DSI MCX CUSTOM BUILD

WE’RE VERY PROUD THAT AMONGST THE TEAM AT AIRSOFT ACTION ALL OF OUR CONTRIBUTORS ARE ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THE WORLD OF AIRSOFT, EITHER AS A PLAYER OR WITHIN THE INDUSTRY PROPER! THIS MONTH JOHN “BOYCIE” TURRELL BRINGS IN A REPORT OF AN EXTREMELY DETAILED CUSTOM BUILD HE WAS INVOLVED IN TO CREATE A VERY SPECIAL - AND VERY SPECIFIC - AEG!

Many years ago, I met “Nick” at the Tier 1 events we both attended and we’ve kept in touch ever since.

One night we were chatting about the new ProForce SIG SAUER® MCX and he said that he would like to have one to match his Dutch Dienst Speciale Interventies (Special Intervention Service), or DSI loadout. Nick said “…as a DSI reenactor I wanted to have a proper replica of the MCX that is used by the DSI. As soon as I heard that SIG SAUER would make an airsoft version of the Virtus MCX, I contacted John. I asked him if he would help me make a 1 on 1 replica, because I knew John is the man who could achieve what I wanted.”

After I was shown a few pictures I said: “That would be a good project.” and he said… “Will you build it for me please?”

“Nick” started airsoft back in 2004 with a team called “Blackwater CRG”, based around the (then) popular Private Military Contractors (PMC) style of loadout. Later he was also a founding member of the Dutch airsoft team “Nassau03”, which re-enacted Dutch Special Forces in airsoft MilSims in the UK, France, Belgium and Sweden. “Nick” said “Personally, the TIER1 MilSims (lead by a group of retired and serving Royal Marine Commandos) held in the UK were the best ones we attended.” However, around 2017/18 the MilSim games were not giving “Nick” the fun he wanted from airsoft, so he decided to reenact loadouts of the DSI.

THE DSI

The DSI is an elite tactical group of the Netherlands National Police Corps, with a strength of approximately 450 personnel that act on terror related and high impact crimes. They draw operators from both the Netherlands Police and Military, combining into the four units within DSI.

“Arrest Team” operators are primarily utilized for the arrest of armed suspects and other highrisk situations. Part of their role is to deploy in unmarked vehicles and provide surveillance of potential terrorist threats. The BSB (Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten) of the Dutch Military Police also deploy on this type of tasking.

The “Intervention Dept” is a mixed group drawn from the Marine Corps, Commandos with Arrest Team officers from the National Police Corps and the BSB. This department is tasked with the most diverse situations and has to switch between the arrest team type role, into “intervention” which can include hostage rescue etc. Within the Intervention Dept, when the commander of the unit changes and the position is held by a Police Officer, a Marine takes over command and vice versa.

“Expertise and Operational Support” provide a multitude of operational support roles, from negotiators and drone operators to snipers.

“M Squadron” is a part of the Netherlands Marine Corps and while not formally a part of the DSI, it falls under the control of the DSI on joint operations.

THE BUILD

In the planning of the build I needed to find out a number of things, like the accessories which are shown in the reference picture I was working from but the one thing that stood out, was that the rifle and foregrip were of a different colour to the “standard” SIG Black. After some research I found that the rifles were painted with “Elite Concrete” cerakote. This was sourced by Mark at High Calibre Coatings, in Suffolk, UK and it would be to him the parts would go to be coated.

The first part to source was the rail, as this is slightly longer (by 75mm or 3”) than the rail that came on the ProForce rifle. The rail also needed to be “suppressor compliant”, which means it is substantially different in shape to accommodate a suppressor inside the rail. This particular rail is only available from SIG SAUER®.

Next would be the suppressor. This was an easy part to find as I made a small number of mock suppressors that resemble the one seen on the DSI rifle, under the JTac Custom Ltd banner. Initially the standard 170mm unit was used while the longer 235mm unit is in the process of being made.

The outer barrel on the ProForce is the 11.5” version and for the DSI build we needed the “SF” spec 6.75” barrel version, which is made by Virtus Training Systems Ltd. As a temporary measure the 6.75” barrel was replaced with an 8.5” outer barrel to give the suppressor the appropriate amount showing outside of the foregrip.

The standard sliding stock would need to be replaced with a “hinged knuckle” type adaptor, which would allow the fitment of a standard “M4” type stock tube and Magpul CTR stock. The “knuckle” was a part which was only available from SIG SAUER®, “Nick” supplied the stock. Something that Nick asked if was possible, was if the rifle could be rear wired. With the “knuckle” and RS buffer tube, this was going to be a challenge but was achieved. The only drawback is that it wouldn’t be possible to hinge the stock quickly. It can be done carefully for carriage in a bag or similar but in order to lock the stock into the “normal” position, it’s necessary to do this slowly while cautiously applying some tension on the battery connector so that the wires don’t get caught in the knuckle and cause a short.

Sight unit: The sight that was selected and supplied by “Nick” for this build, was the SIG® Romeo 4T in black. This is an awesome red dot unit which automatically turns on when you move the rifle and will switch off when the rifle has laid still for an amount of time. It also has a light gathering capability, which means the battery duration on this unit is fantastic at around 100,000 hours! This will be backed up by the Juliet 4 magnifier on a Wilcox flip mount.

Magazines selected for this would be the VFC “USGI” style metal mags. This will mirror the same look as the operators in DSI use.

STRIP DOWN

The time-consuming part of the build will be the stripping of the rifle and then the wait for cerakote. The turn round for this is expected to be 10-14 days but could be quicker. Whilst the receiver and rail were away, we turned our attention to the internals. “Nick” didn’t ask for any changes but while it was apart, we swapped the hop rubber out for a Maple Leaf 50

degree, ideal because Nick prefers to run semi only, at approximately 330fps.

To go with the replaced hop rubber, Nick decided he’d like to fit a longer inner barrel and for this we decided on the Poseidon inner barrel, to run close to the end of the suppressor, stopping just short of the muzzle of the suppressor by about 15mm. Also, whilst the body parts were away being cerakoted, the wiring of the gearbox was changed to rear wired. This also would present a challenge of how to get the wiring into the real steel buffer tube.

REBUILD

After the body parts and foregrip returned from their trip to the cerakoter, we gathered all of the parts together and began to test fit parts, like the outer barrel. This was a bit tighter fit than the factory one, so we decided to skim 0.5mm from the outer diameter of the “chamber” to ensure a smooth fit.

One of the more unique parts that Nick wanted to be fitted was the sling point, which would attach via a pair of QD style studs. The studs wouldn’t fit initially as the replica has a half-blocked hole for the QD points. This was going to need to be cleared to allow the studs to go deep enough into the hole in order to be able to lock into place.

The next step was to laser mark the logos and text that appear on the DSI’s MCX. This took some time to work out the sizes of the text and the DSI badge. Now that the logos etc. were on the receiver and foregrip the full reassembly could get under way. This was the end result of all the work put in.

Just as we were to start the build process the Covid-19 lockdown was enforced in both The Netherlands and also the UK. This would bring about certain delays as we had to wait for people to be able to work in order to carry out jobs that were sub-contracted out. Whilst this was a disadvantage in respect of the time it would take to complete the build, it did give us the time to make sure each step was completed to the best level possible.

Nick said “John kept me posted throughout the whole process and, needless to say, I am very happy with the result. It’s an almost 100% perfect replica of the DSI MCX!”

Our thanks go to Gerard Van Oosbree, at Dutch Defence Press (www.dutchdefencepress.com) and Sander Blommensteijn, aka twotwosixphotorgraphy, for images used in this report. AA