Airsoft HMLMG from Rust

[jzmalexander]

Hi all, been a few years since I made a post. Just thought I'd share my build of the HMLMG from the video game Rust. I think its one of the coolest looking craftable guns from the game, and since seeing it I've always wanted to have an working airsoft version of it.
HMLMG stands for HandMade LMG, hence why I thought it would be possible to actually do this project with the limited tools & materials I had.
One of the things I didn't want to do for this was to damage the base gun, so attaching this HMLMG "case" to the base gun was a bit of a challenge, but in the end everything is removeable and the base gun underneath can be extracted completely unharmed.

The build:
-Base gun is a G&G Firehawk (DSG version), chosen for high RoF but also the loud sound that the Firehawk makes.
-Box mag from the G&G CM16 platform, perfect shape and positioning compared to the source material (but yes it also takes just regular M4 mags).
-Aluminium sheets for main structure (easy to shape without needing machinery, still relatively durable).
-M3 nuts & bolts to hold most parts together.
-Bit of fence from garden for stock.

I used aluminium sheets for the main "case" of the gun which just goes over the base gun, cut to shape and held in place using nuts & bolts.
The main barrel is made of aluminium pipes except for the giant hex nut which is steel, and the buffer tube on the rear of the gun is attached by long bolts to a u-shaped aluminium piece.
Its all mainly held on by the bolts on the buffer tube, and by a very long extended outer barrel which runs right to the end of the aluminium pipe, which is then held on by a 14mm CCW piece which is perfect for securing the whole thing to the base gun.

Everything was made at home using a hacksaw, scissors, screwdrivers, & aluminium tape, except for the holes on the heat shield & the buffer tube/outer stock which were done at the local men's shed.

To access the fire selector I had to make a lever, but it is removable so doesn't get in the way in skirmishes. The mag release is still accessible as the underside of the HMLMG casing isn't filled in and I can just reach my finger up there. The Firehawk's external bits were removed, including charging handle, and the dust cover stays open, so hop-up is accessible by opening the top cover.

The weight (without BBs in mag) is 3.3kg, roughly the size of an M249.
I mostly tried to keep as accurate to the HMLMG in Rust as I could, but I had to compromise on the front grip as it seems too tedious to attach. The charge handle being a brass knob for a drawer also seems out of place as I want to leave the gun as full black for now at least.

Modifications:
-Due to the extreme upgrade in outer barrel length, I had to replace the inner barrel using a spare sniper barrel from a M40A3, which then caused the hop-up to need changing to a Mapleleaf 70. On the first skirmish I couldn't find the hop-up sweet spot, so replaced the unit with a rotary hop unit from Retro Arms.
-The magazine was rewired to a button that sits on the heat shield as the original feed method was non-ideal.

Performance:
The gun is largely stock as it was brand new and I mainly did this just for the "look", and the DSG Firehawk's base performance is great from the first few weeks of using it.
I'm running it on a 7.4v LiPo, it does around 1.07 joules (340 FPS on 0.2) at 29 RPS, so far found it to have good range and accuracy using 0.28g BBs.
Magazine also feeds with 0 issues. Since the gun absolutely vomits BBs I'm changing to 0.25s in the next game just to lower the costs slightly...
In the future I may upgrade its performance maybe for 11.1v batteries, but for now I don't see any need.

Definitely a bit of a crude construction, but hey it looks the part, is sturdy, and most importantly it shoots like a beast. 

Edited 3 hours ago by jzmalexander