Speedbird_666

What's the worst that's gonna happen? A slight drop in FPS perhaps and a trashed piston? There will be a lot or stress on the last plastic tooth though when the final sector tooth releases it. For the cost of a full-metal racked piston I would replace at the point of short-stroking the sector gear.

Here’s what it looks like this at the moment: I don’t intend to use any FDE coloured parts for this gun, so I’ll pick up a new black PTS EPS shortly. Wiring is currently too short for use in a buffer tube.

That sums it up rather neatly. I think the only compelling reason to order from Europe now is if the vendor stocks something that's genuinely unavailable/impossible to source from UK retailers - a situation that is slowly improving recently. There's very little/no financial incentive to do so otherwise.

Made a mini-review here - things didn't start well: I love nearly all the ergonomics (not a huge fan of the stock) - it's lovely to hold and the external build quality is amongst the best I have ever seen. But I do have some quibbles over the stock motor, the PDW stock and the mock bolt release. BUT - it's a keeper. I test fitted a Buffer tube/PTS EPS stock last night and that's the way to go for me - just need to extend the wiring. I also have to remember that G&G Raiders are now very close in price (£210-220) to these guns since the price hike. Frankly this shits all over G&G plastic bodied range of guns and makes them feel very cheap to hold. The PTS iron sights alone that ship with the EVE-4 cost £40-50 to buy separately, PTS Rail sections £8 a pop (of which you get 2), the vertical grip is damned near perfect for my tastes and would benefit from having 'PTS' stamped on it rather than 'KWA'. Overall it's very good value for money for what you get in the box.

Tear out all the internals and fit an HPA engine. You seem intent on building a top-tier wanker gun with that setup, so why bother with all the hassle of AEGs in the quest for performance when you can just drop in an HPA engine, make a few tweaks and call it done? I mean, all the cool kids roll with air hoses these days, right?

Ok, fuse swapped. Out of the box it ships with a 20A fuse, I put a 25A in for now. So - performance: Chrono: 325-328fps, pretty consistent with 2-3fps variance. ROF (Fully charged 7.4v 1200mAh 25c): A pretty disappointing 14.1 RPS and it didn't sound happy doing it. ROF (Fully charged 11.1v 1300mAh 30c): A very surprising 23.4 RPS. So, the motor is obviously wound for flat out speed (and volts) and not torque. 23 RPS is a bit spicy for my tastes, I would have preferred something more balanced, giving better performance on a 7.4v LiPo. So a motor swap it is i think.

It's KWA's marketing-speak for 'proprietary gearbox'. It uses a standard V2 cylinder. Not related to anything fitted to an SR-25 style gun.

TLDR? Great on the outside, a bit crap on the inside. Here's a quick 2 hours of ownership first impression...... Right - to start. Packaging was fine - typical KWA fare from what I've seen of other guns in their Ronin lineup. A bag of accessories was also included which includes QD sling mounts, M-Lok rail sections, T-Handle Allen keys, and a KWA branded Speedloader. Nice touch. Being the ICE limited edition version, it also comes with a Ice-blue 120rd mid cap in the box. The gun is fitted with a really quite excellent M-Lok vertical grip along PTS Backup sights out of the box. Externally, it's the best plastic I've seen on pretty much any airsoft gun. Think PTS EPS stock plastic quality, but the whole gun is made of it. It really is very nice to pickup up and hold. That is, from the pistol grip forwards. Where it falls down is the stock. Again, it's very high quality, but much like any other PDW-style stock it is limited in terms of storage capacity (which can be mitigated to a degree with an extension) and adjustability. It only has three positions, fully closed (thus useless), fully open (which is a bit wobbly), and somewhere in between which is still a touch too short for many. If I keep this gun (more on that later), It'll get a buffer tube and a PTS EPS Stock - much like KWA's still unreleased EVE-9. The gun is well balanced otherwise, and the pistol grip (basically a PTS EPG) is an excellent fit for my hands. The gun is largely ambidextrous, with fire controls, bolt and mag release on both sides. Problem is, the bolt release stopped working after the third time engaging it (and I was being gentle), so the bolt will not lock back. Disappointing to fail almost instantly. The charging handle, being up front does get in the way when holding the gun if you like to wrap your hand around the rail, but it can be easily switched to the other side to move it out of the way - so no biggie. But what's it like to shoot? I don't know really. I tested it briefly on a 7.4v LiPo, but the motor lacks torque and I could lock the box up quite easily. Performance was a laboured 14-15rps, trigger response not great at all. The gun sounded laboured generally and the gearbox loud (which I've heard is a trait of the v2.5 GB thus 'normal'). Ok, well, KWA themselves say it's good on 11.1v LiPos, so I switched to a 20c 1300maH 11.1v. It blew the fuse within 30 shots. *Sigh*. The trigger response was nice enough and I'm guessing a ROF of around 19-20RPS in the 10 seconds it functioned for. Soooo.......I'm on the fence with this one. I could fix the niggles easily, swap out the motor and stock, probably sort the bolt release too - and the rest of the gun feels amazing in the hands otherwise. But I can also send it back to the vendor before any more gremlins pop up. Hmmm.....watch this space.

New gun day.

And import duty.

Weight, balance, side picatinny rails that can't be easily removed, realising that it's pretty much just a G36 in a different body with a price premium, the stock comb, the pistol grip and trigger pull. Basically, it wasn't an M4. So yeh...I think that just about covers it. Shame, I loved it based on the photos alone. I'm just glad that I didn't blow a wedge of cash on it (learnt from hard experience with the Proline Beretta ARX-160). But in a classic case of not following my own advice - I just ordered a gun on impulse purely on it's looks. It arrives tomorrow. I'm a fucking idiot.

Downloaded a KWA Ronin battery extension model from Thingiverse, but it was a bit shit and Fusion 360 is pretty rubbish editing STL files. Ended up using the measurements and designed a new one that can take a chunkier RC LiPo of which I have many knocking about. (Left = Thingiverse left, Right = mine)

If you can get to an airsoft shop, try a few guns before committing to a 'non-M4' platform. The reason why: - I desperately wanted a CZ Bren 805. Nearly ordered one online. Thank god i didn't because when I checked one out at the Zero One showroom, I hated it. - As above for the APS UAR - As above for a Tavor - As above for an AUG - As above for the ICS Hera Arms Saved me a frikken fortune in the end. Your bio say 'West London', there might be a couple of airsoft shops that you could visit - Bespoke Airsoft springs to mind. You don't have to buy from them, just have a fondle of the RIFs before parting with your cash.

I think I need to retract this comment. 😲 I have a KWA arriving tomorrow due to a moment of weakness. Admittedly it's the KWA EVE-4 with an all-polymer body, so retails at £245 instead of £350+, but it's pretty much the same internally as all the Ronin series guns.