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Hard to really say it's worth it when you could build out a VFC AK74M pretty close to that for about the same or slightly more. And it wouldn't be a ten year old design pretending to be a lost relic. GHK AKs were great in their day but the V2s especially have a number of really annoying flaws, and aftermarket doesn't really fix a few of them. This would be half the price if the V3s weren't so dogshit that everyone got rose tinted glasses for the V2s.

I need new reading glasses, I thought he wrote "Butch"...

No idea whether it was as a result of a hot gun (but as the thread has taken a bit of a swerve, i'll mention it anyway!), but the first game I wore my shiny new bolle X800 knock-offs (bought from a legit UK retailer), a BB launched from at least 20m away shattered the plastic fitting that the elastic strap was fixed to, and they pinged off my face in the middle of a pretty hefty assault on my position from the opposing team. I'm sure the lenses themselves could have taken a huge amount of abuse, but there are other weak points (and possibly those weak points are not actually subject to testing by the manufacturer against the various standards?). Super bad luck - definitely, but I now inspect any glasses I wear these days for similar such weaknesses.

Could, and did. I now wear shooting glasses in "safe" zones and even car parks because far too many players and sites have this "lol" attitude.

Ive recently purchased a pair of empire EVS with the intention of running an Exfog unit as seemingly no amount of anti-fog, glasses, goggles etc prevents my humid self from constantly fogging up. However, with moving to a paintball style mask, being able to cheek weld weapons is more of an issue. I dont seem to have a problem with my Tac-41 since its got a really low stock. But I think with my M4 its going to require at least a 2 inch riser to make any optics viable, since I cant seem to find a drop stock for the specna arms prime line... Which RIFs OOTB, do you guys think would work with the empire EVS and optics? The AK platform looks like its angled stock might work but wondering if you guys have any more ideas for those who run the mask or similar paintball masks? Pic of the new mask

His goggles were knocked off his face or smashed, as I recall. EN166F glasses (which may be another argument, given that they're not even rated for sniper energy BBs) would have no chance. Why wait to learn from your own injuries when someone else has already bled for the lesson? 🤷‍♂️

Hello again, It's been a slow few months. The moths inhabit the empty wallet, and the paint is slow to dry in the cold of late winter / early spring. I have since acquired the HPA engine (Scalar Seraph, though I've yet to acquire the tank and regulator. I've started working on the HPA adaptation of the M7 SMG, and will be looking to do do some preliminary thinking and design work for the MA5B (Assault Rifle). Cute lil thing. I reprinted the entire helmet as the prior one was too small for me. I also printed it as one piece instead of 2, out of PLA-ST instead of ABS. I got a significantly cleaner and stronger print. While experimenting with the electronics, it turned out that DC fans usually don't like PWM unless they're designed for it. This means that unfortunately I had to ditch the controllable fan speed for a simple on / off switch. Preliminary sanding done using orbital sander, proxxon pen sander for details, and hand sanding. My fingers and tendons thanked me for buying the pen sander. Layer of Motip spray putty that needs to be sanded right back to the base material. Leaving too much on makes the paint easy to chip / flake off. Unfortunately I spent a lot of time sanding the helmet smooth, painting it with a rather heavy top coat of Maston olive green, before figuring out an alternative finish that I'd rather use. It sealed the deal when I foolishly thought the paint was fully set and I turned it over to paint the bottom. Somehow I hadn't thought of making a helmet stand, and the paint on the top marked from the bubble wrap I'd set it on. I sanded it back a bit before applying the textured finish. The technique I discovered was simply painting over a textured spray paint, which provides a nice textured finish that's extra matt and scratch resistant. Unfortunately this meant I wasted rather a lot of somewhat expensive paint. Comparison between the same paint, both smooth and textured. Rustoleum textured paint. Created a helmet stand for painting without the paint ever touching anything. Overcoated with Maston olive green. Unfortunately the black also didn't fully set, and the masking tape marked it lightly. The lacquer evened it out well enough thankfully. I've never had this many issues with paints not setting even after days, even in the cold months. I had the same paint mark from sitting on fabric weeks after painting. I ended up using a food dehydrator inside a large cardboard box, set to 50'C for 12 hours to "bake" the paint. It seems to work well. Voila. I think it came out rather well. The chin strap was a bit of an experiment, to see whether a fully elastic strap would work. It didn't, it's *too* elastic. You want a little bit of flex to allow your jaw to wag, but too much and it allows the helmet to shift and pull right off your head if you fall. So as you can see there are multiple layers of elastic with some inelastic strap to remove the elasticity rather than ripping all the stitches. I'll certainly change it at some point. I've used a magnetic buckle as I did with my previous helmet that makes it easy to secure with gloves on. Due to the buckle, you can't get a cheek weld on the side it's on. It can be reversed easily, but not something you'll be doing mid game. Getting a cheek weld in general is awkward, but it's the price you pay to use a "sci fi" helmet. It is possible, and better than my prior helmet in most ways. I've also added TPU (rubber) pads to the inside and bottom of the mandibles to stop any scraping against guns to protect the finish of both and reduce noise. The padding is a rather crucial part of this helmet. Not only is it about comfort, but it's about safety too. I see a lot of dodgy custom helmets, and I wanted this one to not be a death trap while running around playing in the woods. I've bought a set of quality D30 pads from a body armour shop, which are amazing at absorbing impacts. Some may know D30 from motorbike armour / padding. These form the primary padding around the skull, while my own DIY padding protects the neck from rotation of the helmet. It consists of 20-30mm of hard / dense EVA foam, with a soft open cell fronting and sewn mesh covering. The fan and battery is integrated in such a way that it doesn't protrude or create any pressure points. The fan is a little louder than desired, but it does actually work to clear / prevent fog if you tilt your glasses slightly so there's a gap at the top for the air to pass into. I imagine it works well for goggles as the top vents would be closer to the duct outlet. The side panels can also be replaced with low profile ones that should allow wide goggles to fit. Key thing for me is it's low fuss, no tubes to mess with, and it's there when I need it. It's a little noisy for running all day, but there's enough capacity in the 18650 battery to do so. Something I may look into eventually is fitting a full face shield, a little like the NMPD police helmets in ODST. The Bolle sphere would be the main candidate as it has a 16J impact rating. One more project I'll be working on is a backpack for my kit and the HPA rig. I wanted to do the hardcase trooper backpack from Halo Reach. This'll be a tall print, using up 359mm of the XL's 360mm build height. I want to add some MOLLE modularity to it. I'll be sewing the straps and padding system, and likely padding out the inside so it's not a rattle can. On another post I'll detail the DIY chestrig I made once I have the chestplate and pouldrons finished up. Thank you for reading, more updates to follow

A pair of Mechanix ballistic glasses

Back playing this weekend so i bought a set of bloc tactical lynx glasses with the different lenses and a nb tactical mask with balaclava! Praying i don't fog these! oh and two pairs of mechanix gloves, one fastfit one mpact, couldn't decide which ones i wanted.

This is a good point. In 25 years playing I've seen bbs get in nonsealed or I'll fitted eye protection around 10 times at a game . 2 of those incidents leaded to lasting reduced vision which did improve with time. And I've only read about one other well documented case, although there has to be more. The worst ones are usually when there is a direct line to the eye like over the top of glasses when going prone.

The thing is though - the post stated that they are not marked, and having found it on Temu, they are not sold as PPE Only the spammed listing title mentions paintball, the activities don’t have any impact related activities, the product details call them ‘decorative glasses’ and the safety statement has no safety claims They aren’t sold as PPE - buyer beware …… and the buyer should certainly have ‘bewared’

You have to be 18 to wear glasses. You signed your life (eye balls) away when you arrive if you choose to wear non full face in the designated game area. Being an adult you get to choose if you want to risk it for a biscuit. If by wearing glasses you put someone else's safety at risk it would be a different story but am very much "if what you do is not hurting anyone else and it makes you happy, crack on". What Tommikka posted is disgusting. Selling something marked as PPE when its in fact not is criminal.

Yet every field I go to is quite happy to allow standard shooting glasses/non full seal safety glasses that are rated yet provide a clear line of sight to the wearers eyeballs from multiple oblique angles.....

Being fat and slow I sweat and steam up terribly, least that is until I made a novritsch antifog unit compatible with the ess ice glasses I have, works a treat and I haven’t fogged up again since. I get the impression that it’s different strokes for different folks and this is very much a case of finding something that works for you, saying that I’d second the novritsch stuff now as it just seems to work.

Hopefully from a certain Heroic Elasmobranch Cartilaginous Fish gentleman? (I sent him a pair of my Guard Dog Evader 2's to put his mesh in, with a multi-cam paint job, and I use them all the time as a DMR / Sniper. However, I have eye glasses under them and somehow these still steam up a little so I still run an ExFog on my boonie)