Speedbird_666

I can see why people are worried. With firearms laws under scrutiny after that c**t with a shotgun last month, this is precisely the publicity UK airsoft doesn't need right now to stay under the radar. Joe public: Why do they need realistic guns to shoot plastic balls at each other? Guns are bad! etc etc.

Jesus H Christ. One has to wonder just how did they shift that many RIF boxes unnoticed? This surely must of been a targeted attack. I just hope there isn't too much blowback.

Good point. It would be interesting to find out some exact numbers/models from Specna.

I think the question got asked on their FB page, they say they are looking into it.

I don't want to be a doom-sayer, but 2000 RIFs!?! This puts the whole hobby at risk.

That's a lot of guns to go walkies, especially here in the UK. I expect the police head-shed will have kittens and I'll be amazed if the press doesn't catch wind of this. Daily Mail Headline: 'thousands of lethal replicas stolen' etc etc....... So if you see a bunch of cheap Specnas up for sale on the various forums/groups, you'll know why.

I don't normally recommend 'upgrades', but for the v1.0 Raider I would say inner barrel (stock one is like compressed tinfoil) and a Hi-Torque motor. Nothing else. Not a single penny more unless the stock hop rubber is worn. Then replace that. Otherwise leave it. Then: Use it. Abuse it. Break it. Bin it. I tend to think of the 'old skool' Combat Machines as the Bic Biros of the airsoft world. Bloody handy when they are working good, but not worth trying to fix up when they shit themselves. You will see a slight increase in accuracy with the barrel. The Hi-Torque will largely mitigate the issues with semi-auto lockup (what Fatboy is alluding to) and will give semi auto good trigger response even with lower voltage batteries. And for the front sight....😜:

I dub thee: The WWSD - 'What Would Speedbird Do' Blaster. If you know, you know. The aim was a super light weight gun for all-round use. It's an unused ICS Sportline I have knocking about (hence shit camo job). It was a light weight plastic gun anyway, but had a wobbly/bendy front end that I was never happy with. So - 50mm Carbon tube hand guard. 3D printed barrel nut, hand guard end cap and barrel stub. ICS Stubby stock. No Outer barrel - the inner barrel is supported by the hand guard end cap. I replaced the RIS receiver rail with a 3D Printed blanking plate. I also added a flared magwell, 3D printed from a thingiverse file that I modded to better fit. No sights (never use 'em anyway - hi-cap 'spray and pray' for the win). It's my 40th Birthday in a couple weeks. Missus is buying me a nice Sparmax airbrush/compressor set, so the receiver will get some kind of 'interesting' paint job. I know, haters gonna hate. But I like it, and that's all that matters to me...😉

Looks really nice. It's refreshing to have something new on the market that isn't an M4. The only tiny critism is the markings on the mock bolt. I'm not sure what 'Col 5.56' is supposed to mean, but it should be 'Cal 5.56' But that's me being super anal.

Painting a RIF with the 'dragged through shit just got back from the sandbox' look is hardly a dark art . Plenty of tutorials on the Tube of You and you can get camo spray cheap enough from Halfords. But the best painter I've come across is @GearTech: https://geartechcustompaint.com/ He posts his work on these very forums:

What about the Bunker at Portsmouth? I keep meaning to go but life always seems to get in the way at the moment.

You mean something like this:

Yes please mate. I had no idea this was on the horizon as an airsoft product. I love the styling of B&T guns, and this piques my interests. I'd be all over it if it had the plastic side-folder stock instead of the collapsible.

Having completely re-wired a friends ICS L85 recently, I can say the wiring's pretty simple really. If you bridge the two spring-loaded plungers in the upper receiver, the gearbox will cycle. The trigger switch in the lower only serves to bridge those plungers with a disconnector attached for semi auto. Looking at the AB++ wiring diagram from Perun, I would attach both red wires (from the mosfet and to the motor) onto one of the plunger bars - either splice the wire and use the stock connector, or solder both wires directly. I would then attach the signal wire to the other plunger. Something like this: You should end up with wiring in line with perun's recommended setup

Agreed. That, or the slightly cheaper SkyRC S65. Imax B6's have had their day. Genuine ones aren't exactly great value for money anymore, and unless you buy from an authorised dealer, there's a good chance it's going to be fake. And the balance logic is slow and outdated compared to newer designs.

Did someone mention dropstocks?....😜 As a paintball goggle wearer myself, half my guns now sport drop-stock adapters that I designed and 3D printed. I know some people hate 'em, but they are very practical. The SSG1 is pretty expensive for what you get and it's very much intended for Speedsoft/CQB play. That's not to say it won't perform just fine at woodland distances, but a DMR platform it is not.

I had to ring them when I had an issue with an order, my email went unnoticed. I can't say it was a particularly satisfactory outcome as it would of involved sending a RIF back to them for 'inspection' (despite numerous photos and info I sent them) rather than just send me the replacement part that they had in stock. It was easier to just order a replacement instead and be done with it.

@karlos103 Judging by your posts so far, you seem to have developed a classic case of 'upgrade-itus'. It's a terrible affliction, most contagious within the Airsoft community with a 75% infection rate between players (you need 'X' for that gun, mate!), an 85% rate within Airsoft shops (let me sell you this shiny thing - it'll double your range!), and most horribly, a 99.95% rate within the Tokyo Marui owners community (because TM is perfection out the box! Just needs a few upgrades...!) . Symptoms include wanting to 'upgrading' their gun without shooting it, spending more than the value of the gun in their quest to make it shoot amazeballs, a penchant to tell everyone how their 'upgrades' are the bestest and telling all others should be fitting the same to their guns. Infection long term generally ends with various degrees of disappointment (75% of cases), frustration (90% of cases), a drained bank balance (100% of cases) and questioning whether it was all worth it in the end to shoot tiny plastic balls at each other (80%). A very small number cases (<5%) report that the player reaches a type of 'Airsoft Nirvana', whereby all their guns work beautifully, reliably and the player moves past the need to acquire anything further. No one within the TM-owning community has been identified as reaching this state ...😜 Jokes aside: Cracking open gearboxes, replacing electronics, new barrels and hop units - upgrading everything without a frame of reference (i.e. playing experience with your gun in 'stock' configuration) could very well lead to disaster. Many upgrades could be described at best as 'side-grades', and there are a number that can be detrimental to performance. You won't know this if you've replaced a sizeable chunk of the stock parts on your gun without using it for a good few playing days first. Go out and play a couple games with what you have already - see how it works, where it falls short compared to other players, and what you want to improve. Upgrade ONE THING at a time, test it thoroughly at your next game day, and see if it actually improves anything. Oh, and circling back to your original question, G&G hop units (both dial and rotary) work just fine. No need to replace until broken. But we all know you'll want to replace it anyway.

Quoted for Truth @alxndrhll That's the best looking AK I've seen in a while. Well done... 👍 I bet it weighs a tonne though for such a little gun...😜

Installing a Hybrid involves opening the Gearbox, the ETU is plug and play and gives you a lot of the functionality. It's actually a bit smaller than the stock ETU Mosfet. If battery space is a concern, stick a PTS EPS stock it. Tonnes of room for various batteries and the Mosfet unit.

The only upgrade I would put on the gun (you've already changed the barrel) is a Perun ETU++, as the stock one (depending on version) can be finicky with batteries. Otherwise, leave it well alone and get out and play instead.

After having an epoxy joint fail on one my prints (admittedly it was cheap unbranded stuff), and some unreliable self-tapping holes, I've just ordered a bunch of M3 heat-set nuts to test out for future projects from Aliexpress. There's someone on eBay (UK) who happens to make a setting tool for these that fit my particular soldering Iron.

Very nice mate. Will you be SLS printing the Mag adapter at some point?

There'll be a rain cover. This case is just for testing airflow, internal ducting and nozzle positioning. I'm already working on a redesigned version with a bunch of changes.

First third prototype casing assembled. Not had chance to wire it up yet to test the fan's performance. If airflow is sufficient (it might not be - it's a 5V 4020 fan that was sent to me in error, I could end up with a 12v 50mm fan yet), I'll integrate a battery and add loops to the main body for bungee retention to the Arc rail.