Tokyo Marui Heckler & Koch G36C AEG I came relatively late to the G36C; it had already been out for about 4 months when I made my order to Airsoft Armoury. Nether the less a couple of days later and the courier was at my door with a large familiar shaped box. I am a little surprised that TM package folding stock guns with the stock extended, surely it would be cheaper to store and package if it was folded, but I digress. Asides from the gun itself, you get a Lo-cap, loading rod and tube, cleaning rod, 200BB’s and manual. I chose the G36C because I was looking for something with a European feel to match my Flecktarn load out. Also the allure of something compact with large Hi-caps was too tempting to resist. (If you don’t like Hi-caps then replace that sentence with the “allure of those incredibly cool transparent mags with fake bullets” ? ). First Impressions My first impressions when lifting it free of the polystyrene were that it feels very solid, no doubt courtesy of the metal “backbone” inside the upper part of the receiver. There is also no discernible creak or flex that is usually apparent with plastic models. Again this may be due to the strength of the backbone, but also down to the short length of the weapon. The finish is very good – on a par with TM’s other recent offering, the FN P90. The receiver and stock is finished in a very dark matt grey / black plastic, whereas the grips and magwell have a slightly more shiny stippled black effect. As in the “real steel”, there is an extensive use of plastics. External metal components consist of the flash hider / outer barrel, lower RIS rail, rear sight, fire selector and trigger. Size wise it is similar in size to that of an MP5, and shoulders well and feels very natural and instinctive. The vital statistics are:
A Little Tour The stock is plastic with a rubber “shock” pad at the shoulder, and is folded to the right by pushing a release of the left. It then hooks rather neatly over a hook on the spent shell deflector.
To bring it back to full length all that is needed is to lift the stock slightly and swing it straight until the lock engages. It feels very sturdy, but the skeletal design makes it look like it won’t take huge amounts of punishment. Indeed on UKAN I have noticed that someone has broken theirs after dropping it stock first from around 80cm. Damage from this is not too suprising, but it’s worth remembering, be careful…
As standard the G36C is supplied with a short RIS rail under the foregrip and a rail along the top of the carry handle for mounting optics to. The foregrip one is made of metal while the carry handle rail is made of plastic. There are also provisions to add another 2 RIS rails to the side of the foregrip. Also on the carry handle are the iron sights. Front post and rear peep sights are provided, the rears with windage and elevation adjustment via Allen screws. The rear sight also has 2 flip up settings, one marked 100/200 and one marked 300. Obviously the differences are fairly superfluous in Airsoft. There are 3 sling points on the gun, one at the front of the foregrip rail, one on the receiver just before the stock hinge, and one to the rear of the stock itself. These are the familiar Heckler and Koch ring design.
Some nice detail markings can also be seen to the left of this pic (inset left), so far as I can see, the same as “real steel”. Moving to the front end and there is the G36 family 4 prong flashhider. This is screwed onto the outer barrel (14mm- thread) and also secured by a grub screw in the bottom. Be sure to loosen the grub screw before removal if you want to fit a silencer / tracer unit. The fore grip houses the battery (mini as standard) and is removed by pulling out the pin at the centre of the grip, then pulling the grip forward away from the magwell. The fuse is also accessible here. Battery changes can be done in seconds, which is compensation for using mini batteries. I’m not a great fan of mini batteries, as I like to fit a battery in the morning and forget about it all day. There are a few larger mAh batteries on the market, which I may consider at a later date.
The standard mags are of similar appearance to the FN P90 ones in having a transparent design with fake bullets visible through the sides. These hold 50 BB’s, and are loaded with the familiar loading rod and plunger technique. The
Hi-caps do not have the fake bullets unfortunately, but can
hold 470 BB’s. These are loaded via a folding cover located
in the top of the magazine. The winder, as always is in the
base.
Luckily for me I have a genuine KSK Tac Vest, which is capable of holding 2 clipped together mags in each of its 4 mag pouches. This vest is in the currently vogue Flecktarn camo style (being German) and suits the German load out perfectly. For interest it was bought from Flecktarn.co.uk who have lots of pouches / vests / webbing etc, including individual pouches for G36 mags. If you haven’t tried them give them a look-up. Both types can be clipped together to allow quick reloads during a firefight, or just handy storage if you don’t have suitable pouches. Hopefully Marui have learnt from the fragile nature of their SIG magazines, and have beefed up the clips. It should also be noted that with a spare mag clipped to the RHS, the stock cannot be folded as the spare mag gets in the way. Performance Out of the box, my G36C gave 298fps. The range is respectable given the length of the barrel once the hop is set and bedded in. Pulling back the cocking handle to open the ejector port accesses the hop, which is adjusted in the usual manner.
Rate of fire is also good, benefiting from the EG700 motor and Version 3 AK-type gearbox. In the field its compact size makes it very manoeuvrable. I play at a mostly woodland site (www.teamkgb.co.uk) so being able to fit between trees is always a bonus. In this role I thought I would prefer the stock out so that I can shoulder it for shots. But at a recent game I spent more time with the stock folded than out. In this configuration the small size comes into its own – very pointable. One unfortunate mishap occurred at its first use. The white mark on the fire selector is obviously a water transferable decal, as in the typical rainy summers day both marks washed off. It’s a small thing, and easily fixed with a flash of Humbrol, but it’s just a little annoying to have to do such a trivial thing.
Other than that it performed as expected. Bolt Ons Being so new there aren’t as many as there are for the M4 / MP5 series yet, but thanks to its modularity, there are a few. Externally:
No doubt there will also be kits to modify the G36C into different members of the G36 family. Indeed both AirsoftClub and 2A productions have beaten Marui to it: AirsoftClub stock a G36K conversion kit (made by Dragon Arms), which is bound to be popular – especially as it’s limited to 100 pieces at time of writing. 2A Productions have produced a G36E conversion kit (a G36K without the built in optics). Internally:
Summary The G36C is a very nice piece of kit, compact enough for CQB / FIBUA, but capable of pinning players at range. The quality of the gun is also very good – everything is good and tight and mouldings are good quality too. In this form the G36C makes a suitable step up from the MP5 range for those who want higher capacity mags in a compact package. It is also a more modern alternative to the MC-51, but with less body creak. The downsides are the use of small batteries (I don’t mean to keep coming back to it), but this is not unsurpassable in some way. The relatively short barrel also affects accuracy at extremes of range. But this is not what the “C” is designed for. When the G36 / G36K is released (which I’m sure it will in some way or form), those who need this accuracy will get it (along with better battery storage – I had to get that one in ;) ). I had hoped to find a few more negatives so that the review didn’t come out praising the G36C up to the nines, but in truth, when looking at what the piece is designed to do, it is difficult to fault it. Is it worth it? For use in CQB / FIBUA and unabashed yes. Players may find it a little below par for long-range engagements, but that’s not what the ‘C’ is all about. That’s the job of the G36 / G36K.
Spanners at the ready! Well that’s it for the standard model, but I can never leave anything standard for long. Over the coming month I have a small plan fermenting that should improve the basic ‘C’ whilst retaining its original feel. This I hope to cover in another article. by S. Knight (aka MadeInAustria) External
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links: Comment on this review in the forums Last modified: Monday, May 5, 2003 7:09 PM Copyright 2003 ArniesAirsoft
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