note: the picture above is very out of date. it was taken prior to the new outer barrel, flash hider straightening, and carry handle mods Ever since I first got into Airsoft, I’ve been dreaming about a G36K. I was very excited to hear about the production of the G36C, albeit a little disheartened that they had chosen to produce the less-popular C version first. After my friend got a G36C, the quality of construction and practicality put my AEG’s which I had poured thousands of dollars into, to shame. I had to have one of these guns. But there was no point in buying the C and then buying the K right after it. But after hearing that it would be at least another year before the K was produced by TM, I decided that I could not wait – I had to take the project into my own hands. One advantage to doing it yourself and using real steel parts, is that…well, half your gun is made using real steel parts! If you ask me, that is very cool -- and even better than having the official Marui version (I’m sure their optical sight won’t be as good anyway).
Base Upgrades: I wasn’t sure what kind of battery storage capacity a real G36K forearm had, but I assumed it would at least hold the 9.6v 1500maH custom battery made for the G36C. Experience has taught me that ROF is actually more important than FPS, so I proceeded with my base upgrades with that in mind. I wanted it to be either really silent, or really loud. It was a tough choice, but I eventually decided that a silencer would be cumbersome and less practical, so I should just go with loud internal upgrades. This meant a Type-0 cylinder (also better considering I was going to increase the inner barrel length), and an aluminum piston head. I decided to test out Guarder’s new SP100 spring, which is supposedly more battery efficient and reliable. There are a couple people who had already converted their G36C’s before me. There pages can be viewed here:
The parts which are different on the G36K are the carry handle, forearm, butt stock, flash hider, outer barrel, and gas tube. None of these are particularly easy parts to acquire. Carry Handle: I decided to pass up on the red dot scope which is often pictured mounted above the optical scope. These red dot units have a reputation for not being very good, cannot be purchased separately, and have a price tag along with the carry handle of over $600. I actually prefer the look of just the optical sight anyway, and I found a great deal on a 3x one for $250 used (they usually go for $350, and also can be made in 1.5x but those are less common). According to HK nomenclature, this is technically this a G36KE, because the G36K includes the red dot sight. I was happy to find that my sight did not have any black flecks in the lens, which is apparently a commonly known problem among these things. It is difficult for me to get the reticule (a cross with a small circle in the center) to appear crisply, but it is still very easy to aim with. The 3x magnification is just right for Airsoft; I can see where my BB hits without the deceiving curving arc that you will see with higher magnification scopes. It is also very easy to adjust this scope to be on target. Mounting the carry handle was the most difficult modification that I had to do. It can actually be made to fit on without any modification (as seen in the digital camera pics), but it is a VERY tight fit, and it is not possible to get the front hole to line up properly without modification. First, I shaved/sanded down the rail which it slides on a little bit. I also cut off the slight ridges on the fore ward part of the middle screw-stub on the G36C. The most important part of this modification is the shorten the middle stub by slicing off a couple millimeters from the back end. This allows the carry handle to slide all the way forward (instead of stopping a few millimeters short). Then, the middle and front holes need to be re-drilled. This is a minor correction because the holes do not line up perfectly. The screws from the G36C will work, except for the front screw, which is not long enough, and must be replaced at a hardware store.
Barrel Extension and Flash Hider: I bought an aluminum outer barrel section that screws onto the G36C’s existing threaded outer barrel from Ko. For the flash hider, I purchased an Airsoft HK53 flash hider (real G36K flash hiders are not easy to find and can go for as much as $150, from what I hear.) The HK53 flash hider is a pretty good replica, but not perfect. The prongs are about 6mm shorter than the real ones, and there is also no inset on the threads like on the real one. This causes it to be the correct overall length, but expose more outer barrel, than the real one. After working with Ko and sending him the specifications of my HK53 flash hider, he was able to custom make me a new prototype barrel extension that more accurately reflected the real-steel specifications. In this prototype, he was able to reduce the diameter a little bit to be the correct size, and compensate in length for the miniscule (1mm width) inset of the threading on the HK53 flash hider. This new barrel looks much more real. Finally, I lightly applied some threadlock to keep the flash hider from rotating out of position.
Forearm: A number of people were selling resin molds of the forearm, but I didn’t particularly want a resin mold, and I also didn’t want the holes for the side rails. After looking around at various online HK retailers for the parts I needed, I was able to find very few of them in stock. It turns out HK has suspended their shipments to the US (as I understand it), and as a result all the parts have been bought up by SL8 owners. To my luck, Ko also had an extra one of these for sale. The forearm requires some modification to fit, because it is not as deep as Marui’s. This cut is not entirely trivial, and I thought it best to disassemble the gun first.
Battery: To my dismay, my 9.6v 1500mah custom battery, which fits ‘easily’ (relative to fitting MP5A5 batteries) into the G36C forearm, would not fit into the new forearm! After a few minutes of panicked fiddling, I did finally manage to get it to fit. It is difficult because the real forearm is not only not as deep as the Marui one, but also slimmer. However, when I did finally come up with a way to get it to fit, it does not put pressure on the sides which is good. Also, it is possible to add up to 4 more cells to the front of this battery, meaning that a 12v 1500mah will fit. So I will probably do that someday, and upgrade the spring accordingly to a SP130. The battery is viewable through the holes in the top half of the forearm, as well as the bottom holes. The plastic strip which is inside the G36C forearm would be long enough to cover the bottom holes in the G36K forearm, but I’m not quire sure how to remove it without breaking it yet. I plan on doing this someday, though. Butt Stock: This is the most difficult part to find. I was actually able to find a couple, but after a lot of careful consideration I decided to pass up the butt stock for a few reasons:
Inner Barrel: Of course, the inner barrel needed to be extended to match the outer barrel and take advantage of the full accuracy potential that was now available. Most people are saying that the M4A1 barrel is the correct one for this mod, but unless your G36K is unrealistically long, this will be too long. Unfortunately there are a lot of different numbers going around for the length of the barrel of the M4A1. Well, it is actually 363mm, which is about 1cm too long. The M4A1 TN barrel has 2 circumventing notches at about 1cm intervals from the end. Conveniently, I found that the first interval gives the perfect length. Cutting it was the easy part – then I needed to use some Dremel tools to crown the end so that there would be no burs to interfere with accuracy. After all, it would be pretty hypocritical to buy a longer tight-bore barrel and then reduce the accuracy to less than you started with by leaving burs. Pricing: As you can probably tell by now, this gun was not cheap. Here’s what I bought and what it cost me:
by
Rhox505
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Links: Site links: TM G36c review Comment on this review in the forums Last modified: Monday, May 5, 2003 7:15 PM Copyright 2003 ArniesAirsoft
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