Tarnish

Ah but on the bright side we should have them by the weekend! Combat South anyone?! Nice one for ringing ASW and a good spot on the Minimi slings there too Glumly, the real thing for less that an airsoft sling.

A&K M249 gearbox strip on YouTube

That's good news as I was about the resort to the completely undigified:- "Marky wanna Minimi, WAAAAHHHH!!!!" Of course accompanied by the obligatory tears and snotty nose with a bubble coming out of one nostril.

Sad innit? I've been doing the same, clicking on the Airsoft World's M249 page to see the last update still on the 4th of Sept and then onto the forums to see if there's any news. I'm hoping we'll see them delivered before this working week is out, an update online would be good as then there'll save themselves the grief of more phone calls from the more impatient airsofters among us. I expect sod's law dictates that customs are taking their time.

I tend to agree with Shard on that score. Certainly when the STAR M249 was released there was an influx of them at my usual site Combat South, but I have noticed on most of my visits this year that the majority of players are using the usual M16/M4, G36, AK and M14 selection. I've been a rarity there in that I've the used my "Stealthbomber" modded G&G L85A1 almost exclusively this year and there have not been a huge number of SA80s in evidence apart from on a couple of occasions. Yeah I expect (myself perhaps included in that number) to find many players with discovers that lugging ar

Good work there my man! The temptation for me to call was great but I have resisted, I figured they'll be having plenty of calls on the issue coming in without my help.

Here you go, a bit of useless info for you taken from the Jane's Infantry Weapons entries on the FN Minimi and the US M249 SAW.

I was there in July too on another job and the weather was pants but even so the views were still stunning with the low cloud sweeping in over Skye. Ah well it's more overtime to help pay for the Minimi!

That is good news regards the early shipment. Bizarrely I'm going to be in Scotland with work over the original expected delivery date but miles from anywhere at Kyle of Lochalsh so I was expecting to be gnashing my teeth at being miles from home and not getting to see my new toy. Roll on next week!

I'm hopeful the reverse will be true for those of us in the UK reducing the power to 1 joule and eventually fitting higher grade parts. Still there's always the option if possible of fitting a CA gearbox, again UN Company have them in stock for both front and rear wired versions.

Thanks for the pics joeshred, it's looking pretty good to me. Not wanting to wish time away but I am rather looking forward for the next three and a half weeks to pass and I get my Mk1 in my grubby little paws.

My plan for the Para if I'd ordered one was to get some CA Mk1 grip panels from UN Company, I'm sure even if they need a little work that they'll fit eventually. Mk1 Grips at UN Company

On a similar note the current FN Herstal production Minimi has the solid "Mk2" stock and folding carrying handle but still has the "Mk1" foregrip, no heatshield and "Mk1" style flash hider. There are so many slight variations between all the different nations that I reckon just about any incarnation you could come up with would be right somewhere along the line. FN Herstal homepage

The in service Minimi with the British Army is an off the shelf Para model bought direct from Fabrique Nationale so it has the Mk1 style foregrip, no heat shield and if it has a rail fitted to the feed cover at all it is a dove tail to take a SUSAT or a raised mount to allow the Common Weapon Sight to be fitted. UK nomenclature is the L110A1. The original "Mk1" Minimi as used by UKSF in the 1991 Gulf War is termed the L108A1. Like yourself I was originally going to plump for the Para model but I've since decided I want a "full size" LMG so I've pre-ordered the Mk1. I'm thinking it ma

That pic is of the CA249P, the painted gas block gives it away.

I just use a basic chest rig, the central three pouches will happily take two 7.62mm twenty round size mags each. I'm working off four G&P 160 mid-caps and the TM 70 round standard, the third pouch carries spare loose ammo in two Excel 1300 round mag shaped bottles.

Well if you're mainly going to be playing at woodland sites then you certainly can't go far wrong with the M14. Out of all the TM AEGs I've had and used the M14 and the Thompson have been the best of the bunch.

Take your pick:- Guarder TM M14 SP120 FTK Guarder TM M14 Cylinder Enhancement Set