Ek3 Kit Review - L85a2 Upgrade to L85a3

[Bill_the_bear]

Hi Guys,

 

I just got my EK3 upgrade kit and converted my G&G L85A2 kit over to an L85A3.  For anyone thinking about upgrading their A2, I recommend giving this kit a go.  Its well built, and extremely solid.  Matches my G&G L85 extremely well, so you wouldn't know its an aftermarket mod.  Zero play or wobble to either the handguard or the picatinny optics rail, and doesn't seem like it will develop any play any time soon either!

 

The install took me about 1.5 hours, and English Kiwi, who designed the kit, has a video install guide up that walks you through.  If you are familiar with stripping an L85 it would probably only take half an hour or less, but this was my first time doing it.

 

Honestly the rifle looks great with this kit fitted.  It feel solid, the picatinny attachments are very useful, there is a lot more battery space than the A2.  Am pretty happy with the result!

 

Any questions people have, feel free to ask.

 

Have more pics if anyone wants to see.

 

Also, review I posted on reddit is longer and more detailed: https://www.reddit.com/r/airsoft/comments/i8jcz1/l85a2_convert_to_a3_ek3_upgrade_kit_review/

[Liam1992]

... well that looks awesome. Great job!

[SeniorSpaz87]

Any idea if one of these would fit on a STAR/ARES L86? Id love to give my longboi a makeover, but Im unsure as to the compatibility between the 85 and 86.

[Mad-Al]

Sorry noob question but can you get adapters to fit side rails for these?

[SeniorSpaz87]

5 minutes ago, Mad-Al said:

Sorry noob question but can you get adapters to fit side rails for these?

 

It looks like standard Keymod; if so then yes.

[Mad-Al]

how well do the batterys fit? do they go in the same place and are the easy to get to?

I'm looking for a setup like this for my first gun, I did my marksman on an L85 but would rather go tactical with it!

[Speedbird_666]

17 minutes ago, SeniorSpaz87 said:

 

It looks like standard Keymod; if so then yes.

 

Nope, not Keymod or HKey as per the Super5ives site:

 

[SeniorSpaz87]

Just now, Speedbird_666 said:

 

Nope, not Keymod or HKey as per the Super5ives site:

 

 

Well there you go.

[Speedbird_666]

1 hour ago, SeniorSpaz87 said:

 

Well there you go.

 

Why they decided to create their own mounting mechanism is beyond me - I understand not using HKey (50-90 quid for a section of rail) - but they could made life easier for buyers by using Keymod. It's not as though this is a perfect recreation of the A3 Rail - the real thing ain't flat-sided (its curved on the sides) and there are a few other inaccuracies. Making it Keymod would have made very little difference overall. Hey ho.

 

 

[Bill_the_bear]

15 hours ago, SeniorSpaz87 said:

Any idea if one of these would fit on a STAR/ARES L86? Id love to give my longboi a makeover, but Im unsure as to the compatibility between the 85 and 86.

 

I've seen it fitted on an L86, but I'm unsure which brand of L86 it was (I know nothing about the L86, is there more than one brand?).  EDIT: it goes on an ICS L86 but until the designer gets hold of an Ares to make a compatible mounting block it doesn't go on that, well unless the Ares would take one of the existing G&G, ICS, WE mounting blocks, which I guess no one knows right now.  Sorry.

 

15 hours ago, Mad-Al said:

Sorry noob question but can you get adapters to fit side rails for these?

 

They are producing their own side rails.  I haven't got any yet.  It's "not compatible" with normal keymod, though that doesn't mean they won't work, I might try some to see.

 

15 hours ago, Mad-Al said:

how well do the batterys fit? do they go in the same place and are the easy to get to?

I'm looking for a setup like this for my first gun, I did my marksman on an L85 but would rather go tactical with it!

 

Battery space is much improved.  With the A2 handguard I couldn't get one of my 7.4v Titan batteries in as they are slightly larger dimension than the usual lipo size.  With this handguard I can get one 7.4v Titan in below the barrel, or a 11.1v Titan nunchuck in, half below and half above the barrel, if you are careful with the wiring.  Attached pic with the 7.4v in positioned so you can see it better (its in the 2nd and 3rd pic of the original post but less visible.

 

The G&G wiring has a short removable section that runs from the ETU in the lower, through a cut out just under the outer barrel, and into the handguard.  Thats all still there with the EK3 rail attached, so you just slide the battery into the front of the rail and connect it up.  You can remove the rail to get better access to the wiring if you need.

 

 

[Brtski]

16 hours ago, Speedbird_666 said:

 

Why they decided to create their own mounting mechanism is beyond me - I understand not using HKey (50-90 quid for a section of rail) - but they could made life easier for buyers by using Keymod. It's not as though this is a perfect recreation of the A3 Rail - the real thing ain't flat-sided (its curved on the sides) and there are a few other inaccuracies. Making it Keymod would have made very little difference overall. Hey ho.

 

 

Hey it's the designer here! It's not so much as wanting to create my own mechanism for mounting as much as I was trying to emulate Hkey as closely as possible. Unfortunately the spec for Hkey is not readily available so I didn't the best I could there. In my opinion the visual differences between, keymod, cutdown keymod and EKey (my homage to Hkey) is fairly substantial (picture attached clockwise from top left: keymod, shortened keymod, A3 prototype rail, EKey).

 

I was very open with the community throughout the development process and asked for input into the design with and found it was almost a 50/50 split between keymod and EKey. In the end I went with EKey as a way to separate my development from the Angry Gun development

 

I agree that it shouldn't have flat sided, it was a bit of a shock to me when I saw the first production ones (I'm based near Cambridge and the manufacturer is based on the south coast) unfortunately the re-work costs would have been prohibitively expensive for this first batch however they have taken my feedback onboard and will be looking to bring back the curve for later batches!

 

I'm in the process of designing EKey mounting segment and my hope is I can just provide new lugs to go into existing keymod sections to allow for a wide range of accessories to be used! Hope this helps

Edited August 14, 2020 by Brtski
Miss ordered image caption

[Brtski]

18 hours ago, SeniorSpaz87 said:

Any idea if one of these would fit on a STAR/ARES L86? Id love to give my longboi a makeover, but Im unsure as to the compatibility between the 85 and 86.

@SeniorSpaz87English Kiwi here (The designer)! If I can get an Ares to use as a reference, I can make the mounting block and sight rail kit to allow the EK3 to mount up to an ares 😀

[EDcase]

Looks good but there's no way I can spend £250 for one 🙄

[SeniorSpaz87]

7 hours ago, Brtski said:

@SeniorSpaz87English Kiwi here (The designer)! If I can get an Ares to use as a reference, I can make the mounting block and sight rail kit to allow the EK3 to mount up to an ares 😀

 

If I didnt live in the US Id sent you mine. Well, let me know. I know theres a few other differences between the 85 and 86 as well; I dont think the barrel brace rod is going to cause an issue, but one does have to remember the bipod and that the handguard is actually shorter on the L86. Oh well, it may just be a pipe dream but I want a RIS'd L86 😧

[Brtski]

1 hour ago, SeniorSpaz87 said:

 

If I didnt live in the US Id sent you mine. Well, let me know. I know theres a few other differences between the 85 and 86 as well; I dont think the barrel brace rod is going to cause an issue, but one does have to remember the bipod and that the handguard is actually shorter on the L86. Oh well, it may just be a pipe dream but I want a RIS'd L86 😧

@SeniorSpaz87 I've done it to my ICS l85. Maybe pick one of those up and have a stock and a ris'd version? 

[SeniorSpaz87]

Just now, Brtski said:

@SeniorSpaz87 I've done it to my ICS l85. Maybe pick one of those up and have a stock and a ris'd version? 

 

 

Ive got enough guns as it is haha. I also prefer the LSW variant over the standard; I do mostly MilSims where theres an actual advantage to having a LMG.

[Brtski]

14 minutes ago, SeniorSpaz87 said:

 

Ive got enough guns as it is haha. I also prefer the LSW variant over the standard; I do mostly MilSims where theres an actual advantage to having a LMG.

@SeniorSpaz87 Sorry mistype there! I've done it to my lsw!

[Bill_the_bear]

Just to wade back in on the keymod fitting issue... I just fitted a PTS keymod rail section with no issues.  How?  Just use the larger EKey openings for the mount points and pop them in from the reverse side.  Job done.  Pics below.