FEATURE: CLARENCE LAI - NEW BEGINNINGS

So why the move and the change?

Clarence related to us that Taiwan is becoming increasingly attractive as a powerhouse of highly experienced and qualified machining operations and production facilities, encompassing all manner of surface treatment and other material processing specialists. As Bill relayed all those issues back when I first began when I first began contributing to Airsoft Action, Taiwan really is becoming “airsoft central”, with an ever-growing array of domestic manufacturers and other names who have moved here from Hong Kong to improve their production capabilities and volumes.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

While “Airsoft Surgeon” is synonymous with Clarence’s persona and past efforts in turning out truly unique high-end offerings to order, last year he decided to make a step change in his direction and goals for his presence within the airsoft community at large. “Clarence Lai Project Design”, his new venture, has aimed its sights squarely on a wider market and the ability to make a name better satisfying a wider user base with equally well-considered designs, but with more attainable volume and pricing. Thus ensuring that everyone can share in his experience and attention to detail, rather than just those who have the highest means and passion for all things bespoke-designed.

This new outlook towards consumer focused design and manufacture has already borne fruit, with many of his existing product lines being produced in bulk, to the order of hundreds (or thousands) of units. Already the positive feedback and calls for more stock and further designs are being well received, as is his presence within the community here in Taiwan, making progress towards collaborations with more established names. This will bring his experience and personal touch to the wider market with the help of larger manufacturers, as well as his own efforts in prototyping and assessing new components and considerations.

While many existing brands will look towards existing products in the market and derive their own equivalents following wider trends, Clarence seeks to draw extensively from his own experience - not only as a gunsmith, but as a competitor as well - focusing on the minutiae of each individual component he turns his skills to; considering the user experience and quality of the product, rather than merely focusing on aesthetic factors.

Having handled the gamete of guns flanking his TV on the very nicely backlit presentation shelves and stands, it definitely shows! Not just the typical smoothing of trigger and cycling function in his custom internals, ensuring excellent response and crisp breaking of the action, but also in just how naturally the gun fits in the hand – even, in my case, with my larger bear paws. With consideration given to providing “fencing” on his custom 1911 platform

ambidextrous safety levers - vertical protrusions that the user can rest their thumbs against, as well as the lateral surfaces used to drive the gun down under recoil - these additions alleviate any worries of nipping the thumbs when the slide cycles, or inadvertently inhibiting it in doing so. This really allows you to drive the gun forwards intuitively, aligning the sights and controlling any kick upon firing, while the rear surfaces are carefully contoured by experimentation by the man himself, to ensure you barely know the controls are there in terms of no unpleasant or uncomfortable edges being left unattended to.

At present, Clarence’s design process is predominantly focused still toward his true passion - all things 1911 and HiCapa based, with a side order of Glocks. The custom trigger jobs I got to try out on his own models definitely make me rethink their usefulness in competitive environments, with short, soft and clean breaks rather than the spongy reaching pulls of factory models! As he progresses through different models and assesses them for weaknesses or potential upgrade components, he decides upon single items or families of matching sets which improve the handling and performance of a particular gun, while also carefully considering the end user.

The likes of his latest custom ambidextrous 1911 safeties and slide release replacement “gas pedals” are painstakingly crafted to ensure not only perfect fit and function on the gun, but also in competition test boxes. This allows shooters to field his high-end components even on standard division guns, rather than focusing purely on the highest end race guns of open division - something which speaks to me, given my penchant for production class.

In the longer term, Clarence intends to turn his attention to other more diverse platforms, indeed he was very interested to hear my own thoughts and experiences regarding the weaknesses of the KJ Works CZ75 SP01 and Shadow 2 (while I was giving his own optics-ready, all black Shadow 2 a good handling and appreciation). I could certainly see myself getting one of his mounts and running a second Shadow in an open configuration with a compensator and all the usual trimmings!

In the near future he also plans to bring to market a complete 1911-style pistol completely of his own design, to provide an alternative to the market and which will no doubt be pre-upgraded out of the box to give great performance and features. He’s no longer just focused on the competition circuit either; the ever-growing range of his option parts for pistols and rifles, plus planned whole gun offerings to boot, will satisfy skirmishers, SpeedQB players, collectors

and competition gunners in equal measure, with a much more “something for everyone” philosophy behind his new venture and direction.

Building on his widely known and trusted name, Clarence, through CL Product Design, is also looking to bring to market his own premium level range of BB ammunition, in the 0.2g - 0.4g range, with exacting standards and tolerances that will ensure the best consistency and performance out of any gun graced with them.

With a focus on “plug and play” parts and simplicity of installation and use, CLPD aims to provide premium quality products in both their design and manufacture, but at a more reasonable price point to suit the greater market in comparison to the past efforts he is already best known for. With an attention to the development cycle that ensures even simple components, such as his custom ambidextrous safeties, go through months of design, development, prototyping, testing and reiteration before they reach the end user.

Having uprooted from Hong Kong and moved all of his existing stock - and his extensive collection of airsoft and real steel publications that cover an entire wall of bookcases - Clarence will now fulfil all manufacturing

and distribution from his Taiwan operations, reaching out to the wider airsoft community through selected distributors he already has long existing ties and trust in, across Asia, Europe and the US; from the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong to the UK, wider EU and North Americas. While he has dabbled in lifestyle goods, such as his widely sought after MP5A3 and AR tote bags, his focus has recently been firmly on gun components, so the stocks of such side projects are mostly diminished aside from a few distributors you might strike lucky with. Hopefully there will be more to come on that front, but for now he’s a very busy man with a headful of ideas he can’t bring to fruition quickly enough for his own liking and there are plenty of exciting new products and collaborative projects with household names in the industry yet to be revealed to look forward to being announced shortly - truly, something for everyone.

I’d like to extend my thanks once again to Clarence and Katherine for their hospitality and welcome them to Taiwan, I’m sure we’ll see plenty of each other and have a lot more to talk about and share with our readers, especially as there are now there are two Airsoft Action Legionnaire contributors in such close quarters, in airsoft central. AA

“I FEEL THE NEED... THE NEED FOR SPEED!”

AFTER A GREAT INTRODUCTION FROM BOYCIE LAST MONTH, THIS TIME ONE OF OUR NEWEST LEGION MEMBERS FROM THE USA MOVES THINGS FORWARD AS TO HOW YOU CAN GET THE VERY BEST PERFORMANCE FROM YOUR NEW AEG! DAN PICKS UP THE STORY…

As a full time Airsoft Tech who’s full time “day job” consists of “teching” day in and day out, I tend to view any airsoft gun through that prism, which undoubtedly influences my perception of what a gun “should” be out of the box.

Having had my fingers in the innards of innumerable gearboxes now, you develop a pretty good idea of what constitutes a good design from a bad; quality parts from poor - and mind you, there are a lot of poorquality airsoft guns out there! Fortunately, within the last few years or so, many of the mid-to-high range manufacturers have started putting more emphasis on improving material and design quality of their components. “It’s Friday at the factory!” aside, these guns do not often abruptly die when an 11.1v LiPo is hooked up like they were prone to in the early days, and you can get plenty of good service life out of them without touching a thing.

That being said, I do agree with John, in players with a shiny

that new

gun – especially new players

to the hobby – should

at least field it a few times before deciding the course of upgrades they might want to pursue. And truthfully, I’ll often recommend that new players run the gun up until it breaks, then pursue upgrades. By then, you will have probably formed

“…LONG-TIME VETERANS TO AIRSOFT REPLICA OWNERSHIP LIKELY ALREADY KNOW WHAT THEY WANT OUT OF THEIR NEW RIFLE AND, IF YOU’RE LIKE ME, YOU OFTEN WON’T EVER FIELD OR FIRE THE GUN WHEN FRESH FROM THE BOX - EXCEPT MAYBE TO ESTABLISH A BASELINE TO MEASURE AGAINST.”

experience and opinions on what you might want to improve.

On the inverse side, long-time veterans to airsoft replica ownership likely already know what they want out of their new rifle and, if you’re like me, you often won’t ever field or fire the gun when fresh from the box - except maybe to establish a baseline to measure against. In a way, they’ve developed a “standard” in their head of what the gun should be capable of doing, as if built that way from the very beginning at the factory.

Speaking personally, I am ashamed to admit I write myself a blank check when it comes to upgrades! For me, every gun would have an electronic trigger fitted, such as a Gate TITAN, an upgraded inner barrel with an R-Hop, a quality Neodymium or brushless motor and a full suite of improved compression parts, in addition to the usual foundational work: reshimming, relube, new o-rings, AOE correction, compression and other tuning aspects.

Point of fact: every rifle in my inventory has these things done. These are “standards” I’ve developed for myself and using anything less will often feel like a handicap penalty has been applied. But for a new player who’s had a few games under their belt and maybe started to feel like their rifle is not competing as well against the tuners and hot rods out there, it can be a bit daunting to figure out where to start on the upgrade path. It’s also one thing to say you want to fill out all the various checkboxes on your dream list, but not understand that some aspects of upgrading are not conducive to what constitutes a good build, and what is based on patently bad information. Much like any industry there have been advances in methodology, techniques and application of parts used. If you’re looking to do the upgrades yourself, it’s a good idea to read and watch as much material on the subject as possible – but also seek out current information from well vetted sources, as much of what is out there is often dated or mired in long disproven mythologies. There’s also no substitute for hands on experience. Getting your fingers dirty is the best way to learn.

BE REALISTIC!

Similarly, be realistic …both with your expectations and with what you are going to spend. If you are expecting miracles with a US$50 budget, you should expect some heartache and maybe a jibe or two. Using the services of a professional (emphasis on “professional”, as that’s a subject unto itself) tech can be expensive, but also well worthwhile as they will have years of experience and know the best parts

selections and have a good understanding of how to tailor a build for the player’s preferences. Attempting to do the job yourself can sometimes be cheaper, as you’re not paying for labour or service charges …but it can also often be the inverse due to lack of experience, mistakes or frustration occurring when you hit the inevitable brick wall.

We’re all familiar with the story of the guy who goes to change the oil on his car and unknowingly drains the transmission fluid and tops it back up with motor oil! These incidences happen more often than most realize and sometimes they’re even worse off than when they started

Often, the number one complaint of any new gun is that “the range and/or accuracy are insufficient for the task”. This is especially echoed by real-steel shooters or servicemen, who may be wondering why their AEG is not hitting anything at 400m and for whom the concept of “dialling in the hop up” is steeped in mysticism. I can’t tell you how many shooters I’ve seen doing mag dumps on targets well outside the range of any airsoft gun and seemingly