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TL:DR - This is the working prototype of my Airsoft EM-2 rifle. I designed and made this, mostly by CNC machining solid Aluminium and Walnut. I've only made one. I'm posting it here for the great Airsoft Hive mind to tell me what they think one might be worth if I were to make any for sale. Longer but still briefly 🙂 The story of the Janson 'Automatic Rifle, .280 in, E.M. 2' is a relatively minor but interesting bit of British Firearms history, and the Bullpup design and 0.280 inch / 7mm calibre choices were way ahead of their time. The rifle was actually adopted, briefly, in 1951 as the UK's new standard Service Weapon to replace the aging Lee Enfield's and Stens after WW2. But Politics, and especially American insistance on what would become the NATO standard 7.62mm round, saw it un-adopted only a few months later (by Winston Churchill no less!) and no 'Rifle 7mm, No.9, Mk1' was ever actually produced. I started trying to make myself a reasonable Airsoft version of Stefan Jansons EM-2 around 4 or 5 years ago, before the OTT videogame versions appeared btw 🙂. Teaching myself a bit about hobby scale CNC machining and 3D CAD/CAM as I went along . . . I'll let you imagine what my first attempts looked like! and how much wood and metal I wasted, and how many tool bits I've broken! I began making my Airsoft version based on a copy of one of the original blueprints for the 'Rifle 7mm, No.9, Mk1.', and later on corrected it a lot after I had the rare and utterly invaluble privilege of being able to compare my initial efforts with a real steel example, courtesy of Mr Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. Jonathan is also the Author of the definitive 'Thorneycroft to SA80. British Bullpup Firearms 1901-2020', which has two chapters on the E.M.2 and its history. Without Jonathan's book and his help answering questions on a most memorable day in Leeds my version wouldn't look anything like the real thing does. The major parts of the prototype are made from CNC'd solid Aluminium and solid Walnut planks with a steel outer barrel and real Walnut veneer. It is fitted with a Wolverine Inferno HPA engine as there just isn't room for a gearbox inside the EM-2's frame and the inner barrel is 600mm long stainless steel. This project has taken a lot longer and cost a lot more than I imagined it would when I started. Obviously the thought of selling them, if only to make some of my money back(!) has crossed my mind, and I've spoken to a couple of people about the idea. But the consensus seemed to be there wouldn't be enough demand to justify having a batch of them professionally manufactured, even if I have already done most of the R&D, and without professional production and their economy of scale savings, the unit price and the time needed for me to make each one makes it almost certainly uneconomic to do so. But just recently while corresponding with a user on the forum I thought hey, I may as well ask what other Airsofters think a realistic price for it would be? and if anyone would want to buy one if they could? So, over to you Hive mind 🙂

Hey guys, I know we already have a dedicated section but it's mostly used for site reviews, which I love reading from down here, especially Asomodai's ones, but I reckon it'll get more visibility here. I'm interested in hearing how your day went, whether it's a simple skirmish, a full day themed event or a hardcore milsim! In particular I'd like to hear anecdotes, something in particular that made (or broke) your day, or even just some venting because of one or multiple unpleasant events, maybe a super long range shot or if you snuck so close to someone you managed to tap him on the shoulder. These kinds of things Lemme start this absolute shitshow by telling you (I don't care if you don't care, you sit there and read) my day. So, today was the first game after the summer pause, it gets quite warm here in summer and people prefer to roast themselves on a beach rather than play with toy gnus, I was very excited as I took my new specna for a spin. Due to the relatively low numbers we invited another club to play with us (which from now on will be called "cheater club" but I won't bore you with the explanation), we ended up being 18 people, 12 of us + 6 of them and some randoms thrown in. The day started well, with the two first games being a little slow paced due to "the others" playing for the first time in the highest part of our field. Hit calling was generally good until the last three games. The first one of these three saw me sneaking up to 4/5 metres of an enemy sniper, who was unaware of my presence as he was focused on pinning down my teammates. Flick the gun to semi and let off a couple of shots into the only visible part, the head. Both BBs impacted. And this is where it all goes to shit. The guy visibly flinches, turns towards me and ducks into cover, to pop up later with his pistol, but I'm still there waiting, this time with the fun switch on, and let off a small bursts that gets him right in the forehead. Still flinches and dives back into cover. At this point I'm pissed, I hold down the trigger to keep him down while moving to the side to get a better shot, as we were separated by a small ridge. At this point half a flash mag has been dumped. When I get really close to him, must've been 2/3 metres at best, he pokes out of cover and lets off a nice full auto burst from his CO2 pistol in my neck. I'm not Shouty McYelly, so I call my hit and walk away. Game ends and the guy comes out of his little trench, bleeding with visible welts on his forehead. Didn't feel bad for a second about it. Also quite a few people were watching the scene so I didn't even need to say or do anything as it was pretty obvious what happened. The game after I'm on defense, I set up an ambush on a small side path on the left hand side of the objective and spot a 3 man squad coming my way, I let the first one pass and unleash hell on the second and third guy. The second enemy dives into cover while the third, a good 10/15 metres behind the other two, is still in the open, so I instantly direct the fire towards him. Now I'm not 100% sure I hit him as he was a good 40 metres away, but my gun does reach up to at least 55 metres, I was shooting down from an elevated position and the spread was still torso sized. Nonetheless, the target at first stands still in surprise and then runs away. Meh. Follows a nice exchange of bbs with my club's president (the first guy) but then I'm overran and eliminated. Still a bit puzzled by this "incident", but again, might have misjudged the distance but it seemed like I did reach that guy, as when the game ended he told me my bbs were zipping past him. The magic of airsoft and round lightweight ammunition. Then the last game of the day, we send the whole cheater club to defend a small chapel, we as attackers have two advantages. Range, because we are starting from the high ground, and terrain knowledge. We split up in 2/3 man teams as we always do, my mate and I decide to go on a huuuuge flanking maneuver that gets us behind the objective. At this point it gets ridiculous: We emerge out of cover right next to a girl who was looking at the opposite direction, none of us saw her (new nickname, Eagle Eye lol) until she moved a few branches. On the plus side she somehow didn't hear us. Great, let's spread out now so she doesn't fuck both of us up with a single sweep. Slowly creeping towards her, I flick the gun to semi, wait for my teammate to move a bit and then I pull the trigger.... Nothing, fuck's sake, the gun locked up. She notices us, turns around to shoot us but we're already behind cover: me in a dip protected by a bush, my teammate on the opposite side of the very tree she was using as cover. I draw my pistol, pop out of cover and fire 4 shots, hitting her in the side of the mask (from 3 metres, clearly saw the bbs hitting) as she was looking at my teammate. I dive back into cover, she turns around towards me and my mate puts 4 bbs in her side while she lets off a small unaimed burst between us. Note that this took some seconds so she had the time to call the hit, but she doesn't until she took my mate's balls (lul). The hit was called, but suddenly she starts yelling that she hit both of us and ran to cry about it to our club's president. I stare at my mate, he stares at me, we both shrug and keep playing. We both end up being taken out by her boyfriend, who got himself into a really cheeky position and was almost invisible from where we were (imagine a huge bush with the tiniest of tiny holes in it and a barrel barely poking out, good luck spotting that), good play by him and we complimented. A rollercoaster of a day, which started with the best premises but ended in disappointment. How did your day go? Did you have the same bad luck as me? Did you have a great time?

When I had mine, I felt the pistol grip was a bit, plasticy and bendy and adding some tape made it feel a bit more rigid. Unless you're planing on adding hand warmers I can't see it doing anything to improve performance.

If anything , I’d be putting ranger bands on the grips, a couple of them twisted and layered will provide grip and not absorb moisture

I think it's a one man band who barely seems fazed. The only sign of life there was someone doing anything was when the site went down for a couple of weeks then went online again.

The first step would be to work out what it would cost you to build, rolling in the lessons learned from making your first one. I suspect that that cost would be pretty steep, and unfortunately the market will probably be smaller than it appears. The number of people who will say they'd pay £££ for a high quality unicorn and the number of people who would actually follow through when the time comes wont be the same. That isnt to say you shouldnt do it, because it is cool af and looks like you're making a proper quality product. I am absolutely here for anything that dilutes the pool of ar derivatives.

I think we lack a thread for the more creative and technical side of things like homemade accessories and 3D printing/CAD. So... what have you made? Or, are making right now? Can be anything from cutting and filing some mask to suit you, to more grandiose projects like making your own ghillie suit, or some 3D CAD model of yet another M4 handguard. Concepts and ideas are cool too if you have something to visualize it. I guess I'll start: Made a lightweight outer barrel for an M4 from scratch in fusion360: Gonna make a lightweight handguard to pair with it and then print them both in a bronze/copper finish. Dramatic weight losses inc.

Your need is going to depend on how much you shoot (and how much air you use) vs how long it takes to refill Have you played with HPA to get an idea about your air needs ? Does the site you play at provide HPA fills? The first will guide on how much air you need, and the second as to whether you can top up. One bottle can cover an airsofters needs for the day depending on efficiency and how much you shoot. Airsoft typically operates on a lower input pressure than paintball, but if your inline regulator covers the right pressure ranges you can get a second air cylinder at a fair price ( if you need the fitted regulator at a lower pressure than ‘standard’ it can be more expensive - but cheaper than a compressor ) ’Home’ compressors can now be reasonably priced for a basic setup (make sure it’s fully filtered) But they are slow, noisy, get hot and should be maintained - which often does not happen at home If your site provides air fills then I would recommend filling there and making sure you are topped up before going home If you occasionally need more air at home then a (filtered) stirrup pump will do the job Keep topping up instead of draining and refilling Note that I keep referring to filters ’Clean’ air is essential, and the lack of clean air with bad habits was cause of a series of ‘flash fill’ explosions at site fill stations one year - the injuries were incurred by players who were not at fault, but fill stations had been contaminated by oil on fill nipples, and anything blown inside can contribute A less drastic issue is that regulators fail due to accumulated ‘dirty air’ then the burst disk does its job - still dramatic but less dangerous, and I’ve been present at quite a few burst disk failures, you don’t want a spinning cylinder hitting your ankle (I’ve never had one on mine, I’m usually running away) If you do need and are committed, I don’t have an opinion on particular compressors / brands - just be aware of their uses & limitations

We are TWS Airsoft Limited, a tech and Cerakote service company based in the heart of Essex, We work alongside the well known airsoft and firearms shop ROE in Hadleigh to provide repairs, upgrade, builds and cerakote services. If your looking for tech or Cerakote services in the Essex and surrounding area get in touch with either us or ROE Airsoft. We cater to all airsoft makes, models and systems. From TM NGRS Full upgrade builds to GBBR servicing to HPA sytem installs and complete custom builds. With our Cerakote services we can coat anything from Saftey glasses frames and polymer glock frames to high end firearm target rifle parts and custom air rifles. Email- [email protected] Website- www.twsairsoft.co.uk instagram- @tws.airsoft work number/ whatsapp- 07543437725 Ebay- tws-airsoft

Yes done this many of time and with many ak’s / variants, real steel wood handguards fit with slight modification, repo zenitco is the same along with other brands of Ak, some slight filing and sanding to achieve the perfect fitment, repo zenitco stocks are the same some slight sanding and filling, basically anything you want to add to your pew will need some form of modification to get it to fit but nothing major

Well it's up to the server owner/mod, there are ways to make locked threads with guides and stuff like this, have threads dedicated to pictures/videos and anything in between. I'd stay away from huge servers like Airsoft International, that place is an absolute shithole and everyone there is mega entitled.. I prefer smaller servers, where new people are invited to (can't publicly join) and where discussions are actually enjoyable and knowledge is actually shared.

Well it's been a week since my adverts got auto renewed (Even the completed ones) and I still can't list anything in the classifieds 😐

It's all academic until a case is bought to trial. issue is as far as i can tell manufacturing is not clearly defined and the term modifies is only used in terms of turning an IF to RIF. So two scenarios 1) A person with out a defense buys all the parts necessary to make a function RIF and assembles it they are guilt of manufacturing a RIF. 2) A person without a defense is gifted a RIF or hasn't played for years replaces every part in the gun other than the Gearbox case, spring guide and rear sight with non like for like parts so what was once an MP5 is now a G3. yes that is modification i would say that's also manufacturing and I bet a prosecutor could make a convincing argument in that favor. I know that's a extreme argument but even converting an M4A1 to and M16A2 means replacing over 60% of the external parts. the argument is manufacturing and modification are different things but they aren't clearly defined terms in the VRCA. Either way unless they have a nice paper trail of purchases are catching you in the act they can't prove anything illegal was done.

Visited Finmere Airsoft for the first time this weekend to take part in one of their Chaos and Control days, a long objective lead day rather than your usual skirmish. Milsim-lite I guess you could call it. First notable point before the day of the event even came around was the great communication with the organisers. I posted a quick question via their ‘Contact Us’ link but got a swift answer and then welcome into their larger WhatsApp group to discuss game day specifics or ask for technical help. Even got sent a PDF with the game objectives and rules, site map and walkthrough video in advance of the day so everyone should know what they are doing. Really well organised and not something I’ve seen before. Arrived at the site an a rainy Sunday morning. The site itself is a fairly typical woodland affair with a long central access road bisecting it into two distinct halves. Safe zone is right in the centre, they have a mix of seating and tables, most undercover from the worst of the elements. Small tuck shop, supplies and a lone portaloo which was remarkably clean. Game area features some nice set pieces like a prop submarine, crashed airplane and some other abstract structures that could really be anything. Gameplay for the day were two 2-hour long domination rounds with five control points spread around the map for capture and control. Capture involved the usual flag raising plus starting your team’s stopwatch at the control point to start accumulating points. Each team’s spawn had an area map that you could mark POIs on and a radio. The radio allowed you to get in contact with the ‘drone operator’ to get intel and/or call in airstrikes or chemical weapons on certain positions. I’m guessing this isn’t anything new but it was the first time I’ve played anything like this and I had a great time playing Battlefield Commander with my rifle propped up in the corner of spawn and picking places on the map to drop imaginary ordinance. Another new one for me was their dead rule. You get 3 lives with the first 2 hits requiring you to be revived, but whilst injured you are allowed (and expected) to call out info to your team. Creates an interesting dynamic where a downed man can sometimes be the pivotal part of a firefight as he calls out enemy movements to the survivors. On your 3rd hit you are fully dead, then it’s the usual silent walk back to spawn. Other notable points of the day were zero moaning or bitching about hit calling, randoms happy to and actively looking to team up to do objectives, everyone generally very laid back and some guy brought a bag full of apples from his garden. All in all a great addition to our roster of local sites so will be going there again soon.

No joy. when it’s out on its own no issue works. as soon as I attached it into the grip position nothing. I cant see any wires broken or anything

The cardboard bit is only a sleeve around the actual ammo holder, though, not like it's structural or anything.

Having previously asking for my UKARA number on non restricted items I just ask the retailer to put my UKARA number on anything Airsoft related. Since then no real issues but UPS is bloody slow processing anything.