Tokyo Marui's Colt 45s

There are three distinct gas blowback Colt 45 pistols that Marui makes - M1911A1, MkIV Series 70 and the MEU. While they are all very similar, especially the M1911A1 and the Series 70, there are some distinct differences.

Essentially, the Series 70 is an updated M1911A1 and the MEU is a modern 'pimped' 1911. The Series 70 is an updated 'civilian' M1911A1 and indeed both guns are very similar. The main obvious difference is the colour - the Series 70 is black with a silver chamber and the M1911A1 is a parkerised grey finish with black controls and black chamber. The Series 70 has a Colt medallion in its slightly lighter brown checkered grip and updated black hammer with flat silver sides whereas the M1911A1 is more business like with a simple dark checker and broader profiled black hammer. The safeties differ slightly with the newer gun having a smooth curved lever rather than a small button. Both guns have the curved main spring housing although only the M1911A1 has a lanyard loop. The other differences are more subtle. The notch on the rear sight on the Series 70 is deeper and the front sights have very slight differences, although the blade profile is the same.  The operating surfaces on the trigger, hammer, slide release and magazine release are finely checked on the M1911A1 whereas the Series 70 and the MEU are grooved. The beavertail on the Series 70 is a slightly different profile but it's very subtle. The MEU is certainly a Colt 45 but the differences on this gun are more pronounced. A large, upswept  beavertail, skeletonised hammer, large silver match trigger, wrap around rubber like grips and an extended magazine with a protruding plastic bumper are are the most obvious. Novak rear combat sights, a taller front sight, dual safety and

The Avalanche has started.

Airsoft projects... gotta love em.

Next - a TM/PDI L96 AWS in Olive Drab. Okay, no OD rifles in the UK, black then. Haven't ordered the rifle yet but have got an AirsoftPro aluminium loading ramp in my paw with a Laylax precision cheekpad and Laylax QD swivel adaptors on their way; along with some MP40 110 round magazines for the Sten gun I don't have yet! That's for my WW2 British para project. Oh, and a King Arms QD P90 Silencer. At least I do have a P90 to attach it to.

Pistol projects are currently on hold. Still have a Colt .25 that works great but looks like crap after I sanded the shit out of it. The slide quality is pretty poor and pitted so really needs filled and sanded smooth before a respray. I have bits to rebuild a TM Deagle as a chrome version; albeit with black controls. Could really do with a silver inner barrel though. I'll get some pics of the Colt up shortly.

  

Sniper rifles. Their part in my downfall.

 I like sniper rifles. I have four. A TM PSG-1, a Tanaka AICS, a absolutely mentally customised and painted PDI/TM-G-Spec - currently without an inner barrel - and a Chinese knockoff of Maruzen's weird SR2; Weird looking but currently my tool of choice.

The PSG-1 was bought as  project to and when last tested managed to double tap 0.29 AGM's out at just over 400fps. The double-tap issue has never been solved. To be fair it's an overly long, creaky piece of kit that'll never see a skirmish site. The scope and bipod are pretty cool though.

The Tanaka is a beast. PDI 6.01 barrel and a new hop chamber with the bolt modified with a DIY power adjuster. Both mags have been uprated with some uprate kit I can't remember the name of. An AI type bipod rounds it of. It's heavy and despite copious amounts of tinkering completely unreliable and inconsitent. Whihc is a shame because I'd dearly like it to work.

The G-Spec now looks nothing like a G-Spec and is an Olive Drap kryloned cannon. Nothing wrong with it though, fires at around 500fps with a 0.2 although it's barrel currenly resides in the Tanaka. I've just, well, never really liked it after I'd finished it. 

The ACM SR2 is a strange looking thing but surprisingly accurate and with a bit of fiddling about with hollowing the piston out to take a bigger spring actually quite powerful. It's lightweight, short and I actually like it.

Of course, what I actually need it a stupidly upgraded TM L96 AWS...
   

Habla Colt 45?

Well, I took the plunge and purchased a 45 - okay another 45 - but this time it was a Colt. A Tokyo Marui Colt 45 MkIV Model 70 - a real 45 - as opposed to those hi-capa do-hicky efforts. It's basically an updated version of the M1911A1 but with a larger safety, a slightly extended and reshaped beavertail and a slightly wider gap in the rear sight - apparently, I haven't compared it to the 1911 - it's not here yet :) 

As a skirmish gun it seems very nice. Being me, I couldn't just leave it as is and added a PDI 6.01 Palsonite barrel and an upgraded recoil spring.
I bought an M7 holster - WW2 type shoulder holster but left handed version - and to say it was a tight fit would be an understatement. Sooo... I soaked the holster in warm water, wrapped the gun in a freezer bag, forced it into the holster and left it to dry overnight. I then got out some leather cleaner, cleaned the holster with that and then applied copious amount of leather balsam (lanolin and beeswax) left it to soak in and then gave it a good polish. Perfect. Now, to most real steel shooters, my treatment would be considered holster abuse and complete overkill for a leather holster since it's supposed to do... yadda, yadda, yadda, yawn. Yeah, right. I want to get the gun out of the holster when I need it - the press stud strap can hold the gun in. As far as I'm concerned it it now works as required.  

Baofeng UV-5R Transciever

Well, the first of two radios has arrived and it looks pretty cool. It seems a sturdy little bit of kit, appears to have a considerable number of options including FM radio and LED torch on the top - disappointed by the lack of a built in toaster though...  Anyhoo, I got a programming cable and a mini-cd of software for this one and quickly fired it into the PC. After operating in stupid mode for some minutes I quickly figured out that my 64-bit notebook would probably work better with the 64-bit USB driver than the 32-bit one. I manually typed in all the channels I wanted - FRS/GMRS and PMR446 - and proceeded to plug in the radio. It wouldn't connect; kept giving me an 8020 error. After much head scratching and searching of the web I found the latest version of Baofeng's software, downloaded that and run it. Same problem. I then spent an interesting(ish) hour perusing ham radio forums tracking down a solution. I downloaded a little program called CHIRP and proceeded to use this. It's actually a fantastic little piece of code and the radio was up and working in next to no time. Some folks might not bother with the hassle of programming the radio, and by hand it's a daunting task, but certain things can only be done via the PC (like putting names to the channels) so getting the USB cable and downloading the CHIRP software is a no brainer. I've set all the FRS and PMR channels to low power as standard with the GMRS left on high power and used all the default names from CHIRP.

The CHIRP software is updated daily (!) so here's a link to the files http://trac.chirp.danplanet.com/chirp_daily/   just find the latest file and use the download enclosed.

Oh, the fishing reel bags arrived and look ideal for the headsets but I'll need to remove the aerials from the radios for them to fit. I've got some closed cell foam kicking about and I'm going to use that to modularise the interiors.

What we have is a failure to communicate - not anymore...

I decided it was time to consolidate all the radio based crap I have accumulated into a big box, stash it at the back of the cupboard and start afresh. Basically I wanted two radios - one for me and one for my imaginary friend. After a long search and reading various reviews I decided on the Chinese made Baofeng UV-5R. They appear to have some distinct advantages, the main one of which appears to be much cheapness for a lot of tech. They cover 400-480Mhz which I have reliably informed will cover the PMR466 band and the US GMRS/FRS bands - although, to be fair, the 'reliably informed' is via an airsoft forum so could as easily be 'a wild guess'. Time will tell, since they've still actually to get here. The radios look, at least IMHO, pretty tactical without resembling the half bricks that are actual service radios. Of course, real military radios would be really cool and gucci but since they operate on different frequencies, comms with anybody other than my imaginary friend would be somewhat curtailed. Apparently, these little Chinese toys can listen to two channels at the same time and can be programmed from your PC via a USB cable. They have a standard two pin Kenwood connector to attach a PTT or basic headset.  I ordered them separately from different companies on ebay mainly from the point of view of reducing the odds of being huckled for customs and handling charges. One of the orders includes the required USB programming cable. At £75(ish) for both they seem like a pretty good buy.

Of course, radios need headsets - yes they do - and the new Ztactical Evo III headset in Olive Drab looked ideal. You can swap the mike around to either side and they have a standard military plug to connect to a PTT. I've not really been a fan of throat mikes although I have three or four kicking about and I have an combined in-ear headset/mike which is quite clever but it doesn't fit particularly well in my ear. I also have the the older fixed mike Cavalvy version of the one pictured and like it but at that point it came with combined PTT. The new one plugs into a separate PTT allowing you to leave the radio attached to your gear when taking it off without almost strangling yourself trying to disengage yourself from your headset. The picture is a butchered version of the one on the Ebairsoft.com site where I bought two of them as well as a couple of separate PTT units. Having bought this lot I figured I could do with somewhere to store them so again a trawl though ebay brought up the idea of using a couple of smallish green zipped padded bags intended for storing fishing reels. They look like they'll hold the radio, headset and PTT and for a mere £3.20  each I figure they're worth a punt. 

A Hi-Capa or four

Here's a selection of the handguns I have - four Tokyo Marui Hi-Capas. The top three are fitted with Tanyo-Koba grips - which allow the 5.1s to fit a Blackhawk 1911 CQB SERPA holster. Unfortunately, the 4.1 doesn't fit due to the extended dust cover frame. The two black guns have PDI 6.01 Raven inner barrels and the silver guns have PDI 6.01 stainless inner barrels. All the guns have Nine Ball hop rubber and valve routers. The black 5.1 has a black kryloned barrel, black trigger, hammer and recoil rod fitted. It was going to have a Night Warrior slide but alas it needs the Night Warrior sights - supplies of these appear to have vanished off the face of the planet. The silver 5.1 has a TM 5.1 Match slide and an alloy trigger. The black 4.3 has a dual safety fitted and the silver 4.3 has an alloy outer barrel. The original plan was to uber-pimp all of these with alloy slides and barrels but given the so-so results I've had with these guns and being unimpressed with my efforts with my Desert Eagle and a Zeke kit I've decided that the grief ratio, not to mention the cash spent, isn't worth it. I've stripped out the alloy slides and, except for the silver 4.3, the alloy/steel barrels and resorted to the high speed moving bits the designer intended. I'll stick to minor tweeks and and performance upgrades from now on, Probably... 

The backdrop is a piece of Auscam fabric I picked up from ebay. The plan is to take a Halfords five drawer plus lid section metal tool box  put some thin foam in the bottom, use some neoprene tape to make rough shapes for the guns then line the drawers with the fabric in a similar fashion (hopefully) to some of the recent Tokyo Marui handgun boxes. Should allow storage of 20 handguns with space in the top for a  silenced KSC Mac11 and a KWA MP9 - I think I need to make a wheeled base for it! 

Acquisitions

Recent acquisitions include a Tokyo Marui 4.3 Hi-Capa and a DBoys SCAR-H. A Biohazard M9 - the all-metal TM clone - is winging its way from Hong Kong as I write as is a PDI Raven barrel for the 4.3 Hi-Capa and a short stock motor for the spare UMG gearbox.

I also bought a number of bits off of Mike at the Elite Shooting Centre; mainly original TM part he had left over from building custom guns. A Hi-Capa Match slide, a Night Warrior slide and two 5.1 barrels as well as a complete chrome frame and slide for a Desert Eagle - all original TM, brand new and £70 all in. I also added the Nine Ball Hop Rubber and Nine Ball Gas Router which I will fit into the 4.3 when the barrel arrives. Of course, I forgot to order a dual-safety for the 4.3.

Externally, the Tactical 4.3 is looking the business - black slide and receiver, with olive drab Tanio Koba grip and dual safety. I left the original black hammer spring housing which I think looks better. The black 5.1 is getting the metal slide and barrel replaced with an original TM Night Warrior slide and barrel. Unfortunately, original TM barrels for the 5.1 are chrome so I've sprayed one black and it looks fine. If it develops a couple of scuffs it will still look okay since it's got the chrome underneath the Krylon. It's currently sporting a single sided safety but I'll get a dual safety off Mike soon.- I'm sure the Nine Ball ones are very nice but are over double the price of a TM original. I did discover that a 4.3 Hi-Capa, even with a Tanio Koba grip won't fit a Serpa without some serious Dremel-Fu. So its house is currently a UTG belt holster off of ebay.

The Dboys is very nice for the money. For £219.99 it's fine. Landwarrior were the only ones who had it in stock and I wanted a look at it first so I took a trip over at the weekend. There were a coule of niggles, the front barrel assembly was loose so I tightened it up but in the process noticed that the front allen bolt was just turning in the slot. When I managed to dig it out I discovered that it was stripped - no big deal but annoying. The fire selecter is a bit ropey with very indistinct selection but I've got a mod in mind to fix that. The battery is in the folding stock and power transfer is clever if somewhat agricultural but does solve the problem of wires showing - basically the hinge uses metal shims to transfer the power. through to the gearbox. The wire quality seems pretty poor but I'm looking to fit an AWS Stealth mosfet anyway - I would have preferred an AWS Raptor mosfet but I've got the rear-wired Stealth kicking about that was originally destined for the Dboys SPR. I'll renew the wires when I do that.  

Colt .25 ACP mods

I bought an HFC Colt .25 off of a chap on one of the forums. Bit dear but I'd always fancied one. It looked quite nice (from a distance) but was pants. Nothing to do with the seller though! Now most people would have put it down to experience and foisted it off on some other unsuspecting forum chairsofter. Not I, I promptly dismantled it - just to have a look at how it worked of course. This required a cunning plan, which I didn't have, but brute force and a lot less cunning seemed to suffice and it was soon down to its component parts. By jove they were sh*t.

Some polishing of the internals, a bit of dremelling and it was 'tuned'. Or at least working to a more satisfactory level. Put back together it was much smoother and fired pretty well but now looked distincly scruffy. Of course, I couldn't leave it that way. Not forever anyway.

I bought some lead strip (for weighting golf clubs apparently) with the idea of adding some heft and some Milliput to fill some of the original gaps in the seams but mainly the ones I'd caused getting it appart. After dismantling it I put as much of the lead strip inside as I could. It only added around 30 grams but did take it up to 190g all in. So happy with that. I may have been able to get another gram or so in but it just wasn't worth the effort. The gas resevoir was leaking but that was quicky solved with some silicon grease and teflon tape. More polishing of the internals has led to a much smoother action that I'm now quite delighted with. It's quite grin enducing. Externally though the gun is now down to a black and orange surface waiting to be filled, filled and painted. When I can be bothered.   

Detonics Serpa

I needed a holster for my Detonics and seen a DeSantis ITP holster that appeared quite good. It was cheap(ish) and arrived quite promptly from the USA - a distinct but pleasant surprise since most things I order from the States seem to have delivery times based on phases of the moon or planetary alignment. Anyhoo, it worked great looked the dogs and was as uncomfortable as feck. NEXT!!!

Que a Blackhawk CQB. I've got one and the Detonics fitted fine but the holster was a tad big for the size of the gun. I debated chopping it up but since it's a real left handed model opted to order one of the cheaper Sportster ones. Also left handed. It arrived as per normal USesque delivery times but worked fine and has now been dremelled down to Detonics size. I could probably take just about another centimetre off the length of the holster but this would take it past the reinforcing point and it may end up too flexible. I'm still thinking about it though and since I have some fibreglass kicking about somewhere I may use that to support  around the end.

In the mean time the holster works a treat. Now I  need something for these two spare mags...

TM Detonics Dual Safety

I'm a lefty. The Detonics is not lefty friendly. Both controls are just wrong for us from the dark side. That said, I have small/medium sized hands and even right-handed I still can't reach the slide release on a 1911 with my right thumb. So, I've just learned to operate pistols left handed and adapt to the unfriendly controls. I really like the Detonics and although it's still sporting the plastic frame and slide it has been fitted with a PDI hammer, trigger, recoil rod, recoil bushing and 6.01 barrel as well as a Nine Ball hop rubber. It's an impressively accurate wee gun with a snappy recoil but, I still find the single side safety to be a pain. With that in mind I ordered a Guarder 1911 Dual-Safety. It comes without the connector rod - a small rectangle of metal that Guarder want $4 for - and it needs a dual safety hammer pin, an item I couldn't find anywhere. In short it didn't work and that project, like so many others, was shelved. Until that is I noticed an TM MEU safety with dual pin. I promtly ordered it. It arrived without said pin. I rechecked the advert and sure as fate, the one with the pin was the picture of the Nova safety. Damn. The Nova was ridiculous $64 plus postage. Back on the shelf.

I eventually sourced a pin set and got to work. First thing, the profile of the Detonic's safety lever is a custom cut down 'modern' 1911.  The TM MEU safety uses an even  newer type profile that doesn't lend itself to reprofiling into a Dual Detonics. Hacksaw and metal file applied to the Guarder set and it now looks right. There are a couple of issues though - a small triangular nick has to be made in the right side of the slide to accommodate the safety in 'on' position and the internal slide part of the right hand lever needs a tiny bit of filing out to allow the dual pin to lock in. It works a treat though and looks like a factory option. I'm well pleased with it.

On the lefty side, I have a couple of Berettas and you can switch the mag releases around to allow operation left handed. I did this and it felt really weird. So much so that I actually switched back - I've obviously got so used to operating it with its existing 'right hand' controls. Kind of like left handed scissors - they seem like a great idea until you try them and then realise I've spent over 40 years getting used to right handed ones!

Motivationally Challenged

Well, I completed my TM Glock upgrade - fitted the new Guarder frame in OD and then applied some Decal Grips. Looks pretty cool.

Family issues are fair eating into my time leaving me tired and demotivated for anything bar sleep and killing things/driving really fast on the Xbox. Not to mention the brain melting SQL course and not getting the job I went for. And, I've still got a couple of iphone screens to fix.  

As a result, the UMG is still sitting unfinished, the Dboys M4 CQB is still in bits after its AWS Stealth trigger/mosfet fit and I can't be bothered to look at fitting the other Stealth I've got into the Dboys SPR. And of course the Hi-Capas are languishing in the bottom of their storage box as well. 

Still, off to Landwarrior tomorrow to pick up a gun and some bits for 'projects' - mainly a nozzle and trigger for the UMG.    

TM Type 89 - 345fps with NiMH and Lipo

I love my TM Type 89.  I've  added the dual fire selector lever and a top rail. Unfortunately, I should have waited for the folding stock version rather than jumping in both feet as soon as the standard one arrived at a UK retailer. But, hey ho, such is life.

With standard TM fps and typical TM accuracy it is an above average skirmishing tool. The three round burst is very nice. But, it seemed a bit underpowered compared to its M4 relatives. Now, I know fps isn't everything but a quick dismantle and reassembly with a more 'suitable' spring has it firing at an equivalent 345fps with 0.2bbs - I normally use biodegradables, nominally 0.25g but they actually weigh 0.243g.

Anyhoo, this upgrade had a detrimental effect on rate-of-fire and, since there is no way to get a 9.6v stick battery in the foregrip the only other solution was a lipo of some sort. I hunted quite extensively for some options and finally settled on a 7.4v Firefox 1,600mAh 20C from RSOV - probably not the best in quality but I can't say I've had any problems with them (that weren't caused by me that is). After charging up my standard  8.4V 1,500mAh NiMH battery and the new lipo we were ready to go. With the NiMH rof was around 640rpm (10.7rps) and with the Lipo around 775rpm (just under 13rps) - quite a difference I could get a 1,600mAh NiMH which would probably increase the 10.7rps by a slight margin but based on the fact that NiMH voltage drops of much quicker than lipo voltage I'm going to go with the lipos. 

Unfortunately, due to the cable attachment, they don't fit in an MP5K or PDW - shame. They will fit my UMGs but will probably need some padding as they could rattle about. Overall though I'm very impressed with the Firefox lipos which were $17.99 + postage ($6 if you order just one).V

Hi-Capa Woes

I like Hi-Capas. I have four. Three Marui and a WE. The only one working is the WE. Two of the Maruis are stripped down to the slide and the third is complete - just not working. It looks the mutts nuts though. You see, I made the mistake of upgrading. Now, there's nothing wrong with that but pistols, it appears, do not like me. My black hi-capa, the complete one, has a Guarder black steel barrel, a Guarder black recoil rod, a Davidson Custom slide, a Tanio Koba grip, black trigger and black hammer. Internally it has a PDI Raven barrel and a Nine Ball hop rubber. It should be a the ultimate combat machine. Except... the steel barrel has worn down the aluminium slide where it picks up the barrel to return it to battery. As a result the barrel is picked up a millimetre or so late and promptly jams the thing. Same with the other two, a nice dual stainless 4.3 and a silver 5.1. Minor problems causing the barrels to jam the slides. I've spent hours on them and have now got past the can't be arsed stage. From now on I'm taking the same approach I had with my TM Glock, new internal barrel (usually a PDI 6.01), new hop. Same slide, same outer barrel. It works fine and is more accurate than standard but just a reliable. Basically anything that moves at high speed is staying standard.

Serendipitiously, a Tanio Koba Hi-Capa grip in OD arrived by mistake from eHobbyasia. It should have been a Glock OD frame. It must be fate. I'm already envisaging a black 4.3 with OD grip - which allows it to fit in a Blackhawk Serpa. The slide and barrel stay standard. I'll put a PDI palsonite 6.01 internal barrel in it though or perhaps a PDI Raven 6.01 and a Nine Ball hop rubber of course... Maybe an extended slide release. Oh, and a dual safety...

UMG Project. Prequel.

I always fancied an HK UMP but at the time G&G ones were just too expensive to buy on a whim. This reason hadn't actually stopped me before but when I saw DE UMG on Landwarrior's website for £100 I had to take a look. I'd read the reviews of Double Eagle's take on the UMP and most agreed that it was a clone of the G&G and out of the box it wasn't a sterling performer. Specifically, the hop was pants and needed replacing and the motor was a bit slow. It didn't sound like a big job, so I stumped up the cash for the gun and a couple of spare magazines and headed home.

On testing the gun at home there were indeed several issues. True to the review the hop was rubbish and appeared to be fully on even at its lowest setting sending bbs skyward within a short distance. The rate of fire was as suspected pretty poor. The last thing was that the bolt cover kept jamming when you tried to open it. Not all the time but enough to be annoying. I quickly discovered that the UMG is the easiest gun ever to dismantle. No tools required, remove the rear pin, hold the hop forward against its spring to clear the gearbox nozzle and hey presto the gun is in two parts. The upper has the barrel and hop unit and the lower contains the gear box which with little effort and removal of a second pin can be taken out completely. A slight turn of the hop unit and it and the barrel slides out of the upper receiver. 

The bolt was an easy fix and a small piece of plastic card glued on the inside solved the problem and it works fine to this day. It was suggested that replacing the hop unit would solve that issue but I thought, "Why not try and fix the current one?". I quickly had it in bits and after some experimentation out came the needle files and I carefully reprofiled the groove in the lever that the presses down on the hop up nub. The motor was dumped and a G&P M120 motor installed. From the start of reading the manual to having the whole thing back together was less than an hour. It worked like a charm, the bolt worked fine, rate of fire was much more to my taste and turned out to be surprisingly accurate. I was well chuffed and rate the gun as one of my favourites despite being one of the cheapest. 

Other mods just kind of happened as I lived with the gun. One thing I found is that the nice rubberised plastic finish wears off but to be fair did lend it a somewhat battle worn look until that is I accidentally exposed it to DEET based insect repellent. It melts into a sticky goo. This was basically from my face against the stock. I cleaned it off with some alcohol and put on a piece of neoprene foam tape to cover the shiny part. Works great and looks pretty cool.

After a short time I'd decided a silencer was needed and ordered the expensive but nice G&G one. It arrived and it was at that point I realised that clone meant close but not identical. It didn't fit. Bugger. No problem thinks I and ordered a G&G barrel to replace the clone one. That'll work. However, that, "close but not identical" hit again. The barrels used different fittings. Double bugger. The silencer did come with a threaded fitting to allow it to be fitted to a gun with a 14mm CCW barrel thread. All I need to do was turn down and thread the DE barrel on my lathe and - wait, don't have a lathe. Hmmn. Do have an electric drill and a file though. Some time and a great deal of patience later it was the correct profile. I eventually tracked down a 14mm CCW die for significantly less than the kings ransom they seemed to want for one in the UK and... it now takes a G&G silencer. 

The gun now sports a Magpul angled foregrip which this time fitted perfectly first time. No, don't be stupid, of course it didn't. You see, a wanted the angled foregrip and the original UMP front end sling points. Some more patience - and a Dremel - and it fits.

Finally (really?) after seeing a chap's outstanding effort in painting the top frame in OD mine also has an OD top frame with the sights, rails and pins left black. It was a right pain in trying to get the rubberised finish off until I remembered the insect repellent. It did a grand job. As did most of a can of OD Krylon.

To top it off the gun has been fitted with a clone C-More red-dot sight, all the sling points have been fitted with paracord loops for easier sling attachment and two of the mags have the slide on G&G magazine link things. 

It's finished. So far.  

UMG Project. Part 1

So, lets be clear. It's a Heckler & Koch UMP - Universale Maschinepistole - but, to G&G Armaments and Double Eagle, its a UMG - Univeral Machinegun - it's a copyright/trademark thingy.

Yes, I know I already have one of these. Your point is? Anyway, the old one is a DE one. The new one is a G&G. Or, I should say the new one is a G&G outer - basically the complete gun with a gutted gearbox for £58. The original plan was to build a custom gearbox as cheaply as possible and scrounge bits from the parts box. I was pretty sure I had a set of gears, several cylinders, a couple of piston sets, a selection of main springs and some 6mm metal bushes kicking about. I promptly ordered the rest but with an AK trigger rather than a UMP one. Why for? Well, I could get a UMP trigger but a V3 gearbox trigger actually is a two piece afair and the UMP trigger is just the trigger part. I'll buy the UMP trigger later. Of course, I discovered that the bushes had done a runner and I needed to order a set of those as well. They've now arrived and all the parts are here waiting to be installed. Here's the list.

Original G&G gearbox shell
G&P M120 motor
Lees Precision Engineering 6mm bushes
Guarder Polcarbonate Piston
Guarder Cut-off lever
Guarder Enhanced Tappet Plate
Element Gearbox Spring set
Element Silent Cyliner Head
SHS Spring Guide
Deep Fire AK trigger set

In addition we have, a Gearset, nozzle, polycarbonate piston head, trigger switch and an AWS mosfet. And, a spring, either an SP90 or SP100.

And, Plan B. Just in case none of this shit works I ordered a complete G&G gearbox posted from WGC for a mere £81. :) It was half price. Resistance was futile.

The First Step.

"Hi, my name is John, and I'm an airsoft addict."

It didn't start off that way. I'd like to think it started off slow and gradually degenerated into the obsessive, compulsive hobby/lifestyle that it now is. Truth be told, I was spellbound the moment I opened up the box containing my first electric airsoft gun - a Tokyo Marui Heckler & Koch MP7A1. An AEP (automatic electric pistol) in airsoft parlance it came as a complete kit; gun, battery and charger as well as a couple of spare bags of bbs.

Open the box, charge the battery. Ready to bring mayhem to the back garden, I loaded up the black bbs - they seemed like a good idea at the time - and let rip. Was it firing?. Don't know. Hmmn. Severe IQ failure ensued. Hand in front of barrel. Pulled trigger. Automatic mind, none of this semi-auto nonsense. By eck it hurt!!! What a fanny... I still couldn't keep the grin off my face..

I was like a crack addict after their first hit. Hooked, and on the fast track to complete addiction.