Making the Novristch Ssp1 a Little Less Shameful

[alxndrhll]

Haha, as tempting as it is I’m holding off buying any more airsoft things which aren’t already on ‘the list’ for the time being. Hicapa wise that’s a black adv frame and an AM hop unit should they appear in stock anywhere. I want to put in an order at X-fire for a few PDI barrels for the capa, AAP which I’ll inevitably buy and my MTW. Non hicapa wise I’m after a Ferro mini dangler in Multicam but that’s pretty much it for the time being. Then there’s the ongoing AAP temptation (which I’ll likely pull the trigger on before long) and at that point dare I say it, I’m pretty content with where I’m at. Still have a heap of stuff to get around to selling at some point, need to reclaim some space (and money)!

[Alimcd]

I completely understand. I had a proper life laundry last year and sold off a collection of stuff from a hobby that had lost its lustre (toxic community, massive price hikes).

 

The money and the space saved was a real eye opener.

 

This? Well, this has been retail therapy. I’m embroiled in the most protracted house move ever. Sadly my buyer chose to use BoBo the clown as conveyancer and they’ve managed to delay each and every step of the way. Treating myself to daft bits of pistol has been keeping me sane!

[alxndrhll]

Weirdly identical situation for me, sold up the vast majority of the various Warhammer bits I had last year having realised it's just gathering dust, some of that went into savings and the rest was deemed 'other hobby money'. There were definitely some impulse purchases I somewhat regret, largely kit to try and 'perfect' my load bearing so I have a massive pile of 'not going to be used' cordura and nylon I need to sell at some point, but looking forward to the postman arriving is about as exciting as it gets at the moment!

[Alimcd]

I paid off my student loan/unsecured debts by selling a collection of Transformers I had become afraid to touch. (And of course put a little into Airsoft, here and there...)
 

I was staggered that one toy, on its own sold for £450. 
 

I’ve also made some impulse purchases that I regret. I picked up an A&K MK46. While awesome, it just wasn’t for me. It’s found a new owner on this forum who is of the appropriate build for an LMG! 
 

Aside that, most of the regrets have been from poorly informed purchases rather than impulse. Definitely staying away from Guarder from now on 

 

[Alimcd]

Just had a little parcel in the post that (hopefully) punctuates me finishing arsing around with the Novristch.

 

Built with the Newbury Z adventures site in mind here is my SSP1 in its current guise. As you can see, lockdown has been unsafe for both my wallet and my mental health. 
 

I went back to a short stroke set up on this one. It’s got 4 CCT buffers in there, taking a fair bit off the travel of the slide. The lightweight BBU and frame are comparable in weight to a TM slide+BBU and this is working happily here in the cold with green gas. Feels and sounds much better on Red mind! 
 

Internally, it’s rocking an elite BBU and nozzle which give a great air seal. The stock Novristch barrel still seems fine but I replaced the hop unit for a AIP cnc jobby (no performance difference). The guide rod got swapped out for an Airsoft Masterpiece one simply to be shiny and the recoil spring swapped out for a 120% one. There’s the obligatory ML bucking to cap it off.
 

Thanks again to Mark at FMJUK for the awesome jobs he’s done for me Cerakote wise 

 

Edit - same as before but photos aren’t dog poo

 

 

 

 

 

[Alimcd]

Because lockdown sucks and I’m very bored, I took @alxndrhlladvice and picked up some liquitex ink to infill the engravings on the Speedcat. Very happy with how it came out! 
 

I also treated myself to a .40 S&W barrel from Mike at Elite to match the .40 markings on the slide. Neurosis calmed...

[alxndrhll]

I'd completely forgotten to check back in on this thread, I love that you still refer to the one in the post above this one as 'the Novritsch one', dare I say 'The Artist Formerly Known as the Novritsch One'.

 

Markings came out super nicely, the inks make it much easier to do than it should be! Really helps tie the frame and slide together!

 

I took delivery of a PDI barrel for mine yesterday, no idea what it does to performance because my ability to test is pretty much non-existent at this point in time so intrigued to see how that works out. At the very least it's a slightly tighter bore so means I'll be able to run at a lower PSI to get the FPS/Joules where they need to be... assuming we're ever able to play again/there are any sites left local to me when all is said and done.

[Alimcd]

That's definitely it's new name. "The pistol formerly known as Novritsch"

 

The ink worked exactly as you said it would. Brought back memories from painting Undead from the early noughties as the ink just ran into all the details. Going to pick some white up for an M14 thats currently being engraved and then off to be cerakoted in midnight blue.

 

I know what you mean about testing. I've been putting all these "upgrade" parts into gnus and testing things at pointblank into a chrono or maximum 5m into a foam target. Everything is running ML Autobots but I havent had the chance to see if the hop pressure is even in the same postcode as where it needs to be set! 

 

What's your local site?

[alxndrhll]

Glad to hear it, as for the white ink the Liquitex White Opaque (Liquitex Titanium White 4260432) is superbly pigmented and I absolutely recommend it.

 

Aye, I always find it strange when folks have a RIF 'set up and chronoing exactly where they want it' without having the hop correctly set up. And largely why I can't test anything at a long enough range to gauge if my hop is set correctly, thus, any tuning I'm to do is entirely moot... granted that's arguably one of the biggest advantages to HPA, once hop is set it's super easy to get it all at the correct power.

 

Sites most local to me (an hour or below drive is what I tend to consider 'local'):

F&O Anzio Camp - Mixed - decent site, don't think it's used as well as it could be.
F&O The Mill  - CQB - wasn't a massive fan of the site, but it's an option.

Level 2 - CQB - my most local site at around 20 minutes away, courtesy of lockdowns and tier changes I'm yet to try here out, very much looking forward to doing so.

Dagger Woods - Woodland - owned by the same folks that run Level 2, decent woodland site but it's only open half the year. One of the best run sites I've attended, hence my excitment toward trying Level 2 out.

[Alimcd]

Still not quite sure how this happened but here’s my spare parts build Infinity 5.1

 

Railed frame from a WE 3.8 given a coat of Graphite black Cerakote. In person it’s much closer to the colour of the slide.

 

Ive got a black infinity grip on its way from HK to finish up the build.

 

 

[Alimcd]

Can’t wait to get out and about and try some of the cqb sites in the wild. 
 

Going to try and sneak in a woodland game before Cqb to make sure hop etc are actually working. Can’t wait until it’s responsible to do so!

 

(Little group shot with a sneaky “coming soon” parts tin)

[alxndrhll]

Looking good! Are those parts for the long awaited 4.3? How long is it till you do a chrome slide and barrel with carbon fibre-esq grip and detailing to match your Thompson? 🤣
 

I love how this all started as a ‘modifying an SSP’ and has spiralled so wildly. In short, this thread is airsoft in a nutshell 😂.

[Alimcd]

Funnily enough, I was actually having a read up on hard chrome plating earlier...

 

Ill have a spare TM frame if Kyle manages to find me a black adv 4.3 frame for the Battlecat 4.3 (when it arrives). If I do, I’m going full shiny. You’re spot on, the tub has all the dressings for the 4.3, internals are in another box to stop em getting dusty

 

I’ve got some carbon wrap kicking about somewhere. It wouldn’t be hard to carbon fibre the CCT grip that’s currently on the Infinity. I’ll have to pick up the phone to someone to have a chat about the chrome
 

I think a bad idea has just matured 

[Alimcd]

Picked up a CCT lightweight BBU for the handgun formerly known as Novristch. 
 

Awesome design. Brilliant airseal with an elite nozzle and the smallest O ring. Had to file the nozzle’s guide fins a smidge to get it moving smoothly but less than a minutes work.

 

The ports on the piston head seems clever. 
 

Extra 6g weight saving means that the slide and BBU combo is now lighter than a stock plastic TM set. With Red gas and a short stroke kit installed it really moves!

[Alimcd]

Bit of a noob error with the new BBU. The gun was double feeding after the first shot, with the next rolling out of the barrel. I've removed the 120% recoil spring and stuck a stock one back in and its problem solved. I assume the slide/nozzle was returning with too much force and pushing the BB too far into the hop bucking with the 120% spring.

 

Also, due to absolute boredom, got in touch with Mike at Elite about STI logos. ended up buying a Chris Custom Compensator...

[Alimcd]

Got that compensator from Elite. The rather plain jane Infinity build is really growing on me.

 

 

[Adolf Hamster]

Subtlety is the hardest art to learn.

[Alimcd]

Ooof I’ll feel that one for days!

 

Just saw the offcut of carbon viny in my photo. It hails from the time I wrapped an M14 stock... Now that was heresy

 

 

 

 

[alxndrhll]

I’m not generally into compensators but that looks smart. I definitely want to pick up a black slide at some point for when I don’t want to be ‘flashy’. Though I won’t go ‘full Ali’, literally just a second slide. Can’t decide if I’d swap internals between slides or just build a second slide to chop and change as I please, granted given this is purely a CQB runner for me I imagine I have plenty of time to make my mind up!

[Misery]

agreed that comp is niiiice as hell would love one on my combat master but lacking threading lol

[Alimcd]

1 hour ago, miserydrift said:

agreed that comp is niiiice as hell would love one on my combat master but lacking threading lol

This being Airsoft, nothings quite that simple! The compensators for the Hi-capa style stuff require a specific outer barrel that will accept a comp. those same barrels will not accept a threaded adapter for tracers or silencers.

 

Looking into the minefield of options, I thought it was just easier to get a complete set (barrel+comp) from Mike at Elite. 
 

Im happy with the purchase though, totally pointless as it may be, I think it looks cool and it differentiates the gun further from my spattering of Hi-Capas

[Alimcd]

20 hours ago, alxndrhll said:

I’m not generally into compensators but that looks smart. I definitely want to pick up a black slide at some point for when I don’t want to be ‘flashy’. Though I won’t go ‘full Ali’, literally just a second slide. Can’t decide if I’d swap internals between slides or just build a second slide to chop and change as I please, granted given this is purely a CQB runner for me I imagine I have plenty of time to make my mind up!

You’ll end up doing an Ali...

 

Kyle has said that order might actually arrive with him tomorrow so you’ll have a spare frame as well as a non-flashy slide...

 

Then it’s only a couple of beers and some idle website browsing before you’ve bought a new BBU etc

[Misery]

19 hours ago, Alimcd said:

This being Airsoft, nothings quite that simple! The compensators for the Hi-capa style stuff require a specific outer barrel that will accept a comp. those same barrels will not accept a threaded adapter for tracers or silencers.

 

Looking into the minefield of options, I thought it was just easier to get a complete set (barrel+comp) from Mike at Elite. 
 

Im happy with the purchase though, totally pointless as it may be, I think it looks cool and it differentiates the gun further from my spattering of Hi-Capas

yeah didnt think it would be tbh

 

it maybe pointless bud it looks hella nice!!!

[alxndrhll]

3 hours ago, Alimcd said:

You’ll end up doing an Ali...

 

Kyle has said that order might actually arrive with him tomorrow so you’ll have a spare frame as well as a non-flashy slide...

 

Then it’s only a couple of beers and some idle website browsing before you’ve bought a new BBU etc

 

Unfortunately he only had two tone left, or at least that's what he seemed to think when I spoke to him so I ended up giving it a miss. The frame is very much a want rather than a need, and having spent far to much on kit rather than RIFs of late it's probably a sign that he didn't have black ones left!

[Alimcd]

I jinxed it anyway by blurting it out here, his much-delayed shipment and once again been flagged. 
 

I hope he gets it sorted this/next week. Adv Frame would be a very swish way to christen my new bench in my new garage!