Colin Allen

All of this is only my opinion based on playing airsoft at a number of sites for many years and marshalling for a few years. Ray once asked if I would become a marshal at the original site. The site is fundamentally flawed with regard to its size, shape and topography. It is small and consists of two main areas: a narrow, relatively steeply sided valley and a plateau. The first few times I went there, it was relatively undeveloped, with a couple of structures in the valley and barricades of various sorts on the plateau; this allowed the games to flow well. Player numbers were good and the days were enjoyable. Since then, more and more structures have been added, breaking up the flow and changing the nature of the games. This focus on outdoor CQB started in the latter days of the old site, when a rather large CQB maze appeared at the back of the fort. Turning it into a CQB site is not necessarily a bad thing, if it is done in a planned manner with a lot of consideration of how the site will work. It does have a good safe zone, which is very rigorously policed; if you enter it with a mag in a weapon, you are going home. Player numbers have been dropping for a while. I think it would take quite a brave person to point out the site’s issues to Ray. I tried to the last time I went.

Having played at the old site many times and the new site several times, in my view the problem is that the new site is just not very good. It is awkward in terms of size, shape and topography and, in my opinion, has been turned into an overly constricted and badly designed outdoor CQB site with apparently little thought for how the site works. I don’t like writing this; I really like the owner and liked the old site, which was wonderfully varied and interesting to play at, although the games could be somewhat repetitive.

That is a real shame; I really like Ray. However, the current site is nowhere near as good as the old one and the work they have done has not improved it. Where in East London are you based?

As is so often the case, a rather dull Sunday morning saw the omniphagus Volvo conveying me to Airsoft Plantation in the rather curious county of Essex. 180 players were present, with an unusually high percentage being either first time visitors to the site or new to airsoft; nobody that I usually team up with was present. I started the day by checking the setup of the ASG FLCN 5.56 that was an impulse buy when I dropped into JD Airsoft a couple of weeks ago, while in Cannock doing lights for a festival which featured possibly the last appearance of the band that I have worked with for a quarter of a century. All that I had done was to replace the hop rubber and nub and the spring. Over a measured 70m distance with the hop set for perfect flight it was putting out 1.03J; lovely! The first game required the Blue team, who started on the firebreak, to get two players onto the upper floors of the five two storey buildings in the village; they had infinite regens on the firebreak, while we had two lives. I started off in the two storey building by the now dried up pond, which soon became rather lively as the enemy attacked directly from the firebreak and flanked around past the border. After some great fights and several very satisfying hits, a BB found me and I moved back to the woods to help defend the sniper tower and the town hall against blue players who had flanked right around the far end of the site. We had a great time stalking each other in the woods and, in our case, providing flanking fire against attacks against the sniper tower. The game timed out with the Blues having taken two of the required buildings. The game was then turned around and I joined a group who were attacking via the suburbs; we pushed into the village and, after a hard fight, took the two storey buildings at that end of the village, getting the requisite two players onto the upper floors of each. Our colleagues attacking from other directions had similar success and we occupied all of the buildings with 45 seconds left on the clock. 1-0 to the Reds Having reloaded, it was time for the briefing for the next game; before this, the site owner gave a very stiff talk about hit taking. I had not noticed any problems, with everyone that I thought I hit raising their hand and walking off, but it seems that there had been an unusually high number of complaints about it. We were informed that anyone found not taking their hits would be required to leave. Fair enough! The next game required us to transfer three bombs in a box to three locations in the mortar pits and set them off; the box required two people to carry it and the bombs could only be transported in the box. We had infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had two lives. Leaving the DEA base, we ran into a fierce resistance that initially brought us to a halt, but we found a way through and delivered our bombs to the bridge, the tunnels and, finally, the Bedford. When this game was turned around, a group of us initially took up a position in the Hill Fort, from where we slowed the enemy's attack. Eventually being hit, I fell back to the cover of a large berm from which I was able to pick off some of the enemy now occupying the Hill Fort. There was then a shout that the enemy were attacking in strength on our far left; a group of us ran over to help the defenders, who were trying to repel an attack along the flanking berm on that side; I hit several of the attackers before eventually being hit just as the game ended. The enemy did not bomb all their targets. 2-0 to the Reds Lunch followed, immediately after which we played a short game; starting at the bus in the mortar pits, we were given a 60 second head start to run and take up positions anywhere on that side of the firebreak. The Blues had to hunt us down and kill as many of us as they could in ten minutes. We had one life, while they had infinite regens. Having run away as fast as we could, a group of us took up a number of positions in the scrubland, potting attackers as we slowly fell back to the far end of the site, where we met up with others, including all of our ghillies, to make a stand. When the game ended, 45 of our team had been killed. In the return of this game, we set out rapidly after the retreating blue team, trying to to hunt them down before they could get organised, which we didn't quite manage to do; nevertheless, we managed to kill 55 of them. 3-0 to the Reds For the final game, starting at the border, the blue team had to transport a very large bag of Bob Marley's favourite recreational substance to the Cock Inn in the village, where they could exchange it for a suitcase full of Colombia's finest, which they then had to get into the Cessna. They had infinite buddy regens, while we had one life in the village and two on the other side of the firebreak. My involvement in the first part of this was somewhat limited as a BB skimmed the brim of my boonie, sending me trudging off to the other side of the firebreak, where I set myself up in the Hill Fort, being joined by a few colleagues. We waited for quite a while for the Blue team to complete their transaction in the village; once they had, it became apparent that they were not heading in our direction, so most of us set off for the area around the Cessna, where a disjointed but fierce set of fights ensued as the attackers tried to get the suitcase into it. Lurking behind the rather overgrown biplane, I took out a fair few attackers before the game ended with them failing to achieve their objective. 4-0 to the Reds From my perspective, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day of airsoft; I did not encounter any hit taking issues, despite the concerns that some players seemed to have. Weapons used: ASG FLCN 5.56 (made by Double Eagle) Double Eagle Honey Badger/PDW ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Which is always a good thing to do.

Sorry about that, old chap.

Yes, solid guns with a decent hop unit.

I bought this rather nice CYMA MP5 SD6 from @Petford25 through the classifieds here; it will go through all my usual upgrades, including fitting an SEF lower.

I cannot remember where we put the battery after I fitted a DD rail to Ben's one; I think we might have use a dummy PEQ box. I think if I was to get one, I would stick with the polymer handguards.

My eldest had one of the early G&G L85s, which was a festering heap of poo, although strangely the blowback did not cause any problems. He sold it years ago when he gave up airsoft. I am going to AP this Sunday and plan to be at Splatoon on the 26th.

That is rather nice. I had an Army Armament L85 for a while; I quite fancy a semi-decent one.

Welcome! Where do you play?

Two possible solutions: 1. Find a hop unit with a somewhat longer feed tube. 2. Shim the top edge of the mag catch recess on the mags.

One of the sites that I frequent has a 60m range, which is slightly inadequate, so I have used Google Maps to identify a spot that is 70m from one of the helicopters and has a clear line of sight to it. The other site does not have a range so I have identified a spot that is 70m from a structure. If I have been fiddling with a gun, I take my box of springs, some hop rubbers and nubs and my toolkit and arrive early and spend time setting it up.

Back in the days when Battle Lakes regularly attracted 100+ players, Tony’s briefing used to mention that full auto capable rifles and SMGs were limited to a 3 (possibly 2?) second burst, but for LMGs, “it’s your gearbox”. LMGs in airsoft can be used to suppress, which is what they do in reality, albeit at risk to the gearbox.

I see no reason whatever to increase power limits; what need would we be resolving by doing so?

No, he is just desperate to get his gums around Tate’s knob.

This now has an SHS high torque motor with a Solink brushless on the way, a ZCI hop unit with a Macaron and an Omega nub, and an XT M100 spring. At some point I will probably fit the Perun Hybrid that is sitting on the work bench so that it can have precocking.

That is a good start then!

If it has the stock motor, fit an SHS high torque one; that will push the RoF up. If your budget runs to it, try a brushless motor. An 11.1V AK battery will have a significant impact on RoF; Nuprol have a 1200mAh one that will fit your gun: https://www.landwarriorairsoft.com/product/nuprol-111v-1200mah-20c-li-po-slim-stick-battery-deans-connector-12718?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22849104859&gbraid=0AAAABAv5_tNoHD3EbCjbAxPz0FfwqjBh9&gclid=CjwKCAjw_fnFBhB0EiwAH_MfZoqTL505L2CNBOLILL824052vhd62Zh_U4pL-nnd7RKftHfGbJAGhxoCYDgQAvD_BwE Don't bother with a fuse; it really isn't necessary. If you want to get rid of the mechanical trigger contacts, fit a Perun V3 hybrid, which will give you all sorts of options to set up your gun as you want it: https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/perun-v3-hybrid I would also replace the hob rubber and nub with this: https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/hop-up-buckings-nubs/maple-leaf-macaron-60-nub Other rubbers and nubs are available.

Excellent! We need more "mature" chaps in airsoft! Adding a fuse will not improve RoF; if anything, it will decrease it.

As I am in Cannock for our final festival gig of the year tomorrow, I wandered into JD Airsoft, which was possibly an error as I came out with this.

Today was spent at my favourite site, Airsoft Plantation, which, as usual, was very busy, albeit with a rather higher percentage of new players than usual. I had three rifles/SMGs with me which I had been working on and wanted to test in the field. Having met up with a couple of chaps that I know and after going through the Sunday morning ritual of the safety brief, we set out for the first game. With two lives we had to prevent the dastardly Reds getting bombs into the three vehicles located in our charming country village. The bombs had to be carried to each of the three targets in an ammo tin. The Reds started on the fire break and could attack from all directions, having infinite regens on the fire break. I took up a position on the Main Street from where I could keep an eye on any attackers trying to work round via the border as well as those taking the direct route. Inevitably, they came from both directions, which resulted in some stiff firefights; after sending a decent number of them back to regen, I was hit and fell back to another location in the village, where the same story was repeated with some excellent play from both sides. Eventually, of course, they achieved all three objectives. A short break to reload followed. In the return leg, the group I was with set off directly for the Jurassic Park jeep, which we captured very rapidly; a bomber duly appeared and destroyed it. Moving on, we were held up for a while as we pushed into the village, but soon grabbed the first LandRover, which was also duly bombed. Another quick push sealed the fate of the second one in a time that was far faster than that of the Reds. However, our super elite bombers had made one fatal error; rather than transporting the bombs to each target in turn in the ammo tin, they had removed them from it and carried them individually; as this was deemed to have given us an unfair advantage, which it did, the Reds were deemed to have won over the two legs. After another break to reload, we set out for the next game, which involved us transporting extremely large bags of the finest Ganja from the comms shack in the village, which was also our regen site, to the site owner, who was on the far side of the mortar pits. Four players were designated as the lead gangsters; they could each gain a one minute reduction of the time taken by reaching the site owner and engaging him in a suitably gangsterish conversation; none of them managed to do this. The defenders had two lives with a 30m fallback to regen. We set off at a cracking pace, storming into the mortar pits and pushing the enemy back. I scored lots of hits and, before long, all of our Ganja had been delivered. This game was immediately turned around; taking up a position behind a berm as few yards into the mortar pits, our little group put up a stiff fight, sending many of our foes back to regen. Eventually, we were isolated and outflanked, so fell back and held out, preventing many of the attackers getting forward. The game timed out with them having only managed to get one Ganja bag to the site owner. After this, luncheon was served and we had an interesting conversation with two Americans who were visiting the site. Once everyone's hunger and thirst were slated, a two part game ensued. Attacking from the border, the Reds had to secure a stretcher from the village; this then had to be used to transport a player to the plane in the DEA base. Setting up at the front of the village, we had a fierce combat with the attackers, during which I was hit and fell back deeper into the village, where I was eventually hit again. While the game was reset for stage 2, I took up a position in the fort. Those of us there had fun with small attacking enemy groups before deciding that we were probably of more use at the DEA base. Pulling back, I was hit and fell back to regen, taking up a new position in the scrubland around the DEA base, from where we repulsed several attacks before the casualty was finally deposited in the plane. After a final break to reload, that game was turned around. It took us a while, and many walks back 30m to find someone upon whom to regen on my part, before we broke into the village. Using the dried up pond as a convenient concealed route, I spotted a ghillied sniper at some distance in the woods and, after a few shots, potted him, much to my delight. We soon had our casualty on the stretcher, following which our little group set off on a wide flanking manoeuvre to attack the DEA base from the far end of the site. This was part of a successful overall attack, which saw the wounded man deposited into the plane rather more rapidly than the Reds had managed. As usual at AP, it was a fun and challenging day of airsoft, with some excellent play. All of my newly worked on guns ran well, with the tiny DMP-9 having ridiculous range and accuracy at 1.05J; running the PPK20 on 30 round mags was rather interesting. Weapons used: WellPro PPK20 Double Eagle EK47 Double Eagle DMP-9 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2) I am on the left, about to regen a colleague.

1. They are humans. 2. They are airsofters.

Player marshals may or may not be effective, but they are not cringe, which is also the case for many of the items in that long list. I have acted as a player marshal from time to time, but always in collaboration with non-player marshals. The role is useful for keeping an eye on behaviour within teams.