a while ago I bought a set of Soviet tank drivers' night vision gear. Well, getting it all working as a belt supported rig hasn't been entirely simple, principally because the right eyepiece of the first one they sent me failed not long after I got it set up. That was a bummer, since I had just left good feedback for the eBay seller - but they have been great and sent me a whole new set. But also the first time I tried it out, plugged into an 11.1V LiPo, it didn't work at all. So now the helmet and IR lamp run off a 2200mAh 12V lead acid battery, which conveniently fits into a late Soviet era personal medical kit pouch. At some point I may see if the tubes in the eyepieces work better with the transformer powered by adding a single fat LiPo cell, to make the nominal voltage 15.7V, because the people I bought it from told me they can take up to 18V. But for the time being it works well enough to be usable as is. The problem is that to my mind the main reason to use NVG is stealth and being a knackered old fat git doesn't help with that mission at all. But then again, there is always passive stealth, or sitting still waiting for the enemy to blunder into my field of fire. And that is where this thread comes in... ...because the transformer makes a very quiet clicking sound. It isn't a sharp sound, nor is it loud enough to be noticed over the rustle of your own clothing and equipment, much less localised by average adult ears. Not true however of young fresh ears, especially those who have not yet discovered the joys of night clubs, and can thus hear a mouse fart at 50 paces. Now, I do have a solid state high voltage power supply with which I could attempt to replace the transformer. At some point I may well give that a go - but I know nothing about HT and wearing something on my head with 15+KV running through it with bodgetastic components involved does not immediately fill me with enthusiasm. So what I want to try building is a quiet distraction device - something which makes just enough noise to cover and/or confuse the sound of the transformer. It needs to be small, relatively light, throwable, robust enough to withstand being thrown, and findable in the dark without having to rely just on the sound it makes (because my own ears are about 2/5ths fucked). What I'm imagining is something like a tennis ball with holes drilled in it, cut mostly into 2 halves and stitched back together with wire. Suspended on elastic inside will be a few IR LED's powered by a small battery and "X" - the noise maker. Something electronic would be great, so it could be powered from the same battery as the IR LED's and turned on/off by poking something like a pen through a drill hole to press a switch. But something mechanical, a wind-up toy part or something, would do the trick - just so long as I could get to the winder with a screwdriver or something, without having to disassemble the thing just to wind it. So there it is people... any ideas would be gratefully appreciated.

Yes, but the shipping charge for their items through amazon is beyond all reason...

They do but, depending on where you buy it from, it can end up costing a lot more than the listed price to get it into your hands. For eg, if you buy direct from their webby you get charged a flat rate card transaction fee - i forget how much it is, but it has been enough to put me off single item purchases - something like €15 but possibly more. Also if you buy their stuff from amazon the shipping cost adds up to about the same as buying with this poxy fee. For anyone wondering, your best bet is the bigger UK airsoft retailers. ___________________________________________________ For me: an SHS gear for Vz61 - £5 from fleabay (because airsoft.tiger111HK did not have it in stock - this item of information did not emerge until 11 working days after i paid for the order btw and, since i had placed another order with them in the meantime, i asked them to combine the 2 and refund me for the difference in postage - I have yet to receive a refund: our comms seem to be plagued by an awful lot more misunderstanding than there has been when the purpose has been to make enquiries which may lead to me giving them money...) Actually I've had a run of bad luck with orders from HK recently - ebairsoft did not tell me that the Kobra replica i paid for was not in stock and instead shipped the poxy patch i ordered at the same time, just because i was paying postage anyway. In fact they did not say a word about it until i emailed to find out what had happened to my parcel which previous email had suggested was shipped - wankers! There have been another couple of incidents, but i forget... law of averages i spose - had very few problems before V^^Vgrrrrrrrrrrrr!

^^A well reasoned argument, Chock, but as you say, all we know for sure is that some gas mask filters did contain asbestos and that, despite known dangers, complete eradication was not given a priority until relatively recently. However that does not mean that whomever had it within their power to decide what went into Soviet filters ignored what was known about asbestos causing respiratory illness when deciding what went into a breathing aid. Without doing any proper research I'm aware of at least 2 distinct broad types of filter produced by the Soviets for the GP-5 and GP-7 masks. This one "from my own collection"... ...can be immediately identified by the distinctive recessed shape of the shoulder of the tin. The newer broad type does not have this recess, but both have small painted symbols on the underside, next to the rubber plug and/or next to the rim, on the upper side next to the thread and/or next to the shoulder, and a legend on the side, which identify them further into sub-types (even the rubber plug of mine has "11" moulded into the centre). As you can see, this is a GP-7, which is a more modern mask than the ubiquitous GP-5 full rubber hood type. It was produced for the military with straps at the rear as it is easier to use with a helmet, but despite being more modern uses the same 40mm thread to ensure backwards compatibility (that is a GP-5 filter). I found it interesting that what info i've read states that these GP types of Soviet respirator can use NATO 40mm thread filters, but NATO masks somehow will not accept Soviet filters - by testing my own S10 vs GP-7 I've discovered that this is bollocks: both masks accept either filter and do up tightly enough to create a seal. I do remember the 70's and the corrugated asbestos coming off schools and factories. That tells us that although 'asbestosis' the miners' disease was known early in the 20th century, the modern understanding of granuloma cancers (i think that's the correct term) was suddenly deemed important enough that the public purse had to be tapped to remove the stuff and in such a way as to minimise the potential for particulates to become airborne... before the vast majority of GP-5 filters which are becoming available as new old stock from the former Soviet Union were manufactured.

The thing which bugs me most about airsoft radio use, and the reason why I hardly ever bother to take one with me anymore, is people who just will not get it through their heads that if you press to talk and begin speaking immediately, the beginning of the message is cut off and that if you er, ahhh, ansluryerwordstergevarinyeraccentreallyquickleeaherunahstickerrrrrrahhfewumsnarsinbetweenaswellthenyermayaswellahnotfuckinbovver. "Say again please" "Who are you talking to?" "Say again please" ... oh bugger it, whatever the info was it's probably no longer relevant...

I'm sorry, but i just cannot help myself... What, in case anyone might mistakenly think they were launching Tom Cruise?

WTF? I don't think we have any members who read the daily fail...

Yeah, so we have a link to a company that deals with asbestos. So what? The test was not carried out by them as a job producing a report which could well be the subject of civil or even criminal court proceedings. It was apparently performed by some bloke who worked there on a filter of unknown provenance. You see the thing is that we don't read Cyrillic, let alone Russian*, and neither do the majority of people who will read this thread. So even if we were inclined to look into it further, we would find it very difficult. In the meantime what may be a baseless rumour, and at any rate is definitely not very specific considering that "the cold war" was a long time and the Warsaw Pact was a big place, with many different factories which, despite the west's stereotype of faceless uniformity, produced a wide variety of specs of any given item and the specs of items were updated in line with research. But hey, why bother changing the shape of the stamped steel filter, or the thread, when backwards compatibility is such a major issue for such a massive population without access to the west's banking system, whereby a govt needing to supply gas masks to 450 million people would just get a loan? So even if it is true, identifying which filters is not an easy task unless you read Russian. So why not just avoid them all? And if we believe it, naturally we must avoid any gear which has been stored with such filters, unless we can be 100% certain that their rubber plugs remained stoppered and the lids screwed down tightly on their threads. Of course if we believe it, then we must also believe that the Soviets cared so little for their people that they would intentionally supply them with equipment which could very well cause a horrible death just by training with it - civilians as well as military, as asbestosis (as it was called) was diagnosed as early as the 60's - this plays very well into the western stereotyped view of the Warsaw Pact, but the reality was quite different, after all the very people who would be in a position to make the decisions within any given region would be equipped with those gas masks themselves - there is no evidence whatsoever of gucci respirators for the party apparatchiks. But nonetheless, why not avoid all that gear? Push any old dodgy rumour and add to the difficulties for anyone selling Soviet surplus... all it does it make such gear more expensive for those of us who would like to collect it. FFS! *Actually I'm getting reasonably good at reading Cyrillic and recognising some Russian words, but by no means well enough to perform historical research.

I'm not convinced that mesothelioma.com is a peer reviewed journal.

I have bought from gunfire.pl and taiwangun.com several times. No problems at all. The lads at twg are very helpful if you need gun springs downgraded or anything like that and the 1 bit i had go wrong on a gun from them - the lever that holds the upper handguard on my CM.048 broke - they sent me a new part quickly plus allowed me to add something i bought for points i had in their rewards scheme to the package for free.

I must be blind as well as daft! I've merged them now anyway...

Sorry, I didn't see it. Are you involved with TFS?

Oh and the rumour that there is asbestos in Russian respirator filters is like the rumour that Russian night vision gear X-rays your brain...

Those GP-5 and GP-7 gas masks are 'kin horrible to wear - they fog the moment you breath out. They were supplied with some little cellulose lenses to fit over the inside, so that there's a gap between the inner and outer lens. They had a surface which resists fogging, but when you get them these days, even unopened new old stock, they are discoloured and useless - the tins they come in are well cool though! I use one to keep a survival wire saw in, for the zombie apocalypse you understand. Unless you go modern, the only Russian respirator that you can skirmish in is the PBF: ...because they have a separate mask inside which keeps your breath off the lenses. There is a rumour going around that Russian gas mask lenses are ok for airsoft as they are, but I'm not convinced. Our member Blueangelical supplies ballistic lenses for S10 respirators so I'm sure he would do them for these given the correct diameter. Personally I'm going to replace them with lenses Dremmel cut from a pair of these: ...3M protective goggles 8657D £4.96 (sale price) posted Because, as much as we love our fellow member Blueangelical, cheap he isn't. In case you're not au fait with all things rubber, there is a special formulation of stuff with which to clean it and keep it in good condition and to save you from things which you may wish you could unsee, here it is at the best price I can find (I bought some ages ago when it didn't come in a pump dispenser and was considerably cheaper lol). Certainly the PBF I bought was badly in need of some TLC. BTW, the most commonly seen Russian flecktarn-esque pattern "Flecktar D" is not like faded Flecktarn, because it doesn't have the brown in it at all - it has 2 shades of green and 1 black splodges on a tan background, but according to camopedia there are locally produced variants of flecktar based more closely on the German original in use in the Russian Federation.

Actually mate, I didn't check when the grip arrived and since then I've had a major tidy... yeah, you've guessed it: can't find the poxy thing! Edit to add: btw what dimensions of pipe did you use?

My new SPOSN Makarov holster: ...needs a bit of stretching to make reholstering simple and the mag pouch is so tight to fasten on 2 of the little strip mags the Umarex PM uses that closing it again in the field may not be possible; which is sort of a good thing because it means that I won't lose them, but obviously if I have to dump the used mag and the other spare into a pocket to avoid losing them everytime I change one 14rnd mag, it makes carrying them in the pouch redundant. So yeah, stretching is definitely needed. It stays put on the belt very well though, which is more than can be said foor the leather one i have. Still, the pistol is way too hot for most sites anyway, so until I get into the valve with something bodge-tastic it's all academic anyway. Plus my new SPOSN Trehtochechnik sling: ...which is truly the way forward for 3-point slings: I can't wait to skirmish it!

OK so apparently 5 ASG G36's along with assorted laser tag equipment were stolen from Taskforce Skirmish Cowbridge (nr Cardiff) last weekend. This is according to Matt Towle - I cannot find corroboration on TFS's webby or fb page, but decided that it's better to risk it being a load of bollox than that members here unknowingly buy stolen goods. If you are offered an ASG G36 etc for sale, please contact Matt.

I do think that a lot of this kind of thing is pure adrenaline. I know I don't feel hits very well when I'm fully on edge - it's the main reason I've stopped wearing vests, because i feel hits a lot better through just a shirt. But then again, I have to take a lot of pain medication to be there at all, so perhaps I'm not a good example. Still... ...one of the last times I was out, a person was on a major adrenaline one over getting knife kills. His technique was to just sprint at us... which, as daft as it sounds, had done quite well earlier on, because he'd go for high speed flanking maneuvers then be on you before you even noticed he was the enemy - he got me that way once and i heard chat that it had worked plenty of times. So, by late afternoon, the whole trip was going to his head - he sprinted at us through a doorway in the Fort @Skirmish, Budby site - I'm pretty sure that the lad stood next to me shot him with his AEG the moment he appeared in the doorway, and I know for a fact that i double tapped him with my pistol. There was no possibility of a miss - I was already aiming at the nearside of the doorway as he came through it at exactly that spot - I just had to pull the trigger. Because he argued that it was a 50/50 I fired into the ground to make sure it was loaded and working - it was. For it to have been 50/50 he would have to have been moving as fast as my BB's for 2 metres-ish having just changed direction to get through the door - my hole. I know what happened. All of us stood around that doorway know what happened, except apparently the knife kill wonderkind, but although he refused to accept that we had shot him first, he took his hit and did not call a marshal. Looking back I realise I should have, but I just ignored it and carried on with the game. For me if there is reasonable doubt I'll always take the hit, but when the same person seems to be relying on my sense of honour to get inside my AEG's outranging of theirs by sprinting towards me while i'm firing at them, so in theory i could be missing, then taking the hit when their effective range is reached (and this has happened a number of times) then I feel that the reasonableness of the doubt comes into question. Part of my thinking is that I don't fiddle with my AEG's and buy upgrade parts for them just so that I can ignore the range advantage, in order that I don't offend anyone, and take any old dubious hits to keep the peace. But then again, if a marshal wasn't present so they could make a decision based on what they actually saw, what can they say except 50/50? I believe that when people know they are pushing their luck they'll not make a big deal out of it. If they do make a big deal out of it, then either they genuinely believe they are right, in which case i have to sympathise with the marshal, who is in an impossible position, and take the hit, or they are a bold faced liar, in which case having brought it to the attention of a marshal, they are unlikely to get away with pushing their luck that way a second time. But that is it though: I play responsibly so I trust my senses unless my opinion is challenged. What else can we do? As Ed says though, good marshalling is essential. We have to trust the marshals so that if we do take a hit under dubious circumstances to keep the peace, they will not only keep an eye on the players involved, but remember the details of what happened and, if it happens again, not be inclined to dismiss it as a simple "don't know = 50/50". It is an unfortunate fact of our game however that the quality of marshalling is not consistent and that there are people who who do not simply push their luck, but blatantly cheat. In the face of the perfect storm of dicks for marshals and dicks for opposition, my enthusiasm for the game fails. It has only happened to me that bad once - I did leave early. Unfortunately I did not come to that decision before resorting to the same dick tactics - on one occasion ignoring about 5 hits to pump over a full 100rnd mid cap into the target - it took that many shots at someone less than 30m away to get him to finally call hit, which is to ignore the 2 other times i'd gone up against him in the same position and taken my hits and the several team mates who had done similar - yes he was surrounded by undergrowth and bushes, but so were we, so he was either the luckiest bastard to ever take the field or cheating his arse off. But the thing is, once I had done that, even though we could progress, I didn't want to play anymore. If there are no rules, there is no game. Why bother with tactics/cover/the effort to make your guns better/etc when you're just going to refuse to take your hits? Where's the challenge?

Still haven't made a decision about the top cover and sight, but everything other than the stock has arrived. Problem is the outer barrel I ordered doesn't fit the barrel base assembly. It didn't even occur to me that it might not TBH. I believe I'll be able to dremmel out enough room for it, but I suspect I may have to invest in a hot glue gun to make it wobble-free. That's a bit of an arse, not just because of the expense which i'm finding difficult atm, having spanked far too much on webbing and mags for my PP-19, but also because it'll be a single unit thereafter and I'm getting to the stage with my AK's and bits for them that they are a multi-cross-compatible parts bin from which I can put together "the Ak for the job" at any time... Still, from those in stock available from everywhere i tried (which was a pretty exhaustive search), it was the only one, other than that made by SRC and a funky shape, of the correct length for this gun, so the only other option would have been to cut one down, which would probably have resulted in wobble without some work anyway.

Very much an Air-Lab inspired creation then. Should be pretty good. I'd be interested to know how much variation in FPS you get over 10 (preferably 20) shots with the muzzle held in place by somebody else to minimise any variability brought about by slightly different distances between muzzle and chrono. I've not yet been able to get a Lonex nozzle to work in the same gun as a Lonex Hop Unit (V3 GB - AK's), but my opinion of their rubber is it's ok but not as good as CYMA, the hop unit is decent, but not exceptional, and the nozzle looks ok but it's not particularly tight fitting so, even if it had worked for me, I don't imagine that its performance would be noticeably better than a cheap one.

Wont do that again in a hurry, eh?

As Nick said, it is you that needs to make the decision over what you trust as proof that the buyer is an airsofter. The law doesn't say you need to be reasonably sure, it says that selling RIF's is an offence but allows for approved defences, one of which applies if the RIF will be used for airsoft. It does not say how you should find out, or what standard of evidence would be required in any hypothetical case, were anyone to need to use the defence in court. That is the issue though: proof - you may know that someone is an airsofter because you've seen them doing it, but legally speaking all you may have available to present as evidence is your word. If the law was being enforced and you had been arrested, then your word would already be being called into question. But the law isn't being enforced, so really it is up to ourselves to behave responsibly. As a forum we urge all our members not to bring the sport/hobby into disrepute by irresponsible sales, to under 18's for eg, or people who have just turned up asking, "what am bestest gnu?" For myself the threshold of proof is photos online here or elsewhere prior to the sale, ie they haven't just gone up to satisfy me, but were there already, or if an absolute noob had no pics yet, I would be prepared to follow up a reference by contacting a site owner/organiser. I certainly would not require a UKARA number, BASA registration, or site membership.

I've had a package containing 6 steel L1A1 mags sent from HK with no problems. Nonetheless, where possible, I include "UKARA# SKI00xxx" in my address if there is a box for Company and my mobile number as a line in street address if they do not ask for it specifically. Just because imo Customs & Excise is a job which by definition attracts jobsworths; the kind of people who would be only too glad to delay my package while they discover chapter and verse on the law.

I agree that there's no need for actual dirt on your kit, unless your loadout is intended to represent some particular battle, but some of my gear came to me with dirt so ingrained that no amount of washing has got rid of it... I know what you mean though, gear so new it looks out of place - it will get worn naturally, but there's no harm kicking it up and down a stony car park, for eg, to take the 'shiny' off it. My new Russian webbing is the same - gleaming OD that looks out of place against the KZS clothing. I'll be kicking it around the hard standing outside my house: ...not much, just enough to put a few scratches on all of it.