Issue 31 - January 2014 by Airsoft Action

ACTION

THE Airsoft Magazine

AIRSOFT ACTION

TOKYO MARUI MP5K HIGH CYCLE

25 RPS MARVEL ON TEST

WIN

AN AM2 2 WORTH NEARLY

£500!

AM22 ANDY MCNAB SPECIAL WE REPOPRT FROM FCS' LATEST AND GREATEST SITE IN SUFFOLK

DAN WESSON REVOLVER | ROGGENWOLF WARG 5U | PAINT YOUR RIF PT2 | DYTAC KRYTEK M4

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JANUARY 2014 - £4.50

PISTOL AND SHOTGUN CARNAGE AT UCAP'S NEWEST ZOMBIE-FEST

RAF BENTWATERS

9 772047 348032

JANUARY 2014

INTERNATIONAL AIRSOFT WITH THE CHICAGO AIRSOFT ASSOCIATION

ZOMBIES AT UCAP

AIRSOFT IN THE UNITED STATES

WORLD EXCLUSIVE FIRST REVIEW

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12 Editor: Nigel Streeter Assistant editor: Gareth “Gadge” Harvey Graphic design: Anna Makwana Ad design: Anna Makwana Publisher: Nigel Streeter Cover Photograph: Neil Kitson

(Please note: The cover photo was taken under strictly controlled studio conditions. Always ensure you are wearing the correct eye protection when playing airsoft.))

Full UK 12-issue subscription rate: £66 For overseas prices visit: www.airsoftactionmagazine.com

Wyche Innovation Centre, Walwyn Road, Upper Colwall, Malvern, Worcestershire, WE13 6PL Tel: 01684 878 003 Web: www.airsoft-action.co.uk ©Calibre Publishing Limited 2013 Distribution: Distributed to the newstrade by Comag Magazine Marketing, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE T: 01895 433 800 Copyright © Calibre Publishing Limited 2013. All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express permission of the publisher in writing. The opinion of the writers do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. The editor reserves the right to edit submissions prior to print.

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Letter, idea or question?

Got something to say? A question for our experts? An article or article idea? Drop us a line and let us know. Either email the editor (nige@airsoft-action.co.uk), write to us at the Calibre Publishing address above, or talk to us on Twitter or Facebook.

irst and foremost, I’d like to wish each and every one of you a really happy Christmas and all the very best for 2014. For pretty much the whole of 2013 I have been saying that airsoft is undergoing massive growth and, as we get to the end of the year, nothing has made me think any different. Indeed, if anything, the rate at which we are growing has accelerated and if you need any proof of just how fast and how big, then consider this: At a recent UKARA meeting someone asked how many (active) players were currently on the UKARA database and I understand the (official) answer is in the region of 12,000. While this figure remains fairly static, it pales into (almost) insignificance when compared to the total number of players registered, which is many, many, many times greater. Someone actually told me it was ten times that number, which I find incredulous but wouldn’t it be awesome if correct! If more proof were needed of just how airsoft is moving into unchartered territory, turn back a couple of pages and take a long, hard look at the cover of this issue. Twelve months ago it would have been a pipe dream to even think that someone of the stature of Andy McNab would get involved in airsoft, let alone appear on the cover of an airsoft magazine. It just shows how the times there are a changing! So, what has 2014 got in store for us? Well, if I could answer that question I would be a very rich man but it is my hope/opinion/belief that we (airsoft) will continue to grow in both strength and size. There are bound to be a few hiccups along the way but we wouldn’t be human if there wasn’t! All in all, I think we are in pretty good shape and so long as each and every one of us continues to play and enjoy the game in the spirit that we all subscribe to, then I think we have a very good year to look forwards to. One last thing; I want to say a huge thanks to everyone who phoned, emailed, wrote and even sought me out, to wish me well with Airsoft Action now that I own it and to offer their continued (and in some cases, new) support. All your messages and calls were very encouraging and much appreciated. I have got some big plans for the next 12 months and you can be sure you will hear about them here first (well, maybe Facebook first…) Have a good one! Nige

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CONTENTS

AIRSOFT ACTION – JANUARY 2014

22 50

JANUARY 2014

AIRSOFT NEWS

READERS’ GALLERY

The latest developments in the world of airsoft Cool photos taken by Airsoft Action readers

12 WORLD EXCLUSIVE RIFLE REVIEW

Andy McNab’s AM22 reviewed exclusively by Airsoft Action

17 SITE: THE DEPOT

We check out this ex-Para base in Aldershot

21 COMPETITION TIME

Win an Andy McNab AM22 courtesy of Leeds Airsoft

22 INTERNATIONAL AIRSOFT: USA

Airsoft USA-style with the Chicago Airsoft Association

29 COLD WAR WARRIOR: SOVIET CHEMICAL DEFENCE TROOPER – 1975 The loadout of these Russian “clean up” troopers

32 RIFLE: ARES/ASG M60E4 - MK43 MOD 0

We put this Squad Automatic Weapon from Ares/ASG to the test

36 RIFLE: TOKYO MARUI MP5K HIGH CYCLE We check out this high-speed wonder from TM

40 DEBATE: IS PYRO WORTH IT?

You have your say in our Airsoft Action debate

44 ON TEST: WE AIRSOFT EUROPE PREMIUM GREEN GAS We compare this new gas from WE Europe with others

46 EVENT: UCAP - SALVATION Z

Down in the tunnels the deadly are rising and mankind is doomed. Is all hope lost?

50 SITE: THE AIRBASE

Nige reports from FCS’ new site on this massive ex-USAF base at RAF Bentwaters

56 KIT REVIEW: ROGGENWOLF WARG 5U

A first look at this rare camo pattern from down under

60 BILLY BASICS

Billy asks whether airsoft weapons are just for fun and comes up with some interesting answers

63 SITE: REHAB

Here’s Johnny! Can we hold our nerve as we report from this crumbling manor house in Kent?

69 RIFLE: DYTAC KRYPTEC M4

If you like Kryptek camo, you’ll love this gun. We find out if DyTac’s Krytek-coated M4 cuts the mustard

73 BOOKSHOP

Exclusive Airsoft Action Offer from Military Pocket Books

74 SKILLS: REVOLVERS

Often ignored, we think the revolver has a part to play in airsoft

78 WORKSHOP: PAINTING YOUR RIF

How to give your RIF a completely different look

83 FEATURE: SNIPERS OF WORLD WAR II

In Part 1 of this new series, Dan Mills writes about the most successful woman sniper in history, Lyudmila Pavlichenko “The Man Killer”

86 SITE DIRECTORY

We’ve added more sites, so you have even more places to play

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AIRSOFT NEWS EDGAR BROTHERS QUIT AIRSOFT! Just as we were going to Press, we heard the news that well-known Distributor Edgar Brothers, who up until recently were distributing Magpul and TLSFx products, have now officially withdrawn from the airsoft market. Airsoft Action contacted Edgar Brothers for confirmation and a spokesperson told us: “Edgar Brothers have, for

WE AIRSOFT EUROPE POWERS INTO THE BATTERY MARKET

WE Airsoft Europe is happy to announce the launch of its own range of Lipo, Li-Fe & NiMH batteries, specifically for use in all electric airsoft guns. These batteries are of the highest quality and are yet another range of exciting new products from WE Airsoft Europe. They will be available in many different variations to ensure that every airsofter’s needs are met. Leading the way in European Airsoft quality and standards yet again. Stay tuned for more information. DOMINATE THE FIELD with the WE EU Power range. Contact WE Airsoft Europe for more information: www.weairsofteurope.com Follow us on Facebook & Twitter

a number of years, been supplying airsoft guns and associated products. After one of our main product lines, Magpul, ceased supplying to the airsoft market, we had to regroup and figure out what we were going to do. Looking at what brands were out there and what was available to us, we decided to pull out of the supply of airsoft-only brands and move on to another market type. That said we still supply the majority of airsoft shops with cross-over product from other brands. As far as airsoft brands go, we will not be looking to take any more on as the Airsoft Division at Edgar Brothers closes down and more effort is put in to the Tactical and Outdoor Divisions.”

KRISS VECTOR RETURNS

The fabled gas blow back SMG has returned and it is now in two colours! Details about whether this is a fully licensed version or just a KWA “we’ll make it anyway” are sketchy at the moment and they are certainly not being distributed in Europe by Defiance Airsoft (the Airsoft division of KRISS Arms in Switzerland). This is good news for people who missed the first batches to be released in 2012 and better news for people who would like additional magazines. The new colour is Dark Earth with a matching Dark Earth magazine. The price seems to have kept the same around £350 for the SMG and £50 per magazine and we can expect to see these in good retail outlets by January 2014. We really liked this gun at Airsoft Action and, although isn’t the cheapest gas SMG, it is probably one of the best available today… again...

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NEWS THE LATEST AIRSOFT HEADLINES

PDT TECHNOLOGIES’ PROFESSIONAL-GRADE AIRSOFT PROTECTIVE HEADGEAR Practical Defence Training Technologies, of Alamo, California, recently announced the launch of their professional-grade protective headgear for airsofters. PDT’s headgear system is unique in offering complete impact protection with no skin exposure. The Force 1 helmet incorporates a full face mask, and when used with PDT’s neck protector and padded hood, ensures complete protection from projectile impact with no skin exposure. PDT’s proprietary anti-fogging dual lens technology, combined with proper ventilation design, creates true no-fog head armour by mitigating the two temperature extremes (hotter inside, colder outside) that cause fogging. The hypoallergenic neck protector offers a notched neck design for maximum mobility, while the padded hood features breathable, open cell foam padding and moisture-wicking. Additional safety and performance features of the Force 1 helmet include: · Durable mesh cover in lower mask prevents projectiles from passing through and promotes optimal airflow. · Resilient molded mask parts offer superior impact protection and backside padded head protection is made from durable rip stop nylon material. · A rubber goggle frame with soft gaskets fits comfortably against the face. · Perforated ear cover protection prevents loss of audibility. · Constructed of closed-cell, low density polymer materials that do not absorb moisture, making it easier to wipe and clean. Available in the UK from MilSpec Solutions - 01257 453 689 - www.milspecsolutions.co.uk

NEWS

That’s another year done and dusted in UKAPU and we’ve just had another really interesting and fruitful AGM. There were some great discussions and some fantastic ideas that i hope we can see to fruition in 2014. It looks like my time as chairman isn’t quite over yet and my declaration it was my last column as such last month was premature as I’m back in the saddle for another year. One of the big things to come from the AGM is that we have streamlined the committee to make it more efficient and so the press officer role has gone now as it seems a little redundant with several committee members posting frequently on social media sites and me writing this regular column. The registrar and treasurer posts have been merged into one and although I suggested a new title of “tregistrar” I’m afraid it didn’t make it past a vote for some reason. The regional reps will be more active in the coming months and throughout 2014 and this is an initiative we really want to

THE SHOP AT THE GRANGE RE-OPENS

Following an extensive building and re-modelling, The Shop at The Grange re-opened its doors to an eager airsoft buying public on the 14th December, with loads of special offers and free gifts. If you have never visited The Shop, it is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of airsoft guns and gear, presided over by Andi “Gunmunki” Coulson - and it is now nearly three times bigger! With up to 40% discount on some guns and massive deals on A-TACS and 5.11 loadouts, the opening was a huge success it was also the first time that many airsofters had got their hands on the new PolarStar system. Knowing that Airsoft Action would hit the stands a couple of days after they re-opened, Jim Sefton, the owner of The Shop at The Grange, has kindly agreed that any reader who takes a copy of this magazine along with them to The Shop will receive the same offers on anything that is left from the opening. The Shop at The Grange can be found at: The Grange, Frog Lane, Balsall Common, West Midlands, CV7 7FP. Web: www.shopatthegrange.com Tel: 01676 534178

expand to further help decentralise control whilst making UKAPU more pro active and giving us a better understanding of each areas needs and wants whilst giving players a quicker and more direct route back to us. To do this we need more people to step up to the plate and volunteer to take on the responsibilities that go with the role. Basically it’s get out there and unite players and sites across the region there is a more detailed description and if you are interested then please email me at chair@ukapu.org.uk to get a copy. Over the next few months we will continue to discuss a number of things that came to a head regarding the hobby at the end of the 2013 to see how UKAPU is best able to continue to protect our members interests and players as a whole. As always, we want and welcome comments and thoughts on ways to improve and on things you would like to see UKAPU offer. Until next month!

Phil Bucknall Chairman, UKAPU www.ukapu.org.uk

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READERS’ GALLERY SEND YOUR PICS TO NIGE@AIRSOFT-ACTION.CO.UK

READERS’ GALLERY

AIRSOFT ACTION READERS SEND IN THEIR PERSONAL SNAPSHOTS FROM SKIRMISHES ACROSS THE UK AND FURTHER AFIELD… Section 13amsAlpha and Bravo Te by Jonno Hodgson

Adrian Watk ins at Mad Momm as Airsoft

Lewis Pearc e of Taskfo rce E16taken at UC AP Sandpit in Kent

Callsign Stickymonk from Unit Zulu 19 at Free Fire Zone, Bulby

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READERS’ GALLERY SEND YOUR PICS TO NIGE@AIRSOFT-ACTION.CO.UK

players down at Island Recon, on the Isle of Wight

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World Exclusive -

ANDY MCNAB

AIRSOFT ACTION BRINGS YOU A WORLD EXCLUSIVE AS JAY SLATER GETS HIS HANDS ON ANDY MCNAB’S FIRST AIRSOFT RIFLE - THE AM22

I JAY SLATER

Jay fell in love with airsoft not so long ago and has too many guns. An active member of the South London airsoft scene, Jay is also a publisher of military and history books

nserting the ten-round magazine and racking the bolt was child’s play. Far below was high-octane carnage: buildings were crumbling rubble, tanks on fire and iron coffins for their inhabitants, and soldiers fled as bullets kicked up dust. Tracer fire blinded and fiery explosions made mincemeat of scarpering cannon fodder. Perched and hidden amongst the steel works of an industrial crane, I sought my victim. Far below at a distance of 1,000 yards and partly obscured by concrete was an enemy sniper, unaware that the hunter was the hunted. Concealed and obscured by sunlight, all that was exposed was my victim’s skull. Controlling breathing and dazzled by sunlight, the trigger of the M40A5 bolt-action sniper rifle was tantalisingly squeezed, the quarry and distance judged. Aiming above my victim to allow suitable bullet drop and with a mighty crack, the searing bullet penetrated his head as if a knitting needle slicing neatly through a ball of wool. With a pleasing splatter of crimson and shattered bone, his cranium dissolved into a mist of gore and it was endgame. Goodbye and welcome to the überviolent world of Battlefield 3. A pseudonym for the English author and ex-SAS operative

Andy McNab, was an essential and colourful insider giving important research on weapons and battlefield conditions for the Swedish blockbuster (it’s also the best FPS ever… Period!) Stating that videogames are not a menace to society, produce positive role models and ultimately teach lessons of morality, McNab commented that there is no sufficient evidence to prove that violent videogames, as well as film, motivates people to take a life. But this is old hat, as before the advent of videogames and their mass popularity, the conservative dribbling-gullible had it in for rock music, Italian splatter movies and rap. Even horror comics… Untarnished by the hands of time, McNab had it tough when growing up in South London with poverty and foster parents. Growing up under such conditions, the young McNab – who possessed the reading age of an eleven year old when aged sixteen – led a life of petty crime and juvenile detention. However, he found solace in the Army and, while he may be one of the establishment’s most highly decorated and famous soldiers, he now also ranks as one of their wealthiest veterans. McNab consequently served with the Royal Green Jackets in

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THE ARMOURY ANDY MCNAB AM22

Northern Ireland, a dangerous hotbed of IRA terrorism. An excellent soldier under fire, he was chosen for the SAS in 1984 where he saw action all over the world, although many of his operations remaining classified to this day. McNab became infamous on the now famous Bravo Two Zero patrol in the heart of Iraq during the first Gulf War, where he was part of a team that was tasked with locating SCUD launching sites. Flawed and desperate, the mission was scuppered and McNab captured, undergoing torture before returning to Civvy Street in 1993. He wrote the criticallyacclaimed Bravo Two Zero, a best-selling military memoir and followed with Immediate Action, Remote Control and more. An established author where others such as Chris Ryan follow in his wake, McNab has now developed a taste for airsoft and entered the ring fighting fit with his iconic AM22 (which stands for “Andy McNab Two Two”, the latter numbered after his regiment). Based on the iconic M4 and built and produced by VFC (Vega Force Company), Action Airsoft is proud to be the first and only magazine to test this cracking AEG as well as meeting McNab in person to chew the fat. Immediate impressions are extremely impressive. Limited to 500 units, each rifle is autographed by McNab. Presented in suitable matt black with McNab’s signature in bright silver, the delivery is somewhat on the “bling” side, but is a nice touch nonetheless, especially for the hardcore. The rifle is packaged in a superb gun case made from durable plastic with metal hinges, the inside being of a perforated sponge material for sturdy protection. Inside is a company brochure and the beautiful AM22 – so far, this is superb presentation and ranks as one of the very best we have seen. M4s and AK-47 dominate the airsoft killing fields – hence this reviewer prefers to stand out from the crowd with more exotic weaponry such as the ICS M1 Garand and King Arms SAR Galil – and are nineteen to the dozen. With that being said, there has to be a reason for their mass popularity. Not only are parts moderately cheap and easier to source, magazines are often compatible and make a popular starter rifle. However, this particular and limited VFC and McNab model comes at a

”This is a sweet and apocalyptic nirvana of airsoft machine gun cha-cha-cha, with the manic payload delivery of a furious lunatic. Feeding flawlessly as if possessed by a speed demon, the cycle rate of this rifle was truly astonishing and it never missed a beat” www.airsoftactionmagazine.com 013 012-015 Rifle Review AM22_Rev3.indd 13

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INFORMATION The Andy McNab AM22 is available exclusively from Leeds Airsoft/Johnsons of Leeds. Web: www.johnsonsofleeds.co.uk Tel: 0113 277 5237

”The AM22 packed a serious wallop and its range to penetrate targets was suitably impressive. Each shot fed flawlessly and McNab’sin airsoft incarnation was over-zealous to outperform, deliver and impress” 014 January 2014 012-015 Rifle Review AM22_Rev3.indd 14

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THE ARMOURY ANDY MCNAB AM22

COMPETITION Want to win an Andy McNab AM22? Turn to page 21, enter our competition and you could be the proud owner of this awesome rifle - for FREE!

premium price for an AEG, at around £500. Only severe field testing will reveal if this incarnation of a classic weapon is worth such a high asking price. Initial inspection of the rifle is certainly highly favourable. Made of full metal – bar the high-grade plastic foregrip and handle – the AM22 is somewhat on the heavy side, but not unfavourably so and is superbly made, its construction as if a battlehardened panzer. Without a wobble or creak, this powerhouse of a rifle is solid and beautifully crafted. Not only is it a work of joy, the rifle feels right in the hands: it begs and warrants your immediate attention. Weight is well adjusted with a superb centre of gravity and also comes with two adjustable sights and rear stock – that also houses the battery – and rails on all sides for lights, lasers, grenade launcher, etc. True to the real steel, the safety selector is housed on the left-hand side and the magazinerelease mechanism on the right. The mid-cap magazine that comes with the rifle is well constructed and light, with a 150-round capacity. Indeed and so far, this cheeky AM22 has started to grow on me: however, what of its performance in the shooting range? Having charged the battery (only 45 minutes), what became instantly evident as a slight cause of concern is the battery compartment located in the rear stock. By fiddling with two levers in the back plate, the battery can be housed inside this tighter than tight compartment. Caution must be observed in fitting the battery inside and not forcing the issue due to possible damage to exposed and protruding wires, etc. – patience is paramount. Once plugged in, you’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll. The magazine was armed with a selection of Madbull .20 and .25 BBs and the range was 150 feet

in length on a warm autumn day: time to put this metal baby through her paces. This is a sweet and apocalyptic nirvana of airsoft machine gun cha-cha-cha, with the manic payload delivery of a furious lunatic. Feeding flawlessly as if possessed by a speed demon, the cycle rate of this rifle was truly astonishing and it never missed a beat. Each shot was on target with psychological fury, truly impressive with a distinct buzz-saw sound as if ripping cloth, and range and grouping was remarkable. So distinct and inspiring were its many qualities in the firing range that the AM22 quickly overcame – nay, stamped out with angst and sudden urgency – initial concerns on the M4 breed and repetition in the field. One became instantly impressed by its devastating performance, cycling and delicious punch, its range and accuracy truly outstanding. Not only was grouping spot on, the AM22 packed a serious wallop and its range to penetrate targets was suitably impressive. Each shot fed flawlessly and McNab’s incarnation in airsoft was over-zealous to outperform, deliver and impress: it had done so with style and gusto. Not only is the AM22 suitable for CBQ, its long-range performance and accuracy make it perfectly ideal for woodland as a primary DMR and should hold its own with devastating effect. Indeed, the AM22 outperformed more financially expensive products and is highly recommended for its versatility and devastating payload delivery in the field. Not only has this M4-hater been beaten into bloody submission and learned to love and respect this rifle, the AM22 has converted me to its ways. Firing was consistent and lightning fast, and range and performance spot on. The whole package reeks of the highest quality and this mini-Hiroshima of an apocalyptic M4 will not disappoint. Andy McNab has truly delivered with a stellar and delirious riff of the M4. Go. Buy. Now!

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EVENT REPORT CHOKER

AMBUSHED DEPOT AT THE

ALDERSHOT IS KNOWN AS THE “HOME OF THE BRITISH ARMY” AND NOW IT’S ALSO HOME TO AMBUSH ADVENTURE’S LATEST SITE. OSCAR P WENT ALONG TO CHECK IT OUT.

OSCAR PLUMMER

Oscar believes three things about airsoft: drinking tea makes you win; ‘Tally ho!’ is the best battle cry;and RIS should be banned

mbush Adventures are a well-established name on the Airsoft Scene in the UK, running a number of sites across the South and South East of the Country. As well as running regular walk-on days at their own sites, they also host special MilSim events at other venues, such as Op Typhoon at Longmoor, which we covered in an earlier edition of Airsoft Action. Over the last few months, Ambush have been developing a new site, “The Depot” in Aldershot. Based on a now-disused MoD facility, it’s been getting some pretty positive feedback on Facebook and forums, so when Ambush invited us down to take a look, we grabbed our kitbag and jumped in the car! Right from the outset, The Depot is an impressive site. On the outskirts of Aldershot, it’s very easy to find and just a short hop off the motorway. Satnav gets you pretty much bang on target, and closer in there’s helpful signage into the sight. One thing to note - Ambush operate this site on a fairly firm pre-booking system, helping to manage numbers and also help sign-in run smoothly. And it worked - we were ticked off the list quickly and directed towards a parking spot. So here’s a thing: Our first impression was that we were parked nice and close to the site, tucked in amongst a group of smaller buildings. However, these buildings turned out to be a full-on Safe Zone complex. No scrabbling around for a half-inch of table space here! There were three rooms offering space for people to sort their kit, a dedicated ops room, kitchen area, toilets, admin space for the Ambush Staff and a fully-stocked shop (operated by Just Cause Airsoft). If Carlsberg made safe

zones, they’d probably have made the safe zone at the Depot. Ditching our kit, we checked in with Charlie, who runs Ambush Airsoft. He gave us the lowdown on the site; we’d be playing across a number of large buildings, linked by a network of paths. The buildings themselves vary in scale, generally covering several floors, and made up of a huge variety rooms, corridors, halls and bridges. The various structures are set out around a large central area, in a vaguely regular pattern. However, there’s plenty of variation in the layout, and large open areas of grass, vegetation and roadways, so it doesn‘t feel samey. Charlie also talked us through an important part of Ambush’s approach; they place a premium of the whole experience on a day – even though we visited on a normal skirmish day, Charlie and his team structure it with some of the elements you might expect to find in a Milsim event. First and foremost, the safety and game briefs are delivered in a dedicated, atmospheric safe room; under red lights and with background music. Charlie and the rest of his team deliver a cracking outline of the site and the day, with a really detailed outline of the site. Key safety and gameplay points – such as rules of engagement on staircases – are illustrated with images so there’s no room for misunderstanding. Similarly, Ambush don’t just tell you the FPS limits for the site (350), they explain the reasons behind them. All in all, the briefing is really clear and rigorous, but the way it’s delivered means players soak it up – there’s none of the toetapping and woolgathering that sometimes creeps in during a long briefing!

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The day’s play is built around longer, objective based games which are a bit more complex than the usual capture-flag, dominate-area scenarios you’d find at a casual skirmish. There are also some restrictions on the ammo and bang counts. For instance, a standard rifleman loadout is limited to 600 rounds in midcaps, and limited bangs as well. However, there are reasonable exceptions to the rule – if a player is toting a RIF where mids and lows are difficult to come by, players are more than welcome to talk to the Ambush staff and agree that they can use a highcap. Similarly, we’ll be on full auto throughout the day, notwithstanding the CQB nature of much of the site, though players are given a clear steer on keeping their triggers under control! It’s nice to see this kind of reasonable flexibility built in by an event organiser, backed up by firm marshalling. So with minimal fuss, we headed into the first game. This was a warm-up affair to get the blood pumping and give new players a feel for the site. The majority of players were sent into one of the buildings, with weapons restricted to semi auto. The rest of us waited in a holding area, with selectors to auto. The objective was fairly simple – those on the outside had to wade in and knock out the defenders, who would then spawn back in on the attacking side. The first thing we noticed as we burst through the entry point, was that the buildings are not just empty, regular, shells. Quite the opposite; there’s a tonne of variety in

shape and size, loads of furniture, dark corners, lightwells, staircases – and all of that translates to cover in abundance. The net effect was that despite a notional advantage in rate of fire, we got knocked out almost immediately by snipers lurking in corners. Thankfully, the spawn point wasn’t far away, so we cycled back in and had another crack. This time we realised that a bit of stealth and teamwork was the order of the day and tagged along with a group of attacking players. That got us through the first door and into the ground floor of the building. Boxing around some corners and ducking behind a desk, we got our first view of one of the bigger rooms in the building – easy 80 feet square, but by no means empty. It was immediately clear that Ambush have put a lot of thought and work into developing the site to provide brilliant gameplay; in this case, they’d essentially built a bunker and trench complex into the space. That’s not an overstatement – within seconds we were cowering behind a barricade,

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EVENT SITE REVIEW REPORT AMBUSH ADVENTURES - THECHOKER DEPOT

keeping our heads down from snipers in the far corner and trading rounds with other defenders in bunkers. This was a proper, intense firefight from multiple angles and interlocking fields of fire. Gradually, through, teamwork levered us forwards and we were able to clear this space, up stairwells, down corridors and eventually cleared the building. First impression? Awesome! Thankfully, there was a short break after that game – and we certainly needed to catch our breath! Grabbing a cup of tea, we had a mooch around the shop and a chatter to some of the other players. Many were new to the site, but it’s clear that it’s gathering a bit of a following – but all had glowing things to say about the first game. The shop and other facilities, too, were getting great feedback; really well organised, great stock and friendly people. After just the right length of break, it was back into the action with two longer games over the rest of the day. Both of these games had some rules in common; players were split into the customary two teams, each of which had a single spawn point on opposite corners of the site. At each of these was a clock, divided into team-coloured five-minute sections. Players could only come back into play when the minute hand was pointing at the right colour! Also, a Medic rule was in place, with players allocated one tencount revive; when

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“Within seconds we were cowering behind a barricade, keeping our heads down from snipers in the far corner and trading rounds with other defenders in bunkers. This was a proper, intense firefight from multiple angles and interlocking fields of fire” hit the first time, players could either bleed out and head back to the respawn clock, or scream, whimper and groan for one of their teammates to fight their way over and count them back in; the second kill, though, took them straight back to regen. The first game of the day was a search and capture affair; with each allocated three high-vis vests. These were parcelled out to volunteers, who found themselves walking, fighting objectives (although they did have infinite medic-lives in compensation). Both teams had to fight their way out into the site, hunt down the opposing force’s vests, capture them by overrunning them and any potential medics, and return the vest to their own spawn. This game played out over the rest of the morning, in one session. The second game of the day was

a search/clear scenario played in two halves; a number of objectives were hidden in a sequence of buildings, with the attacking force having to fight into each building in turn to find the objective, which would then move the battle to the next site –securing all four objectives would mean victory for the attackers. Both games played brilliantly and gave us a real feel for the sight which, in summary, it’s absolutely freakin AMAZING. This isn‘t a site which is pure CQB – there’s plenty of open space to manoeuvre through. Neither, though, does it lack the intensity of tight-in, fully-indoor combat; there’s a plenty of corridor and rooms to clear. Actually, the overall feel for the site is more FIBUA than anything. The two games bring out the real diversity of the site. In the first outing, we really got to grips with the opportunities for movement, stealth and ambush; the group I accompanied swept through buildings, avoiding contact where necessary and unleashing vengeance where available. On the second game, full-on force was the order of the day, slugging through corners, barricades across bridges and breaching doors. On both, we employed a full range of skirmish skills to take advantage of

angles, doorways, cover, assaulting across open ground, high-level sniping, proper utilisation of riot shields – I can honestly say every style of play I’ve ever found on a site was deployed at one time or another! And we can’t not mention that it even did wonders for our basic maths – the blue team learnt the difference between three objectives and four the hard way, when they had to reverse direction and re-search a building after forgetting to pick up an objective! And – and this is really important – every single player I spoke to on the day gave a glowing review. Even though the heavens opened and buckets of rain came battering down throughout what was a generally gloomy and overcast day, people were beaming. The only slight niggle I came across was that one spawn is surrounded by gravel, so it’s difficult to leave quietly – but that was it! So, let’s round up by saying that, in our humble opinion, the Depot is simply fantastic! Get your kit sorted, get a space booked and get down there. It’s a cracking site and deserves a place on your must-play list!

INFORMATION £

AMBUSH ADVENTURES Web: www.globalairsoft.co.uk Tel: 01252 315225 Price: £35.00

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CHICAGO AIRSOFT H ASSOCIATION

A LITTLE WHILE AGO WE ASKED “WHAT’S AIRSOFT?” HARRY HARDIN ANSWERED BY TELLING US WHAT IT MEANS TO HIM AND THE CHICAGO AIRSOFT ASSOCIATION. ALL IMAGES COURTESY THE CHICAGO AIRSOFT ASSOCIATION. aving read Nige’s question, it got me to thinking about how we play over here in Chicago and whether it is much different to what you’re doing in the UK. Having played paintball and being a re-enactor and living historian, I came to airsoft about five years ago. A friend of mine at work knew I was into this sort of thing and asked if I wanted to try it. We tried it, liked it and joined a team called CGAT, short for Coldstream Guards Airsoft Team. CGAT is an extension of a group of re-enactors that portray the Coldstream Guards over the centuries. I started playing seriously in 2009 and my team was invited to join the Chicago Airsoft Association in 2010, which was great because I was named “Most Valuable Player” for making it to every game, buying an M249 and becoming the team’s support gunner. The Chicago Airsoft Association is a private association which teams join by invitation only. It was the brainchild of Bryan K Monohan (an Iraq war veteran and County Sheriff) and puts on two public and four private games a year. As a group we pay dues to belong and those dues pay for our insurance and props and allow us to put on games that are different to anything else around. The structure of each game is mission and objective driven; it’s MilSim but with a very important twist. Each team receives points for having their players ready to go at the time printed on the schedule; for achieving the objective listed before the mission time expires and for causing the most re-spawns for the other team. We call it “Tactical Sport” and it rewards players for honour, integrity and dedication. In addition, each player is required to have some form of load-bearing equipment - most players choose MOLLE plate carriers and chest rigs, over-the-ankle

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INTERNATIONAL AIRSOFT CHICAGO AIRSOFT ASSOCIATION - USA

boots, an FRS radio and all team members must have the same uniform. For me it is green DPM and Dessy. I use a PLCE gear chest rig most of the time and my plate carrier in the cold. Full seal goggles are required, since all of the fields in this part of the world require them and no hi-cap magazines are allowed unless you are operating a machine gun. So that’s the basics. Weapon-wise, most players use some form of M or AK series. Personally I carry an M4, since parts are everywhere for them and mags are cheap. We practice tactics, we work together and the scenarios are set up to be challenging. None of the missions are easy and most require moving all over an eightyacre field. Some of the games require teams to limit the amount of magazines carried, based on attendance that day. We have doctors, veterans, cops, firefighters, IT professionals, tradespeople - almost every walk of life and some of our players have been playing for nearly a decade. In the last few years we have really pushed back the boundaries of what is possible. Our public games are growing all the time and for the larger ones each player is issued with a jersey to keep identification simple. For example, in one game named “Black and Tan” the shirts are either black or tan, and no they don’t come with a glass of the adult beverage. We also use bar coded id cards to record trips to re-spawn. On each trip to re-spawn the card is scanned, just like the check out at your favourite store,

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INTERNATIONAL AIRSOFT CHICAGO AIRSOFT ASSOCIATION - USA

“The structure of each game is mission and objective driven; it’s MilSim but with a very important twist.” which is a great way to keep track of player and game statistics. We have also used remote controlled cars and helicopters for some missions, which I have yet to hear anyone else trying. At the CAA’s private games the turnout is normally somewhere between thirty and forty players. Sometimes the sides aren’t balanced and that is just fine. There was one epic battle when it was seven of us against twenty plus players. We held our position and won the day even though we were outnumbered. Off the field of battle we are all friends and like to feel that we are both team and community spirited. At the beginning of the year, our founder put out the word that a veteran he’d met in Court and was trying to get his life back together needed some very basic things. All this man was asking for was a chance and the tools to take advantage

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of any opportunity he was given. Almost to a man everyone donated something, whether it was a backpack, a good winter coat, gift cards for hygiene items, clothes, transportation, even a line on a job (entry level but it was something). Members drove him to the VA hospital where he had cancer removed and this was all done without anyone getting paid to do it. I am very happy to report that this man is now operating under his own power and grateful for the hand up. That was all he wanted. At our last public game, “Apex Checkmate”, we arranged a food drive for local veterans and their families, which was all done by word of mouth through local churches and player donations. Our last game was a Black and Tan game that incorporated armed role-players, of which I was one. The scenario was that two Private Military Contractors were fighting over a Country. I was one of three government agents and it was my job was to set up chaos and mayhem. One of the teams was in desert digital and the other was in tiger stripe. The game kicked off by a sniper trying to shoot one of us - he did, and the war was on. Me, I wore a black or tan shirt depending on the mission. Chaos was my job and chaos is what I caused. I get a real buzz from playing with the CAA on open games, since they are all adults who love to play and learn new tactics, although for me, the best part is that I am playing with my friends. What I should mention is that I drive about 100 miles to play but the games are that good, the organization is that strong and the friendship is that important to me. When a group of us go to a public game what makes us successful is our ability to coordinate and communicate. Not that we are superior shots or athletes, it’s just that we have the basics down and have learned (sometimes the hard way) what works and what doesn’t. I went to a game here in my home state and a guy I play with regularly, asked if he could buy a Coke from me. I told him no and handed it to him - that is the kind of spirit our organization has.

INFORMATION CHICAGO AIRSOFT ASSOCIATION Find The Chicago Airsoft Association on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ ChicagoAirsoftAssociation

January 2014

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COLD WAR WARRIOR SOVIET CHEMICAL DEFENCE TROOPER – 1975

WAR EUROPE W

GARETH “GADGE” HARVEY TAKES US BACK TO THE MID-70S TO EXAMINE THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER’S DEFENCE AGAINST NBC THREATS

GARETH 'GADGE' HARVEY

Gadge is our resident history buff and FilmSim fanatic. He has a passion for WWII, Nam-soft and Cold War gaming – but still finds time to fit in an open-day skirmish

hile the threat of thermonuclear war loomed over the heads of those who lived through the Cold War and news footage focussed mainly on the threat of (and protection from) atomic blasts, the nightmarish world of chemical warfare was a far more likely World War three scenario. While every country began to take Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) defence seriously from the late 60s, issuing men with protective gear and over pressuring combat vehicles to survive in a toxic environment, the Soviet Union became almost obsessed with an NBC battlefield. Outnumbered by odds of up to 10-1 at times, NATO would have planned to fight a “defensive” third world war and would almost certainly have used nuclear weapons to cause “choke points” to slow up a Soviet advance and to destroy large concentrations of Soviet forces. The Soviets on the other hand, saw nuclear weaponry as a retaliatory measure but took chemical warfare deadly seriously. While NATO would have no choice but to deploy nuclear weapons to even the disparity, it was counter to Soviet interests to turn the country they wished to unify, Germany, into a radioactive wasteland. Probable and predicted Soviet nuclear strikes though were expected to be made against France and Britain, in order to delay any support to the main European Battlefield – and of course retaliatory strikes to counter any made at Russian cities.

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Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact were aware that while modern technology would allow a soldier (and his transport) to move and fight in even the most hellish of environment, their effectiveness in combat would be massively downgraded as men struggled to breath in cumbersome respirators and sweated in hot and restrictive protective suits. Nearly all armoured vehicles would be fitted with “overpressure” systems - raising the internal air pressure of the vehicle to one greater than that outside to prevent harmful fumes entering the vehicle – but even so, crew would be required to wear their suit (if not their masks) in case they were forced to bail out. In the late ‘80s (and today) some of the vilest chemical weapons could kill within nine seconds of the smallest particle making contact with unprotected skin, or being breathed in. In situations such as this, no one was prepared to take chances and an NBC “threat level” would be decreed for the battle area. This would govern whether the suit was needed and, if so, whether protective over-boots and gloves were also needed. Suffice to say, in most exercises most armies spent considerable time preparing for the worst wearing their NBC kit for days at a time! While NATO trained its individual soldiers to defend themselves with excellent NBC equipment (as part of a defensive doctrine the infantry would prepare to fight dismounted from slit trenches in their NBC suits), the Russians and their allied states

kThemed Cold War games have seen players adopt the appearance of everything from Soviets to the Mujahidin

had a wholly different approach!

THE CHEMICAL BATTLE The Soviet Union expected and planned for any future war to be fought almost entirely in a hazardous chemical environment. They knew they could bombard NATO airfield and supply routes with lethal toxins and slow troops down by forcing them into their protective gear and fully expected NATO to reciprocate. To this end the entire Soviet Doctrine was based around fighting a mobile battle from NBC-protected vehicles, from which the infantryman did not have to even leave his seat. Unlike NATO APCs of the time, Soviet vehicles like the BMP1 and 2 had firing ports to allow the soldiers within to use their personal weapons while protected. This however, was not enough. Realising that a chemically (or biologically) infested battlefield would slow their forces down, the Russians invested immense amounts

of money in an entire “Chemical Defence Troops” division to their armies. At its high point, with 50,000 specifically trained chemical defence troops mounted upon over 30,000 specially modified NBC vehicles, the Red Army had the most wellprepared troops for a nightmare NBC war the world had ever seen. Soviet Chemical Troops were attached to all army groups and had a variety of important battlefield roles. Most importantly “Chemical Recce” units in BRDM2 scout cars with chemical, biological and radiation detecting equipment would scout ahead of the army marking out both clear paths and areas of extreme hazard to be bypassed or negated by clean up squads. To mark out these areas the troops would not even have to leave the safety of the scout car. A special flag launching device fitted to the rear of the vehicle could embed a chemical marker safely in the ground for oncoming forces. An equally important role for the Chemical Troops was the decontamination of formations already exposed to NBC threats. These deontamination units consisted of specially equipped high temperature jet wash and decontamination hoses fitted to both armoured and soft skin trucks. In this way a “chemical car wash” could be formed, though which exposed units could pass and be cleaned up. A third and minor role of the Chemical Troops would be to lay smoke screens to cover advances or retreats of formations; actual deployment of chemical weapons would be the responsibility of rocket and artillery troops. While the chemical troops primarily provided support to the ground forces, it is worth noting that they could be called upon to decontaminate frontal aviation’s strike aircraft and helicopters if required. While in some ways the Soviet Army was massively prepared for a mobile nuclear or chemical war, with thousands of specially equipped men in purpose built vehicles, its field equipment for the men on the ground was sadly lacking. By the late 70s the Soviet soldier was wearing an NBC suit near identical to that which we featured in the Cold War Warriors article of East German NBC kit – a hot uncomfortable rubber suit, with hooded gas mask in which any more than an hour’s exertion could lead to serious heat exhaustion and even death by

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COLD WAR WARRIOR SOVIET CHEMICAL DEFENCE TROOPER – 1975

DISPOSABLE CAMOUFLAGE SUIT

overheating! To avoid covering ground extensively dealt with in previous issues (and available to view online) we’ll look this month at the field equipment of a soldier from the chemical troops in a reconnaissance role.

AIRSOFT SOLDIER Our Soviet private wears the standard M69 “Hebe” combat suit in soviet olive (a distinctive brown-green shade). By the 1970s this suit was beginning to show signs of obsolescence in a battlefield, where most nations had adopted loose fitting layer system combat suits. His attachment to the chemical troops can be seen by the black collar insignia, with the metal crest of the chemical troops (eagle-eyed readers will also note the white collar liner sewn in daily by Soviet soldiers). Our trooper’s headdress is the classic Russians Pilotka side cap, which would be familiar to this Red Army Man’s grandfather having changed little since the great Patriotic War of the 1940s! Finishing off his basic uniform is a pair of tall leather Soviet combat boots. Soviet boots of this era had a distinctive sole pattern and NATO scouts soon learned to recognise it. The tall jackboot is synonymous with soviet force but by the late ‘70s a shorter, more western ankle boot was being issued to some formations.

Over the top of the M69 suit our man wears a one piece KLMK scout overall (KLMK is an acronym that loosely translates as camouflage disruptive overalls in Russian) and is not, as many believe, the name of the camouflage pattern, rather the name of the garment. Suits of this nature had been issued to snipers, combat engineers and scouts since the 1940s and some late WWII examples clearly show the roots of the angular “stairstep pattern” of camouflage, akin to tetris blocks from the popular computer game. Another popular collectors name for this pattern is “sunbunnies” or “sunrays”, as the suit replicates the effect of sunlight through foliage. While the suit may look garish and an ineffective means of camouflage out of context, it is surprisingly effective in European wood or grasslands. These suits are unlike NATO camouflage outfits, in that they are both quite light weight, thin (they were intended to be disposable and were issued out on a “per mission” basis rather than as personal kit) and very shapeless and baggy. Some variants are reversible with a tiny chequered pattern on the reverse, which is believed to be designed to counter early NATO night vision. As aforementioned, the suit is one-piece and features a large section in the seat that can be unbuttoned to avoid having to take off the whole suit when defecation is necessary. Combat equipment in true soviet style is minimal. As a chemical trooper his respirator is always by his side and, in most cases, his chemical defence suit would be rolled up and carried on his back, attached to the y-straps that secure his belt kit. Our soldier however, having just dismounted from his transport travels light, with only his entrenching tool, water bottles, bayonet for his AKMS assault rifle and magazine pouch on him. Soviet chemical troops may not be the obvious choice when choosing a “Warsaw Pact” loadout but it’s definitely one worth bearing in mind, as these brave men would certainly be in the vanguard of any Soviet advance, providing vital reconnaissance work before the main force could even begin to move. A perfect role and scenario for a “Cold War”‘ adventure.

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SAW 2 FOLLOWING HIS OWN ADVICE, RON MAHONEY PUTS THEORY INTO PRACTICE AS HE INVESTS IN A SQUAD AUTOMATIC WEAPON.

RON MAHONEY

Ron has been involved in fieldcraft, shooting and outdoor pursuits for over 30 years. His real passion is the ‘sneaky-beaky’ style of airsoft game

t was just over a year ago that I wrote a piece on the role of the airsoft support gunner. In order to test some of the theory for the article I wanted to invest in a SAW system and looked around at the current crop of available weapons. As a former section gunner in our platoon what I thought I really fancied was a good old L7A2 GPMG or “Gimpy”. I say “thought” because the models available (at nearly 20lb in weight) were not the lightest piece of kit; but I suppose some of that was off-set against the lack of weight in your wallet after you’d emptied nearly £800 across the counter. Having fired the real steel version of the M60 my search shifted to that area, as the price was a lot more affordable – never mind the weight! It was a toss-up between the full-size M60VN and the smaller, more modern MK60E4/ Mk43, which is what I eventually went for.

REAL STEEL Introduced in 1957, the M60 is an air-cooled, gasoperated light machine gun that fires 7.62mm rounds from a disintegrating belt of M13 links. I suppose if you have ever watched a Vietnam War film (featuring US troops) you will be familiar with the M60 being dragged around by the squad’s ‘meathead’, festooned in belts of spare ammo. In Vietnam it earned the nickname “The Pig”. The G.Is christened it this as it was both “a pig” to carry as well as being unreliable and prone to jamming. However due to its cost effective manufacturing, after nearly fifty years it is still in

use by all branches of the U.S. military and continues to be manufactured. There are two designations of the same system depending on which branch of the US military you are with. The M60E4 is the Army variant and the MK43 Mod 0/1 the Navy. The MK43 Mod 0 is an improved model that was developed for the U.S. Navy SEALs in the 1990s, to replace their existing stock of M60E3 machine guns fitted with shorter “assault barrels”. It has extra rails for mounting accessories and a quick-change barrel. In recent years the U.S. Ordnance Company has given the MK43 a further facelift and while the M60 is gradually being phased out in favour of the more reliable M240 machine gun across the wider military, the MK43/M60E4 is still used by more specialised teams. If we are honest, this is probably why ASG teamed up with Ares to keep the airsoft version alive and kicking.

AIRSOFT The box the E4 arrived in was absolutely mahoosive and what

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THE ARMOURY ARES/ASG M60E4 - MK43 MOD 0

“Itlayhas a great range and can down a shower of BBs out togun60-70yds. As a support I am not looking for “tack-driver” accuracy and the fact that at this distance the BBs will have spread out a bit, is a good thing”

they would have packed the full size VN model in makes the mind boggle! The good news about my version was that it came with both the older solid forward stock, with a moulded foregrip and the rail interface stock that has three RIS rails, so that you can add your own foregrip and other tactical essentials. Out of the box and with the RIS rail interface fitted I stood back to admire the looks of the gun and immediately had one of those “Tiswas” moments; as in “this is what they want!” The main construction is a combination of polymer and aluminium with a few steel alloy parts; the differing shades of gun metal grey indicating the construction for those areas. The main body, barrel, gas tube and sights are a lighter grey, while the darker areas of the butt, top cover and pistol grip give away their polymer construction. This is quite handy as the first impression of the weight is that this is something you could skirmish for most of the day and is, in fact, not much heavier than a tricked-out M4. There are some cheaper plastic components that I don’t really like, such as the belt feed tray, but these aren’t really put under any strain so they are mainly cosmetic issues. A steel, two-section bipod is fitted to the gas tube and extends in length, as well as folding down securely after a sharp downward pull on the leg. The sights are functional, fold and adjust for range but not windage. The hop unit is easily accessed from a small hole on top of the barrel and adjusted using an allen key. There is a carry handle attached to the barrel, which I have used to pick up and move the M60 but only very briefly. The carry handle is actually used in changing the barrel on the real steel M60 and not supposed to take the weight of the gun but no doubt it will be used for that purpose. Lifting the top cover reveals a massive battery compartment, you could pretty much get a car battery in there (okay so

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I’m exaggerating but you get the point)and I run with two 7.4v 2200 mAh Li-Po batteries; one will provide a good day’s play but I also carry a spare in case the use of suppressing has been somewhat “heavy”! The attachment bracket that is used to hold the 4,000 round box magazine to the left side of the gun is also steel. From the start I didn’t like this system; I found it over fiddly to attach the magazine and once (finally) on, it was easy to press the release button and have a box magazine dangling from the feeding tube and wire connector. The box magazine is fed from the trigger so there isn’t any constant winding or noise activation to worry about. It didn’t take long for me to figure out a fix for the box magazine attachment issue. I devised a simple webbing strap and fastex buckle to go around the box, secure against the bracket and be fastened on the front. I also didn’t really like the plastic look of the magazine and while my first thought was a paint-job, I saw pictures of the pouches used with the real-steel version and so armed with magazine in hand I headed off to the local surplus shop. The good news is that it fits snugly into a PLCE utility pouch! While at the surplus shop I was on the lookout for a heavy duty sling to take the strain while carrying the M60, rather that risking using the carry handle. Although there wasn’t an ex-GMPG or M249 sling in stock it didn’t take long to find a suitable substitute that came off some ex-signalling kit. In the field the gun is a real head turner. I’m normally a bit nervous of letting people have a try with my kit, as all too often flimsy airsoft kit has a habit of breaking and leaving your mates feeling guilty about using it - and you with a repair bill. With the M60E4 I have been happy for others to give it a whirl – and enjoyed seeing the expression on their faces. Another great feature is the ability to easily change springs in the one-piece gearbox and motor housing. Without any special tools and taking only minutes, you can easily swap to a lower-rated spring if you find that you are running a little

hot. The gearbox is easily removed and this feature is really practical as by simple wear and tear it will, at some point, become necessary to replace internal parts. In the twelve months I have been skirmishing it I have had to take it in for one rebuild, including a new piston as a few of the teeth had worn down. I tend to use a lighter BB such as .20s or .25s through the gun and, to be frank it has a great range and can lay down a shower of BBs out to 60-70yds. As it is a support gun I am not looking for “tack-driver” accuracy and the fact that at this distance the BBs will have spread out a bit is, for me, a good thing. Keeping heads down and making the enemy think twice about how they can assault your position is the bread and butter for a support gun. The fixed iron sights supplied are perfectly adequate and simple to use but you may wish to add the aftermarket top cover with attached rail, so that you can fit your own optics. I say that you “may” want to shop around as in reality it is really easy to fix your own rail, a few washers to level it out, a couple of nuts and bolts and you just saved yourself £50. I added a small Aimpoint Micro T-1 Red Dot Sight on top of mine and this works perfectly, the red dot appearing to float just above the tip of the foresight. At around the £350 mark the M60E4/MK43 is a great way to pick up a support gun, one that you won’t be afraid to lug around the field either physically or financially. With a little bit of thought and some cheap bits of surplus, you will have a very tidy package that can span a broad spectrum from Vietnam games through to ultra-modern SF Mil-Sim.

INFORMATION ARES/ASG M60E4 MOD 0 Full metal body and bi-pod Fully auto and safety Length: 940mm Weight: 6050 grams Easy strip QD Spring change system 4000rd trigger initiated box magazine Hop-up adjustable Price: £350-£380

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THE ARMOURY ARES/ASG M60E4 - MK43 MOD 0

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RAPI D FIRE WHEN YOU HAVE TO GO SHORT YOU GO KURZ BUT WHEN YOU NEED FAST, SHOULD YOU GO FOR THE TOKYO MARUI MP5K HIGH CYCLE? SCOTT ALLAN FLEXES HIS TRIGGER FINGER AND FINDS OUT.

SCOTT ALLAN

Scott has worked in airsoft retail for many years – and played airsoft long before that. He likes big, heavy guns, loud explosions and MilSim games in particular

ssentially, Tokyo Marui are airsoft. They took the pioneering steps forward to engineer the electric gearbox as we know it and, generally speaking, everything you see in airsoft these days is a copy of the Marui design. We have much to thank them for but they have almost no interest in the market outside Japan. So we know they are the masters, they know they are the masters and yet they seem unwilling to expand outside the Japanese market. Clearly business sense isn’t their strong point, yet it remains that they make the finest and most reliable rifles in the world - and they have the price tag to prove it. So what have Marui been up to? Well, ever since the “China Soft” boom back in 2007 Tokyo Marui were left standing with their pants down. Copies of copies of copies flooded the market. Cheap rifles for £90 were not uncommon in UK shops and, although they were largely terrible with no quality standards, players lapped them up all the same. The Marui gearbox design was at the heart of it all, every major model they made was copied and it still happens today. So Marui took stock and decided they’d get back to what they did best – innovating. This is where the High Cycle range came from. In Japan they have very strict laws on the power of an electric rifle, which is why you rarely see them above 300fps.

REAL STEEL The MP5K or “Maschinen Pistole 5 Kurz” (which fairly obviously translates to “Machine Pistol 5 Short”) is a 9mm sub machine gun. Designed back in the 60’s and using the very popular 9mm Luger design from over 100 years ago, the MP5 is a worldwide icon. Almost every nation today uses them in some form. The MP5 design has been adapted dozens of times over

the years; lengthened and shortened and collapsible stocks and suppressors have all been fitted at some point. The extremely famous Embassy Siege with Operation Nimrod saw the previously hidden SAS shoved into the public eye with their MP5s. It is one of the most iconic raids of all time, as the black-masked soldiers stormed the building with pin point accuracy. So from every airsoft site, computer game and film this machine pistol has seen popular use and it most likely will remain that way for many years to come.

THE TOKYO MARUI VERSION As you would naturally expect, the packaging for Tokyo Marui rifles is nice. A neatly finished box with sharp graphics really

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THE ARMOURY TM MP5K HIGH CYCLE

INFORMATION TM MP5K HIGH CYCLE EG3000 Motor 25 Rounds Per Second 250-280 Feet Per Second on a Blaster 0.20g BB 220 Round Dual Magazine 20mm Plastic Scope Rail included Nylon Fibre Construction Metal sights Metal Sling point Weight: 1.5 kilos Length: 345mm Barrel Length: 90mm RRP: £285

does make it feel a little bit more special, rather than the generic brown that you see from G&P. This MP5 is largely of plastic construction, not this is a bad thing but it is worth a mention. The main thing I notice that I don’t like is the end cap that replaces the stock. It is a strangely oversized type and I am not sure why exactly but it doesn’t look quite right to me. That aside there is a double short high capacity magazine, holding 220 rounds, which is unusual for Marui and a 20mm scope rail for the top. Marui have never been big on giving you extras, they are more on the Audi way of thinking – everything is an extra. Sporting an ambidextrous fire selector which feels positive and the front grip it feels lightweight yet solid. While a Marui has never been considered powerful, the high

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THE ARMOURY TM MP5K HIGH CYCLE

”satiIt issfyialwngaysto see an opposi n g plupayer run tryi n g to clyourosemiinnsiimdeum engagement dibestance onl y to met by a wal l ofwasps. angry” white cycles do have slightly less power than the standard Tokyo Marui range. Inside you’ll find a specially designed sector gear, with an integrated delayer to ensure smooth feeding all the way through your magazine. Then the piston is short stroked by 3 teeth, which again is fairly standard in high speed set ups. With all this you can really only expect around 250 feet per second, not exactly earth-shattering but you will be turning out around 25 rounds per second on a regular 7.4v LiPo or a 8.4v NiMH battery. Clearly this SMG is truly best at CQB-type events. The Marui hop up system is always very reliable and often considered to be the best overall. Opinion aside the Marui will easily put rounds out to the 50 metre mark - it’ll just take them a little longer to get there. So while it isn’t massively powerful and it isn’t full metal it is very, very fast and a high quality product. The accuracy was a little low but that is to be expected from something with such a short barrel. This could undoubtedly be improved upon by fitting a tight-bore barrel, probably no more than a 6.03mm to allow quicker feeding from the magazine. The new EG 3000 HC motor doesn’t actually seem to powerful either and certainly there are much better on the market. The gearbox casing looks tougher than the old standard Marui type and it sports 6mm metal bushes, again many these days run 8mm bearings but it should not really affect the short to mid-term performance at all. Testing it with a 7.4v LiPo it really was impressively fast. I see more and more high speed set ups these days and people really do get into all sorts of bother with pistons and bearing failures. The Marui, while it happily jumps around as you fire, doesn’t feel like it is stretching itself in anyway. Personally if I were to make changes I would get rid of the awkward blade 20 amp fuse, which I consider unnecessary and it makes it a pain to replace the stock cap. In fact I would probably have the whole thing rewired with Ultimate silver wiring, Deans connectors and a tight-bore fitted. I wouldn’t be tempted to go any faster as the high rate of fire as standard is more than enough. I am sure there are those people out there who would be able to squeeze substantially more out of the MP5K with a 11.1v LiPo or similar but then you are in the danger zone of causing a failure. With the lightweight and compact design, which is no accident, the MP5K would be a great primary or side arm. Many sniper players like carrying something with

these specifications because they do not hinder their primary role. Toe to toe at range in woodland or open grassland might see a bit of a struggle. Closer in is where this would do the real damage. The 250fps means you aren’t going to really hurt anyone either, so it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure to paste several people at a range that would hurt with a more powerful rifle.

CONCLUSION For me the MP5K has always been a “specific job” type of Airsoft gun. I have only ever used it as a backup for my trusty L96, yet every time I switched over to it I did well, being able to wield it one handed and lay down effective fire against incoming enemy. It is always satisfying to see an opposing player run up trying to close inside your minimum engagement distance only to be met by a wall of angry white wasps. The price is a little on the steep side at around £285 but then Tokyo Marui has never been cheap, you are paying Japanese production prices not Chinese sweatshop prices. To sum up, in my opinion this is the best MP5K available today. It is not the cheapest but it will be the most reliable and, by a country mile, it is the fastest!

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iwoRTh s PyRo iT

IN thIs IssUE, GArEth “GADGE” hArVEy AsKs thE BUrNING QUEstIoN, ArE Pyros Worth thE EFFort - AND thE MoNEy?

GARETh 'GADGE' hARVEy

Gadge is our resident history buff and FilmSim fanatic. He has a passion for WWII, Nam-soft and Cold War gaming – but still finds time to fit in an open-day skirmish

lways a hot topic and doing the rounds in the Airsoft Action office this month is the subject of pyrotechnics – that’s every sort of flashbang, from smoke grenades to blank firing 9mm impact devices and even the ‘lighter’ end, like powder mines, BB claymores and gas-powered ‘tornado’ type devices. We asked our readers: Is pyro really worth it? Most people are pretty good at taking a BB hit, but we’ve all seen that guy ‘take cover’ behind a bush from your flashbang, or claim they were “outside the hit zone”. So do you bother? Are BFGs more bang for your buck or do you trust tornados? Are you p*ssed off with powder mines and are “Claymores” cr*p? For a start it’s worth bearing in mind

that in a game based on “honesty and honour”, for some reason while most players (except the worst sort) will accept they are not ‘bullet proof,’ no end of skirmishers seem to feel that their nifty new multicam togs, or vintage field grey somehow protect them from the airsoft equivalent of the opening barrage at the Battle of the Somme. Consider that in the real world (and that’s what a lot of MilSim players strive for) a “defensive” fragmentation grenade will inflict crippling or lethal injuries up to 30 metres away and will shear clean through vegetation and even light interior walls – it’s a potent beast. In airsoft however no one expects these hand-held time bombs to be quite so destructive. The average site rule is that anyone within five metres (or the same building room) and not behind “hard cover” (usually behind a concrete wall or earth bank) is out of the game, wounded, dead or call it what you will. But we’ve all seen the guy who sees a fizzing grenade about to be thrown and scoots a few metres further back to claim sanctuary or, even worse, claims the bit of pallet or a small shrub in front of him is “cover”! Annoying enough when you’re just putting a few BBs down range but frustrating as hell when you’ve just wasted a £5 pyro and made a perfect throw. In recent years the advent of impact detonated, rather than timed grenades and with ‘ring pull’ fuses rather than friction strikers, has reduced the warning time given to your erstwhile victim and made it less likely that the less scrupulous occupants of

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DEBATE Is Pyro Worth It

those choke points and buildings will simply hop into the next room and reappear as soon as the bang has gone off. While most players feel that pyro (or grenades of some sort) are really quite essential in Close Quarter Battle (CQB) games and more of a luxury out in the woodland, the jury seems to be out as to whether you’re better off with disposable card flashbangs, or whether it’s more prudent to invest in a refillable device; be it a 9mm blankfiring grenade, a gas filled device or a gas and BB filled ‘tornado’ grenade. While over an extended period of time the refillable “room clearers” certainly end up being more cost effective, they do have two major flaws. For a start you’ve got to lob up to £100 of airsoft device into some dark factory unit or dense woodland and it may well never be seen again! Despite painting both of my 9mm BFGs day-glo yellow and attaching four foot white streamers to them, I still managed to lose one down some cavernous woodland hole and the second one to a light-fingered and dishonest site regular! The second big drawback is that given they are hefty bits of kit, most sites require an underarm throw to avoid accidentally braining your opponents – health and safety in play but a serious range limiter. On the other hand, that pea grenade or Mk5 can be lobbed as hard and as far as you like and short of landing under someone’s nuts (sorry Ed!) you’re unlikely to do much damage! Some pyros were seen to be fun but next to useless, mainly those like claymore mines that are so quiet and low powered that often players have no idea they have been hit. In general it seems that most players like a hefty bang to get their target’s attention! At the end of the day though, player opinions over pyro really came down to one thing (well maybe two); the site’s own rules and the vigilance of the marshals. On sites with large blast zones, minimal categories of safe cover and sound player marshals, they can be real game winners, capable of bunkerbusting or clearing out choke points. On sites with ill-defined pyro rules and “Teflon” walk-ons they tend to be about effective as scrunching a fiver into a ball, setting it on fire and throwing it at the Opfor!

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DEBATE Is Pyro Worth It

Readers’ Views Darren Thorogood: “I love my Ohshiboom but new players always fail to grasp what the kill radius is. I will continue to use bangs like a nutter, adds something to the game!” Oliver Holmes: “I’ve got a couple of Oshibooms and some tornado impact grenades and I swear by them. Yes you get the odd trouble causer with them but that’s true with all of airsoft. Now if only someone would make reusable smoke canisters you refill…” Bulb Donaldson: “I play a lot of CQB and pyro is essential. Even if you don’t get hits you still can move the other team back. I carry four timed BFGs and two impact grenades. Well worth the money! No damp strikers, no loud hiss before they go off giving people a chance to react. I converted over a few years ago and have saved a fortune!” Stuart Messenger: “As a student I can’t really afford gas grenades, so I use pyros. Also it’s nice just to chuck a grenade and then not have to look for it in brambles or stinging nettles.” Andrew Willison: “I love pyro. The little boy in me loves that panic when you strike it and throw it totally off mark!” Adam “Teddybear” Simonelli: “I love pyros especially my Ohshiboom as there is no delay and my opponents don’t have time to get to cover, as opposed to your conventional TLSFx and Enola Gaye grenades and bangs. A crow scarer is a great motivational boost though, gets everyone moving.” Scott Allan: “I like all pyro. Smoke is especially good. It is extremely irritating when someone doesn’t die from a bang.” Andrew Lane: “Playing in dense woodland pyros can be essential for clearing out positions. Our marshals always explain the blast radius and what is cover and what’s not. Nothing quite like a loud bang for clearing out buildings. Seen some excellent pyro hits and been hit once or twice myself, nothing like seeing the panic in their eyes when a pyro lands in the enemies midst. My brother used a claymore and when it was triggered the targets did not know if they were hit or not, I think due to there being no sound.” John Mayne: “I love pyro. I think they are a fantastic tool. The problem is - and I see it constantly - people often don’t take them as a hit.” Jake Mcgarvey: “ Don’t bother outdoors....only use at CQB..... smoke works a treat though in woodland!” Alex Palmer:” Impact grenades revolutionised airsoft pyro 2 or 3 years ago. They completely eliminate the non-hit taking scenarios as it doesn’t give players the time to try and jump away from it. I’ll never look back.” Scott Suttie: “Used to love Mk5s when I ran and mostly played at a woodland site but since moving to a CQB site the reusable ones are invaluable. The police Dynatecs are the best impacts by a country mile and although the original Dynatecs are fiddly, they are the best timed ones imo and I want to get some! Wouldn’t fancy running either in woodland though.” Billy Gumbrell: “I love pyro. It helps add to the experience and atmospherics of a game. They have a tactical place too. If there is that one hard to get player holding the doorway or stairwell choke point and is clipping your teammates constantly - BOOM!” Adrian Messenger: “Bangs are pointless, smoke all the way!”

And where would be be without this cracking story from our own Editor and skirmisher extraordinaire, Nige: “Crouched in a corner, camera raised waiting to get the “money shot” as the team bursts through door... Flashbang comes in first and rolls to rest right under my arse... Can’t move or will miss the shot... Grit teeth hard and hope it doesn’t hurt too much... Loud bang! Big pain! Arse hurt for days. Got the shot though!!”

have your say Got an opinion to share on this debate? Got an idea for a future topic? Get in touch with Airsoft Action via the address on page 4, or email gadge@airsoft-action.co.uk. Watch out for future debates on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/AirsoftAction.

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ON TEST

LIFE’S A GAS WE AIRSOFT EUROPE PREMIUM GREEN GAS

WE GOT WIND OF WE EUROPE’S NEW PREMIUM GREEN GAS AND WANTED TO KNOW IF IT WAS AS GOOD AS THEY SAID IT WOULD BE, SO WE ASKED SCOTT ALLAN TO TEST IT AGAINST SOME OTHER POPULAR BRANDS.

SCOTT ALLAN

Scott has worked in airsoft retail for many years – and played airsoft long before that. He likes big, heavy guns, loud explosions and MilSim games in particular

o yet another manufacturer brings out an own-brand gas - I wasn’t very excited at first but oh my goodness was I surprised! WE are a Taiwanese manufacturer famous for low cost, heavy weight pistols. They used to only provide a nice entry level pistol but these days their pistols are excellent quality and they have a range of airsoft rifles too. It is refreshing to see an airsoft company pushing forward with new releases and branching into various other lines. So gas is just gas right? Well no, in fact there really are huge differences. The term “Green Gas” really became overused until everything was “Green Gas”, historically was the most powerful. For a long time the UK only had a handful of suppliers; ASG had Ultra Air, Abbey had Predator and Brut gas and then Kick Ass

Gas. While each company claimed theirs was the best, in reality most were almost identical. The only other option I have seen for players is using straight propane and many claim this is the best thing since the wheel was invented. Propane is good but has three problems; firstly it stinks like cat pee, secondly it doesn’t have any lubricant in it (which can create issues for your very expensive pistol or rifle) and thirdly it can be too powerful for TM pistols and other light metal pistols, which it can literally blow apart. I tested a selection of gas in my beloved Kriss Vector, as it has an efficient gas system so should give a fair reflection of the performance. Firstly I tested the WE Europe gas, then Abbey Predator, then Abbey Brut Sniper (which is more powerful). After I tested 5 rounds I moved onto the next magazine, so every magazine was left to settle for around a minute between the next 5. This takes into account a little cool down effect in the Vector. They were tested on a Madbull Chronograph with Blaster 0.20g BBs and the temperature in the warehouse was a chilly 9oC. The Predator and Brut Sniper results fell pretty much right where I expected them to for the conditions but the WE Europe gas really was a massive surprise! I expected it to land fairly close to the Brut Sniper gas but a whole 10% higher is an excellent result, almost

unbelievable. I don’t use propane but I would be surprised if propane was more powerful.

IN CONCLUSION If you want to use a powerful gas you cannot go wrong with the new WE Europe gas. Retailing around £10-£13 it is reasonably priced, readily available and certainly around the same price as the other gases available.

PROS

Powerful Cheap Lubricates during use Readily available

CONS

May damage plastic pistols in warmer weather May produce too high a FPS for some sites

THE RESULTS WE Europe 349 345 344 330 332 329 325 320 319 322 Average 331.5 FPS

Predator 305 301 295 290 293 294 289 280 285 283

Brut Sniper 310 309 303 304 300 302 299 298 300 299

291.5 FPS 302.4 FPS

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ZOMBIE PORTSMOUTH! PLAGUE REACHES WITH THE VIRUS RAPIDLY SPREADING ACROSS THE UK, OSCAR P MANAGED TO HOOK UP WITH SOME SURVIVORS JUST OUTSIDE THE CITY.

OSCAR PLUMMER

Oscar believes three things about airsoft: drinking tea makes you win; ‘Tally ho!’ is the best battle cry;and RIS should be banned

do like a Zombie game and over the years I’ve played quite a few; multi-team domination games, one-team, LARP-tinged, survival scenarios and last-man-standing elimination contests. I’ve done battle with the undead in all sorts of sites; hospitals, quarries, and woodland. There’s a lot of fun to be had running for your life, screaming like a tiny frightened rabbit, when an ambulatory corpse tries to make a burger with your brains. Did I say Tiny Frightened Rabbit? I meant Big Manly Airsofter. Absolutely. So I was rather excited to hear that UCAP Airsoft were running a zombie-culling event at their Bunker site. If you’ve not heard of it before, it’s a World War Two tunnel complex dug into and under Portsdown Hill, overlooking Portsmouth. With roughly a mile of tunnels linking numerous rooms and chambers, with all the atmosphere that comes from genuine dark, damp, decayed confines, it’s a well-known and pretty damn unique CQB site. It’s also, at the best of times, pretty blinkin’ scary, so it’s almost tailor-made for a horror game and, to ice the cake, it was running late into the night – a 19:00 kickoff, running through until 01:00 on Saturday morning. Without a second thought, I sacked off Friday Night drinks, bunged my kit into a bag and booked an exit pass from the long-suffering other half. That said, there wasn’t much kit to pack. The briefing materials for the game, Salvation Z, set out a scenario with fairly stern restrictions on equipment. Players were survivors of a viral contagion which had wiped out

70% of the world’s population who were frantically trying to keep themselves whole and human amongst the chaos and anarchy. The background to the game set the UK as having finally begun to succumb to infection, after a period of self-enforced quarantine. Unfortunately a lone lifeboat from the ravaged continent had washed up on a beach near Southampton, where some feckless individuals had ignored the obvious risks and let themselves become the first victims of a plague which would swiftly turn the country into a ravaged wasteland, dotted only by heavily fortified towns and cities. The virus had spread with terrifying speed and we few survivors (player numbers were capped at 45) had found ourselves isolated and alone, trapped outside any of the safe havens. For the purposes of the game, that meant we were playing in the clothes we would have stood up in on the day the virus broke, with weapons we could have reasonably acquired in the UK. We were discouraged from military-issue kit - no plate carriers or webbing to be had. Instead, we went into game with at most a holster and many of us with just a pistol in hand and a couple of mags in a pocket. So, toting only pistols or shotguns, we were garbed in a thoroughly random selection of clothes; security guards, office workers, and at least one rather masculine dress. Top marks, however, go to the pair of amateur athletes who had been caught out in the middle of a fun run. Note to self:

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reflective panels on trainers and trackies can be a bit of a nightmare when you’re trying to hide in a dark corner! However, that scenario has become fairly standard for a Zombie game, so UCAP decided to factor some more unusual aspects into Salvation Z. Crucially - we were placed on restricted ammo AND restricted information. To be clear, when I say restricted I mean properly minimal. All we knew before the game was that we would be in two teams, and that whilst we would be allowed to take the field with a full load of gas in mags, no ammunition whatsoever could be loaded. From the moment we walked onto site for the safety and game briefing, we were not allowed to return to safe for either gas or ammunition. We would need to scavenge around the site for every single round we would fire. Now, it’s not often that you come into an event with such an artfully blank sheet, so I had genuinely no idea what to expect. Normally, that would mean trying to cram everything bar the kitchen sink into my webbing, but for this event even that option wasn’t open to me! So, with more than a smidgen of trepidation and a Sig 226, I stepped through into site and joined the briefing. Safety came first, with fairly standard rules. We were on single shot (though, frankly, given the ammo situation anyone blatting on auto would have been shot by their own team to conserve resources) with usual hit rules. UCAP don’t run a bang rule (a decision of which I approve) and there’s no minimum engagement distance at the Bunker as it’s such a complex site that you can be on top of people before you (or, better, they!) know it. Given that, full face is strongly advised, though not mandatory. Knife kills were in play (and again, this is a site where the potential for sneaky assassinations is massive) and given the theme of the event, we were told that there were plenty of foam ‘iron’ bars out on site with which we could happily batter adversaries. Phew! Safety done, we were immediately split into two teams for the game briefing – more mystery! Our adversaries picked up all their kit and were shuttled off to a separate safe zone which had been set up somewhere else on site. My team started in a small ante chamber just inside the site and blessed with only a dim red light, this was to be our main base for the evening. The UCAP team outlined the game rules. Our objective was simple; battle against the other team for the resources needed to survive! To do that, we would need to spread out through site and hunt down basic necessities; there were a series of stashes secreted throughout the tunnels, in which we would find food, water, iron bars and the all-important ammunition. Once we found these, we would

”Everything I had been telling myself about controlling shots, counting rounds, and not squealing like a gimp terrier went straight out the window. Whilst my nether regions went through a series ofI waved 5p/50pmycontractions, pistol in the zombie’s general direction and pulled the trigger” www.airsoftactionmagazine.com 047 046-049 Event UCAP Salvation Z_Rev1.indd 47

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need to bring them back to our main base and then either use them or place them in a communal stash. Gas, meanwhile, could be found only in a number of cans which had been taped in fixed positions across the site – topping up would be done whilst at risk! We were also told that at no time would the base be entirely safe – the other team were at liberty to raid us (and vice versa) and anything in the stash was fair pickings! Each team had an allocated medic bag, with a limited number of bandages. If we were hit by the other team, we had a compulsory 5-minute bleedout. In that time, one of our team could resuscitate us back into game – or, on the other hand, we might be eaten by a plague-carrying nasty. Bleeding out without salvation meant 10 minutes out of game, in the safe zone. On being hit again after being bandaged, or being eaten by a zombie, we would have to head out of game for a full 15 minutes. That kept players cycling in and out of play and helped to keep play flowing – it would be difficult for either side to dominate the game entirely. It was abundantly clear that we were going to be in hostile territory the whole time, so relaxing wasn’t an option and teamwork would be order of the day. We did, thankfully, have one ray of light; we would have access to a portable energy source with which we could manipulate lighting across the site. This power source (which was suitably massive and required two players to move) could be manoeuvred around the site and used to activate some areas of lighting – very, very useful in setting up defensive fields of fire – but, typically, could trade hands between the teams. Much more mysteriously, we were told that if we should find documents and sledgehammers, “we might well want to bring them back to [our] base”. Only one thing remained before game on – we got an initial batch of ammo; a princely 8 rounds per person! Suddenly, three-round shotguns became an expensive luxury and more than one was stacked in favour of a more frugal sidearm! So, with not even half a mag loaded in my trusty Sig, we were given the signal for game on and headed out into site. Straight away, the defining tactic of the evening became clear – we needed to be uber quiet and extremely light on our feet. The site wasn’t completely blacked out, but instead had strategic pools of coloured light. There were just enough of these to provide points of reference as we navigated out, but also enough to generate an awful lot of threatening darkness. We soon learnt that our ears were going to be our best friend as shadows started playing tricks with our eyes! However, I also discovered that the UCAP team had made some pretty significant modifications to the bunker. Those of us who had played the site before found that pretty much every corridor and room had been altered in some way. Some corridors and doorways had been blocked entirely, others partially planked over. More than one mouse hole had been entirely bricked up. In short, it was dark, I had no idea

where I was and all I only had 8 bullets. Brown trousers time! About ten seconds out of the base we found a body, a thoroughly dead body. After staring at it for a good couple of minutes, one of our team went forward for a closer look at what appeared to be a stash just behind it - at which point a zombie jumped out of the darkness and bit him. At this point, everything I had been telling myself about controlling shots, counting rounds, and not squealing like a gimp terrier went straight out the window. Whilst my nether regions went through a series of 5p/50p contractions, I waved my pistol in the zombie’s general direction and pulled the trigger. Whilst the nasty went down, the nett result was that I spuffed half my ammunition in about half a second of utter panic. This was going to be a long night! The first hour or two of the game played steadily. I teamed up with a couple of other players and concentrated on getting the lay of the land. This early section was about locating stashes and getting some supplies in. We actively avoided contact; when we heard voices (or shambling) we went to ground and thought. This wasn’t a game where weight of fire was going to win anything more than an odd tactical victory; the strategy was all about stealth and thinking. Discretion was definitely the better part of valour! Certainly, though, we had the odd spirited exchange of fire with other players, and on occasion they even turned out to be the other team! After the third or fourth blue-on-blue, challenges and responses were devised and the amount of friendly fire dropped dramatically. The other focus of these first couple of hours was learning how to navigate in pitch black. Early on, I decided that using my torch was a bad idea – all it was doing was giving away my position. Instead, I developed a tactic of using a scavenged iron bar to feel my way forward in the darkness. The coloured lights came into their own, as they ended up being navigational markers. Before long though, the tempo picked up. As the team gradually accumulated a bit of an ammunition surplus, we were able to push out a bit more aggressively and soon ended forcing contact with the other team, as well as the perennial zombie menace. We didn’t end up dug into a war of attrition,

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EVENT REVIEW UCAP AIRSOFT: SALVATION Z

INFORMATION UCAP AIRSOFT Web: www.ucap.co.uk Email: info@ucap.co.uk Tel: 0330 111 8227 (0330 111 UCAP) Mob: 07590 818881

though. The numbers of players meant that movement was always an option; at one point I absent-mindedly bumbled into an open area and realised that I’d found the other team’s base, which was momentarily unguarded. Giggling like a small child, I rummaged through their findings, pinching all their chocolate and a couple of documents. As I turned to leave, I noticed a sledgehammer which I grabbed and tootled off back to our own stash. Back at base, the documents revealed that a number of syringes were out in site. Those contained enough antigen to negate the virus, so we would be allowed into one of the fortified enclaves if we could gather enough for the entire team. We were also told that the sledgehammer could be used to break open some of the bricked up mouse holes! This moved us into the next phase of the game, with both teams flowing back and forth across the site, searching for syringes, dodging zombies, trading well-placed shots, and quite literally coming through the walls! I quickly learnt a route straight between the two base camps, and amused myself by mounting sporadic raids on enemy territory. As the game progressed, I have to say my team gained the upper hand. Whilst we were never flush with ammunition (I never had more than one or two full mags) we never ran low and the game evolved into a fluid, running game of cat and mouse, where either side could swap between hunter and hunted in the blink of an eye. Most of the time, I was playing alongside one or maybe two members of my team, but often I was on my lonesome; fortunately, I got used to the darkness and turned it into an ally. As endex neared, it became clear that pretty much all of the resources in game had made their way to our stash; we weren’t out-playing the other team, but certainly seemed to have luck on our side! However, as we came close to end of play, the other team seemed to melt away, regrouped at their base and decided to place everything on one final throw of the dice. Although it’s fair to say that our defensive posture was pretty darn lax at this point, their last ditch attack fell just a gnat’s whisker short of success, as we held them off until close of play. Again, luck just wasn’t with them! Overall, I had a really good time at Salvation Z. It wasn’t a full-blown slugfest by any means; it was an exercise in stealth more than anything. Every player was thrown into the action with extremely limited resources and forced to adapt and find their own feet. Given the scenario, that’s entirely fitting! As the game progressed, it was clear that the Zombies were almost peripheral to the event; it really was a contest of skill between the two opposing teams, built around rather than on the undead menace. The teams and site were well balanced and to be absolutely fair, luck played a huge part in the final outcome! However, some think that Zombie events are getting a bit 2-a-penny, and a bit passé. That’s unsurprising, given the waves of gruesome decayed beings shambling across TV screens, games consoles and even the pages of books. I must also confess that I have a bit of a track record with zombies – previous encounters have left me with a knackered ankle and a split eyebrow. But, nonetheless, the blighters get EVERYWHERE and someone’s got to keep them under control, don’t they? Salvation Z proved that with creative thinking and good game design, there’s plenty of life (or should that be undeath?) left in zombie games.

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THE

AIRBASE

FROM COLD WAR JETS TO CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, RAF BENTWATERS HAS SEEN A LOT OF ACTION. NIGE REPORTS FROM FIREFIGHT COMBAT SIMULATION’S FIRST GAME ON THIS HUGE SITE.

have always had a fascination about old military bases, particularly those that are ex-Royal Air Force. Perhaps it’s because I was born on one, or maybe because I spent the first 11 years of my life living on them. Whatever it is, whenever I have the opportunity to explore any these places, filled as they usually are with memories of a bygone era, I grab it with both hands. Imagine my delight then, when I got a call from Andy Jansen of Firefight Combat Simulations, telling me they had done a deal to use RAF Bentwaters for airsoft. To be honest, at first I thought I had misheard what he said and asked him to repeat; “RAF Bentwaters? Do you mean the RAF Bentwaters, in Suffolk?” “Yes”, he answered and, even though I couldn’t see him, I just knew he had one big mutha of a grin on his face!

A LITTLE HISTORY Although originally called RAF Butley, by the time it was opened for operational use in 1944, the station had been renamed RAF Bentwaters, reputedly being named after one of two cottages that were demolished during construction. The station was intended for use by Bomber Command but was transferred to RAF Fighter Command shortly after becoming operational. From then until 1949 it was home to a number of RAF Squadrons, flying a variety of aircraft including Spitfires, Mustangs and some of the first generation of jets, such as the Gloucester Meteor. However on 26th August 1949, less than five and a half years after it opened, RAF Bentwaters was mothballed (placed into “Care and Maintenance” status - not used but still looked after) and this is how it was to stay until March 1951, when the United States Air Force assumed control. The American Air Force poured a huge amount of resources into RAF Bentwaters to bring it up to the standard required by NATO and, in September 1951, it became the new home of the 81st Fighter-Interceptor Wing (FIW). The 81st FIW had been tasked jointly with 11 Group RAF Fighter Command to provide air defence cover and flew F-86A “Sabre” aircraft. Incidentally, this was the first time that a foreign air force had actively participated in peacetime air defence of the UK. In 1954 the 81st FIW’s mission priority was changed from an interceptor role to bomber and became the 81st Fighter-Bomber Wing, until changing again in 1958

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SITE REVIEW FCS: THE AIRBASE

when, along with its “Twin Base”, RAF Woodbridge, it became the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing. If you are a bit of an aircraft nut, the planes that flew out of Bentwaters would probably feature somewhere in your list of all-time “got to see one of those” aircraft: F-86A “Sabre”, F-84F “Thunderstreak”, F-101A/C “Voodoo”, F4 “Phantom”, F-16C “Fighting Falcon” and, one of my personal all-time favourites, the Republic A-10 “Warthog” (don’t the Americans give their aircraft some great names!) With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the USAF’s role at Bentwaters was wound down. On 23rd March 1993 the last Warthog flew out and the station returned to Ministry of Defence control when the 81st TFW was deactivated on 1st July the same year.

PRESENT DAY Today, like many former RAF Stations, Bentwaters is now a development site with businesses taking full advantage of the high level of security a base such as this affords. It is also where you will find the Bentwaters Cold War Museum, which is well worth a visit in its own right and, on top of all that, is now also the location of a truly wicked airsoft site. Once I’d got over the surprise, Andy gave me an overview of the site and I quickly realised that we were talking something a bit special. Phrases like “1,000 acres of playing area”, “massive ammunition dump”, “CQB area” and “two-story kill-house” jumped out at me and it was a no-brainer when he asked if I’d like to do a review - especially when he added that the HQ had accommodation with real beds! Getting to the site is really easy; stick “IP12 2TW” in your satnav and follow the signs to “Bentwaters Park” when you get close. This will bring you to the barrier at the Main Entrance and once through, the HQ is in a securely fenced area just inside. If the saying “first impressions count” is true, then it is also true to say I was impressed. “HQ” is a two-story building with proper reception, offices, briefing rooms and Staff room downstairs, whilst upstairs are a number of four-bedded rooms and toilets etc. Evidence of its Cold War history is everywhere you look, as all external doors and windows are fitted with heavy duty blackout blinds and closures.

“Ifthen yesterday was all about stealth, today would be about simply overwhelming the opposition with controlled aggression”

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I arrived just after 09:00 and the place was already buzzing with activity as Andy and his team put the finishing touches to their plans and players started arriving. JB from BadgerTac 2 had taken up station under the main stairway and was doing a brisk trade in gas, ammo and pyros, along with the odd weapon or two. Thirty-odd players had booked and they were split roughly 50/50 into an “SF” or “PMC” team, along camo v black lines. With play due to start at 10:30 they were quick to get themselves a room sorted and back down to the Ops Room for individual team briefings. FCS events are not your ordinary “skirmish-type” game, in that they are heavily mission-orientated, as opposed to two teams going at it hammer and tongs on full-auto and, with that in mind, Andy had devised a series of scenarios that would appeal to both type of player. The Saturday would be all about stealth, making moves based upon an overall mission objective and which would affect the eventual outcome. Here the focus would be upon co-ordinated movement designed to draw the opposition in one direction whilst the objective was quietly achieved in another. Ammo was limited to 300 rounds per player and throughout the day objectives would have to be achieved by a set time, or abandoned. Sunday would be all about making assaults on heavily defended positions, knowing you would be walking into a firefight but again, with objectives to achieve in the process. Briefings at FCS are straight forward and they very much

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SITE REVIEW FIRST & ONLY: FCS:THE THEARMOURY AIRBASE

easy to mistake one location for somewhere completely different and ended up nearly half a mile from where the action was taking place. This also lead to the only “gripe” I heard all weekend, when a player remarked that he’d “spent two hours wandering through a forest, hadn’t seen any opposition and hadn’t fired a shot”. Mind you, I saw the same player the following day with the biggest smile on his face, as he led a bunker assault. As light started to fade on Saturday afternoon, the final objective was to defend a blast-sheltered building (codename “Amazon”) and witnessed some really great play, as first one then the other team took and lost possession. Open to the front and standing right on the edge of the trees to the rear, it was always going to be difficult to defend, as both teams soon found out. End-ex was called and it was back to HQ for debriefings - but this was not the end of the day. For those players who were staying on, Andy had something special in store, in the form of the aptly-named “Kill House”. This two-story structure stands alone on an area of concrete pan, with open approaches on all sides and the objective was simple: Get in and clear it. Difficult enough in daylight but at night, in the pitch dark and with only one available entrance, not something for the feint-hearted. Judging by the adrenalinised players that trooped back into the HQ a few hours later, it had been an exciting encounter - there would be a few beers drunk before most headed off to grab some kip. 07:00 on Sunday morning was under brilliant sunshine and players soon started stirring as the smell of cooking bacon wafted through the HQ building - bacon sarnies, hot coffee, sunshine, fresh air and airsoft; the perfect recipe before another day of airsoft action! If yesterday was all about stealth, then today would be about simply overwhelming the opposition with controlled aggression. Gone were the sneaky-beakies of the day before (although snipers would still play an active role), to be replaced with tactical assaults on a series of heavily defended targets. Time would still be an added enemy as each phase had to be completed within a certain timeframe, or abandoned. There would be laptops and USB sticks to find, HVTs to acquire and positions to be held and believe in treating adults like adults. There is no “bang” rule and although knife kills are perfectly valid, a couple of shots to centre mass is still the preferred method of despatch. One thing you won’t see is marshals in Hi-Viz vests, they all take part in the play and, being in with close comms with Andy, ensure the game continues to flow. Due to the size of the playing area, vehicles would be used to transport the players to their respective FoBs and also to ferry players back there to regen. When I first heard this, I must admit it raised an eyebrow but, thinking about it, it made perfect sense. The distances involved would mean players being out of the game for a considerable time and, in a real-life situation, MediVacs would be doing just the same. In practice it worked very effectively and I did not hear a single complaint. RAF Bentwaters covers a huge area and one of its great features are the twenty-five hard dispersal points “hidden” on the edge of Rendlesham Forest, all linked by a series of taxiways and surrounded by dense woodland. Also dotted throughout the area are a number of buildings and other structures, some obviously used for storing things that went “bang” (judging by the blast walls surrounding them). It was in this area that Saturday’s play was concentrated and it quickly became obvious that to be successful, you definitely needed two things - a good sense of direction and a map! The plantation-like trees and completely untouched ground cover made for some “interesting” directional choices. I pride myself on being able to navigate pretty well (most of the time) but soon found that it was

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ammo limits would still apply, so no spray and pray. The day started back at Amazon and although it looked completely different in daylight, it turned out to be just as difficult to hold for any length of time and prompted some amazing tactics and firefights. I don’t know what happened to the time but it was suddenly time for the last phase of the day and it was time for me to leave - but I couldn’t. I just had to see how things would pan out in one of the most unique fighting environments I think I have ever seen on any airsoft site, anywhere. In 1954, when the 81st’s mission changed to one of Fighter-Bomber, they armed their aircraft with both conventional and nuclear weapons. I do not know where they stored this ordnance but to the south of the airfield is an area that, to my untrained eye, looks a likely candidate. Surrounded by two high barbed-wire topped fences, clearly spaced for patrols to move between them and with the tress cut back to expose the area outside the fences, a tall guard tower looks out over a series of grass bunkers. Double entry gates close the only entrance and the whole place screams one thing: Secure Area! Hidden under each grass mound and entered via a pair of massive steel doors is a small concrete cave. We could only guess at what used to be stored in these dark places but it doesn’t take a genius to realise that it must have been something a bit “special”. Luckily one of the bunkers was open but a good look inside only served to heighten out thoughts about what it used to contain. Positioned towards the back wall was a concrete cell, with massively thick walls. To one side of the cell the entrance was sealed by what I can only describe as a door that would not look out of place in a Swiss Bank Vault; a hugely heavy, 8-inch thick door with double combination and key locks and numerous deadbolts on

BRITAIN’S ROSWELL In December 1980, dozens of US Air Force personnel became eyewitnesses to the alleged multiple landings of “craft of an unknown origin”, in Rendlesham Forest, not far from both RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge. The events started with a Guard at the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge reporting that he has seen “lights” descending into the forest and continued over a three day period. They went on to become the most well-known UFO sightings in the UK, rivalling even those of Roswell. Enquiries as to what actually happened have never been fully answered and the lights seen have been variously explained away as The Orford Ness Lighthouse, bright stars and even a fireball. all sides. Inside this a door barred the way to a very small, very secure room which I could quite believe would protect its contents from pretty much anything. However, for today it would become the location where the opposition would find their HVT - and also the location of the aforementioned player’s impression of the Cheshire Cat! The long, narrow corridors between the bunkers, surrounded as they are by tall walls and flat-topped bunkers, all contained within a small fighting area, made for some intense action and pushed players to the limits of their communication and tactical skills - a great climax to a superb weekend of airsoft. As the light again started to dwindle it was time for me to get back to the reality of a four-hour drive home but I’ll tell you something - it was worthy every minute of the return journey. I’ve been trying to come up with a summary of The Airbase in just a few words but there is simply so much of it, I think I’ll leave it to one of the players instead, who said: “This has got to be the best airsoft site in the UK, if not the World!” I don’t know about that, but it is probably damn close!

INFORMATION FIREFIGHT COMBAT SIMULATIONS Web: www.firefight.co.uk Email: info@firefight.co.uk Tel: 07973 240177 Google Maps: 52.126638, 1.433115 (switch to satellite view and zoom out!)

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Camouflage

PSYCHOLOGY

OSCAR P LOOKS AT THE NEWEST MTP-BEATER FROM DOWN UNDER, ROGGENWOLF WARG 5U.

OSCAR PLUMMER

Oscar believes three things about airsoft: drinking tea makes you win; ‘Tally ho!’ is the best battle cry;and RIS should be banned

amouflage is bit of hot topic amongst airsofters. Some choose their kit because of its effectiveness, others to fit in with a team impression, and many - shock, horror – because it just looks Ally. For my part, I consider the venerable WWII Denison smock ‘brush’ pattern to be the zenith of camouflage - with German splinter pattern a contender (though it suffers minus points due to being European). Modern patterns, though, haven’t really rocked my world. Cadpat, Marpat, AOR whatever have always been a bit, well, meh for me - and some are just awful on every count (UCP: Please go and stand the corner for the rest of the lesson). ATACS meanwhile, reminds me of bad impressionist watercolours that whispy, poetic kids used to churn out in art class. However a new offering from Roggenwolf, their Warg pattern, has caught my eye. This is a pattern produced by an ex-member of the Australian defence forces, which seeks to use the best technical aspects of digital (i.e. the way it messes with the way your eyes work) and

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CAMOUFLAGE ROGGENWOLF WARG 5U

the rock-solid, proven power of DPM styles, in breaking up silhouettes. This pattern was recently put in for testing by the New Zealand Defence Force, and apparently scored exactly the same in testing as their version of MTP. However, this is a really rare pattern - only 90 sets of BDUs have been produced, so I filed it into the ‘not likely to see’ basket. Luckily for me then, the good people at East West Trading were kind enough to loan Airsoft Action a set for review! Before we get onto the gear itself, let’s spend a little time on Roggenwolf’s design process. Building on their own operational experience, Roggenwolf’s philosophy is that a good camouflage uniform shouldn’t just conceal the wearer; it should also help distinguish them from their foe. They also believe that the most effective should seek to delay detection and recognition by challenging the eye and the mind. They have developed a propriety technology called Dwimor, which even attacks the eyes’ ability to focus on elements within the pattern itself! Overall, the approach is to build up the bigger (macro) pattern with smaller (micro) elements, the thinking being that if the eye and mind are prevented from identifying the pattern they won’t be able

“Roggenwolf’s philosophy isuniform that ashouldn’t good camouflage just conceal the wearer; it should also help distinguish them from their foe” to differentiate it from the background. Complicated? Add in the fact that the design team included a human physiologist, who built in aspects that allegedly make the human mind unconsciously avoid looking at the pattern and this has all the hallmarks of some really quite groundbreaking kit. So that’s the Warg pattern. The variant we’re looking at is the 5U, which is based on colours that the New Zealand Defence Force have picked out as being most effective in jungle, woodland and urban settings. Surprisingly, this looks on first glance to be a tan-based pattern, which seems counterintuitive. However, on looking at it more closely, the digital pixels are made up of a darker, duller brown, a greenish brown and (most surprisingly of all) what looks like a UCP mid blue-grey. However, put them all together and it comes out feeling much darker overall than MTP and certainly much darker than desert Marpat. The pattern itself really seems to do what it says on the tin; from a distance, it destroys silhouettes really effectively and close up it’s difficult to make out a distinct pattern. It also seems to do something

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interesting to patterns of shadow and light. It’s hard to describe but patterns of light and shadow seem to alter the contrast of the cloth, meaning it’s effective against a wide variety of backgrounds. Frankly, it makes my head ache! Now that’s interesting - because the rumour is that, when the pattern tied with a MTP variant in the NZDF trials in 2011, they put the final choice to a ballot of serving soldiers. One of the reasons that the MTP came out on top - allegedly - is that it ‘hurt people’s eyes’. I can’t vouch for that rumour and neither can I claim any sort of scientific basis - but I suspect that the science behind this stuff could well have some weight to it! The build of the BDUs is pretty good, too. Our review set is a set fairly conventional RAID-cut jacket and trousers, with a Boonie. Throughout all the pieces of the uniform, the material is solid, well stitched and high quality. The weight of the cloth is relatively heavy and compares favourably with some genuine Propper Tigerstripe we put it next to. However, the little details of the design show that some serious quality control and design insight have gone into the uniform. The zips, velcro and buttons are all hefty, well attached and placed for easy access (though the buttons are threaded rather than taped). On the jacket, which has a waist drawstring, the collar is higher than some of the Mao-cut American BDUs, meaning it can be folded down more comfortably, as well as providing more protection from the elements. Other good touches are full-length velcro gathers on the wrists and a single line of stitching on the straight-mounted, not 45 degree, arm pockets. This might not sound like much, but it means that the velcro square has a fold in it, meaning the pockets bend around your arms rather than stick out like a pair of toddler’s water wings! The trousers have some similarly nice touches. The belt loops are substantial and have the all-important centre loop at the rear, so your belt will support them properly and they also have loops for an internal drawstring should you want one. There are ankle strings and a long row of substantial buttons at the fly. The only drawback for some will be a lack of knee pads. However, they do have a couple of pleats stitched in at the side of the knee, which I presume will stop the legs rucking up under external pads. The cut though, has plenty of room in it without feeling slack; you won’t have any trouble scrambling around. The Jacket is relatively baggy, though the length of the sleeves and body are generous and feels comfortable under webbing and a plate carrier. The boonie is a modern type, with a row of loops around the headpiece. The brim is relatively big and floppy, and quite antipodean in feel. All in all, I’m really rather impressed with the Roggenwolf Warg kit – and despite my general preference for all things antique and old-school, I find myself quite liking it! The kit is really well thought-out and, for once, the pattern seems to live up to the hype. Crucially I suspect that it would work quite well in the wonderful muddy UK, despite its relatively tan background. Having said that, it’s not the cheapest. A full set will make a fair dent in your wallet, but as there are only 90 sets of this in existence, if you invest in a set you’re going to have something rather unique. Well thought-out, unique and a little bit quirky. What’s not to like?

INFORMATION Roggenwolf Warg 5U is available from East West Trading, in Basildon, Essex. Web: www.ew-trading.com Tel: 01268 931807 Prices: Shirt - £75.00 Trousers - £75.00 Boonie Hat - £25.00

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AIRSOFT GETS SERIOUS ARE AIRSOFT WEAPONS JUST FOR FUN? BILLY’S NOT SO SURE…

BILLY BASICS

Billy spent 25 years in uniform, and has served in all the usual salubrious ‘holiday destinations’ around the world. He has always been a writer and doodler by habit

uns look cool don’t they? As a 10 year old boy I was literally glued to the TV each night after school, watching Royal Marines yomping and Paras tabbing across the Falklands towards Port Stanley. It wasn’t the driving snow battering them that kept me glued to the spot, or the uniforms they were wearing that made me go “Awesome!!!!” it was what they were cradling in their arms that flicked my switch. Their berets looked pretty cool too, I have to admit. Guns do something funny to us don’t they? They fulfil a need that we have I suppose. I read a book by an academic chap called Michael Ignattief a few weeks ago exploring why young men all around the world make war on one another. His idea is that the more the

state tries to monopolise the use of guns (keep them in the hands of the army/police) the more we strain, resist and grizzle to get them back and smash one another up. Despite leftie liberals claiming that we all just want jobs and peace, there’s a huge section of the population that don’t want that at all. They want murder, death, killings and destruction. The book is called “Blood and Belonging” give it a read. It’s a bit heavy, but worth a look, and it’s quite shocking in its findings too. Anyway, as usual I digress! The weapons that we go for are the ones we like the look of, or that suit the role we wish to play within your group/section/unit. I can’t help thinking about the .50 Cal sniper on Op Furious Angel, who had so many guns he didn’t know which one to pick (I seem to remember he was carrying at least 4 in one contact and probably had a few tucked into his waist band as well), or the Pink Lady Sniper at the last Ground Zero event in Ringwood. I wish I had had a chat with her, in fact if you’re reading this then do send Ed a pic of you in all your finery and we can stick it in the mag. Airsoft weapons are being taken more seriously these

j Is it real, or is it MilSim? Airsoft weapons are gaining popularity in a number of forces as training aids. g A soldier stops a truck at a simulated vehicle check point.

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SKILLS ROOM BILLY BASICS

days, the Army are starting to realise this. They have looked closely at the drills and concluded that they are the same, which is vitally important. What’s more the Health and Safety aspects are a lot more straight forward than using real ammunition - and you can train anywhere in the country with just a pair of safety specs for eye protection, then put them in the boot of your car and go to Burger King, brilliant eh? There is bound to be considerable resistance from some quarters, namely the old school, who claim that “it’s not realistic”, they’re “toy guns”, it’s “the thin end of the wedge”, it “dilutes the training” and we’ll be “worse soldiers as a result”. But everything in life changes and we have to adapt, and let’s face it there’s a reason why that school is called the “old school” and that’s because their time has come and gone. It’s time for fresh ideas and new ways of doing things. If you look back through history, change is almost always greeted with mistrust and resistance from certain quarters. When the first mass produced printed book came out, it was said that it would corrupt youngsters and turn them into sloths that never ventured out of the house. What it in fact did, was open up an endless number of worlds, ideas, stories and theories to explore for the enquiring mind. I happened upon airsoft quite by chance. I first went in search of some airsoft weapons to run some hostile environment training for a client. By happy chance I wandered into Badger Tac and met the Editor as well as Ratty himself at his shop. Our illustrious Editor (long may his receding hair be showered with inspiration and glorious rain by the clouds above the Malvern Hills) talked me into writing for the mag and Ratty sold me a bundle of perfectly good second hand weapons. I was not an instant convert by any stretch (I just needed some realistic looking guns) and I had little inclination to delve into airsoft myself, but Ed asked me to help him on the stand at the British Airsoft Show and it was there that I met several people from organisations that were looking into it very seriously indeed. I won’t steal anyone’s thunder by saying who these organisations were, as I am guessing there will be a big announcement at some point, but I did talk to them at length over the course of the show and, to be honest, for me it was a bit of a penny-drop turning point. What I learnt was that there has been a lot of research and trials carried out by important professionals, to determine whether or not airsoft had a place in future training. And it seems like it does. As I eluded to earlier, they are of course recreational toys (not to sound

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patronising) but only in the way that they were designed for big kids like you and I. But they look the same, they weigh the same and most importantly they handle the same - and the drills are exactly the same. That was the big potential sticking point; the drills have to be exactly the same for them to have any credibility. I was therefore amazed when I first handled a Sig 226 in Ratty’s shop. The cock, de-cock, everything felt good and right, the mag release was slick and it slipped in and out well, so of course I bought it straight away. I have to admit when my wife goes out for a few hours I empty a mag or two into a Coke can perched on my daughter’s slide in the garden (she’s not on it I might add). I am also told that you could put them in the boot of your car and cross into France with them without having to tell the authorities, but I wouldn’t do it myself because I get points for doing 33 in a 30, but apparently you can if you want to. So anyway, to bring us bang up to date, just a few days ago I was in a 4x4 driving it along a track somewhere in Dorset. In the back was a journalist just a few days away from a trip to Afghanistan, an Oil worker who was off to Nigeria was sitting beside her and in the front with me was a fella who was also off to Nigeria. We navigated our way through some difficult terrain and eventually came across a Police Check Point that the guys successfully negotiated. Rendering first aid to one of their wounded colleagues on the way and spending ten minutes training one of them to use a medic pack that we left with them. But before long we took a wrong turn and ended up running into some bad guys, who were in no mood to be fooled with. In camouflage tops and balaclavas and bristling with weapons, they blocked our exit with their truck and dragged us all out of the car, I was badly beaten while the team in the

car begged them to stop which eventually they did. What followed was an hour of negotiating and pleading but eventually we were allowed to go on, although we were robbed of all our gear. It was all part of an hostile environment scenario, designed to inoculate business travellers against the shock and panic that can ensue when you get into a dangerous situation that you’ve never experienced before. And the boys with the guns played a big part in it. Airsoft weapons are cheaper than real ones, they’re a lot easier to transport and to store, you can train anywhere with them with just a quick H&S check and a brief to ensure everyone is wearing specs. In brief they’ve got a bright future, and I for one am already thinking of putting on my own events down here in Bournemouth. I have spoken to Ed and he’s all for it so I look forward to meeting some of you guys down here soon.‘Til then “move fast and stay low”. Billy Out

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SITE REVIEW FCS: REHAB

Get Into

REHAB!

AT AN OLD MANOR HOUSE DOWN IN THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND SOMETHING WAS STIRRING, SO WE SENT LES LEE ALONG TO SEE IF AN AXE-WIELDING MR NICHOLSON WAS IN RESIDENCE.

K LES LEE

Les has over 25 years shooting experience – but now his focus is airsoft. Safety and common sense are his strengths – and he just loves his handguns

ent, known as “The Garden of England”, is a beautiful county. Lush countryside, plentiful vineyards, scenic Oast Houses and the gateway to and from our European neighbours, but nestling in the heart of this green and pleasant land is

Rehab. REHAB! It makes you think, doesn’t it? To me it conjures up a host of curious environments for a variety of psychological and physiological addictions. So why should our addiction to airsoft be any different? I’m sure we have all, at some time, needed an immediate airsoft fix so maybe this establishment is closer to home than we would like to admit; “Airsofter’s Anonymous” perhaps? Anyway, before I digress any further, let

me put this all into some kind of perspective. Andy Janson and Ben Dady, of Firefight Combat Simulations (FCS) and QDOS Tuition respectively, joined forces in June 2013 to bring together their skills and resources. Ben and Mark Loades, both former Royalty Protection Officers, had established QDOS at Salomons, in Royal Tunbridge Wells and offered the facility of the 38 acre estate to FCS in partnership with QDOS. This also gave FCS access to QDOS staff, including Garon Hawkes who’s military background and experience as a tracker offered added dimension to any game or training environment. When I asked Andy for a head’s up about the partnership, he told me:

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“My involvement with Ben started when I first got onto the Close Protection circuit; my first tasking was under him and we’ve worked on several contracts together since. Over the years I have spent a lot of time with him discussing tactics, exchanging funny anecdotes and nagging him to start his own training firm. When Ben, Mark, and Garon started QDOS, I was brought in to advise on two fronts; Combative training (my area of expertise) and an additional revenue stream in the form of airsoft based events. The three had access to fantastic venue facilities and decades of operational experience between them and this, combined with the strong bond of trust that Ben and I had built up over the years, meant that I jumped at the chance to form a partnership between QDOS and FCS. At our events, QDOS provides venue, facilities, and training services whilst FCS provides the scenarios, operations staff and links with the airsoft community. Between us we aim to bring a service that emphasises skill development and precision execution - core principles that both QDOS and FCS are built on.” FCS Rehab is a CQB site used primarily for tactical training and scenario-based exercises, particularly essential for trainee CPOs (Close Protection Officers). With tight corners, short

engagement distances and multi-level fighting, this site is perfect for players wanting to test their reactions in intense, adrenaline-fuelled, close quarter missions. Fast moving pistol users will find themselves at a significant advantage within the main compound and the large gardens that hold the perimeter can provide ample flanking opportunities... But be sure to watch out for snipers! Rehab is relatively easy to find with a trusty sat nav and just a 15 minute drive South from junction 6 on the M25 towards Westerham, in Kent. Turning into the private driveway and up the pea shingle track, you find yourself at the front of a huge mansion with loads of annexes and smaller buildings, all centred on a courtyard. Nestled amongst trees and lawns, this breath-taking structure is currently vacant and on the market (and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future due to its present condition). Don’t get me wrong, structurally this place is sound and of course, Andy and Ben carried out thorough risk assessments before they allowed anyone to step foot inside but mostly the repairs are purely cosmetic which actually enhances the atmosphere. And yes, a building of this character was missing just one thing; an appearance of Jack Nicholson peering through a crack in the door shouting “Here’s Johnny!” Ye olde wood panelling on the walls, a dark seemingly endless maze of corridors and staircases, plus a basement that was so pitch black even I gave it a miss. I for one wouldn’t want to spend a night there all alone - this place would give anyone the creeps! There are three useable floors plus stairs to a rooftop (a snipers dream as it looked over about 70% of the grounds) and of course the adjacent outbuildings which, apart

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from one being the safe zone with the on-site shop (run by JB from BadgerTac2) and another being Garon’s cookhouse, are all useable. This really is CQB at its finest - hence strict gun controls and chronograph testing prior to commencement of play. A great deal of planning had gone into this inauguration game and it was decided to cap the player numbers at around 25, which I thought was a good call, especially when I saw the players were 50% camo and 50% black which negated the need for coloured armbands. Throughout the day this proved to be quite spectacular as it was clear who was shooting at whom. This also just about filled the car park to capacity, it’s a minor detail but worth bearing in mind to get there early if you want a parking space. I was already impressed with the very professional organisation of this site, but what really intrigued me was the level of authenticity that the players had put into their load outs. These guys had some seriously good kit and they knew how to wear it. For me it made a truly refreshing change to see ‘softers in proper gear and not just jeans and tee shirts. In my opinion the realism of airsoft shouldn’t just be in the shape of a RIF but the whole deal. If I wanted to wear civvies then I might as well shoot balls of paint but hey, that’s just my thoughts. The briefing was conducted in the central courtyard and was thorough, to the point and a good mix of rules, regs and humour - and was absorbed by all. It was clear that the majority of players were very experienced and it was quite obvious that everyone understood right from wrong - without head marshal ‘Jessy’ James needing to over-emphasise the finer points of honour and sportsmanship. It was quite simply a no brainier to these guys as they definitely knew their stuff. An important point to note is that this is a brand new site therefore everyone was equal when it came to orientation (and disorientation) and nobody knew what was just around the next corner, or up the next flight of stairs. Indeed the first game seemed to centre round the main Grand staircase, which in itself made for some serious fire fights. What quickly became

gThe disused factory setting resembles a wartorn European theatre of conflict kThe combination of open ground and hard cover makes for some tense firefights at The Works

apparent was the speed of reactions of the players, as complacency was a luxury that they never had and if anyone stood still for more than a few seconds, they were gone. This was awesome to watch, just awesome and by now I had adrenaline pumping through my veins and nowhere for it to go, as the only shooting I could do was with my camera. Believe me, it’s a weird feeling not being able to expend that adrenaline! Ben was my own personal Bodyguard for the first hour (if Ben’s good enough for Royalty, then he’s certainly good enough for me) and that was most welcome as, with the speed of play I would have been mullered. Once I found my feet and the shooters were aware of my presence, things began to settle, or so I thought. As a gun fight blazed in the corridor just outside a small room I had

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SITE REVIEW FIRST & ONLY: THEFCS: ARMOURY REHAB

INFORMATION FCS ‘REHAB’ Location: Boons Park, Toyshill Road, Westerham TN8 6NP Web: http://www.firefight.co.uk/ Tel: 07973 240177

“Ye olde wood panelling on the walls, a dark seemingly endless maze of corridors and staircases, plus a basement that was so pitch black even I gave it aallmiss. I for one wouldn’t want to spend a night there alone - this place would give anyone the creeps!” retreated so that I could stay out of the line of fire. I was oh so happy to see a grenade at my feet happily fizzing away. It’s amazing just how long your ears can ring for afterwards but it’s all just part of the CQB experience. As the morning progressed, it became very apparent just how well this was going. The standard of play was the best I have seen so far - ever! The sportsmanship was perfect; not a single dispute or grumble. Clearly these players were having the best time ever and every game simply flowed without any concerns. Being a pistol freak myself, I was super excited to see so many of the guys using their side arms as a primary weapon and this only added to the realism. No spray and pray here, it was almost always the good old double-tap. Even players with full auto were dropping back to semi, as it clearly gave the fights that all important reality check that these games deserved and heightened the realism. Personally, I like the more tactical gamesmanship as it develops your own personal skills; anybody can keep their finger on a trigger and hope to hit something. That is what makes airsoft so much better and more realistic than other similar shooting sports. I’m only too quick to endorse the “keep it real” ethos so until a real M4 magazine can hold 300 plus rounds... Garon Hawkes. or “G” as he is known, is QDOS Tuition’s

very own version of Ray Mears. A bushcraft specialist with 25 years of experience under his belt, spent in many diverse and dangerous corners of the world. This guy teaches the teachers of wilderness skills, survival, search and rescue and the list goes on. It’s fair to say that this guy knows how to cook a burger and having heard about his success in this ‘field’ (I couldn’t resist that) I didn’t think to ask just what exactly was in that burger, but it tasted damn good - whatever it was! One aspect of the guys at FCS/QDOS Tuition is that they are keen to help develop teams; teams as they should be set up. One of my pet hates is “scruffy teams. How can a team be a team and taken seriously when everyone is wearing different camo? Beats me but can you imagine just what it would be like if you had 22 football players on a pitch all wearing their own favourite sports gear. For an effective team, surely it is an absolute basic to dress like a team. Even if you are a new team or just plain crap, your oppo’s won’t know it if you at least look the part, but these guys all looked the business. FCS and QDOS Training are a very well organised unit and without doubt one of the most, if not, THE most professional that I have had the pleasure of visiting. Their players were incredibly courteous (by that I mean that no one shot me) and it was an absolute treat to see my favourite style of tactics performed with such passion and realism - and using handguns as primary firearms, well that just did it for me. Yes of course I am going back to play! I never again want to drive home with so much unspent adrenaline and I want to be prepared, just in case Jack Nicholson does make a guest appearance. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time… and I want to be the guy that shoots him!

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M4 SNAKES

ALI V E Y SCOTT ALLAN

Scott has worked in airsoft retail for many years – and played airsoft long before that. He likes big, heavy guns, loud explosions and MilSim games in particular

WITH ITS FUNKY SNAKESKIN LOOKS, CAN A KRYPTEK-CLAD BUDGET M4 FROM DYTAC REALLY PUT THE BIG BOYS TO SHAME? SCOTT “STEVO” ALLAN CHECKS IT OUT. awn, another M4! Even though it has a dip coating which normally gives me the heave, I kinda like the Kryptek pattern. Maybe it is because it is a pretty pattern, maybe it is because it’s not Multicam? Or possibly it just looks good. Kryptek is developed in the US by Kryptek Outdoor Group and comes in six patterns, each designed to work in a certain environment: Nomad (Desert), Highlander (Arid), Mandrake (Woodland), Yeti (Snow), Raid (Urban) and Typhon (Law Enforcement). While this article is not about Kryptek entirely it is important to appreciate the ethos behind the pattern. I do not know why, I just look at Kryptek and feel a little bit excited. The ability to mix pattern shades gives a near infinite number of combinations and overall looks to work in any area. Camouflage aside, the M4 is the most common airsoft rifle in the world, probably the entire universe. The 5.56mm platform is seen in every walk of life these days, from television, law enforcement to current wars such as Afghanistan and every computer game in between. Dynamic Tactical are not exactly new to the airsoft market but the mass production of their rifles is a big step forward for the company as a whole. This new step means that great looking rifles are now available for a competitive price. With any hydro coating there can be slight mismatches in the pattern and this

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INFORMATION DyTac Kryptec M4 Weight: 2.8 kilos Power: 350 FPS with a Blaster 0.20g Length: 685-770mm Barrel Length: 285mm Kryptek Highlander Dip Coating Metal Hop Chamber + H Nub Gearbox: 8mm RRP: £180

is evident on the DyTac M4, although it’s not really a flaw but a reality of the process. The overall look and feel of the rifle externally isn’t half bad. The flip up rear sight looks a little rough but then when you look at the price tag you can see where parts are made cheaper. For example a CNC G&P flip up sight varies from about £35-£40, whereas with the DyTac you’d expect to pay around £15 for the cast equivalent. Will it do the same job? Yes. Will it be as hard wearing? No. CNC machining makes tougher parts provided the base material is not flawed, so you really have to weigh up what it is that is important to you. While the DyTac is nice overall there are cost savings in there. This is why a G&G, G&P or ICS will cost you more however do not confuse this with the power, range and accuracy - that is

something different and why DyTac are making headway. What it all boils down to is efficiency. The power provided by the gearbox has to be smoothly transferred to the hop chamber. Then the BB has to have the hop up evenly applied as it passes through the hop unit to create the back spin. Finally the BB has to travel down the inner barrel without bouncing around on its way down. Any failures at these points will give you variations and you will lose range and accuracy. Bored yet? What DyTac has managed to achieve is to give you top-end range and accuracy while the externals remain at the lower end. Other companies have achieved similar in different ways. G&G do a Combat Machine which is made externally of plastic; ICS do a similar range dubbed “Sportline”. These arsoft rifles are not bad at all and they are entirely skirmishable, they just have to make a saving somewhere.

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THE ARMOURY DYTAC KRYPTEK M4

“What DyTac has managed to achieve is to give you top-end range and accuracy while the atexternals remain the lower end” For me the DyTac puts many more expensive brands to shame in terms of range and accuracy. Sure it sounds a bit rough, the externals are cast and some of the finish looks rough but if that does not bother you then you will be pleasantly surprised. While there is nothing greatly startling about the DyTac M4 (other than the Kryptek coating), there is one thing that keeps standing out and that’s the price. The ICS equivalent to this rifle retails for over £70 more and that’s a considerable amount for a standard M4 rifle. You can argue that the ICS will be better in a variety ways but then if you test the DyTac, you will see just how good the range is. The key reason is partly due to the people who have worked behind the scenes, they emphasised the importance of a good hop system so that is what DyTac delivered, with the H nub at the heart of it all. If this was a G&P or an ICS I would be very happy with the range that the rifle puts out. The fact that it is a far cheaper option means I would be extremely satisfied if I had bought this rifle. £180 is cheaper than even a standard G&P M4A1.

SO IF IT IS CHEAPER WHAT SHOULD I CONSIDER TO MAKE IT BETTER? Well to be honest, if it’s not broken I wouldn’t go ripping

out the internals. With the money you save you can look at things like a tight bore barrel, or one of the very good ASCU MOSFET units. If speed is your bag then you could easily fit a G&P M120 High Speed Motor in there, as the standard motor is quite slow. With it being a standard Version 2 gearbox, owners who do love to change things around will find everything inside is standard. However, I would just enjoy the value and unique look of this Kryptek badboy.

USE IN THE GAME FIELD The M4 is an easy option rifle as they are simple to use and very functional. The Kryptek camouflage does work and this rifle quickly blends in to the background, admittedly it is up to you to do the same. The lower rate of fire meant I ran an 11.1v LiPo battery which gave a better trigger response and a quick, yet not insane, rate of fire.

CONCLUSION The market is genuinely flooded by the M4 rifles and there are many great choices out there that will serve you well, however at the moment there are no other Kryptek camouflaged rifles. The steady rate of fire, solid gearbox design and easy cross compatibility means these are ideal platforms for players who want to go mad with upgrades. So if you are looking for bargain performance you should seriously consider a DyTac.

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AIRSOFT ( R E S E RV E )

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ANDY NIGHTINGALE

Andy has seen active service around the world – and now runs Pro-Tact, a not-for-profit group providing tactical training for the airsoft community and private security forces

OLD SCHOOL PISTOLS

IN THIS FIRST PART OF A SHORT SERIES, ANDY NIGHTINGALE FROM PRO-TACT SHOOTING REINTRODUCES THE (NOT SO) HUMBLE REVOLVER.

o self-respecting cowboy would be seen without one and mega-stars like Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood made their names with one firmly in hand but revolvers are rarely seen on an airsoft field, which is a shame as they can be a very effective weapon. Revolvers were first developed and used in the 17th centry, but the first effective revolver was invented by Elisha Collier in 1814. Collier credited his design to the American Artemus Wheeler and after it was patented in 1818, production started in Briton and continued until the late 1830s. Colliers rather limited design was soon refined by Samual Colt in 1834.

Colt’s more practical design was made by John Pearson and was named the Paterson Colt after the factory that manufactured it in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. The revolver soon found favor with its multi-shot advantage over the single shot handguns of the day, especialy with the war in Mexico in the late 1840s and the Califonia gold rush of 1849. The development of the self-contained cartridge ensured the revolver’s future as a reliable repeating weapon. Although the revolver only had 6 rounds, the design was much quicker and easier to use and soon found its place in Law Enforcement and also the ranks of various war departments. The advent of smokless powder and resultant lack of fouling, lead to advanced designs in the late 19th centry, such as the Yoke mounted swinging cylinder and the break open design. These designs were soon copied and rapidly spread into Europe and the rest of the world. Until the success of the Auto loader in 1914, the revolver remained the main stay of the firearms

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SKILLS ROOM REVOLVERS

industry. Revolvers had found a home in the Military, Law Enforcment and hunting worlds and proved to be easy to use in the hands of even inexperianced and novice shooters and their simple design and construction resulted in excellent reliability. There is very little that can go mechanicaly wrong with a revolver, unlike the auto loader that has many moving parts to operate it. The revolvers double action also makes it one of the safest handgun designs to opperate due to the long and heavy trigger pull during high stress invironment encounters. The airsoft market has seemingly overlooked the need for choice in revolvers in re-enactment senarios, LARP and period theamed events and I for one would like to see more revolver designs, makes and models on the market. There are so many semi automatic handguns in airsoft that you are often spoilt for choice but there is very little in the form of revolvers. Is this due to the revolvers limited 6 rounds? Surely not, as the classic 1911 semi automatic handgun takes a magazine of just 7 rounds. Semi autos might be slimmer and easier to conceal and there is a vast amount to chose from, along with accessories such as holsters, lights, lazers, sights and all the rest, but the revolver has not seen its end. Semi autos are fun to shoot, they have recoil and the clang as the slide runs back to load another round, but revolvers are not only fun but also a challenge to shoot. The fact that they are limited to 6 rounds makes sure that you think about ammo conservation and reloads. The long, heavy stroke of the double action trigger during rapid fire is also a challenge. I suppose you could cock the hammer back before every shot, making the shots easier and more precise, but that would slow down the rate of fire and also take away all the fun of rapid fire in a double action shoot out. The Dan Wesson revolver is the most widly available airsoft revolver today and is powered by a 12g Co2 bulb in 6 mm calibre. Copied from the classic Dan Wesson design, this revolver is all metal where one would expect it to be and packs a punch when it comes to the FPS. As a standard revolver this is too hot for skirmishing but it is ideal for target and practical pistol shooting and has served me well at Practical Action Shooting. The revolver takes 6 cartridges that look like a .38 bullet, with a single BB in each one. Cartridges are loaded into the cylinder either one at a time, or all in one go with the help of a speed loader. Because the CO2 (stored in the grip) runs a little too hot

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SKILLS ROOM REVOLVERS

for skirmishing, power down cartridges are available that reduce the power to an acceptable for the skirmish field. But beware, at around £1.00 per cartridge you don’t want to be ejecting the spent shells onto the ground in the heat of battle and end up losing them. The Dan Wesson guns are based on the Smith & Wesson medium size L frame and are a great joy to shoot. They come in a variaty of finishes including Black Gloss, Chrome, Matt Black and even Gold and with barrel-lengths of 4”, 6” and 8”. As you would expect due to the limited number of airsoft revolvers available, there is not much choice in the form of holsters and speed loader pouches on the market, but Price Western Leather manufacture a large range of quality custom leather holsters and other belt kit to fit the CO2 Dan Wessons. In future issues I’ll be looking at how to hold, present and fire the revolver, as the design is so different from the semi automatic handgun, that the grip and stance is not transferable from one to the other. We will also look at how to manage and master the long and heavy double action trigger pull during rapid fire and also how to reload the revolver both two and one-handed, just incase you run wounded shooter drills, with maximum effect. Happy shooting and stay safe.

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Ageing and painting RON MAHONEY

Ron has been involved in fieldcraft, shooting and outdoor pursuits for over 30 years. His real passion is the ‘sneaky-beaky’ style of airsoft game

YOUR RIF

IN THE SECOND PART OF HIS SERIES, RON MAHONEY CONTINUES HIS WORKSHOP ON GIVING YOUR RIFLE A CUSTOMISED FINISH.

n the last issue of Airsoft Action we looked at how to age and paint your RIF to give it the popular “dusty” look. In this issue we are going to go through the process of painting your rifle in the two most popular ways. Once again; to get the legal stuff out of the way, we are talking about painting a gun that is already a RIF, not spraying a two-tone rifle. If due to your age, player registration or any other reason you are using a two-tone rifle then it must remain two-tone. The vast majority of rifles you will see at a site that have had a paint job will almost certainly have been sprayed in either one of two patterns; ‘stripes’ or ‘skins’. The reason for this is probably (a) the amount of videos online that demonstrates this technique or (b) because it is really easy to do! So what do we mean by ‘stripes’ and ‘skins’ and where do they work best? The ‘stripes’ camouflage pattern has been around for decades now and I suppose the first real conflict where it started to be used on small arms weapons was the Vietnam War, where the pattern was widely used in the thick jungles of south-east Asia. The ‘skins’ pattern is a technique that is slightly more modern and the skin relates to a pattern that, if sprayed in only two colours, would resemble snake skin. Most loadouts that you see where someone is representing modern Special Forces or other “operators” will probably have sprayed their weapon using this pattern. It is simple to achieve and looks really good. There are quite a few brands of paint available that offer a matt non-reflective finish and are suitable for spraying your gun. Probably the most recognised name is the Krylon brand and this tends to be stocked by most airsoft retailers. Krylon is a fantastic paint to work with as the spray nozzle is really controllable and it gives a constant and even amount of paint at each pass. It also provides a really tough finish to the paint job making it chip resistant; though the total curing process for the paint can take a couple of weeks depending on the

temperature. The paint appears bone dry but chemically it is still hardening over this period. The only downside to this tough coating that Krylon provides is that if you really can’t live with the paint job you have completed after a couple of weeks it is far more stubborn to remove. Some of the other brands of camouflage paint available aren’t as hard wearing as Krylon and will chip and flake over time, although personally I think that adds a bit of character and the “used” look to the rifle. I’m going to show the stripes and skins technique using the stripes to do a woodland finish and the skins to do an urban effect. Make sure the area you choose to work in is well ventilated but ideally sheltered from the elements.

TIME TO GET PAINTING

WHAT YOU’LL NEED • • • • •

Krylon paint (or similar) Cloth & white spirit Thin cardboard Modelling knife Scrim scarf

WOODLAND CAMO PATTERN To start with make sure the surface of the RIF has been cleaned and de-greased by wiping it over with a clean rag using white spirit and then allowing it to dry fully. Next we want to spray some wide diagonal lines of brown and olive green/drab paint across the rifle. Holding the can about 20cm above the rifle start to spray a couple of centimetres either side, so that by the time you are over the rifle the spray is constant. Repeat this two to three times until you have built up a reasonable base coat of green/brown stripes and let this become touch dry. The good thing with

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most camouflage paints is that the touch-dry period is pretty short, at around 15-20 minutes. While the paint is drying take a sheet of thin cardboard (paper won’t do as it will become saturated in the paint and disintegrate) and draw a few random shapes onto the card. If you have a look at an area of a British DPM jacket or trousers you will see reoccurring shapes amongst the black, brown and light tan colours used and they make an ideal pattern to copy. Using a modelling or Stanley knife, carefully cut these shapes out to form a template of random shapes. Once our paint is touch-dry we can start to add a few shapes over our stripes. Begin by spraying green shapes over brown stripes and brown shapes over green areas. Don’t be surprised if this doesn’t jump out at you and the colours seem to be blending – this is exactly what you want. Again take your time and do this little by little. Check the details on your paint as some brands will tell you to recoat within 1 hour or if not leave it for 24 hrs. I ignored this once previously and sprayed a rifle about 3 hours after the last coat – all of a sudden there was a reaction between the two coats and what looked like a crinkled crazy paving effect started appearing all over the surface. Once this has had a chance to dry we can start to add some highlights and shadows to the RIF using tan and light green (highlights) and black (shadows). Don’t go to heavy at this stage it is important to add these bit by bit and build them up. Remember these two areas are only meant to be details on an otherwise green brown background. Once this is touch dry we now give a final gentle coat by passing over the RIF with the green paint from a distance of about 50-60cm. This will just help subtly take down the highlights a shade. Put your gun to one side and let this dry fully following the paint manufacturer’s guidelines – I would allow at least three to four days before putting any rail covers or attaching scope mounts etc.

URBAN SNAKE CAMO PATTERN Firstly it is worth pointing out you could paint either pattern using the colours and techniques we are looking at; they are not exclusive to either terrain. The reason I’m calling this an ‘urban’ pattern is the choice of colours used to build up the effect. With a combination of grey, black, sand and brown as the chosen colours, hopefully you will agree these are the predominantly the colours you find in a derelict urban setting. I’ve started by giving the rifle a couple of coats of matt grey and letting this dry. To achieve the snake-camo look you need nothing more technical than a bit of standard issue scrim-neck scarf. Lay this over the area and then spray randomly in small (3cm square) areas with your darker paints; in this case the first layer was a sand colour). Again allowing adequate time for the paint to become touch dry between coats you then build up the pattern by randomly spraying small areas with different colours. Most people would continue with this process until completed. To add something a bit different and as it is an urban effect I’ve again used the modelling knife to cut some specifically man made looking shapes (no straight lines in nature) in cardboard and sprayed them on with a black paint. Initially this looks very harsh and you may well wonder “What have I done? This looks terrible!”. However we are going to spray another couple of layers of snakeskin paint over them and as this builds up these very harsh shapes will blend into the background.

“Wi t h the addi t i o n of a few extras such as pai n ti n g on a seri a l number, maybe a bi t of sni p er tape around the pi s tol griyourp and fore-gri p you have own unique rifle.”

January 2014

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WORKSHOP AGEING AND PAINTING YOUR RIF

jA few of the shapes used and the effect ;Always add highlights a little at a time

]Shapes sprayed from template initially look quite harsh ]Final urban snakeskin

To finish off we again add our highlights and shadows using black and sand colours (and just a smidgen of green) before letting all the parts dry properly. So there you have it, not too difficult and with the addition of a few extras such as painting on a serial number, maybe a bit of sniper tape around the pistol grip and fore-grip you have your own unique rifle. Some people are maybe afraid of painting their gun as they may well want to move it on, sell or swap it. While this may open up a whole new area of debate, I’m pretty sure that most of the RIFs I see for sale or swap on the second hand forums seem to be using the fact that it has been painted as a positive selling point. I have seen the words “comes with a custom paint job” hundreds of times yet the phrase “I’ll paint it back to black if you really want it and hate the paint job” I’ve still to come across. I’m sure some keen-eyed Airsoft Action reader will find it though!

Once again a big thank you to Paul from The Airsoft Shack in Buckley, North Wales, for providing the M4 Carbine used in this article: www. bbgun4fun.co.uk

COLOURS USED URBAN EFFECT • Matt Grey • Matt Black • Ultra Flat Brown • Matt Light Green WOODLAND EFFECT • Olive Green Drab • Ultra Flat Brown • Desert Sand • Matt Black • Light Green

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FEATURE FAMOUS SNIPERS

LYUDMILA PAVLICHENKO - The Man Killer IN THE FIRST OF A SERIES ABOUT FAMOUS WWII SNIPERS, DAN MILLS TURNS HIS SIGHTS ON THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FEMALE SNIPER OF ALL TIME.

B DAN MILLS

A former army warrant officer, Dan served in the forces for 24 years, seeing service on operations in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq

eing a sniper is not for everyone, it takes a certain type of person and during WWII there were those who made it almost an art form. They are some of the most successful snipers in history and over the next few issues I thought I’d share some of their stories with you, starting with Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the best ever female sniper. Lyudmila Mykhailivna Pavlichenko was born in the Soviet Union during the middle of World War One, on July 12 1916. At the age of fourteen along with her family she moved to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine and it was here whilst working in an arsenal factory as a grinder, that she developed a keen interest in shooting. Credited with 309 confirmed kills Pavlichenko went on to be the World’s most prolific female sniper until her death in 1974.

INVASION In 1941, whilst studying as a history student at Kiev University her fourth year was interrupted by the invasion of her homeland by Germany, she quickly rushed along with the rest of her class to join the military. The recruiter could not believe his eyes and ears when this young 24-year old model lookalike in smart clothes, perfect hairdo and freshly painted nails declared she wanted to be given a rifle to fight. She was offered a place as a Nurse but quickly she refused this and pulled out her sharp shooting certificate and badge in the recruiting office. Lyudmila Pavlichenko had been trained as a member of a society that taught non-military members in military tactics, to one day help defend the motherland, these lessons were age ranged from fourteen upwards, she quoted this to help persuade her acceptance. At this time women were not yet accepted in the army but she persevered and had to prove her skill with the rifle was as she had claimed. A Red Army unit held an impromptu audition for her at a hillside they were defending. She was handed an SVT-40 rifle and pointed in the direction of two Romanian soldiers fighting against them amongst the German opposition. Pavlichenko shot them both dead and was promptly accepted - but, because she classed these two kills as a test she did not include them in her tally! A total of 2,000 females would eventually join the Red Army as snipers, 500 would

survive the war and many were taught by Pavlichenko.

RECRUIMENT The recruiter enlisted her and the now Private Lyudmila Pavlichenko was assigned to the Sniper Platoon of Second Company, the 54th Rifles Regiment of the 25th Rifle Division, as a Red Army Sharpshooter. It was not all plain sailing however and Private Pavlichenko’s first taste of action did not go well. Finding herself in close proximity to the enemy she froze with fright, unable to use her rifle - that was until a bullet shattered the head of the young soviet soldier lying right next to her. She had befriended the nice boy and was emboldened to action and after that she had no problem shooting her enemies! Later that day when out stalking the same area she got the first of her kills. She was part of a unit defending a strategic hill during a battle, it was now August 1941. Two German scouts were out on reconnaissance when Pavlichenko shot them both. She was armed with a Mosin-Nagent 1891/30 model sniper rifle and P.E. 4x power scope and she was now working with a spotter. The tally had now started and the young sniper found herself racking

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them up fast over two and a half months of continuous fighting around the Odessa and Moldavia region. This rifle was to become her favoured weapon and she would use it for the remainder of her war. The 1891/30 Mosin–Nagant bolt action rifle had become Russia’s standard sniper rifle, it weighed approx nine pounds, fired a 7.62x 54R round accurately out to a distance of 600 yards, was fitted with a magazine and fed with a five-round clip. The rifle used German mounts and telescopic sights early on until Germany turned on Russia, after that it made its own domestic sights. Before long though, the 54th Rifles Regiment had to move on because of German and Romanian territorial advances. In all, before being pulled out after the Germans had gained control of Odessa, she tallied 187 kills, which included 100 officers. This ties in with an earlier article, in which I wrote about destroying the command element of the opposition being high up the priority list of a sniper. And yes, that’s 187 confirmed kills in about ten weeks! Next stop, the Crimean Peninsula and Sevastopol, where the fighting was so hard she said “We mowed them down like grain!” The 54th were withdrawn from Odessa and landed at Sevastopol in the Crimea, where Pavlichenko was to fight for over eight hard months, again badly outnumbered by the German forces. As her kill count rose sharply, she tended to take on more dangerous operations, including the riskiest of all, counter sniping. Pavlichenko would go hunting for enemy snipers and she took greater risk by going it alone, or she would hunt for hours with her friend Leonid, who had joined the Division at the same time as her. One of the qualities of a sniper is enduring patience and she showed it in abundance on many occasions, lying for hours from dawn until dusk waiting for the opportunity to shoot down an enemy. Often duelling with enemy snipers for hours, day and night,

“She was handed an SVT-40 rifle and pointed in the direction of two Romanian soldiers fighting against them amongst the German opposition. them Pavlichenko shot both dead.”

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FEATURE FAMOUS SNIPERS

it was a testament to her skill that she never lost one encounter and in her time notched up 36 “sniper on sniper” kills. On one occasion the duel lasted for three days, with neither sniper letting up, until the German made a mistake, for him it was to be his last. It is unproven but believed that the enemy sniper was one of Germany’s most decorated. She spoke of the sniper qualities after her ordeal, noting it was the most tense she had ever been! Sometime in May 1942 the War Council cited Pavlichenko for killing 257 of the enemy. By this time she had been promoted to Sergeant and was well known to both sides. When she received the citation she promised to kill even more!

PAVLICHENKO: “THE MAN KILLER” During a stalk Leonid and Pavlichenko had been spotted after being bombarded by mortar fire, a favoured trick of dealing with unseen snipers as a way of getting them to move. Leonid was badly wounded and the courageous Sergeant evacuated him from the battlefield. Unfortunately Leonid died of his wounds; Pavlichenko was furious and from then on showed even greater determination for killing as many of the enemy as she could in revenge. This resilient female sniper was wounded on four occasions, had suffered from shell-shock, was hit in the face by shrapnel and even took over command by replacing the Battalion Commander who had been killed. Although wounded herself, she refused to leave the battlefield until she was bombed out of her position. The German’s desperately wanted to kill her, knowing the huge effect her death would have on the morale of both sides. “They would try and bribe me with promises of chocolate and becoming an officer of the Reich” she said. During the fierce fighting in June 1942 Pavlichenko was wounded in a mortar blast and, because of her growing status, the Russians promoted her to Junior Lieutenant and pulled her from

combat. In all she had a tally of 309 kills to her name, a fact recognised by the Germans who, when the bribes failed, promised to tear her to 309 pieces! She had become a heroic role model and had to be saved, so was taken out by submarine from Sevastopol. Her fighting war was over. With a total of 309 confirmed kills Lyudmila Pavlichenko was sent back to become an instructor and to train future snipers until the end of the war. Less than a month after leaving Sevastopol, Pavlichenko became the first Soviet citizen to be received by the President in The White House, on a bond raising tour of Canada, America and Great Britain. On the 25th of October 1943 she became a ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’, and was promoted Major. After the war she returned to her studies and started her career as a historian, including working for HQ Soviet Navy. Pavlichenko died on October 10th, 1974 at the age of 58 and is buried in Moscow. “The only feeling I have is the great satisfaction a hunter feels who has killed a beast of prey.”

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SYMBOL KEY IS IT WOODLAND OR URBAN? CHECK THE KEY! UKARA

UKARA MEMBER UKASGB MEMBER WOODLAND

SHOP ONSITE BATTERY CHARGING URBAN PYROS ALLOWED REPAIR SERVICE DESERT

ATROOP AIRSOFT

Clocaenog Forest, LL16 4SP 07967 394976 www.atroop.co.uk

ABER AIRSOFT – THE BUNKER

Allt-lywd Wood Farm, outside Llanrhystud, nr. Aberystwyth, Wales. 07511554740 www.aberairsoft.co.uk

ABSOLUTE AIRSOFT

Maidenhead, SL6 3SS 07871 314951 www.absolute-airsoft.co.uk

ACE AIRSOFT WAR GAMES

Holbrook Coppice, Buidwas Bank (A4169), Buildwas, Telford, Shropshire, TF8 07786 192832 www.aceairsoft.co.uk

ACE COMBAT

Kent, TN12 7DG 01303 814803 www.acecombat.co.uk

Email nige@airsoft-action.co.uk to add or change a site listing

AIRBORNE 101 AIRSOFT CLUB

ALL ARMS AIRSOFT

APOCALYPSE AIRSOFT

AIRSOFT ASYLUM

ALPHA ELITE GAMING

ARENA AIRSOFT

AMAZON EVENTS

AWA HERTS

AMBUSH ADVENTURES – CHOBHAM

BARNSLEY AIRSOFT

Downpatrick, Co. Down, BT30 07718 032541 robinsonm24@btinternet.com

North Lanarksire, ML7 5 www.airsoftasylum.webs.com

AIRSOFT COMMANDOS Sutton, near Ferrybridge 07723 061386 andyace@ntlworld.com

AIRSOFT KGB

Porkellis Moor near Helston, Cornwall, TR13 0 Chef1322@hotmail.com www.kgbairsoft.com

AIRSOFT SKIRMISH

Stoulton, WR7 4QW 07764 587410 www.airsoftskirmish.co.uk

Near Trawden, BB8 8SN 07909 683464 www.allarmsairsoft.co.uk

Le Mont de Rozel, Jersey, JE3 5 01534 733697 www.aegairsoft.je

Hellingly, East Sussex, BN27 4HL 0844 2570433 www.amazonoutdoorevents.co.uk

Chobham, Surrey, GU24 8SL 01252 315225 www.ambushadventures.co.uk

AMBUSH ADVENTURES – SOUTHAMPTON

New Forest National Park, SP5 2DW 01252 315225 www.ambushadventures.co.uk

Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 7QP 07872 348 576 www.apocalypseairsoft.com

Grimsby, DN31 3JD 07752 404060 www.arenaairsoft.com

Sawbridgeworth, Herts, CM23 4BJ 07732 184957 www.awaherts.com

Shafton, Barnsley, S72 8RE 07779 236166 www.barnsleypaintball.co.uk

BATTLETEC AIRSOFT

La Couture, Guernsey, GY1 2 07781 104068 www.battletec.co.uk

AIRSOFT SKIRMISH CQB

Studley, B80 7LY 07764 587410 www.airsoftskirmish.co.uk

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SITE DIRECTORY FIND SOMEWHERE TO BE THIS WEEKEND…

BETTER BATTLES

Ravenshead, Notts, NG15 9DH 07967 940043 www.better-battles.com

BLACKDAGGER AIRSOFT

Grasscroft Wood, Barlow Lees Lane, Dronfield, S18 7UR www.blackdagger-airsoft.co.uk

CERBERUS AIRSOFT - RIVOCK EDGE

DELTA TEAM 3

FIREFIGHT COMBAT SIMULATIONS

CERBERUS AIRSOFT SHEFFIELD WOODLAND

DOGS OF WAR

FIFE WARGAMES

Keighley, BD20 0LS 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

Sheffield, S6 6JE 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

BLUESTREAK AIRSOFT

Westcott Venture Park, Westcott, Aylesbury, HP18 0XB 01296 658600 www.bluestreak-airsoft.co.uk

BRAVO 2-2 AIRSOFT

Leisure Lakes, Mere Brow, Southport. PR46JX 07790 715059 www.bravo22airsoft.com

BRISTOL AIRSOFT

Bristol, BS1 2HQ 07776 288826 www.bristolairsoft.com

BRIT-TAC AIRSOFT

Sheffield, S2 5TR 07795 631331 www.brittacairsoft.com

BUNKER 51

Charlton, SE7 8NJ 0870 7549653 www.wolfarmouries.co.uk

C3 TACTICAL

Longhope, Gloucestershire, GL17 0PH 07597 938011 www.c3tactical.co.uk

Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4RP 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

CERBERUS AIRSOFT - THE SANDPIT

Bradford, BD2 1BQ 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

Houston, Renfrewshire, PA6 7BP 07853 195290 www.dow-airsoft.co.uk

Lewisham, SE13 5SU 07973 240177 www.firefight.co.uk

St Andrews, KY10 3XL info@fifewargames.co.uk www.fifewargames.com

DRAGON’S LAIR Brimington, Chesterfield, S43 1DQ www.cia-airsoft.co.uk

Brentwood, Essex, CM15 0LA 07703 530189 www.dragonslairairsoft.co.uk

FINMERE AIRSOFT

CHESTERFIELD IMPERIAL AIRSOFT

CLOSE ACTION AIRSOFT

DRAGON VALLEY AIRSOFT

FIREBALL SQUADRON

ELITE ACTION GAMES – GATWICK

FIRST AND ONLY – ANZIO CAMP

Corby, NN17 3BB 07740 165787 www.close-action.co.uk

COMBAT ACTION GAMES

Maryland, Norfolk, NR10 4 01328 711867 www.combatactiongames.co.uk

COMBAT SOUTH URBAN Portsmouth, PO6 3LS 02392 655636 www.combatsouth.co.uk

COMBAT SOUTH WOODLAND Fareham, PO17 5ND 02392 655636 www.combatsouth.co.uk

CONTACT! FIGHT SCHOOL

Kelvedon Hatch, Essex, CM14 5 01438 368177 www.thefightschool.demon.co.uk

COOL UNDER FIRE CERBERUS AIRSOFT - THE COMPLEX

Skelmersdale, Lancs WN8 8UT 07986 053076 www.deltateam3.co.uk

Doddington, Kent, ME9 0JS 07960 532613 www.coolunderfire.co.uk

CORNWALL AIRSOFT ASSAULT

Truro, Cornwall, TR2 07837 475012 www.cornwallairsoftassault.co.uk

CUMBRIA AIRSOFT

Dumfries, DG12 cumbria.airsoft@virgin.net www.cumbria-airsoft.com

Caerwent Training Area, South Wales, NP26 5XL 07921 336360 www.dragonvalley.co.uk

Holmbush Farm, Crawley Road, Faygate, Nr. Horsham, W. Sussex, RH12 4SE 07882 686242 www.eliteactiongames.com

ELITE ACTION GAMES – DORKING

Dorking, Surrey, RH5 5AB 01784 433023 www.eliteactiongames.com

ELITE ACTION GAMES – EPSOM

Epsom, Surrey, KT18 01784 433023 www.eliteactiongames.com

ELITE ACTION GAMES – WORTHING

Worthing, BN13 01784 433023 www.eliteactiongames.com

Buckingham, MK18 4JT 07976 184897 www.finmereairsoft.com

Sutton Coldfield, B75 5SA 07582 684533 www.fireballsquadron.com

Leek, ST13 8 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – BUNKER WOOD

Kidderminster, Worcs, DY11 5SA 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – KHE SANH WOODS

Otley, West Yorkshire LS21 2NA 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – MANCHESTER WOODLAND Bolton, BL7 9TS 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – ASYLUM ELITE BATTLEZONE

Bexley, Greater London, DA5 1NX 07968 448475 www.elitebattlezone.co.uk

Kidderminster, DY10 3PT 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST & ONLY: THE HIVE EXPERIENCE AIRSOFT

Swindon, Wiltshire, SN5 0AN 01380 728982 www.experienceairsoft.co.uk

Middleton, Manchester, M24 1AZ0161 727 8863

FIRST & ONLY: THE ARMOURY

Wrexham, Denbighshire, LL13 9RG 07554 800040

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INVICTA AIRSOFT – RAINDEN WOODS

Folkestone, Kent, CT18 7AY 01227 763335 www.invictaairsoft.co.uz

ISLAND RECON AIRSOFT COMBAT

Near Shorwell, Isle of Wight, PO30 07964 751047 www.islandrecon.co.uk

FIRST & ONLY: THE ACADEMY

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 6QF 07779 157440

FIRST & ONLY: THE ASYLUM

GRANGE FARM AIRSOFT

Leicester, LE9 9FP www.gingerliberationfront.com

Co. Armagh, BT60 1NE 07772 919974 www.greenzonecombat.com

FIRST & ONLY: THE OUTPOST

GUN HO AIRSOFT

FIRST & ONLY: SLEEPY HOLLOW

Bridgnorth, Shropshire, WV16 5LS 07880 316716

FIRST & ONLY: THE DEPOT Glasgow, G45 9SB 0161 727 8863

GROUND ZERO WOODLAND

Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 2DF www.groundzerowoodland.com

Gorebridge, Midlothian, EH23 4LG 0131 654 2452 www.airsoftedinburgh.co.uk

GREENZONE COMBAT

Kidderminster, DY10 3PT 07779 157440

Kidderminster, DY11 5SA 07779 157440

LAND WARRIOR AIRSOFT

Guisborough, TS7 0PG 07525 435696 www.gunhoairsoft.co.uk

GUNMAN AIRSOFT – CAMBRIDGE

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 07854 277264 www.gunmanairsoft.co.uk

GUNMAN AIRSOFT – NORWICH Norwich, Norfolk, NR10 07854 277264 www.gunmanairsoft.co.uk

LAC SITE 1

Gainsborough, North Lincs, DN21 4JH 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

LAC SITE 2

Gainsborough, North Lincs, DN21 4JH 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

LAC SITE 3

Saxillby, LN1 2JW 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

LAC SITE 5

Kirton Rd, North Lincs, DN16 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

Farcet, Peterborough, PE7 3DH 01733 247171 www.freefirezone.co.uk

IV25 3PY 07702 846090 www.highlandtacticalairsoft.co.uk

Annacloy, Downpatrick, BT30 8JJ 07730 586926 www.frvairsoft.com

Wolverhampton, WV10 7HU 08000 354490 www.paintballuk.com

LINDSEY AIRSOFT

Manby, Lincolnshire, LN11 8HE 07955 487983 www.lindsey-airsoft.co.uk

GASS AIRSOFT – PENN

Penn Bottom, Bucks, HP10 07907 788970 www.gassairsoft.co.uk

MATLOCK COMBAT GAMES

Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 5FW 07974 507166 www.matlockcombatgames.com

Piddington, Oxfordshire, OX25 1 07907 788970 www.gassairsoft.co.uk

North Lincolnshire, DN21 www.humberairsoft.co.uk 07792 680297

NCIS AIRSOFT

Edinburgh, EH14 4 nick@ncis-airsoft.co.uk www.ncis-airsoft.co.uk

NOMAD AIRSOFT

Fenwick, Ayrshire, KA3 6AY 07904 998250 www.nomadairsoft.com

Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 3LQ 01845 565465 www.northernallianceairsoft.co.uk

NORTHFLEET CQB

Northfleet, Kent, DA11 9AA 07968 448475 www.elitebattlezone.co.uk

NSC AIRSOFT

Hetton, Sunderland, DH5 0 07983 333521 www.nscairsoft.co.uk

Durham, DL4 2ER 01642 281220 www.ntac.co.uk

Argyll and Bute, PA37 1 07967 710185 www.argyllsurplus.com

OP-TACTICAL UK – TEAN-OPS MAW

Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE14 07562 479966 maw.airsoft@hotmail.com

HUMBER AIRSOFT GASS AIRSOFT – PIDDINGTON

Checkley, Staffordshire, ST10 4NS 07523 916607 www.milsimuk.co.uk

OBAN AIRSOFT – HILL ARGYLL

HOMELAND TACTICAL AIRSOFT

Spanby, Lincs, NG34 0AT 07971 560249 facebook.com/HomelandTacticalAirsoft

MILSIM UK

NTAC

HILTON PARK AIRSOFT FRV AIRSOFT

Wrightington, WN6 9PL 01942 514724 www.militaryoutdooradventure.co.uk

NORTHERN ALLIANCE AIRSOFT

HIGHLAND TACTICAL AIRSOFT FREE FIRE ZONE

MILITARY OUTDOOR ADVENTURES

Tean, Staffordshire, ST10 4JT 07964 990831 www.op-tac.co.uk

OVER THE TOP AIRSOFT CLUB MIA

Cornwall, EX23 9JL 01288 331748 www.airsoftsouthwest.co.uk

Anglesey, LL71 www.ottairsoft.co.uk 07731 744471

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SITE DIRECTORY FIND SOMEWHERE TO BE THIS WEEKEND…

PATHFINDER GROUP AIRSOFT MILITARY SIMULATION Former RAF Camp Sopley/ Merryfield Park, Hants, BH23 02380 899369

PHOENIX AIRSOFT

Budby, Notts, NG22 9FG 01623 812483 www.phoenix-airsoft.co.uk

PLATOON 1HQ

Rochester, Kent, ME1 1 HQ 01634 829063 www.ptt-1hq.co.uk

PLAYERS OF WAR

High Bonnybridge, FK1 3AD 07767 203979 www.playersofwar.co.uk

PREDATOR COMBAT GAMES Ballynahinch, BT24 8NF 028 4377 0566 www.predatorcombat.com

RAVEN’S NEST

Suffolk, IP8 4 01473 831563 www.ravensairsoft.co.uk

RAW WAR AIRSOFT CUMBRIA Wigton, Cumbria CA7 3SZ 01900 85645 www.airsoftcumbria.co.uk

RIFT AIRSOFT COM’S SITE 3

Chipping Warden, OX17 1LZ 07751 586781 www.riftairsoft.com

RIFT AIRSOFT (COTTENHAM) Cambridge, CB24 8RL 07751 586781 www.riftairsoft.com

SECTION 8 AIRSOFT

Shotts, N Lanarkshire, ML7 5AB 07974 026517 www.s8airsoft.com

SECTION 8 AIRSOFT

Shotts, North Lanarkshire, ML7 5AB 07974 026517 www.s8airsoft.com

SG1 COMBAT GAMES

Co. Londonderry, BT45 8NA 07713 273102 www.sg1combatgames.co.uk

SKIRMISH AIRSOFT BILLERICAY Billericay, Essex, CM11 2TX 01277 657777 www.airsoft-billericay.co.uk

SKIRMISH EXETER

Exeter, Devon, EX4 5 01548 580025 www.airsoftexeter.co.uk

SOUTHDOWN AIRSOFT

Petworth, West Sussex, GU28 0LR 07766 770830 www.southdownairsoft.com

SPEC OPS AIRSOFT – BLOXWORTH Wareham, Dorset, BH20 7EU 07984 656947 www.specopsairsoft.co.uk

SPEC OPS AIRSOFT – THE ROCK Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EG 07984 656947 www.specopsairsoft.co.uk

STIRLING AIRSOFT

Coventry, CV3 6NX 07831 429407 www.stirlingairsoft.com

STORMFORCE AIRSOFT

Rugeley, Staffordshire, WS15 4LD 07515 937633 www.stormforcepaintball.co.uk

SUSSEX AIRSOFT

Slinfold, RH12 020 8150 9284 www.sussexairsoft.co.uk

SW WAR GAMES – SCRAESDON FORT

Antony, Cornwall, PL11 3AB www.swwargames.co.uk

SW WAR GAMES – TREGANTLE FORT

Antony, Cornwall, PL11 3AZ 08456 345011 www.swwargames.co.uk

S.W.A.T. AIRSOFT

Boathouse lane, South Wirral, Cheshire, CH64 3TB www.swatairsoft.eu 07703 177756

TA EVENTS

Hemel Hemstead, Herts, HP2 7QB 07894 059794 www.ta-events.co.uk

UCAP AIRSOFT

Portsmouth, Hants, PO17 6AR 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

UCAP GREEN OPS

Linch, West Sussex, GU30 7 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

UCAP SANDPIT TACTICAL WALES AIRSOFT

Reynoldston, Swansea SA3 1AS 01792 473336 www.tacticalwales.co.uk

TACTICAL WARFARE AIRSOFT Warlingham, Surrey, CR6 9PL 020 8665 1299 www.tacticalwarfare.co.uk

TASK FORCE SKIRMISH

Cowbridge, S Glamorgan, CF71 02920 593900 www.taskforcepaintball.co.uk

Bean, Kent, DA2 8 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

ULTIMATE WARGAMES – FAWKHAM

Fawkham, Kent, DA3 8NY 01268 796130 www.ultimatewargames.co.uk

ULTIMATE WARGAMES – LIMPSFIELD

Oxted, Surrey, RH8 0RH www.ultimatewargames.co.uk

URBAN6AIRSOFT – ZONE 13 THE BUNKER

Aberystwyth, www.aberairsoft.co.uk 07841 462806

Stone, Staffordshire ST15 0QN 07432 291729 www.urban6airsoft.com

URBAN6AIRSOFT – THE BLOCK THE DESERTERS AIRSOFT Redford, DD11 07751 878175 www.thedeserters.co.uk

Wood Street, Butron-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire, DE14 £AB www.urban6airsoft.com

URBAN ASSAULT THE EX SITE

Mold, CH7 4 07840 001975 www.theexsitewales.co.uk

Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, PE26 1 01733 247171 www.urbanassault.org.uk

VIKING AIRSOFT THE WARGAMES CENTRE

Stevenston, Ayrshire, KA20 3LN 08456 434326 www.scottishadventurecentre.co.uk

TROJAN AIRSOFT

Macclesfield, SK10 4SZ 07428 024874 www.trojan-airsoft.com

TROJAN AIRSOFT – OLYMPUS CQB Weir Mill, Viaduct Street, Chestergate, Stockport, Cheshire, SK5 7JP

Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0UN www.vikingairsoft.co.uk

WARMINSTER AIRSOFT

Warminster, BA12 7RZ www.warminsterairsoft.co.uk

XSITE AIRSOFT OUTPOST Dunstable, LU6 2EE 01494 881430 www.xsiteairsoft.co.uk

XSITE AIRSOFT – LANE END

High Wycombe, HP14 3NP 01494 881430

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DEALER LISTINGS

ADVERTISERS INDEX Land Warrior Airsoft .................................................................. 2 RedWolf Airsoft ......................................................................... 3 Airsoft Zone.............................................................................. 9 Patrol Store ............................................................................ 11 Enola Gaye............................................................................ 16 BadgerTac ............................................................................. 24 British Airsoft Show .................................................................. 27 JD Airsoft................................................................................ 28 Airsoft Armoury ....................................................................... 39 Military 1st............................................................................. 42 BadgerTac 2 .......................................................................... 42 Gunman ................................................................................ 45 Helikon Tex ............................................................................ 45 SWAT ................................................................................... 55 EW Trading ........................................................................... 59 Eton Guns .............................................................................. 59 Crawley Surplus Store .............................................................. 65 NRG CQB............................................................................. 65 NoVAT .................................................................................. 65 Dragon Valley ......................................................................... 65 Military Outdoor ..................................................................... 65 Patrol Base ....................................................................... 68, 82 eHobby Asia .......................................................................... 77 WE Airsoft Europe ................................................................... 79 Airsoft World .......................................................................... 91 Pro Airsoft Supplies .................................................................. 92

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