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TheFull9

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Blog Entries posted by TheFull9

  1. TheFull9
    Sadly right now photobucket is down, but then I wasn't allowed a camera in the good part anyway, so for now, here's the world's most innocent looking door:
     

     
    Behind that is another door, and then a security lobby with another steel multi-reinforced and locked door, and then a metal detector, and then another door and then... well, for a gun geek like me it was a 'god rays shining down, angels singing' moment. 28,000 guns of every variety, from the tiniest little matchlock pistol to 40mm+ aircraft cannon and literally everything inbetween, from the earliest breech loading muskets to the L129A1 sharpshooter rifle.
     
    As I mentioned before, very, very sadly we were only allowed phones/cameras inside the public museum part, but for now while it's still fresh in my mind, here's a list of some of the guns I had a play with this morning:
     
    -5 barreled breech loader Navy boarding rifle
    -Quad and triple barreled matchlock pistols
    -A pair of front loading revolvers given as a gift by Mr Colt himself, intricately detailed with images of sailing ships all over
    -One rifled muzzle loader used by Sharpe's infamous unit
    -A wide array of muzzle and breech loading matchlock rifles and pistols, sadly not my area of expertise but really beautiful objects
    -Pair of fluted breech loaders used when dueling was still in the Olympics (up to 1909)
    -H&K MP5k with Saudi markings
    -Gold plated MP5k
    -Gold plated Stirling SMG with Ivory grips
    -Gold AKs-47
    -UMP chambered in 9mm
    -L1A1 from the NI era
    -L85A2 with DD rail, GPS Grip-pod and SUSAT
    -L129A1 with irons, folding VFG, Harris bi-pod, LMT crane stock, ERGO type grip, Magpul 20 rounder and TangoDown rail covers
    -MP44 with corner-shot device (mental thing)
    -Something that looked exactly like an AK, but was actually a crazy 7mm bolt action
    -Some Sterling SMGs and Thompsons knocked up by an IRA bloke using nothing but a Black & Decker drill, a hand file and materials from a DIY shop
    -RPG-7
    -Carl Gustav
    -Glock 17
    -7.5" M4A1 with a free-floating rail, made by a company I've never heard of and can't remember
    -20s dated Tommy gun with 50 round drum, radiated barrel and the classic wooden VFG
    -M1A1 Thompson
    -USAS-12 (omg so hawt)
    -M700 with probably the smoothest bolt in the world and an electronic trigger
     
    Also, a small part of the stuff I saw but didn't get a chance to play with:
     
    -M3 Grease gun with corner-shot attachment
    -40mm ground attack aircraft cannon from WWI
    -About 200 Bren guns and the various ancestors/derivatives
    -M82A1 and A3
    -16" L119A1 with H&K UGL
    -M60s
    -G3s
    -Various iterations of the Uzi
    -Pretty much every MP5 ever and some that I've never seen before, including one with a 40mm launcher
    -Lord know how many AKs from every country that makes them
    -AR-15s and AR-10s from the very beginning with the cocking handle on top all the way through to now
    -US WWII 'trench' shotguns
    -SPAS-12s
    -A breech loader taller than me and quite possibly heavier
    -Some concealable stabbing/cutting weapons that could easily slip through stringent airport security and just as easily kill someone, won't go in to details on those though; sufficed to say a 10p, a fork and a hairbrush can make quite an arsenal
    -L96
    -Plenty of Lee-Enfields
    -Shed loads of Browning HPs and Sigs
    -FG42s
    -PPSHs
    -M79
    -Multi-chambered grenade launchers
    -HK53/33
    -Steyr AUG
    -G36s
    -Absolutely *suitcase* loads of stuff that I couldn't identify
    -Absolutely *suitcase* loads that I can't even remember now because there was so damn manyyyyy
     
    So yes, we'll be paying that place another visit in not too long. Who can say no to getting a free trip on works' time to look at that sort of a collection?
  2. TheFull9
    Since this is a subject within airsoft I feel extremely passionate about, I'd like to copy here a post I recently made in this thread:
     
    http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=192859&view=findpost&p=2411576&hl=&fromsearch=1
     
    After a few people were bashing certain platforms of airsoft weapon, and basically taking a "it's my way or the highway type view", which is something I despise in general but specifically in this hobby of mine, I decided to do a little bit of writing:
     
  3. TheFull9
    Since I've found that only doing videos when I'm home at the weekend/on leave is rather limiting from now on I'll be making them here in the barrack block since this is now where all my new stuff is going to pitch up. Having been here just over 2 months now the first few orders of guns and equipment have been flowing through the mail room here on camp, and after the 2 years of having to send it all home and not get my hands on it for months it's really been a great relief, and to be honest I feel like I'm actually living my life now, whereas I spent 2 years on the pause button up in Scotland.
     
    Anyway, as a pre-cursor to the videos I'll be doing from my room, I've done a short video introduction to my block and myself:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFajMldrDHc
     
    I did continue to carry on talking about the recently arrived purchase, ripping open the packaging etc, but the videos are pretty long and in HD, and youtube's uploader is being supremely un-cooperative.
  4. TheFull9
    In preparation for the batch of videos I'm editing up right now, and as some practice at YouTube embedding, here's my first 2 bits of work using the Samsung HMX-R10, shot at 720p and 50 frames per second, slo-mo bits beign slowed by a factor of 4. I'm pretty damn happy with the camera considering I picked it up brand new for £220 off ebay. If you can actually manage to find one in stock in the UK, it'll be more like £300-350. I did manage to put quite a substantial dent in the metal casing over the weekend unfortunately but it's still running strong, no idea how it happened but it's put even more strength in my beliefs that Samsung make awesome electronics. Some of you may have also perhaps seen these two in the front page news feed, as the news fairy very kindly added me to the Arnies subscription list, so in future if you want to check out my stuff it should be popping up there and here.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKJ_lJp6Q_0
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0C8iQCP7hA
     
    Buying wise, I've just picked up a P226 SERPA holster in OD from G1098 which I previously never thought existed, so quite happy with that. The King Arms Tac. Carbine is looking nice and the plans for the uber-raped AK are slowly building. Though right now I'm just collating possibilites before I make by big monthly WGC order and I'm not sure whether to try and put the M-AK-4 monster together now or focus a bit more on putting together gear and MOLLE pouches. Trying to supply yourself with enough kit, consumables and guns at one house is hard enough, trying to do it here in my block room as well is proving rather tricky.
  5. TheFull9
    Favourite phrase of an old mate of mine when I was up at Lossiemouth. Sadly he's a civvie now, but he was a really fat bugger who despised fitness tests, so perhaps the military wasn't the best environment for him. 6 years of being in the raf while we were in Afghan and he never got deployed, that takes some skills; though perhaps it's more of an indicator of how randomly deployments come around, I've been out of training and eligible to go for over 2 years now, and despite repeated pleas to the chain of command and getting put on 'the list' twice, I'm still yet to be issued my MTP and malaria tablets. Ah well, my time will come I'm sure, long as it's not the bloody Falklands, that would hack me right off.
     
    Anyway, airsoft wise at the moment I'm in a very dry period when it comes to purchases and it's frustrating me. When I was based up in Scotland I did have to send everything I bought back home and would arrive there on leave to an enormous pile of new stuff every couple of months, but that was ok as at least I did have the money to buy stuff. This time of year however is frustrating me, to explain my usual purchasing 'cycle' as it were, I always buy things in the last week of the month, because airsoft is what most of my pay goes on (just say no kids) and that way, I know that even if I'm down to 0.00 in my account it's at worst a couple of days until I get paid again. This month however, contrary to the standard, it's been a long time since I got to buy anything due to the fact I pre-empted the slow down in delivery times around Christmas by making my December purchases during the first week of the month, but now of course I have to wait until the end of January which is basically a 2 month wait and twice as long as normal, very annoying.
     
    Adding to this frustration is the fact that even though I can't allow myself to go buying stuff, now that I'm posted here to Honington, station standing orders are different and I'm actually allowed to store RiFs in my barrack block room, where I couldn't before. As well as the fact that I can now go home to London by car instead of flying, so shifting guns and large items of gear is actually a possibility, moving airsoft gear in any quanitity by air is basically such a pain in the *albartroth* it wasn't worth it; AND I now have the skirmish site in Tuddenham practically on my door step where there was nothing up near Inverness, AND unlike Lossie there's actually other people here who are in to it, whereas up there on a Fast Jet base you got ripped in to for even mentioning webbing or DPM for being a 'wannabe rock ape' (RAF regiment). So yes, the impending purchase of my first car and a few new guns is going to drastically improve my airsoft life. Just a 2 weeks to wait... (on the airsoft that is, going to take a good month or two to decide on a car).
     
    Original reason for this entry however was based on something I mentioned earlier, despite ordering it all many weeks in advance, I still wasn't early enough and some of the items I bought in December have only just turned within the last week (after I came back to work following my christmas leave), and because I mistakenly put faith in any potal system/company to get me my things while I was on leave, said items are now at home instead of with me here. But such is life, I'm sure I'll be re-united with it all soon enough, on with the pictures:
     

     
    Finally the 1911 HERA kit is upon me, the buffer tube fits, I've got plenty of spare M4 bits lying around to deck it out, my TM MEU destined to go inside it is all upgraded with a nice PDI 6.01 tightbore and working smoothly, just a case of getting my hands on it to.
     

     
    RG ATS warbelt to replace my RG ATS warbelt, because the current one's a medium but when I put it on my hips on top of another belt and trousers there's quite a big gap in the front, so upgraded from a medium to a large, to be paired with the warbelt insert my very nice girlfriend got me for christmas. BFG 10 speed pistol pouch to try out, hoping it's as good as their 5.56x45 mag pouches; and my first ever bit of multicam MOLLE, can't remember who made it but it'll be sitting on top of 3 HSGI Tacos on my GBBr specific rig.
     
    Apart from a few other airsoft-related-but-not-gear-or-guns things I'm trying to sort out now, it's on with the internet browsing for the next week or two desperately trying to decide what would actually be a good thing to buy next. At the moment I'm entirely clueless, anyone who feels like commenting on any aspect at all please, please do.
  6. TheFull9
    In a random bout of freak filming, after much blood, sweat and tears spilled over converting about a million different video formats in to something that's actually useful, I've ended up with a fair bit more stuff on my YouTube channel. No one's watching it, I'm not sure why, perhaps I should just cheat and put 'call of duty' in the tags, but I refuse to stoop to that dishonest level frankly. I like to think they're the sort of videos that folks on here would find interesting though, so here they are in all their standard definition mediocrity.
     
    First off, firing some tracer:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK2JULm93GQ
     
    Rather limited by being in my garden on this one, will definitely need to try and film something similar at a skirmish site one day and blat some long bursts off up in to the sky. But anyway, next up, I totally fail to show any differences between 2 different things in a test related to GBB pistols:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKItF6ZIc4E
     
    Then I took my highly upgraded FPG out in the cold and it toally failed to perform:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lZuGwQXl68
     
    And finally I decided to stick to something I am slightly good at, and sit in a chair and chat about magpul bits:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMfOV-akyxQ
     
    A good HD camcorder with some kind of slow motion capture ability is going to be the very very next thing I buy, before any AEGs or accessories or gear or *fruitcage* all. SD is dead, it looks rubbish, trying to work from mini-DVDs that hold weird recording formats and are just overall unreliable was a bloody huge pain in the *albartroth*, and the quality of the end recording wasn't even any good. So since I firmly intend to be making a lot more stuff over the following months (living 2 hours drive from my gear now as opposed to 11 is a bonus) the camera research has begun in earnest. Since I'm looking for my first car as well now I foresee myself getting extremely bored of reviews over the next month or two.
  7. TheFull9
    As promised, after re-ripping the mini-DVD with a more reliable (and waaaaaay more slooooow) program and doing the editing, the second part of the lights/lasers video:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmPv92vIvQk&feature=feedlik
     
    I did turn up the brightness, and the actual light being kicked out by the various devices is substantially brighter and more effective than the video shows, but that's the issue with recording at night without fancy gear.
     
    On a separate note, kudos to TNT today. The package containing my 1911 carbine kit was showing as being held at Stansted customs "Awaiting Clearance Instructions From Receiver". My initial thought was they'd mistaken the kit (only a part and therefore not illegal to purchase under the VCRA) for a RiF, so rang them up expecting a very long series of 'press 1 for bla bla bla' but was highly surprised to get through to a human being after about 2 rings, on a free number. Very impressed.
  8. TheFull9
    What this could really do with is forgetting linking to facebook, twitter and all that lark, I'd never put my Arnies status updates on facebook, that would be social suicide. A linked in stream of anything I upload to youtube though, that'd be handy. Since that doesn't yet exist however, here's some really dark grainy footage of me shining a couple of replica illuminating devices around at night, they looked a lot better than the camera picks up I promise.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPbxjyBVZf4&feature=feedu
     
    Part 2 (hopefully) uploaded any minute now. Using a handycam that burns to DVDs and then trying to rip them (usually with unreliable results) is certainly motivating me to go buy a better video camera at least.
  9. TheFull9
    After finally getting around to taking a photo of it all (and fighting the urge to rip it all out the packets and put it to use for a few days) here's another "*suitcase* I've bought recently" update:
     

     
    As opposed to simply providing a list of the above items I'll be giving my reasoning for each purchase, as hopefully this will provide some insight in to my playing/kit/guns related habits and hopefully even trigger some productive thoughts and learning processes, for anyone that cares to have a browse.
     

    ACM Polyer 'Magazine-of-Magazines' - With the recent rise of the pistol carbine, and my decision to buy 2 of them (one being still in the post) I decided the time had come to set one of my MOLLE rigs aside specifically for carrying pistol magazines, and I'm yet to find a more efficient way of carrying them than one of these. Takes up very little MOLLE space for how much it carries, quick to draw from, suits all variety of shapes of mags and is made of some pretty good quality materials from what I've seen so far; significantly better plastic than most chinese products.
     
    Magpul PTS PMAG Grip Tape - All my old school PMAGs are already covered in this stuff, but you get 12 small pieces per packet, at very little cost. So if you want to add grip to any of your guns, pistols in particular, without taking a soldering iron to the plastic (*shudder*) grab yourself some of these.
     
    Black Bear Lower mesh mask - After buying 2 ACM mesh lowers (from EBB and WGC respectively, WGC's being far better) I realised that having just the one strap was likely to cause me to spend more of my skirmish day re-arranging my face-pro than pew pew pew'ing, so this seemed a logical purchase. Likely to become a mainstay of my gear for years to come I think.
     
    G&P WA system steel mag catch - After experiencing some issues with the bolt not recoiling and all the gas venting on one of my WOC rifle lowers, I tracked the trouble down to the mag catch which was making the magazines themselves sit too high, and catch on the underneath of the bolt carrier. Rather than take the file to the catch already in there straight away, I'm learning from past mistakes and doing the work on this spare, just in case. Ending up with an extremely expensive M4 lower receiver that's entirely useless, for the sake of a botched mag catch, isn't worth the small cost of one of these to 'experiment' with.
     
    ERGO Grip tape - A bit like PMAG 3M grip tape but in very large rectangles. Again ideal for slapping on to a pistol/grip point on a rifle, rather than permanently burning lots of little dimples in to it; in my eyes at least.
     
    Empty packet, representing G&P WA system hop unit and 325mm inner barrel which I've already installed - Didn't come with the hop rubber itself which was an unexpected and unwelcome surprise. But, I managed to scrounge one from my bits box, and after losing the small internal spring and scrounging one of those from the insides of a lighter, I finally had a working hop and inner barrel combo for my 12" WOC upper assembly, which is great as I foresee it being the one that gets used the most. In fact 12" barrels are coming out on top as my ideal compromise for a skirmish gun that's good in the woods but can be very comfortably taken in to buildings when you need to, which is exactly what I need at my regular site.
     
    PDI Raven 6.01 inner barrels for TM Night Warrior and TM MEU - With the Night Warrior replacing my old trusty 1911A1 as my primary skirmish side arm I want to maximise its' potential, how this barrel will fare in terms of the dreaded BB jams is yet to be seen, but I use good quality ammo and for the price I think the potential accuracy and power increase should be worth it. Fitted very nicely in to the pistol/hop unit and testing results will be up soon. As for the MEU, I want to keep the old A1 to metal kit out so the force recon pistol will be going in to my 1911 carbine kit, which of course if you're using as a primary you really need to be performing to the maximum.
     
    'Proper' Cavalvy headset - After years of using awful, uncomfortable uber-cheap replicas I've finally got around to paying for a 'boring' bit of kit that, while bland, makes skirmish life better (a subject I'll be going in to later). The replicas never had any real padding, the PTTs were intermittent, the received audio was garbled, the transmission was no better, and while not cheap for a product that's not exactly fun or exciting I think I'm going to be glad I put down the coin for this.
     
    3 x OD Magpuls - I can't really remember a time before having these on all my 556 STANAG magazines, and since I've got an awful lot of those I need an awful lot of these. They really are a no-brainer upgrade to your kit.
     
    KWA FPG Magazine - i.e. KSC system Glock 50 round magazine. When you're running a pistol carbine as a primary, extended mags really are a must, and compared to actual KSC extended mags these things are slightly cheaper, far more common and come with the FPG plates pre-installed, saving you having to buy 3 at a time; absolute winner all round.
     
    KSC Standard length Glock mag - Already had 3, but that's not a nice round number; and when you're rocking your FPG or HERA against AEG users you're going to need plenty of mags on your vest. Not exactly cheap though so I've been having to spread the purchase of these out a little bit.
     
    Element EoTech lens protector - Hardly milsim looking, but after suffering a shot to one of my 551s very recently, then for the princely sum of about $4 these do make sense. Slides inbetween the optic assembly and the metal shroud quickly and easily, doesn't reflect when you look through, good quality plastic, definitely worth it to protect your assests. Better to take a couple of quid and 5 minutes of time to replace this than all the costs of buying a whole new optic.

     
    Of course the 2 orders I really wanted from UnCo and SKD Tac haven't even had updates to their tracking status for days now and my chances of seeing them soon are becoming less and less, but I live in hope.
  10. TheFull9
    Being home for over a week, and having not only my own purchases but Christmas presents as well, I'm hoping to have lots of stuff to write about and take pictures/videos of. Although sadly the speed it gets dark in the evenings is proving a bit limiting but I shall do what I can. After recovering nicely from my chocolate/cider/roast meat festival yesterday I think I'll start off with a group shot of the Yuletide gifts:
     

     
    List in order of interest to the average airsofter:
     
    -SDS Super FLC (lower vest)
    -SDS I-RACK (chest rig, first one I've bought out of ~10 different load carrying rigs I've owned so far)
    -ATS Warbelt insert
    -2 x HSGI Taco pouches
    -Custom Christmas stocking with MOLLE webbing and MSM patch logos in gen. DPM fabric from the girlfriend
    -4 x OD Magpuls
    -AK Ice Tray (results to be posted up later)
    -Clas Ohlson Tools/Parts drawer unit, to be filled with hop-up parts, WA lower internals, screws, optic mounts, etc
    -Some highly fasionable Gucci M&S jeans
    -Choccies
    -Cards
     
    I've currently got orders from both UnCo (with some very nice goodies in) and SKD Tactical (with some more practical gear bits) stuck in the postal system which is getting right on my tits as if they don't turn up before I go back to Honington (which is looking more and more likely by the day) I won't be getting my hands on them for a fair few weeks. That said, if I were still up at Lossiemouth I'd probably not have made it home for Christmas leave at all as a fair few of my mates still there have faced some significant difficulty getting back to see their families due to the road/air conditions, so I could still be stuck there, 'be thankful for what you've got'. Could be worse yet again though, plenty of blokes eating turkey and opening presents sent from their family in Afghanistan right now, be really thankful.
  11. TheFull9
    Copied this over from the 'Pistols' thread in general discussion, since it got a pretty positive reception I figured it's worth putting up for the folks that haven't been in to that thread, bit of an analysis of gear trends for some airsofters, in graphical format:
     

     
    A. Starting off, AEG with hi-cap/couple of mid-cap mags, possibly a very basic rig.
    B. Continuing to purchase more guns and gear, MOLLE creates great potential for loading up more and more pouches with more and more junk, 20mm rails does similar for weapons.
    C. Weapon now has a GL, VFG, Bi-pod, laser, light, PEQ, leaf sight, suppressor and box mag, gear has gone a similar direction, trying to walk is difficult at this stage.
    D. Becoming tired of lugging a battalions' worth of ordnance around, the player gradually cuts down as they gain the experience to know the things they do and don't need.
    E. Going for the opposite extreme to their heaviest kit, now cut down to a very bare bones rig and one extremely light, compact weapon to maximise freedom of movement.
    F. Feeling slightly under-equipped on occasion the player adds on a few more items but at last reaches a general steady level of equipment, with slight fluctuations as time goes by and 'cool' new products are released, which eventually prove surplus to requirements
     
    On the new purchases front, after spending all my money moving bases last month and then all the claims I'm getting back off the raf going on christmas presents there's going to be a distance lack of new guns until the new year sadly. On the other hand, I feel that to optimise my game and my enjoyment I do every few months need to take a step back from the new weapons and actually put some money in to the magazines, upgrades and other accessories that I'm going to need to run all those nice new guns in a way I'm happy with. I've always been one for equipment compatibility, if I invest in any kind of new platform I'm going to at least 2 guns that use those same magazines/batteries/MOLLE gear, my general philosophy when turning up to a skirmish day is to bring 1 set of LBE/Magazines and 2 guns that'll work with that equipment. So say I'm bringing a TM SOCOM, it'll then be my other SOCOM, a rig that takes 556 STANAG mags and the set of magazines itself; if I brought a WOC it's another WOC on back-up, the set of mags for those, supporting gas equipment, appropriate rig, etc.
     
    Anyway, just done my bi-annual fitness test, ran to level 9-10 on the bleep, which translates to 1660m in 9:31, not bad for doing about 3 fitness sessions in the last 6 months, heh. 30 press-ups and 45 sit-ups each within a minute, not great so will be working on those, now I'm finally living in England I'll be getting a lot more skirmishing in (along with TKD and general phys) which should all help.
     
    Right now though I feel like a 50 year old pie munching chain smoker, so I shall stop typing there. God...
  12. TheFull9
    Oh I must enter a post must I? More demanding than my girlfriend this thing. *grumble*
     
    What with my life being totally consumed by trying to move the entirety of it from the lower scottish highlands to suffolk, there's neither time nor money for airsoft shopping at the moment sadly. Of course I still browse the various retailers because it's like looking through the toys section in the Argos catalogue as a child, you might not be able to buy it all but, as with 'adult activities', the anticipation and thinking about it is half the fun. This practice however has resulted in me doing an awful lot of contemplating about all the many, many guns/things I'd like to buy, so I've decided to compile a short list for the sake of putting my thoughts on pixels. It is as follows, going roughly in order of preference:
     

    A good HD video camera that's capable of some nice slow-mo stuff for YouTube'ing
    Sell TM G36C and replace with TM EBB G36K, then 'M4 it up'
    King Arms AK-47, replace stock and front end with AR-15 parts using appropriate adaptors
    Wait for TM EBB SCAR-L and replace with AGM SCAR-L
    Put together another upper/lower set for the G&P WOC project, going DMR/long barrel style with lots of gear sector stuff
    Turn one of the TM 1911s in to a pistol carbine
    G&P SR-25k, magpul up, PMAGs included of course
    KA Sig 556 standard model, magpul up
    Holster for the TM Night Warrior with Element M3x attached
    Esstac Load Bearing Boar
    KWA MP7
    KSC G17 and put a load-out together for the FPG
    Continue to wait on the RIS for the ICS L85
    TM 5-7
    A USGI style M4 to just keep plain and simple
    4x ACOG with Docter red dot
    A&K M60E4
    Some sort of AR-15 with MOE mid-length handguards
    Real Sword Type 97
    Put racking up on my bedroom wall to display everything and save on floor space
    G&P DMR type M14 in OD
    Some sort of MP5SD6 with an Aimpoint M2, just like in ghost recon
    Finally get the madbull AGX and attach it to some MOE handguards, as I've meant to for about 2 years

    I could definitely come up with more, but I'd say that's all the stuff I've seriously/properly considered, many of it coming to putting stuff in the basket but not quite clicking check out.
  13. TheFull9
    I actually uploaded this yesterday, and i'd imagine there's a good chance that anyone reading this blog has already checked out the YouTube channel. But, if you haven't here's some footage of me slamming the VFC EGLM, and then 'dry' firing 4 shells full of propane out of my ARES EGLM.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRoivR8Ft1c
     
    Fun stuff 40mm.
     
    Reminds me of a time at a skirmish actually, I had the ARES launcher mounted to my 14.5" CASV Marui SOCOM, and no word of a lie, some chubby dude covered in 'POLICE' badges sporting the worst teenage facial hair I've ever seen, comes over and asks, "does that noob tube work then?". Now, I certainly didn't say anything to him at the the time other than "yes mate, it's just like a big shotgun really", but come on...
     
    If people want to use 40mm launchers in CoD/Battlefield/whatever then bloody let em, calling it a noob tube in a game doesn't even make sense; but bringing that kind of talk out to airsoft? Really?
  14. TheFull9
    It's double posting madness today apparently. Other than building stupidly pimped-out Magpul guns, I also decided to finally get around to recording some airsoft chatty/reviewy/shooty stuff for YouTube. The first thing that came to mind, since I'd received a RS AR-15 buffer unit with one of my orders, was to compare a heavy recoil setup in one of the WA rifles to one using much lighter parts. Now lets see if I can get this embedding lark to work...
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhovYNSk2Bs
     
    Surprisingly easy.
     
    So yes, if you'd like to see me doing some srz discussion about WA rifles and firing my new toys then watch the above. If you want to watch something a bit more light hearted and not see me fire my new toys, but rather break them instead, then watch the following.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN_1j2B2Db4
  15. TheFull9
    Well, the new builds are basically all done, they've been assembled, played with, checked, tested, and of course there's always more to tweak and tune (especially with WA's) but they do at least look very nice. Anyone wanting lots more pics of the guns or info, check out the magpul picture threads.
     
    On a 'showing people your stuff' note, I'd like to mention that I coughed up for a 'pro' account on photobucket the other day, $25 for a year and it's a pretty sweet deal for anyone out there looking to upload loads of pics and store stuff online. About £15 and you've got unlimited storage space and bandwidth, all the annoying ads removed and you can see all the stats about how many views each of your pictures has had and from which site those views have come. Admittedly, the free account does give you a lot and for most people I'd recommend that, but if you just want to upload to your hearts content then I think it's good value for money.
     
    On an airsoft purchases note, just the day I fly back up to Scotland and leave my guns at home, this pretty lot turn up from DragonRed:
     

     
    I know, what a pain eh? They were intended to go on the WA gun project, but guess that'll have to wait for a few more weeks (only 3 to go until I'm posted back to the right side of the Scottish border, whoop, etc). Do need the proper riser mount now for the T-1, whether there's a decent one out there that isn't Dytac and their ######-take prices we shall see.
  16. TheFull9
    In a thinly veiled attempt at increasing the number of people that read this blog from 2, to the giddy heights of maybe 3 or 4, I have decided that I shall be posting up all my latest stuff here first rather than the appropriate picture threads in the pictures forum. So, since I'm in a rush and getting dragged out the door to the cinema by the missus right now, I'll keep it simple.
     
    Where there's a will, there's a WA
     

     
    Hope you enjoy.
  17. TheFull9
    Well, I flew home on Saturday and have been working on turning the massive pile of boxes full of stuff that greeted me, in to some sort of correctly assembled set of airsoft weapons. it's been a bit of a pain sufficed to say, as per usual with any airsoft project manufacturers standards of tolerances and dimensions have been off here and there and not everything just slots together as it should; although not having bought anything ACM for this project has lessened that particular headache to some extent.
     
    I would have like to blog about it each day as things progressed with pictures etc, and that was that plan. But between the huuuge amount of time that the actual building has taken me and the fact my girlfriend and family to want to suck a lot of my precious time away from airsoft (how inconsiderate of them), that wasn't possible.
     
    Anyway, the project is now put together (externally at least), whether the assembled weapons will shoot satisfactorily, or even shoot at all, remains to be seen; and shall be investigated, hopefully with videos and more pictures, in the coming days.
  18. TheFull9
    After over 2 days waiting in UK customs, the box full of RS magpul parts from the states has finally passed through. Bit of a tense moment there, the actual items themselves are perfectly legal to buy within the UK and obviously they're not made here but you can buy them from Midway UK so they must be ok to import, but US retailers reckon they're ITAR restricted so quite lucky I had a 3rd party to help me out on that front.
     
    Had a bit of bad news the other day, in that the 4 GHK magazines I had been planning to use for all my WA based weapons from now on do not fit in G&P receivers, so I've got two of the 'Gen 2' G&P WA mags on the way and we shall see how those fare. The last 2 G&P ones I ordered from redwolf were caked in grease on arrival and both leaked green gas from the release valves, so fingers crossed between this new purchase, the 2 mags that came with the 2 new guns and the other dodgy ones I'll be able to piece together a load-out's worth of serviceable magazines. The order from WGC containing said mags was 'out for delivery' both yesterday and again today but no sign of actually turning up which is weird and confusing, but I'm pretty sure UPS will still deliver over the weekend so shouldn't be a problem. Lord knows what possesed me but I also couldn't resist putting $120 worth of replica Elcan Spectre scope in with the order, totally pointless as I already have not 1, but 2, 4x ACOGs, but it'll look gucci at least. Also on the optics front decided to pick up some more stuff from DragonRed since they do good scopes with awesome looking trades, those should look pretty sweet on top of the new project guns.
     
    I've actually of course ended up over spending by a fair amount and with the FedEx import bill for the actual WOCs turning up over 2 weeks late my bank account is getting worryingly close to the big fat zero, so anyone out there please do cross your fingers for me that these 2 incoming packages won't get taxed in to next week.
  19. TheFull9
    And so it hits, a lovely lovely import taxes bill from FedEx this morning. I actually can't even remember off the top of my head how long ago the guns turned up, suffice to say it's a fair old while. Their speed of shipping is great, the tracking system works great, they get things through customs incredibly quickly, even 2 WA GBB rifles which are about as close to the RS as you can get short of a de-act, so on the major criteria that you'd judge a courier by they're pretty awesome really. The system they currently have implemented for getting the letters out to inform you that you owe money however is pretty ######, no two ways about it.
     
    I shall continue to use them as they have managed to sneak things through without charges a couple of times, something TNT never once managed after using them for every order I placed for probably pushing 2 years of airsoft purchasing; they're also a hell of a lot better than using EMS/HK post/Speedpost that many retailers offer as their only option, because once packages sent via that get to the UK then royal fail get their grubby hands on it and you're in to a world of excessive charges, annoyance and waiting.
     
    That aside, I'm now left in the situation of going home for a week, for the first time in over 2 months, and having not a penny to spend, when usually my wallet is more secure than a Vegas casino vault. Annoying, but I am hoping that the very large shipment of RS magpul parts currently winging its' way to me will at least slightly ease the pain.
  20. TheFull9
    How long should a blog entry be? I mean, obviously there's no actual defined limits, but is there a sort of convention? Is it considered not-cricket to write lots of short entries? Will people not take an interest in your blog if they feel it's more like a status update? I wonder. Considering the nature of airsoft and building guns and skirmishing, it seems to me like a paragraph or two and maybe a picture would be the sorts of things you'd put in, as your builds progress and you go out to games, but perhaps once this feature becomes more popular these things will be discussed further and I'll get some answers. It strikes me that we have the status updates which could be used for very small 'hey, look what I got' sort of things, but then you're limited to maybe 10-15 words there and no images, so I think I'll be continuing to look at this blog as a sort of 'extended' status update feature.
     
    Anyway, as for the actual news itself, all the plastic hardware parts for the current project have just gone in to the post from the states travelling this direction, a couple of minor parts are also (slowly) on their way from Airsoft Global, although the tracking for that particular package is proving to be awful, "The package left Hong Kong for its' destination on the 13th of October" does not help me all that much. Is it on some kind of solar-powered plane that takes days to travel any distance? If that one goes anything like it does last time, after waiting a fortnight or so I'll query the order with AG who will submit a form to the post office who won't reply to it for another 2 months or so, the package will turn up around 3 months late at which point I'll have won a dispute with paypal over the order and AG will then try and get the money back off me. Though, fingers crossed it won't work out that way.
     
    Luckily I have also done some maths wrong (in a good way (for a change)) and I'm currently much more flushed that I was expecting to be at this point, so that should mean more gucci optics for the guns I'm building. If the 1-4x Elcan thing was out I'd be all over that but sadly not, so it's a toss up between a T-1 and a Comp M4 aimpoint at the moment, then again might just get both...
  21. TheFull9
    Well, the vat majority of the metal hardware for the new rifle project has rocked up, first time I've used UPS as a courier and I've been fairly impressed to be honest, HK to here in 4 days and that was the 'saver' option which wasn't much money at all. Always far better than using EMS and getting your stuff stuck in some depot while Parcel Farce snail mail you a snotty letter demanding money out of you before they'll deliver the stuff you paid for. Wankers...
     
    Anyways, picture of lots of nice bits and pieces for the WAs:
     

     
    Won't do a list because that'll all be up once I post the finished project in the weapon picture threads, think of it as a parts ident. challenge sort of thing.
  22. TheFull9
    Well, that's everything for the project finally paid for. I've got a shed load of WA rifle parts and all the other metal hardware on the way from WGC, and all the plastic accessories (stocks, grips, rail panels etc) will be on their way from the states shortly. It's all been paid for using paypal, and I'm glad it's all in $ because if the actual £ value was right there in black and white to plainly see I'd probably cry myself to sleep tonight.
     
    There has been a glimmer of hope with the 2 WOC rifles, in that hopefully I won't be getting an import tax bill for them. When the package arrived the plastic sleeve holding all the paperwork hadn't been opened and all the papers will still folded with the value of the items covered up, so keeping my fingers crossed; would save me about £200 if I'm lucky. From now it is 1 week and 6 days until I fly home for a weeks leave and get my hands on everything I've been buying thus far, provided it gets there in time that is, Hong Kong and Michigan aren't exactly that close to Harrow. Looks like it's going to be another one of those weeks where I'm checking up on tracking numbers every 5 minutes, frustrating, but kind of fun in a way, watching the things you've been wanting to long gradually getting closer to finally being in your hands.
  23. TheFull9
    Bloody TMC, costing me unnecessary money. A strong word of advice for anyone out there reading this, whenever you've got a sort of e-mail 'trail' going with a HK airsoft shop because you want something specific with an order, make doubly sure to remind them again of exactly what you want just before they ship it out, else they'll have forgotten.
     
    Can't progress on the project now since I may (or may not!) be about to receive an enormous customs bill through from FedEx. If any of you could possibly cross your fingers for me that by some miracle these 2 guns, with "Value: $1000" written on the p/work, have slipped through without charges then that'd be awesome.
  24. TheFull9
    Part of me doesn't want to reveal what I'm doing just now before it's ready, but I don't think many people will be looking here so just a quick preview. A picture paints a thousands words after all, so here's what rocked up at home today:
     

     
    Obviously, they won't be staying like this for terribly long.
  25. TheFull9
    Woohoo, and other celebrations.
     
    I have nothing against Scotland, it's a very pretty country with lots of things gong for it, and if I'd been living in a decent sized city like Inverness or Aberdeen I'd have not minded being there so much it must be said. However, my girlfriend lives in Eastbourne, my parents and brother live in Middlesex (where I go when I get a weeks' leave) and there isn't a SINGLE skirmish site to be found in all of Moray/Aberdeenshire (where my previous posting of Lossiemouth was).
     
    I always found it strange, that there's a fair few skirmish sites right down in southern Scotland near Glasgow, then there's a big gap of there not being much population to speak of until you hit Moray and the cities of Inverness and Aberdeen, which are just at the base of the Highlands portion of the country. Yet, strangely, there aren't any more skirmish sites until you get to 2 of the most incredibly remote places in the UK, right up the tip of the highlands, and on the Orkney islands, and I've always thought this odd. It certainly put paid to my plans of taking a full set of skirmish gear (primary+secondary, eye pro, LBE, ammo, battery, charger, gas etc etc) up there and getting some games in, something I couldn't do for 1.5 years while doing my training and was really looking forward to. But oh well. To make up for it I'm now stationed about 20 minutes drive from an airsoft site which also happens to be the location for this years' 'Arnies Airsoft - Operation: Morning After', which goes to show life is indeed swings and round-abouts.
     
    On a side note, anyone wishing to find any skirmish sites near to them, or generally get an idea of the 'lay' or spread of sites throughout the UK check this link out:
     
    http://www.airsoftmap.net/UK/Skirmish
     
    For the few out there who haven't been made aware of Airbana before now, I'm putting that there for a general bit of bookmark action along with the reasons mentioned above. It lists pretty much all UK/NI skirmish sites, retailers (probably just as interesting if not more so) as well as scheduled airsoft events; i.e. it's bloody handy.
     
    So yes, back to the title, I hired a van from Europcar this last weekend to load all my stuff in to (a surprising amount if you've ever seen the size of an individual's barrack block room in HM Forces) and drove the ~550 miles from Lossiemouth to Honington, which was fun since they gave us a van which was far too big, most of the driving was at night and though I have my licence I'm yet to own a motor vehicle and have never been on a dual carriage way let alone a motorway.
     
    Now, she probably doesn't even read this so it probably won't get me any brownie points, but have to say a big thanks to my girlfriend (Cavallin on here) for doing a lot of the driving, telling me some life saving (pretty much literally) bits of info about how to drive on motorways, and paying for diesel when I'd filled up the van and my card got declined at the till because the utter twunts at Europcar didn't tell me they were charging a £200 deposit to my card on top of the £400 for the rental. Overall though, nothing got broken in the back and I pretty much moved my whole life the length of the UK in 23.5 hours with an 11 hour stop off for a nice snooze and a full English in a spiffing little hotel near Catterick. Quite happy with that, hope to see any folks to skirmish at Tuddenham in the near future.
     
    On a super random finishing point, here's a bit of 'Chap-Hop' that my brother (forum name Mr. Jon) put me on to via facebook. Rather fun bit of music, and you'll understand the genre title once you give it a listen:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iRTB-FTMdk
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