The thumbhole stocks are breeding.... after the sheer wonderfulness of the Tanaka A.I.C.S. I thought about how awesome that thumbhole actually felt, so I had to go and purr-chase meself one of the G36 sniper range - either an SL-8 (blue/grey, funky, civilianised) or the SL-9 (grey/black, sleeky, militarised).

I plumped for the unique colour of the SL8, and that rail that extends unfeasibly far over the front of the gun.

Thing is, to get an SL8, you really only have one choice: STAR Airsoft

*DUN DUN DUUUNNNNNN* ! ! !

Aww c'mon, they ain't that bad are they? No, no they're not. But then again they ain't cheap, either.

Are they worth it? Lets find out...

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The finish of the STAR is superior to Classic Army and Marui, no doubt about it. The quality of the texture and solidity of the material in general is nothing less than exceptional, you are paying a premium for the quality of materials, it seems.

But doesn't it have a plastic inner frame or something? Quite likely - the sight rail on top is ALL PLASTIC, the sight blocks are plastic, and the frame the rail is connected to is, in all likelihood, plastic also.

I personally don't give a flying *fruitcage* about any of that, as long as it works

And it does work. Rather well, in fact: I would estimate its available range at about 160feet with some hopup adjustment, and you (or `I`, or `they`) could drop shots onto people at ranges of 200 feet or more, if using .2 BBs. I think I'm gonna try .25s in her at the next game, but as it is I think its safe to say that this puppy comes out of the box firing at about 350-360fps, which is nice for a lot of people and is fine for me at GZ, where the limit is 350. Downtuning is advised for all users where applicable limits are lower of course, so this may be a bugger if that's the case for you

Overall I am very impressed with it, as a game-ready weapon as well as a stunning display piece, and I want to make it my standard skirmish rifle for a while if I can remember to really give it a chance to `play the whole course` as it were. Having tried the UZI for a few games I am delighted to now have something with both decent range and usable sights and also a gun that reinforces the idea of man=gun; gun=man, grrrrrr, rarrrr etc. which, at the end of the day, isn't easy to do when wielding a power-deficient, stock plastic gun that simply doesn't have the range to hit the enemy hard, nor the ergonomic excellence to counter it's own faults by being intuitive to aim and use.

The SL8 has both of these in abundance.

A scope on the SL8 really brings it to life, and if I could just sort some high-mounts and use the ironsights underneath the scope then I really would be laughing As it is, I'm using an M4 riser mount-block under the regular scope rings to bring the whole affair about 20mm higher up, simply because I like the cheekpiece high and the scope high to match as it reduces strain on one's shoulder, and with this `wee bugger` weighing about 4 kilos with a scope on, I reckon anyhow, then easing the stress on one's limbs is definitely a plus point!

Overall I think the STAR SL8, at £270 delivered from HK, is expensive for an AEG and for that money one could have had almost any other AEG, or, for example, 2 MP7s, or 2 UZIs, 2MP5Ks, 2 SIG552s, 2, in fact, of any of the cheaper TM AEGs.

Also one could have most of the G&G, SRC, and Classic Army range for the same or even less money, so although for me this is a very worthwhile purchase, if you are after a solid and skirmish-ready rifle for exclusive use for a long time then another, more internally metallised gun is probably gonna be for you.

Then again, stock guns rarely break, and they are designed in the manner that they are for good reasons (i.e. that they do work like that) so I would even suggest to all the fans and devotees of metal-only guns that they may do well to actually TRY a stock internally-plastic gun until it DOES give up the ghost, and see how well it compares to one that has been tinkered with and altered in every imaginable way

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Other than that: I've literally just opened a package containing a Hudson M3A1 grease gun, a Marui MP7 (at last!! ) and a Maruzen P-38. So far, on Impressive Points (IP ) the Walther P-38 is winning, although to be fair I knew how good the MP7 was already and it would have usurped the Maruzen easily because it (the MP7) frankly is exceptionally good quality even for a Marui gun.

I plan to detail these more as I've fired them, but I can say now that the similarity of the Walther P-38 to the Beretta 92 series is quite remarkable; the slide is a cutaway design much like the signature 96/92/84/1934 etc. slides; the slide release is oh-so-reminiscient of the M84 Cheetah slidestop; the safety is almost identical to the larger Berettas, and is a FULL decocker as well; and the trigger bar on the right-side of the gun moves suspiciously similarly to the Beretta.

But who, it must be asked, copied whom?

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