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I have stripped paint from model kits with oven cleaner. Only once did it cause a problem that was a very old figure kit of a French Cavelry officer. I didn't test first and the plastic went all soft. never happened again on anything else though

It's a talent. Have you had any trouble with the repaint? Did you use anything special as a base coat? Actually give us the full method and results if you don't mind. I ask because Nitro Mors wrecks car paint jobs, because it takes the 'whojimaflibbet' base coat stuff off as well as the paint. We had a discussion about this a while ago and iirc the active ingredients of FairyPS are not as alkali as NaOh. I expect it will say use rubber gloves on the bottle, but NaOh is a different kettle of chemical burns. One of these days I'm going to strip my SVD (she is a repainted 2 tone - before she came to me / not my fault / accept no responsibility) and I plan to see how well soaking the plastic hand guards in a strong sodium hydroxide solution works, because it ought to be cheaper, but also because I don't care if they melt - i'll just get a wood kit.

SooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooooOOooooOOooOOOooOOOoOOooOooOOoO....... You're wondering why there are many "o"s in the first word. I can tell you that they are necessary. If you've ever used an AK iron sight, you'll notice that they are quite obstructive.... very obstructive, even in games. They don't let you see what's at the side, they don't let you see what's below, they only let you see what's in the tiny little gap between the leaf, and that's not very practical if anything. So in airsoft, if you decided to be a russian spetsnaz with a classic AK, you won't be able to see what you are hitting if the BB travels downwards or if the BB is swept away by the wind. And since the sights are so close together, one little movement will change the BBs trajectory by a million, bajillion miles. So to solve this annoying problem, basically put a red dot sight on it. Those curved lenses will keep a target on sight no matter what position your eye is in. But my problem is, I don't have a railed surface on my AK dust cover or handguard..... I have no way of mounting one securely onto the round, smooth, shmexy surface......................... or do I? So basically, bluetack and rubber bands. Bluetack helps to initially set the potion of the red dot sight and the rubber bands secure it fully in place, there is some wobble but not enough to move the red dot drastically away from my target, so i can live with it. Now, this solved all my problems after I zeroed it in but this created a new problem..... Since the red dot sight was mounted so high, the gun barrel was A LOT lower than the collimator, so when I was firing out the window.... Yes... I have pink BBs.....

Edited your first post to make the web address a hyperlink. There are actually loads of very functional airsoft Facebook groups which are doing what you aim to do exceptionally well. Though for community driven pages to work they actually tend to be groups, pages aren't designed to be used as community hubs, they're more for advertising. The issue with it is the same as the issue with forums: There are loads. So if someone's looking for info they tend to just join the one they find first, or all of them, but then they'll frequent the one they like the best. You can't be the one that everyone likes the best and most people will already have a favourite, I'm a member of a few that have over 2000 members, which as far as Facebook groups go is about the same as a Facebook version of Arnies forums or something. Also, since you're new to the Facebook airsoft scene, you won't have been exposed to too much of the bullshit fuelled politics of airsoft yet. I would honestly say to just avoid airsoft related Facebook pages because almost every time anyone asks anyone for anything it'll turn into some sort of argument because it turns into an "I know this and you don't so I'm better" sort of ridiculous circle jerk of bollocks. You'll no doubt become accustom to it as your page gains popularity.

Up to you if you want a gun with metal aesthetics or Nylon aesthetics. Obviously metal will feel a lot more rugged, realistic and heavier than the nylon fiber, but the nylon fiber is a lot lighter but is still rugged enough to take a beating without anything snapping off. What's your budget?

You know what counts as proof that you can legally manufacture an RIF? Anything. The Association of Chief Police Officers have called the law unenforcible and nobody but the kind of bellend who can't keep his nose out of everyone else's business cares anyway, so go ahead and either take the bright paint off (with Fairy Powerspray - look it up on yt) or paint it Kryptec for the giggles.

^^Good points, Russ. Why, for that matter, do they bother putting V2 gearboxes in anything? V3 are superior and there are further refinements in other types. Here's my main gearbox whinge though: why hasn't someone come up with a way to tension the main spring after the shell has been closed? I want to be able to get my gears and bits all nicely lubed and placed and then be able to fit the top/right hand shell half on without some finger contorting knack that works for some manufacturers' boxes but not others, or leaving the trigger out and using the other knack which runs the risk of damaging bearings, but is fine for bushings. I forget which box and manufacturer, but i vaguely remember reading someone say that there was an anti-reversal latch that could be tensioned from outside, which is such an obvious idea that doing without it is sooooooooooo annoying! I also want to shoot hotter guns at people, like in the USA, or Russia even. But I don't want to injure anyone or get injured, so I want foolproof face and eye protection that is modular so it can fit anybody, doesn't fog up at all, no matter how much of an unfit sweaty bastard I may become, but also allows easy access to my mouth so I can drink from a canteen/bottle or hydration bladder tube, eat sweets, or smoke without compromising eye safety or taking ages fiddling with straps. It also needs to be airy so it doesn't make you sweat more just by wearing it, like neoprene does. There must be the option to remove either lower cheek piece without weakening it or making the part which covers the mouth loose, so that those who are welded to the way of shooting which requires 'cheek-weld' to the butt stock of rifles can do so without issue. There should be a standard fitting for prescription lenses and the forehead section/s need/s to have options to allow it to be used with military helmets. Finally it must look cool. In my mind's eye I'm seeing something with an underlying scaffold built from modular arms which lock onto a central triangle. There are small pads, about 1cm round with a peg that fits into tracks in the scaffold parts and lock in place, so that there are very few points of contact with the face - a choice of harnesses, like gas mask strappage to attach to the scaffold to hold it on. Exterior parts made from pre-stressed tempered steel wire (stainless or anodised, but resistant to corrosion even if paint chips) </=0.71mm (inc any coating) #8 mesh*, with pegs that lock into the scaffold. There would have to be polycarbonate lens options as well as mesh eyepieces. Actually, the best way would be to market the basic parts and invite other companies to create their own ranges of options which would have to pass your standards of safety and reliability to be listed as approved for use with... *This is the approximate threshold beyond which mesh becomes difficult to ignore when looking through.** The trouble is that the available SS304 and SS316 meshes of this wire diameter and per inch count are not sufficiently stiff to resist BB's at the muzzle energies we already use, as they come from the factory anyway. I have some replacements for the polycarb lenses in my ESS Advancer V12's which I made from SS316 0.71mm #8 mesh and by curling each strand back around a perimeter wire and forming the flat sheet into a convex lens shape I have increased the standard resistance to shots, but nevertheless, although I happily wear them in woodland games, I don't trust them for CQB where there is a considerable (as opposed to so unlikely it's not worth considering) risk of a fair few BB's fired full auto hitting exactly the same spot on the mesh - truthfully they would resist even that up to about 10-11, but there's a chance that further hits could penetrate before I could reach the safe zone. I haven't got around to oil quench tempering them, but I suspect this is the way forward. So much better to have an expert design a machine to do it neatly and insurably consistently though... **What matters is the diagonal dimension across a crossover between individual wires and past 1mm [√(0.71mm² x 2) = 1.004mm] it seems increasingly difficult for the eye to stay focussed beyond it, especially if it moves relative to the face (which is another reason why the whole thing needs to be able to be worn both very tight on the face, but comfortably so you don't keep shifting it), but trust me, these replacement inserts I have are like wearing nothing for seeing through, which is particularly good for sniping, but imo worth pursuing for all airsoft. To my mind even better would be something like 0.5mm wire #9 mesh or finer (to reduce the maximum dimension of any BB fragment which could possibly pass through), if it could be made stiff enough to resist deforming permanently as a result of BB hits.

Hey folks I'm after some info from some fellow airsofters if at all possible. I have been playing airsoft for a few years now, and play regularly at Spartan in Bristol with my team the VC (Valley Commandos). I am currently studying towards a degree in design and am working on a project centred around airsoft. As part of the project I have to carry out some market research and the most important aspect of that is to get the perspectives of you guys. With that in mind I would appreciate it if you could pleas get back to me with some information about any frustrations or issues, any room for improvement in your experience of the game / sport of airsoft. This can be equipment, game-play related, or just anything that has frustrated or annoyed you during your experiences with airsoft. I really appreciate any input, and a massive thanks to anyone who takes the time to reply. Thanks

I have one with a 25mm side release buckle and velcro and it fits on my USP comfortably - just put the thicker bit on the inside, the left if you're right handed, so it sits under your little finger. Other than that, gaffer tape and paracord will probably make a stronger loop than anything you can bodge by cutting holes in rubber and you can get coiled paracord lanyards for £4 on amazon.

Yeah, but while we're on the subject of shooting glasses and/or workwear with kite marks coming out of their arses, let's just remember that someone got hit in the eye not long ago wearing this type of eyepro. Fortunately it seems he will be ok: fucking fortunately. It happened because these are not designed for airsoft. If they were there would be no/next to no gap between the frame and the wearer's face no matter from which direction a projectile approaches, because, as happened in this case, a ricochet can come at you from a direction which a direct shot cannot, such as directly below the frame if the BB bounces off a mask or, depending on the shape and angle of your head, off your gun or rig. £900... well, I'm another one who thinks the better part of valour lies in not adding up how much I actually spend on airsoft, since that way I cannot be asked to justify a figure which I do not have by any significant other/s. Although last week or so I attempted to buy a 3" piece of 1.6-ish mm stamped mild steel with literally no other redeeming features than its shape for over £30 posted and was not relieved but gutted when it turned out to be out of stock after all. I did have the good grace to know and fully admit that it was the kind of extravagance at which whatever passes for my snook is habitually cocked however and i'm here to echo other's advice regarding trying the sport before you spank your wallet and to tell you that if you plan to spend that much money in/around the time it takes to get UKARA registered and not long thereafter, you had best budget for a lot more as your annual spend because a good deal of what you get will turn out to have been stuff which is good, but not so much for airsoft, good for airsoft but not good for you, or entirely inappropriate and/or just shit. We've all done it, some more egregiously than others, and no doubt you will too*... thought something looks brilliant and how could it possibly not be good, only to discover that actually what works in films, or on real gunfighters in Afghan or wherever, is either not much use for airsoft or actively a pain in the arse... I'll take gloves as a glaring example. In ordinary airsoft they have 3 functions: keeping your hands warm; protecting your fingers from hits, which sting there a lot more than you'd imagine and girly screams go a long way towards ruining function 3 of looking cool. A lot of us wear hard knuckle gloves, because we want to look like the kind of operator who may decide that, rules of engagement with weapons being what they are, punching someone is on the agenda. I have a pair myself, although mine are clones and, since 1 thumb got shredded by being between me and an exploding BFG which I incautiously leant on, are also heavily modified to cushion my fingers when cocking my spring sniper rifle and take some of the following experience into account: Most of them are made for the kind of places soldiers are currently likely to go - hot and/or dry environments and so breathability is far more important than waterproof... not so on a cold wet Sunday in some muddy hole in Yorkshire. If a soldier gets shot in the hand, a piece of flexible moulded plastic held by its shape a few mm's away from his fingers will not save them, but this design is far and away the most effective protection from BB hits, beating even Pyrohide & Kevlar despite costing only a fiver, however even worse, for most of us, than looking a bit namby pamby, they look a bit paintball-ish! Military kit tends to be made with tough situations in mind, made to be operable just as well when roughly grabbed by desperate hands caked in shite as when being demonstrated calmly on a range, so anything a soldier may need to get hold of in a hurry will not have its operation hampered by the wearing of gloves through which the wearer can feel 3/5ths of fuck all... not so in airsoft: things that spring to mind are the flap/slide which keeps the BB's inside a hicap mag, speedloaders for mid/lo caps, blanks and loading tools for BFG's, the striker tabs/caps of pyros, and everyone who has ever paid £6+P&P to replace a lost one's favourite... AEG body pins of which some designs require the removal in order to change batteries. Now imagine if you had just spanked £65 on a pair of Southcombe Bros'? No matter how unsuitable they turned out to be, how much would your unconscious need to justify the expense to yourself, and others if we know about it, goad you to take issue with what I have just written? Ah but these ones are special... yeah whatever; tell it to yer missus when you next see her eyeing up shoes. I wrote this guide mainly for people who want to get into the sport/hobby but do not have your resources with which to proceed, but I reckon there's a lot to be said for starting out with forum and fleabay fifth hand specials while you rent guns, then buying a wombat machine and doing your best to make them work for you - you will know what features of expensive kit you want most ie the solutions to actual problems that you personally have had, what are not so important, and what don't matter at all, despite hiking the price up. Like many of us who bought cheap but good guns to start off, you will probably find that you will want to keep it even when you have plenty of more expensive options to pull out of your arsenal. *However we can but hope that, whatever your particular style of Nobheadery© and/or flavour of Emperor's New Clothes™, it doesn't cost you more than a month's enjoyment of the sport due to lack of funds for something which would have done the trick cheaper/better/with less anxiety over whether you will lose or break some part of it/etc. and in the absence of that, that someone lurking may read this thread and take note.

that'll withstand anything an airsoft gun can throw at it, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the lens on that would withstand 1000fps

I would like rails on my 1st gun. I am going to get an mp40 in the future. Is there anything that you could recommend that is cheap (not taccy), reliable and has good reviews to get me started. I would really appreaciate it. Also what do you guys think of this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Olive-Green-TACTICAL-VEST-Combat-Assault-Airsoft-Army-Molle-Attachment-Rig-Top-/181248867418?pt=UK_Sporting_Goods_Sports_Clothing_LE&hash=item2a33463c5a is it good or can I get a better tac vest for the money? I am in the market for one and there are soo many to choose from.

i havent played anything else on my playstation since i got it in september

Yeah, complete and utter tosh, anything less than 51% solid bright colour as laid down in the VCRA is a RIF, patterns are a no-no and subdued colours don't meet the requirements. That said, there's no law against you painting your gun as I assume you can prove you're a legit airsofter. The 18 year old rule applies only to SALE of RIFs, not manufacture.

Bollocks. I hope you realise, GK, that I am not casting aspersions on your character or commenting on you at all, but simply concisely expressing my opinion of the view you have put forward. Naturally I wish to avoid any handbags at dawn or any appearance of mod-bias, so by all means say whatever you like about my opinions (not me)... but really, this totally frustrates me. Clearly there is a lot more to airsoft than range and there is more to range than FPS but to say that when using a good hop unit 22FPS produces pointlessly minimal difference in range not only flies in the face of my, and many others', experience, but also physics. If we were somehow restricted to having to choose more muzzle energy or better hop then these arguments might hold water, but we're not and they don't. If a good hop will get a 328FPS BB the same distance as a mediocre hop gets a BB at 350FPS, then 350FPS through the 1st will go even further Where this falls down is not when comparing good hop units but shit ones, where the BB is so unstable in flight that the lift generated by backspin acts less in the vertical plane as it yaws to one side and the other (as the effect is to a large degree self-correcting in terms of absolute deviation from a birds eye view of a line between muzzle and target - off-centre negative pressure will obviously cause that side of the BB to lift more than the other, but it is a spheroid so it just rotates about the trajectory as a 2nd axis: it achieves equilibrium but now has angular momentum so goes too far the opposite way, whereupon uneven lift brings it back, then too far, etc.) - basically the more the force generated by backspin is not acting directly opposite to gravity, the less far the BB will go and, if this is bad enough, more muzzle energy will just make the BB hit the ground with more forward velocity - I believe this is how a dirty barrel reduces range. The plain fact is that even 1m of extra range is an advantage and if that is the only advantage you have, careful play can convert it into hitting your opponent before they hit you. However higher FPS creates 2 other advantages: 1) the BB takes less time to travel to the target... target@35m so 35m / 100m/s = 0.35s you don't have to be Usain Bolt to run very quickly over short distances... 100m in 10s would be damn good going for an average airsofter carrying gear & kit over mixed terrain, but 10m in 1s...? I'm unwell and in most circumstances i could beat that, but whatever, it makes the maths easier 10m/s 0.35s x 10m/s = 3.5m as the distance which your aim point has to lead in front of a running target 35m / 106.68m/s = 0.328s x 10m/s = 3.28m 22cm... pointlessly minimal, right? Wrong. A standard man sized target is 60cm wide and at 35m a practiced shooter firing an averagely decent AEG, like an OOTB Top Tech, snap shooting, is going to have a grouping on that target of about 40-45cm. 22cm puts some of those shots up to 12-14.5cm off a fat bastard in PLCE webbing... but of course that is not what having to lead a running target by 22cm less actually means, it's just a convenient thought experiment to demonstrate what that distance actually translates into in terms of pure static target shooting. In reality what leading a target by less in order to hit them actually means is that the target has not just less time to react but fewer choices for effective changes of direction. The truth however is that, with a good hop set up, 22FPS (in this muzzle energy band) will give about 6-8m more effective range, which isn't that much, but in many skirmish situations it's the difference between in cover and not, ie i can keep your head down with my 267x6.02mm TBB, Element M105 spring, Double O-ring piston head, gucci grease, O-ringed air nozzle and G&G green rubber, putting out high 340's on 0.2s, whereas with your G&G green rubber and hey have an H-nub at 325-30FPS you'll have to flank me and/or get a team mate with a hotter gun to pin me while you get closer, unless you can herd cats well enough to get enough players with mags in fresh/wound, and ready to rock on command (and get where the target is and what suppressing fire actually entails ) to overcome me with sheer volume of inaccurate lob shots... but of course I can just retreat a couple of meters and you have to start again, and all the while I, 1 shooter with a well set up AEG in decent cover, hold up half of your team, the rest of my team have a numerical advantage wherever they attack. But going back a paragraph and making point 2) I find what I miss most when some modification results in less FPS, for eg when I swapped the above TBB out for a shorter Systema MP5 BS 6.04mm barrel (it's all in the name lol - no actually it was a hair more accurate) only dropping about 5FPS, is the degree of flatness of trajectory. I find this most important when I'm shooting at people in cover, they may only be visible for a fraction of a second and pop up somewhere other than where I last saw them - anything which makes the BB fly more true to where your sighted viewpoint suggests it ought to will always make snap shooting more effective, but also when you're aiming at someone behind a small opening, if you can only get a BB that far on a parabola that ends with the BB coming down at 25-30° to the horizontal, or more, the width of the barrier has the effect of closing off the window and even if you get the shot through, the more it slows the steeper it falls and you know yourself, people often don't notice light hits low down.

yeah Baz, i mean for sure fb is a good way to make sure a lot of softers hear about it through friends like invites, but i just don't see anything in a 'secret fb group' staying secret for long - i mean fb isn't known for security... but hey perhaps having to adopt a cointelpro role could be part of the immersion for some ppl (would have been for me a few yrs ago but with the meds i'm on these days i'm lucky to remember the passwords to get into my own fucking stuff let alone complicated apps etc)

Yes I heard about not letting them run low. Do guns designed to be run on them I.e the Firehawk only have anything other than a ROF drop that let's you known it's at it's lowest point?

I was planning on but decided not to. The reason I was thinking about doing it was because the leather ends made doing anything fiddly very hard The stitching that came apart was actually along the side on the lower thumb from the wrist to the knuckle

I had the old Warrior Firestorm gloves and they were decent but I found the leather fingers mean doing anything near fiddly was hard and they seemed to require very long and skinny fingers to fit entirely correctly. Eventually the side stitching on one of the gloves gave out and I decided to switch the Mechanix. However, that was a while ago so will be interested to see how they've improved them

Whoever told you Flash Mags reduce the noise is talking utter rubbish, if anything they're worse. If you buy Lonex (or ASG rebranded) they will give about 2 years service until the ratchet spring fails. But then a replacement spring is a few pence to replace. If you however buy the cheap ones, you'll get a few months tops before the whole mechanism collapses, which is virtually irreparable. Had a few of each for a Dytac for woodland games, the Lonex were drastically better.

I own a TM one. Allow me to go off on one here: It's big. Really big. Pistol's quite large too (ba-dum-tiss). Only realy way to holster it is with a Viper belt mounted adjustable holster. it's as big as a desert eagle. If you have small hands, forget it. If you want a pistol that is 'fast' forget it. If you want to be able to transition to it quickly, forget it. (Admittedly I do alright with mine, but I've used it almost every skirmish for the last 3 and a half years, often as a primary.) If you have the suppressor attached whilst it's in the holster (and you'll want to) your draw length is from grabbing the pistol at your hip, the pistol isn't free and usable until you have lifted the pistol grip up to your armpit. Don't think you can get around this with a leg holster, then you'll never be able to kneel down again. There are a lot of negatives with this pistol. BUT. Jesus christ. If you want a pistol that you can rely on, buy one. and only one. You will only ever need one. This has to be the most robust anything ever. Mine had taken a beating over the years. Then I dropped it. Fell out of my holster. Lost. Gone. My favourite RIF lost. not to mention it was £200 worth of pistol. This happened in November 2012. Every game I played I looked around for it. Then. Mid August. Peeking out from under some leaves. NO. FREAKING. WAY. 9 bastard months. The coldest winter for years, plus all the usual yorkshire countryside weather. Plus the heat from summer. My MK23 had been out in it all. I would guess temperatures ranged from -5 to about 20 degrees over those months. I picked it up. looked over it and pulled the trigger. 'thumf'. sheeeiiiiiiit It still worked. Hadn't let out ANY guess. Aimed at a target 'thumf' again, straight as a die. better check it over before I do any damage to it. Popped the mag out, took out the takedown lever and slid the slide off. yup, frame looks fine. Check the upper. a slug, A mother fucking slug. right in the mechanism. and it wouldn't let me down. The pistol is awesome. It outranges most peoples AEGs all day erryday. It cannot be heard outside of 10m and is impossible to locate the exact direction of the shooting within hearing range. It's had more kills on its own that the entire rest of my arsenal, I'm convinced of it. Some days I'll take out £800 worth up Laylaxed up VSR and do better with the MK23. If I'm unsure about what to take to a game, I know I'll still have a good time if the MK23 is coming with me. oh, and just for balance, I DO also have the ASG one (same as KJ etcetcetc) and it's wank. Just utter crap. Yeah, I know what other people say about theirs, so maybe that shows how highly I hold this pistol. (and how terrified other players at my site are of it) and to clear up some misinformation in this thread so far: the TM MK23 and mags DO take Greengas, it will also take duster, 134a, 144a, red gas AND Guarder Black gas. I would imagine it handles propane fine, but I am NEVER putting that stink through my lovely pistol. Special forces don't use it 'a lot' it is too big and too heavy for a sidearm. and to agree with some other sentiments from the thread: If you use one, you cannot be cooler. They are stupid accurate. They are THE BEST sniper sidearm They are THE BEST woodland sidearm, regardless of playstyle They are (playstyle/game dependednt) one of the best CQB sidearms. BUYITBUYITBUYITBUYITBUYITBUYITBUYITBUYIT

If you want something fun, but not really skirmishable, try a Dan Wesson revolver. They're CO2 powered and chamber 6 shells which each take a single bb in the front, pretty much functions like the real thing. Nice build quality, good weight, feels solid as anything and looks very cool. Unfortunately don't own one myself but had a go at shooting downrange with the 4" version a couple weeks back with some metal bb's. From what I remember although you can get low power shells to make it useable on the field (standard ones shoot very hot) they don't use 6mm rounds, making sourcing plastic ammunition quite difficult. Edit: On the other hand though I may be completely wrong, unless wolf armouries are incorrect they do fire 6mm. http://www.wolfarmouries.co.uk/airsoft/bb/product.asp?page=product&id=17351

I got shot by two people at point blank with CO2 pistols into a neoprene mask (I burst through a door at Tac House: Spartan and they were aiming at head height, which I thought was a bit moody...). Both hits got me side by side on the top lip - more surprise than anything, but there was a red mark. I think you'd have to be quite close for a sniper BB to actually bruise through neoprene. Teeth wise, I think it may just be possible for a BB to get through the holes over the mouth, or not even penetrate but push the neoprene against teeth with just enough BB contact through the hole to cause a shattered tooth - but really it'd be a one in ten million or more coincidence. But yeah, mesh is the way forward for complete peace of mind. It's not sweaty to wear either...

That was my thinking, if the insurance wanted face protection I don't see why the site wouldn't just say mesh lowers- that way there's a much reduced chance of anything severe.

I know but a requirement for a neoprene mask is ridiculous, it's hardly going to protect anything