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Initial Impressions of the TM SOPMOD M4 AEG


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While fiddling about with my SOCOM recently I noticed an expected benefit of using a Magpul MIAD grip. The swappable backstrap means you only need to remove the pistol grip base to get access to the a

Oh PureSilver, you do spoil me rotten sometimes.   PureSilver dropped half his SOPMOD off with me last weekend with some new goodies to install. Before we continue, you should note that the gun had

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Wait? What? I'm sorry, but you are bashing a clone based on a $5 hop-up rubber?

 

The click adjustment can be fixed in no-time, the 'loosy-looseness' of the unit with .05$ worth of electrical tape.

I did that, and using a G&P hop-up bucking (yes, you're probably laughing), my hop-up unit performs just as good as any TM.

 

Yes, the motor is pretty bad, but my $25 Element motor outperforms the Marui's motor by far.

 

 

- Mags are tight; too tight, no denying in that.

- The standard crane stock is rubbish x 1000... Very true. I had a G&P one laying around anyway.

- The recoil is indeed non-existent, then again, 100gr of lead doesn't justify double price of the Tokyo Marui :P

- No bolt catch is indeed a very big flaw, and it is one of the points I hope to find a solution for fast.

 

The fact that I bought the ARMY had nothing to do with money, rather with common sense. With the mentioned upgrades above, I paid HALF the price of a Tokyo Marui!

 

Ive got brand new airnozzles and hop units and hop rubbers. Its simply not a TM, you forget ive owned a tm sopmod since they come out and have upgraded hundreads of others, ive seen what a fully upgraded sopmod was like and the clone out of the box just isnt anywhere near it dispite its extra power.

 

I dont think im bashing it i think ive been pretty honest and have reviiewed it from both sides, i even said you could spend all that money on the upgrades and still be cheaper than a TM.

 

BUT if you want any sort of resale when it comes to the forums, an upgraded tm sopmod gets nearly all of its money back. No one will pay more than £200 for a clone sopmod. Not matter how much you spend on it. Its like buying a Q plate kit car.

 

Im not exactly flush wth money most of its tied up in part orders, but i would rather save for a TM sopmod than get this clone, spend money on upgrading it and "maybe" get to the same degree of accuracy as my tm sopmod. Im sorry but once i saw the airnozzle being a different size it makes you wonder what else is different, and i dont want to wonder... i want to love my gun not think this guns poo all weekend.

 

Are tms too expensive yes.. but they offer more... and you know exactly where you stand with the tm.

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...element motor, better than an eg1000?

 

Blasphemy.

 

 

 

The elements alright but it can be tight in a sopmod, not providing decent movment up and down, you have to get the wires right, i also remove the sticker on the side. Also you need to mod the tm end grip with a dremel so you dont get arching accross the contacts. its the same with a lot of aftermarket motors. Otherwise youl just get random fuse poping.

 

 

like you say the tm ones a pretty safe bet.

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I did not forget you're the expert on this forum, that is why I did not expect hearing what you said.

 

Make no mistake, I was also one of the first to buy a Tokyo Marui SOPMOD, yet I decided to buy an ARMY the second it was released. My first cheap clone ever.

 

 

"maybe" get to the same degree of accuracy as my tm sopmod.

 

While my fully upgraded Marui is indeed more accurate than my ARMY, mine (with small upgrades) does not perform less than a stock SOPMOD; for half the price.

There is no magic or pixie dust involved, it's mechanics: if you have good parts and assemble it properly, it performs the same.

 

ive seen what a fully upgraded sopmod was like and the clone out of the box just isnt anywhere near it dispite its extra power.

 

Then again, the upgraded Marui to date cost me about 4-5 times the ARMY out of the box.

I'm sure yours isn't much cheaper.

Edited by Schaap
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Richard, if I'd known you were the I would have said hello! Plus I was on the task force side so would have been shot to *suitcase* if I'd have gone to pmf regen! (as it was we tried several times and got nailed! Stupid place to put objectives next to the regen of 100 enemy players!)

 

It was a good weekend overall but had some flaws... I'm sure they will be done to death on the organisers forums!

 

As to the point in hand, tm vs clone, I guess the real tester, as always, will be the test of time and to see which performs best for longest. Myself I'll freely admit I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to RIFS, I've had such dog *suitcase* clones in the past I'm very reluctant to go there again. But my socom has had 2 years of abuse and is still putting bb's down range further and more accurately than any other AEG. Example in point, this last weekend my team mates and I were plinking at a car in the distance and I was able to hit it and they weren't, when I paced the distance it was 63 meters away! Then my team mates and I began to shoot at each other from this distance to test the actuall accuracy (just because my bb's were hitting at 63 meters doesn't mean it was doing so accurately) I began firing semi and taking one pace forward at a time. I could hit my team mate at 60 meters but found I could hit them 5 out of 10 times. At around 55 meters Howe er the accuracy got much better. I would say 50 to 55 meters is your max accurate engagement distance with the tm ( weather permitting) only upgrades on my tm is eagle 6 spring and 6.03 pdi barrel and also some of the mods taken from the DMR section of the snipers hide such as the barrel stabilising with ptfe tape. Also cosmetic wise I have a dd mk18 ris 2 , full m4 length version.

 

And a note on the abuse I mentioned... My iris has been taken apart and changed it's look alot! I've dropped it, banged it, dragged it through mud, I've rattled it off Walls whilst dodging incoming fire. Still keeps going. I have given it plenty of tlc as well though!

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While my fully upgraded Marui is indeed more accurate than my ARMY, mine (with small upgrades) does not perform less than a stock SOPMOD; for half the price.

There is no magic or pixie dust involved, it's mechanics: if you have good parts and assemble it properly, it performs the same.

Then again, the upgraded Marui to date cost me about 4-5 times the ARMY out of the box.

I'm sure yours isn't much cheaper.

Seems I've dropped out of this thread for way too long. The bolded statement above has intrigued me. What are the small upgrades done to the ARMY that makes it match a stock TM Sopmod? This isn't a facetious question as I am unfamiliar with the ARMY except that it's a high level clone of TM and from what other specs it's been stated here. Particularly the specs Richard Y mentioned that the recoil weight of the ARMY is less than of the TM Sopmod. Does that small upgrades you mention include putting a TM-equivalent weight into the ARMY for it to perform equal to the stock TM?

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I've performed the following upgrades:

- TM SOPMOD original barrel (had that one as a spare, lol)

- Clicky-wheel fix + electrical tape to make hop-up more stable

- G&P Hop-up rubber, guarder nub (the original army bucking had a manufacturing error I think)

- Element Ultra Torque Motor (fitted just fine?)

- Replaced fuse with 20A car fuse

- Spring cut down from 380FPS (stock) to 320-330

 

I'm currently using a 7.4V 1200mAh LiPo under my G&P RAS (did have to use my TM bottom rail for the battery to fit)

 

I probably used the wrong word by saying "performs", it has an accuracy equal to the standard SOPMOD I happened to have here.

Stock ARMY performance wasn't anywhere near this... Not bad for one hour of work and $25!

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the ARMY is the holy grail of clones (or AEGs). It's not, it is my first ACM/clone experience and I'm positively surprised by it.

Like Richard said and I confirmed, it also has it's negatives compared to the original...

 

I hope this clarifies!

Edited by Schaap
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My Problem was i went inside it and changed the spring over. With the above things done to it, youve kept it relatively stock while fixing the problems, which was the small amount of fixes i mentioned to the hop and accuracy. But i wanted to remove the attached spring, for me the whole point of going socom was for a very fast spring change if i needed it so i had to remove the attched spring from the piston.

 

And in true clone fashion the fps dropped loads when i did this... even putting the oringinal back in didnt bring the fps, which having worked on many clones its there unpreditability which is the most annoying. Maybe i should have been more specific in what i experienced. Its all fine now i tried the usual o ring mod but its not having the simple fix so i just fit a larger spring in there. my ones back up to about 350 but obviously needs the new hop rubber still.

 

It has 8mm bearings as stnadard which is quite all right but ive heard it can be an issue changing to bearings you may need to adjust the shell. Gears are better than the tms ones for strength, But thats abbout where it ends, youll need to upgrade the cylinder set if you want any sort of consistency after going inside. Also the airnozzle is different longer i think. So you will need to "possibly" change the hop unit if you change the air nozzle.

 

The grip ends different which is why you probably had no issues installing an element motor. On the sopmods i dremel all the standard tm grip ends when fitting after market motors..

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80 (metres per second) = 262.467192 feet per second

 

 

 

more like an m85 i guess...

 

The m rating is meant to relate to meters per second the spring produces but most manuafactures can only get close or diaviate a little, like my m90 is closer to 315 fps on a stock tm, Which keeps it under 330 even with upgrades. or should do..

Edited by Richard Y
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Its a madbull rail? I was under the impression that marui obtained the licensing through madbull and made the rail themselves. If im not mistaken, the Recce rail is in a length that isnt made by madbull. isnt it a 10 inch? I could be wrong though

 

 

On another note, has anyone had issues with using a BAD lever on their sopmods? I installed one on my socom, and the bolt lock feature wont function. Without it, works fine

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Its a madbull rail? I was under the impression that marui obtained the licensing through madbull and made the rail themselves. If im not mistaken, the Recce rail is in a length that isnt made by madbull. isnt it a 10 inch? I could be wrong though

 

 

On another note, has anyone had issues with using a BAD lever on their sopmods? I installed one on my socom, and the bolt lock feature wont function. Without it, works fine

 

 

 

Its all guess work with marui no one knows other than its fully licensed with madbull. There was a big delay on the recce due to this. And there was even talk that it would be a limited run due to the extra cost to marui but as we can see the next stock of recce is now in most shops in japan so its definatly a long term gun. Its crazy the rumors that get passed around about marui.

 

Marui would have had to create a whole new setup to make the dd ris, im just saying it might have been easier for them to buy them in from madbull from a manufacturing point of view. After all the battery packs are made in china. They dont make everything in house its unrealistic for a company to try and do everything in house.

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For the purpose of comparison:

 

http://www.madbullairsoft.com/English/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_24&products_id=272

 

http://www.tokyo-model.com.hk/ecshop/goods.php?id=7228

 

Key thing to note is that where the trademarks are on the Madbull system, the RECCE rifle has venting holes. The venting holes on the top and bottom for the RECCE rifle are the same diameter as the holes on the centre cylinder, whereas the Madbull system has different sizes.

 

For reference, the RECCE rifle has the following trades visible from the top of the rail system:

 

LITE RAIL 10.0

 

DANIEL DEFENSE, INC.®

 

From the bottom:

 

FOR MARUI AIR SOFT GUN ONLY

 

I was considering the possibility of replacing the rail system as one possible resolution to this issue. Unfortunately, I can't remove the blasted thing. The six screws are out but it obstinately refuses to go. Interestingly, the screw the covers the ejection port nicked the receiver paint work on the way out.

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I was considering the possibility of replacing the rail system as one possible resolution to this issue. Unfortunately, I can't remove the blasted thing. The six screws are out but it obstinately refuses to go. Interestingly, the screw the covers the ejection port nicked the receiver paint work on the way out.

 

It does that unless you make it the last screw out so that you can move the ris forward as you unscrew it, thus preventing the screw moving backwards and fouling the ejection port. Not sure why it won't come off though unless the design is different. Gas block stopping it coming off? Anything in the manual?

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