The story: Not so long ago Herman (aka DolphinCommand) headed off to HK on a short holiday. One of the many people he met up with was the well respected Clarence Lai (the gunsmith previously known as CL, now known as AirsoftSurgeon). As a result of their conversations, and when Clarence realised that BB-IPSC was taking off in the UK, he amazingly, and completely unexpectedly offered to make me a custom replica for competing in IPSC. Ever since the accidental conception of this website there's been a few targets that I've set myself. A few of these aims you'll probably already know, one was to continuously update the website with roughly 48hour updates, another was always to post fun readable news in an unbiased format from any honest source. Sorry for getting a bit sentimental here, but Arnie's Airsoft won't be around forever, and it'd just be nice to leave a few unique personal touches to Airsoft history. Nah, I'm not getting bored of the website, far from it, but you've got to have aims in life and it's nice when things pan out. This is one of those moments when you just get that warm and fuzzy feeling of sheer happiness. I mean, the king of Airsoft custom pistols wants to make me my own custom pistol? I nearly fell off my seat when Herman told me the news... ^_^ No amount of thanks can really be enough to say thanks to Clarence, but thank you Clarence, I really will cherish this replica. It will become a heirloom to ArnieJr someday. On the 2nd of October, Clarence dropped me an email that the Eagle was on it's way, and (amazingly) it arrived at 9:45AM on the 4th. I don't know what happened to ParcelForce that day, but it must be a good omen. Specs: So what has Clarence built? Well here's the full specifications:
The pistol: The pistol is based on the WA SV6 'limited'. It's well renown that the WA series are quite possibly the finest production GBB Airsoft pistols out there, and the original SV limited editions are some of the most sought after.In truth I don't think there's a better place to start when building a custom pistol. Starting with the basics; the ArnieSTI is 6 inches long, and features a double stack extended mag - this places it in the 'open class' in IPSC. I'm fairly new to IPSC, so I'm afraid my knowledge in this area is somewhat limited and hence I can't go into the classifications with much detail. Looks: Although based on an SV chassis, the pistol is designed around the looks of the STI 6.0. The pistol is a full frame design, with a custom made aluminium slide and frame. The slide features some gorgeous authentic markings engraved on the LHS, and some handy chevron markings to the front and the back of the slide, which ensure a firm grip when racking the slide back that first time.
On the RHS of the slide you will find the markings "Design for Arnie'sAirsoft custom by Airsoft Surgeon CL"
Second to the slide markings is the grip, and its custom finish. I don't know how long Clarence takes on this part, but the efforts are well worth it. Using a soldering iron set to a medium heat (not so hot that it burns), Clarence has effectively 'engraved' the slide with a wood texture pattern, not only does it look amazing, but the grip is firm to hold and ensures a firm stance.
Feel: I can't think of a much more pleasant pistol to hold, and it even outrates my prized M93r collection. In the world of Yhetti-like fingers, the SV double stack really is the best. Clarence has cut a notch under the trigger grip to allow your second finger to easily rest under the trigger guard. Again it's a nice touch that a seasoned IPSC vet such as Clarence will add simply because. Performance: Sadly I have misplaced my chrono so I can't clock this powerhouse, but as it punctures both sides of a coke-can which puts it in the 350 to 370fps range, and it is therefore powerful enough for me. Remember that this piece is for competing not skirmishing (that'd just be silly ^_^). For anyone that isn't familiar with the concepts of IPSC, the shooter needs to engage the targets as quick as possible, and he/she is both scored on where the shots hit, but on the time it takes him to complete the stage. It's advisable to have a decent powered pistol, as you are firing at cardboard targets, and therefore a clean hole makes for accurate and easy scoring. There's nothing worse than searching for that lost shot where the BB just made a tiny 'dint'. There's not a chance with this pistol, as it'll leave nice tidy clean 6mm holes. The pistol lcaks hop-up, which si a good thing for two reasons: - With a hop-up unit your BB will stay in the breach when you drop the mag to clear the gun and make it safe. The only way to remove it is to poke a stick down the barrel. With no hopup you simply remove the mag, and rack the slide to let the last (loaded) round out. - Hopup actually decreases the muzzle velocity as it diverts some of the energy intot he spinning motion. There's no need for the additional range that hop-up produces, and the uncertainty it brings into the firing leads to decreased accuracy. Firing: If you have never used a full metal Airsoft pistol, you really are missing out. It's just ..different. There's something about that click-click sound that is very appealing. But enough of that matcho procrastinating, it's more important to talk about the actual firing. The action is delightfully fast and crisp, even depite it's vast slide length. Thankfully I've never had to strip a WA pistol down much further than a basic field strip, as none of my WA pistols have required it. Clarence on the other hand has basically taken a WA SV, and thrown away all but the original grip and trigger. The overall effect is to coin a cliche "more than the sum of it's parts". There's something about the carefully matched spec that provides as much of a "wow" factor as when I first set eyes on the piece. One homurous point is that the 'firing pin' (the bit that strikes the gas valve) is sooo long that you must first cock the hammer before you put the mag in, otherwise the pin protrudes too far into the mag well to alow you to seat the mag correctly. This is not a bad thing - it's just the way this beauty is! Features: In IPSC there is a requirement for only one safety. The SV series features both a standard slide safety, and a beaver-tail safety. As this duplicaiton is uneccesary, the beaver-tail has been disabled and locked in place. This is a welcome addition, as I've already found that beaver-tail safeties can get in the way, as if you don't grip in the right place, or hard enough you'll be unable to get the shot off. When 1/4 seconds count, every tweak made can mean the difference between getting that first shot in, or stumbling around wondering why the darn thing won't fire.. Yup been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. ^_^
Front sight - now this is a rather simple, yet cunningly handy addition. It's no secret, but I've never been a fan of scopes. Coming from a marksman background if it didn't come with steel sights I wasn't interested, the same counts for me now. I just can't get to grps with red-dots, and I find it easier to snap shoot with a plain sight system, than focus on a red-dot.
For this reason I was incredibly happy to see that Clarence had installed a fibre optic sight. This little contraption collects light from it's surroundings and directs it towards the shooter. Simple and ingenious. There is of course more to add to this review, but that shall have to wait until the next update. :) I'll just add this little addendum - Before the Arnie STI, I was using a WA SpeedComp I - gorgeous yes, but sadly it suffered the death that all SpeedComps do int eh end, and the slide smashed clean in two at the end of its last event; the Arnie STI can/will never fall fowl to this. It's difficult to explain in words the differing 'feel' between this pistol, and mass produced items such as the WA IPSC spec pistols. All I can say is that a hand built custom pistol is just better. If you are looking for an IPSC pistol Clarence is your man - no challenge is too big for him, and I've yet to see a piece of work from him that wasn't unique and brilliant in it's own right. Clarence - you da man! (British translation: I take my hat off to you sir!) Stay
tuned for part II of this review.
Comment on this review in the forums Last modified: Thursday, November 28, 2002 8:34 PM Copyright ArniesAirsoft
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