My PTS FPG's 15th Birthday

[TheFull9]

Close enough anyway. Purchased the initial PTS kit release in March 2010 prior to them coming out with complete replicas. So I'd imagine this was manufactured in late 09 or very early 10.

 

I have to say a big thanks to @JCB181 who turned the tub full of busted-looking parts I sent him back in to a complete gun that can actually fold and shoot. I've got no intention of even regularly plinking this let alone taking it to games, but I did want to keep it and have it be whole at least. Even though I've got the Aegis version now to actually use, this original version is dear to my heart.

 

 

Despite only being taken to maybe 1 or 2 games, this thing has been through the wars. I'd say that out of the 15 years it's existed, it has spent at least 12 of them being either broken or just sat in a box in bits. It has a 'dusty' look as an overly enthusiastic, much younger version of myself decided to give it a camo paint job not too long after I bought it. I'd just spray painted my PTS ACR at the time and I was on a camo paint kick I recall. I had someone try to remove the paint and they got most of it, but the Krylon seems to have really worked its' way in to the pores of the plastic and I don't think there is any way of getting it back to black at this point.

 

 

The selector looks ground down because it has been. The FPG needs a proprietary super low-profile G18 selector that's far slimmer than the usual one in order for the Glock slide to fit inside the plastic kit. When I initially put the kit together it had an issue where by in use it would not stay in one of the 2 fire mode positions (either semi or full). My idiot self in 2010 super-glued the original part in place to permanently fix it to semi, and over the next few years that particular brand of glue somehow hardened in to a Vibranium type material.

 

The actual internal parts of the Glock pistol have broken in a couple of different ways over the years, both up in the slide and down in the frame, meaning that the slide needed to be fully disassembled. The original selector had to be cut off and the low profile FPG-specific selector pieces for KWA/KSC G18s don't exactly grow on trees to put it mildly. Hence JCB has very kindly modified a regular  KSC G18 selector to fit.

 

In terms of the kit, many parts have broken from just the small amount of usage it's seen. The catch that holds the whole upper shroud with the pic rail closed had snapped, but luckily that was such a common issue that an aftermarket company sold a stronger replacement part (back when these guns were actually in common circulation). Also another spring loaded hook piece in the hand web area that locks the pistol grip in place broke after a few opens/closes, and there's currently a 1-off replacement machined from scratch in there instead.

 

The gun has the aftermarket extended inner/outer barrel kit that was available for a short time, along with the optional sling attachment point on the main hinge, which was either Beta Project or a PTS accessory I think. Thinking now, I also have the pic mounted carry handle/iron sights in a box somewhere, need to dig that out.

 

Anyway, mainly wanted to post this to give credit to JCB for putting this old thing back together. I've not done much internal work on GBB pistols myself and I definitely don't know much about KWA Glocks or the proprietary guts of the FPG. I took this to a couple of different guys I know who do work on RIFs and neither could get it sorted or really were interested in taking the time to do so, which is frankly quite understandable if you're not already familiar with this specific gun. When JCB messaged me out of the blue on here and managed to see the whole thing through to the end I was chuffed to say the least. Thanks mate 👌

[Colin Allen]

Happy early birthday to it!  It is an interesting piece of kit.

[TheFull9]

Ha, yeah thanks bud, I'm glad there's the Aegis and VFC these days. Now I'm trying to figure out if the Guarder is the same as the Aegis...

[ButcherBill]

I HONESTLY & I can't stress this enough as I DON'T KNOW but would heat bring the shine back to the plastic, Like they do for stadium seats?

 

I remember seeing a plastics rejuventator advertised in a bike mag too that's just wiped on with a sponge/applicator.

[TheFull9]

It's not a bad point, but I'm not sure it's something I would try. As I say I think the paint has gotten right down in to the 'grain' of the material, and after almost 15 years being on there it's as well set and baked on as it'll ever be. Krylon has done me very well in terms of adding camo to guns, but in my experience it is tenacious to say the least. Whenever I'm weighing up spraying anything else I give it a long and thorough think before committing. If anything I'd probably just put new paint on at this point.

 

Though on that point I did recently learn that the NFM EC Paint (if you can get it) is the one to go with if you want a removable camo job. That stuff mostly comes off if you just leave it in the damp/rain overnight.

[Cannonfodder]

I remember when these were released and all the hype around them. Has it really been 15 years? Cheers, now I feel old

[Jacob Wright]

1 hour ago, Cannonfodder said:

I remember when these were released and all the hype around them. Has it really been 15 years? Cheers, now I feel old

 

I just had the exact same thought 😂 back when the Magpul gear was all the rage, along with those 'Art of the Tactical x' videos they made!

[TheFull9]

 

If it helps, I'm fairly certain PTS had already been doing Magpul stuff for at least a year or two by the time 2010 rolled around. At this point I'd say it's probably been pushing a decade since they lost the license and switched from 'Magpul PTS' to just the three letter acronym.