M733 Colt Commando - "Blood Diamond Special"

[NegativeCambre]

I was thinking of trying to make a 9.6v 2x2x2x2 out of 1700mah AA size bat's... I'll have to mock some up with some regular old disposable AA's I have laying around when my handguards come to make sure that's feasible. Also thinking about whacking a bit of the fatty outer barrel off to give the batteries some clearance. think I could remove probably a good 40% without effecting the outer barrel's strength too much.

 

Steve

[Reborn]

Good luck with that. You appear to be a far superior airsoft gunsmith than I.

[NegativeCambre]

It's all about trial and error. I like the building process, since I don't get to play as much as I used to.

 

I just love old-school AR's with the long XM style moderators... you can fit so much inner barrel in them too! My M733ish thing is packing a 363mm M4 length barrel, but somehow looks a lot more compact. Probably an optical illusion created by the thick moderator...

 

I'll post pictures of it when I'm done later this week in the AR picture thread... no use cluttering up your project thread with my gun!

 

Steve

[Reborn]

Oh you're welcome to use this thread. Two rifles are better than one, eh?

 

Good building, man. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

[NegativeCambre]

 

 

"Jungle style"

 

 

My gun is bizarre, because it has the M61A1 style carry handle w/ M16A2 markings, a brass deflector, forward assist, and full-fenced mag-well. I've been able to find quite a few early A2's with this configuration online, but it seems to me this was a much much rarer beast then the standard slab-styled early AR carbines.

 

It also has what I believe is a CQB-R outer barrel, real steel foregrips (heavy dremeling and filing to get them to fit, and will probably only be able to sqeeze a lipo in there now...), and A1 style pistol grip.

 

So its a frankencarbine to be sure, but I sure like the way it turned out. I have three AR's now, two of them are tacticool (to the max, I'll post their pictures in the AR thread when I am done with them cosmetically), but it was fun to build something a bit more retro and simple.

 

Thanks for letting me take some of your thread...

 

Steve

[Reborn]

It's cool, man.

 

You have a mean beast there. Most people would automatically assume that it is a CQB weapon, but with the right inner barrel it could also be made into a decent medium-range woodland weapon.

 

As for the mismatched parts, don't worry about it. Colt has a reputation of marketing all of their shortened AR-15 variants under the common label of "CAR-15" or "Colt Commando." These carbines are usually made from whatever parts that happen to be available at the time. It would be perfectly normal for an early-production M733 to have an A1 upper receiver, A2 lower receiver, and an A1 grip. The only anomaly there is the 10.5-inch CQBR barrel. That would be the only part not typical to a production M733.

 

Specifics aside, I like your weapon very much. Very well done!

[NegativeCambre]

Now I just have to decide if I want to optic it out or keep it as is... I love the look of your carbine and similar "BHD" replicas, but I also think AR iron sights are rockin...

[Reborn]

I'd recommend the G&P CompML2 replica. But if you want a "classic carbine" feel, try one of Colt's 4X carrying handle scopes with a 20 mm lens.

[NegativeCambre]

I have about four aimpoint reps kickin around the place right now, one of them has some good looking engraved aimpoint trades too... if I was going to go that route, I'd use that.

 

All my guns have optics though, it would be nice to have one that didn't.

 

Right now I'm contemplating going lipo route... maybe with a tri-burst chip in there to truly make it stand out from the rest of my collection.

 

I have some thinking to do...

 

Steve

[Karnage]

About batteries, I could fit a NiCad 9.6v 1100mAh in my G&P XM177 front set, 9.6v 1700mAh was slightly too large, even when using the very thin G&P barrel, but I think I came to the conclusion that a custom made pack with AA cells would fit too.

But I never got around to making a new pack and as the G&P barrel was aluminum I changed it to a slightly fatter but better looking Guarder steel barrel so I stuck to my 9.6V 1100mAh.

[NegativeCambre]

My gun uses a real-steel carbine foregrip, which through its inherent design is much smaller inside then the TM or G&P handguard, which are designed with the intent to put a battery inside.

 

I'm reluctant to go away from my handguards, because I love how skinny the front looks right now, so I think I'm going to research lipoli and really just make this an all-out project. I've already spent quite a bit on the body, internals, etc.... might as well make it my "flagship" AEG in my collection.

[Karnage]

I used RS handguards tool, I removed the heatshields and a little of the material on the inside, the G&P handguards isn't too different in size.

[DanHS]

Ah, I was looking at this thread a while ago but had forgotten about it. When I saw Blood Diamond, I noticed the M733 with XM flashider right away, very similar to the 'BHD' guns, probably was a prop gun from BHD. Those are nice M733/Commando type guns you guys have, I always liked the simple and plain carbines. I guess I'll share mine and tell you guys about my custom battery. But first, pics;

 

Me with the gun last Sunday, cut this out of a group photo.

 

The custom battery I use, it's a 9.6v pack using 'A' size cells, 4/5 A cells will work well too. All I had to do to fit it was swap the top and bottom halves of the foregrip around. Converting to blade connectors and using the Systema wiring helps save a ton of space too.

 

Here's a couple diagrams for the layout of the battery (these were attachments in something a posted a couple years ago, you'll have to cut and paste them as the forum doesn't allow them to be links, and I doubt anyone will be able to find that post now)

arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=17171

arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=17172

 

And a pic of the gun, it's all packed up at the moment for a game tomorrow, I'll try and get some good pics up afterwards, if you guys like.

 

The battery I had made by CheapBatteryPacks.com, they don't have those same 'A' cells now, but they do have some nice 4/5A cells that would work very well too, and be easier to use if you kept the mini Tamiya connectors.

The body is a Hurricane, I wondered if I should get the G&P and mod it to make the dust cover open with the charging handle, the Hurricane body is really nice, but the trigger group pins look so fake as they're just molded in, whereas the G&P and Guarder bodies have little steel disks that look like pins pressed into them. Most mags were a very tight fit, I filed the body a little wherever the mags fit tightly, works fine now. It's still very nice though, I can't really complain. The OPS suppressor is from King Arms, the pistol grip CA (I think the G&P would have fit better, it also would have come with the G&P body kit), Aimpoint is G&P with AMP mount (AMP Aimpoint has a crummy switch design, it broke). I have G&P midcaps that feed just fine now, wasted $40 on King Arms midcaps that feed ok after modifying the followers, they didn't feed at all before that. Wish I had bought the MAG midcaps instead, I'll buy them now. I also just got a couple STAR PMags (I won't buy the PTS PMags because they cost twice as much as the real thing), I'll see how they feed, so far they work great. I saw Evike.com has some Chinese copies of the 68rnd TM locaps for a good price, I'm really tempted to buy them as they seem to be just as good.

 

Oh, and you need one of these flashlight clamps, unfortunately I cannot remember where I bought this or who made it, but I will use it to mount a Surefire 9P if I ever decide I want a flashlight on my gun. It's not the same as the one in the movie, but should work well and be simple and low profile. You should be able to find one if you search around enough.

[reaper16]

A lipoly would be alot simpler, and seeing as how they arent near as dangerous as everyone makes them out to be. Considering how they are in your cellphones and ipods. I wouldn't be surprised if everyday RC cars arent powered by them as well(this excludes the hobbyist RC cars/planes etc.)

[Karnage]

I should have posted this as an edit to my previous post but it's too late now.

The TM handguards are slightly larger than the G&P and RS both externally and internally, but what's great with G&P front set is that their XM177-barrel is really thin.

 

DanHS, I've used both HurricanE and G&P bodies, and I prefer G&P, they are the few among where real steel ejection port covers line up perfectly with the ejection port, they're not as oversized, rs rears sight was drop in, I got mine before they started using the fake pins, but it came with a bunch of nice steel parts for less money than the HurricanE that came with virtually nothing.

You don't have to mod G&P bodies to make the charging handle "work".

[NegativeCambre]

That was the solution I was going with for my front set, but I'm actually taking my gun in a different direction...

 

...as much as I set out to build an old-school carbine, I'm frustrated that the G&P body I got has the forward assist, full fenced magwell and brass deflector.

 

Someday I'll make a true flat sided Air-force style carbine, but not with this rifle... got some more parts coming for it, and the result should be interesting, albeit not period-specific. In the end, it would have been both cheaper and more practical to just have bought the matching G&P XM177E2 front end, which would have given me enough room for the batteries instead of attacking the RS grips with a dremel for two hours just to come to the conclusion that I'd have to run a lipo in the gun.

 

I have no beef with lipos, but I like standardization among my equipment and am not prepared to commit a ton of resources to chargers/balancers etc. at this time.

 

Steve

[Reborn]

Some pictures of the carbine as of now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found a solution for the flashlight mount. I'm going to buy one of G&P's barrel clamp mounts and rig it with a 30 mm scope ring. If I can fit the assembly underneath the front sight, then I might pick up a shorter barrel as well. After all that's done, I'll be painting the carbine. A coat of khaki first, then strips and blotches of OD, brown, and even a little black.

[aznriptide859]

Wow I watched the movie again today, and I must say this is a masterpiece. Good work!

[blacknight]

Don't know if it's been answered, I did look through. But where are you guys getting the large flash suppressors from? Do you think they will fit an M4? Thanks!

[Reborn]

It's the Guarder model. It'll install onto any barrel with the proper 14 mm threading. Any HK-based retailer should have them.

[ThaFlash]

Take an inch off that barrel and you'll be right there (minus the flashlight, but meh, it's a light).

[Reborn]

Looks like I'm going to need that extra inch of barrel in order to attach the light with an under barrel mount. Those are notoriously difficult to source and the one I did fine does not fit under the front sight.

[ThaFlash]

Really? I remember a few years ago we were practically throwing them away. Man, times change.

[Reborn]

Times have changed, indeed. Now, everyone is all about the newfangle rail mounts. It's hard to source a decent, classic under-then-barrel setup. Me personally, I'm going with G&G's barrel clamp, which essentially gives me two slots of rail under the barrel. Then I'm gonna rig my light through a 30 mm scope ring and hook it up. Such a little thing to cause so much trouble.

[BaBaBooey]

Times have changed, indeed. Now, everyone is all about the newfangle rail mounts.

 

Amen...I prefer the "retro" carbine. Too many items on the front make an already front heavy weapon heavier.

 

Here's my version (around 1992?) of the Colt Commando 733...from another movie. I selected to use the A1 rear sights with the A2 shell deflector. I also need to swap out the tear drop FA with a round one. The hand guards are Colt single heat shield, 6 holes. If you put it next to a modern double shield M4, it's remarkably narrower. Barrel is custom made heavy (I essentially took an M4 barrel cut down - you can see on the last photo it's a modified M4).

 

The sight is an Aimpoint 3000 w/low mount, 1" rings, on a Colt Carry Handle mount. The light is Laser Products L-45 Surefire IR, on a Laser Products 1" Weaver mount, Laser Products barrel mount. I ditched the pressure switch since I kept on squeezing it unintentionally.