1. Military surplus boots - Altberg or Haix - will cost you about £40. Loads of military surplus websites online. Take good care of them with polish and they will last years. Not the most exciting purchase but everyone who is a regular poster will agree with me on this.
can confirm, a good set of boots is an absolute must, damp or aching feet will absolutely ruin your game day.
2. Eye protection - don’t skimp on it, about £30 will get you a reasonable pair of goggles. Pretty unexciting purchase though.
yep, you want to be sure of your eyepro, personally i'm a bolle fan but other brands are available.
3. Camo - there are some pretty god awful hideous knock offs of MTP (modern UK pattern) around on eBay etc that I would steer clear of. Again, military surplus websites will often do combats, UBACS and a smock in MTP or DPM (80s/90s UK pattern) for £40 or something like that. This is a slightly more fun purchase than goggles! If you push the boat out a bit you can get flecktarn (German pattern) or US woodland pretty reasonably and look a bit more individual (Airsoft sites are normally a sea of MTP and Coyote!).
i'd say if you're going to skimp on anything skimp here, camo does help outdoors (caveat being if you know how to sneak properly), but you absolutely can (and plenty do) just run regular clothes, something weather appropriate, long sleeves (until you get the hang of how much bb's can sting and if you wanna run bare arms) and reasonably tough (ie it's not going to get pulled apart by brambles, kneeling etc).
however what you do want is gloves and something to cover your ears, both places that can sting and especially fingernails......
4. Rifle - clearly the most exciting thing to get but also the least necessary and the hardest. You need a UKARA registration to buy one (don’t jump the gun and buy a two tone because you will regret it!). There are loads of threads and advice on this which I won’t repeat, but in short you need to have rented a RIF for a few games over the course of a couple of months and then you can get a UKARA number and buy toy guns to your little heart’s content. You can pick something up in the classifieds on here for about £100 and it will shoot reliably and probably come with some magazines/maybe a battery etc. You’ll know what you like more once you have rented one a few times (normally about £20 on top of the game fee) but an M4 variant is a pretty safe bet. Don’t fall into the trap of buying a sniper rifle, it isn’t like playing COD and your enjoyment of the game is very different if you are sat dressed like a bush.
as above your choices are 2-tone or serving your time.
i'd recommend going the time served route, not only do you skip the 2-tone thing but it'll also allow you some time playing, make sure the hobby is for you, and give you a chance to see the variation of pews out there giving you a flavour of what style of gat you fancy going for as a first purchase (eg do you prefer an ak, or an m4, or something else).
ordinarily i'd point out airsofters are generally more than happy to show off their kit if you ask politely, but COVID might make that kind of thing a bit trickier for the forseeable.
once you've done that, do a bit of window shopping online, if you find something you like the look of come back and ask
before buying, if only to be sure there isn't a better deal or similar gun from a more reputable manufacturer etc.
personally, whilst there can be some cracking deals second hand, i'd advise new for a starter. it's the sad truth that secondhand gats run the very real risk of something wrong internally, either from wear or more normally tinkering gone wrong, whilst a new gun isn't guaranteed to be flawless either at least you get the "just send it back to the shop" card to play.
5. Webbing/load carrying/helmets/radios/tacticool items to complete the ‘look’ - least important but a fun purchase so you may well end up getting this before you get a RIF. This is absolutely something worth buying in the classifieds on here because there are always loads for sale cheap as people change their loadout/look. My preference is a chest rig rather than a plate carrier but that is personal preference.
agreed here is where the secondhand market is a good shout.
you don't need to jump into covering yourself with kit, it is entirely possible to play just fine with a spare hicap and a bag of bb's stuffed in a pocket, indeed it can be quite fun to run around super lightweight every now and then.
it's a very easy trap to fall in to is loading yourself up with a bunch of unnessecary weight, carrying gear you never use in-game. although once you reach this point it becomes a lot of personal preference.
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