Speedbird_666

It looks lovely. Shame it's a VFC. At least it's not an Ambi Selector. The US Spec is different to the rest of the world apparently. No ETU in the US version, just a regular MOSFET. I'm sure it will spring up in the next month or two with UK Vendors.

We all had to start somewhere. Some basic kit and a decent set of boots will be a big help to start with. Make sure you don't skimp on eye protection. Best bit of playing kit for a beginner is the humble dump pouch - You can carry a spare mag or two and a bag of BBs and not have to fumble with pockets. Simply loops onto any belt you've got in your wardrobe. They only cost £8-9 posted from AliExpress, or £12 (not inc Postage) from a UK supplier.

I think I might take a punt on an AOLS barrel to replace the tinfoil one in my son's G&G. I Spent the last of this month's 'play money' on your site yesterday, so hopefully you'll still have some barrels in stock come payday. Any sign of the ZCI consignment?

@Spartan09 They did a great job on those patches. @MiK I know they accept .Jpg etc, but I want a 'cartoonised' version of the avatar with blocked-out colours (think The Simpsons rather than a photo) to simplify it for patch making. I'm using Photoshop at the moment as I suck at Illustrator.

I was planning to use Stitch me up: https://www.stitchmeup.biz/ Just gotta work out how to use Adobe Illustrator again (to create the Vector file) - It's been a good few years since I last touched it.

I was toying with getting my Avatar made as shoulder patches for the same reason.

@Rogerborg If you have any problems with the GB shell, I have barely-used spare if you need it just for the cost of postage - I wont ever use it myself. The Edge I have came with a dual O-Ring piston with bearing. I don't rate it though - the second O-ring means that there's quite a bit more friction on the piston's rearward-stroke compared to something simpler (such as the GearParts POM Head from AK2M4). I'm not a fan of metal piston heads in general though TBH. Perfect airseal with a change of Piston and Cylinder O-Rings though. My (or I should say my Son's) gun had no grease nor shims, burred cylinder, rough GB casting (which I polished-out) and a collapsed bearing after a few hundred rounds. I was chasing issues since with the GB (inconsistent Semi, dodgy Mosfet) and in the end it was easier and more cost effective to replace the GB completely. But this gun was purchased a good 18mths ago and was one of those 'cursed' batches with little to no QC. I keep being reassured that the issues have largely been rectified with subsequent batches and the gun is 'safe' to purchase, but I still struggle to recommend the Edge Series as a first gun for anyone at the moment. I saw the £140 model and have been tempted to get one to try out, but I've become a bit of an ICS fanboi so I'm saving my pennies for another one of those instead

Looks good, and much nicer with the correct trademarks (not that I'm a stitch bitch). Shipping was quick, what seller did you get it from? I could do with one on my CQB blaster.

Nah - it would be the end of RIFs, but the 'game' would continue, albeit with two-tone guns. Whilst that will put certain players off, and the industry will take a hit as a result, but it wouldn't kill the hobby off completely.

Whilst I'm not a fan of the Edge series, I think this blaster represents pretty decent value at £140. If there are no gearbox issues (check the cylinder around the air port for burrs and the tappet/piston rails for smoothness), then I reckon it could be a good base for upgrading. I'm not convinced by the longevity of the Gate X-asr (I have already nuked one) but that's a quick change. I reckon a good re-shimming, re-grease, hop rubber, an SHS Hi-torque and one of the new Perun hybrid units will make this a cool little death cannon. I'm not so sure the Gearbox shell will cope at DMR power. The Edge GB shell I have in front of me right now is thinner and lighter than other V2s I have knocking around. My Sons Edge now sports an E&C Gearbox and it added a good few ounces to the overall weight of the gun.

I think dead rags are a good idea. I have a couple as free gifts from TG. They only take a couple of seconds to re-pack, but remove any ambiguity when it comes to dead players. It would certainly kill off dead men's walks - no dead rag showing - light em up, no arguments.

But again Herr Hamster, that's the point of a dead mans walk - make the other player(s) think that you are not in play, but not do anything that directly contravenes the rules. It was an issue in Paintball for a while, it's actually expressly forbidden in many Tournament rules. In my defense, at no stage did I try to cover my armbands (that is a pretty shit thing to do) and the attackers had infinite respawns, so at worst they were back in the game after 3-4 mins. Indeed it was the first player that I shot on my 'walk' that got me a few minutes later. But I agree with your point about the downward spiral of bad behaviour. A good day can be ruined by the actions of a few, making 'good' players do things they would never do under normal circumstances.

Maybe. But that's the point of a Dead Mans Walk. I stood up and started walking, that's all. Never shouted 'hit' or so much as twitched my arm upwards. Just walked for a bit, was ignored by the other team, I shot some of them, then they shot me. I was within the site and game rules at all times. No set boundaries for attackers or defenders, no requirement for me to stay with the objective as a defender. Like I say - I wouldn't normally do it - it's not really within the 'spirit' of the game, but given the attitude of the players (on both teams) and staff during the day and some unsavory incidents in the morning, I gave up giving a shit.

Probably wasn't within the 'spirit' of that particular game (I was a defender of a firebase) but no limits were set in terms of boundaries for either teams (GZ is fucking mahoosive). One bloke I shot was like 'are you supposed to be this far away from your base' - my response was that we were not told that we had to stay close to it during the briefing, to which he reluctantly agreed. That, and the opposition team could clearly see me walking around, but decided not to shoot in my direction due to my demeanor, thinking I was out of the game.

I managed to pull off a dead mans walk on Wednesday, walked completely around the opposition (easy to do at Ground Zero), lit 6 up before they noticed my armband colours. I wouldn't normally do it, but the game was at a stalemate, and no one was really bothered about playing the objective, so I thought 'fuck it', stood up and went for a nice little stroll. Kept my gun down, head up and walked with enough nonchalance that nobody batted an eyelid or fired a round in my direction. Shady? Probably. But if dicks can run around the site shining Green Lasers into kids eyes and still be within the site rules, I figured 'why not'.

I'm happy with either date TBH!

That is a really interesting point that I had never thought of before. With most retailers offering credit options, it makes you wonder how big-ticket items will sell second hand (at a reasonable value for the seller) unless they are discontinued and/or collectable products. Say, if you are in the market for a high-end pre-upgraded TM NGRS package, you might think to yourself that it's worth paying the extra 30% to be A) able to buy it new and setup exactly how you want it straight away, B) comes with a retailers warranty and finally C) Pay it off in monthly installments. Tangent: Having experienced my own credit nightmares in the past (and all totally my fault)- I've had to work my butt off to be totally debt and finance free. Something I only achieved early this year after a decade or so of worry, sleepless nights and very nearly a divorce. The way credit is being thrown around on nearly every major retailer's website is scary, and it's so easy to be sucked in. But make one mistake (i.e. a late or missed payment) then your lovely interest-free purchase becomes a very nasty interest-attracting debt with sky-high rates. Make a few of those mistakes (and it can happen easier than you think) then you are completely fucked.

Went to Ground Zero a couple days ago for their mid-week half term game. It was the first time my middle son has played Airsoft. Lots of kids (I was expecting that), lots of non-hit taking on both sides (kinda expecting that), a dickhead with a green fricken laser flashing it into peoples faces (not expecting that). I was pretty bored with the game play by midday and was ready to jack it in after a couple of incidents with the green fricken laser in the morning, but couldn't because I had my two boys with me and the refs did sort out laser dick in the end. Turns out waving a green laser in peoples faces from 30m away (thus not for aiming, but as a deliberate distraction) was not against the site rules. Apparently, according to the ref it was 'only a low power laser'. 'Cool' I said - 'where's your testing equipment to verify that?' - no answer. Who the fuck thinks a green fricken laser is acceptable at essentially a kids airsoft day? I don't, but that's just me. Anyway - games were pretty uninteresting. The site is pretty uninteresting. It was just....meh. But my middle son loved it. And that's the main thing.

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It makes me chuckle that a brand offshores their product for manufacturing, then gets pissy that the factories start knocking out 'third shift' products at stupidly low prices. I bet the SIG knockoff optics on Aliexpress are third shift products, coming off the same line during the 'third shift of the day' (the first two shifts are for the 'authorised' product to be sold by SIG) maybe with the odd QC fail thrown in for good measure.

If you like it and think it looks cool, that's all that counts. Anyone who thinks otherwise can go forth and multiply.

There are some awesome deals on AliExpress. SF M300/600 clones can be had for less than £20 shipped too. There's a whole bunch of accessories (grips, stocks, rails etc.) on there to suit most people's needs. Sometimes it takes a bit of creative searching (e.g. using 'Gel Blaster' instead of 'Airsoft') to find the cool stuff. They are also collecting the VAT at source - so the stuff is clearing customs pretty quickly.

I was going to post links to AliExpress in my initial post, but I didn't want to piss on anyone's Cornflakes. If anything has a Nuprol sticker/logo on it, it's pretty much guaranteed that it's available for the half the price direct from China.

The Polystyrene box implies a CYMA CM.042 - which is a full metal AK that costs around £200 new (UK retail). Some were sold by retailers with the Cybergun-licenced Kalashnikov branding. If it is full metal and real wood, I would expect a second hand value of £120 to £140ish.