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Sunday 29 May 2011

Airsoft Arms and Accessories: Latest Additions

Last week I went to the third AAF [Airsoft Arms Fair] over at the Grange in Balsall Common, and a very enjoyable day out it was, too

Whilst there I picked up a couple of Fast Mags from DingoDogs Airsoft and an IMI belt extension platform for my Sig 226 holster

The Fast Mags are fixed securely to one of my Warrior Molle platforms, and when I say securely, I really do mean it. The rubberised straps at the back of the mag holder slip easily through two Molle loops before reattaching to the bottom of the holder. It takes a little more effort to reattach them than it generally does with the usual press stud arrangement found on most Molle pouches, but once in place they are solid as a rock


I've tried a number of different magazines in them for size, a bog standard M4 metal hi-cap mag, a WE gas mag for my GBB Scar, and a Magpul PTS 'waffle' mag, all of which fit beautifully, extract with ease, and none of which fall out when you turn the chest rig upside down and shake it for all you're worth!

At £18 a pop they aren't inexpensive, but they do exactly what they say they will do, and they look pretty cool. The latest generation of Fast Mags, which these are, are also stackable so you can fit one on top of the other should you want to

The IMI belt extension platform is another rugged and versatile piece of kit which will set you back about £20 and, in my opinion, is well worth the money


It fits perfectly on to a rigger's belt and is designed primarily to be worn in conjunction with a vest or chest rig, the idea being that when fixed to the platform the holster hangs below belt level, thereby giving you clearance to draw your side arm without getting tangled up in your vest. It obviously works just as well without a vest and makes placing your side arm on your hip that little bit more comfortable if you happen to like wearing your trousers quite high, thanks in large part to the fact that it has three different fixing points, all of which give you the option to rotate the holster through 360 degrees


At the moment I generally wear a chest rig and a PLB belt and already have a Serpa drop leg platform. However, I've been toying with the idea of going out with a second side arm but a) didn't want it fixed to my PLB belt and b) didn't want it fixed to my chest rig. The IMI BEP allows me to carry a second side arm suspended from my rigger's belt which drops below both my chest rig and my PLB belt!

And that's not all I spent my hard earned cash on last week. I mentioned in my review that Land Warrior Airsoft were at the show for the first time, and I was delighted they were. A week or two before the show I ordered, and paid for, an Ares PPSH 41 from them and picked it up at the show to save on postage. Ive been wanting one of these iconic guns for some time, and finally decided to take the plunge

The Ares PPSH 41
There are three versions of this gun currently available, the Hexagon, the Ares and the S&T Armaments one, which is to all intents and purposes a lower priced clone of the Ares. I don't usually do this, but on this occasion I decided to go for the most expensive option and buy the Ares, and I'm very glad I did

The build quality is excellent, and it looks and feels absolutely fantastic. Taking the battery in and out couldn't be simpler. Flip down the cover on the butt plate, unclip the false screw at the top to allow the butt plate to swivel out the way and, hey presto, you're there. It will take a small 8.4 battery, or a 9.6 crane stock battery, which is what you can see in the photo below


I can't tell you what the rate of fire is, [but it sounds pretty reasonable] and I don't have a chrono at home but the video below will give you an idea of what the FPS is. It fires on semi-auto [single shot] and full auto, the hop is readily accessible and very easy to adjust, it has an EBB [electric blow back] action and the drum mag it comes with has a capacity of 2,000 rounds! Plenty to keep you out on the field of battle for quite some time, even in a general open day game let alone a WW2 one, without the need for a refill. A good job, too, if you ask me. I have one tiny criticism of this gun, and it may well be one of those things which varies from gun to gun rather than being a design fault, and that's that the magazine cover is very tight fitting. It's a bit of a wrench to get it off, which in some respects is no bad thing, but it would be tricky to refill it in the middle of a firefight. And refill it is what you would need to do, because as far as I know you can't buy spares!

The mag cover [top] is very tight, even with a dab or two of trust petroleum jelly smeared around the edge
This baby holds around 2,000 rounds which is far in excess of the rival Hexagon version
Detail of the hop adjusting mechanism, accessible by pulling the bolt back and locking it into position
A more detailed shot of the repro strap. Unfortunately this doesn't come supplied with the gun, however, real ones aren't that hard to come by and if you have a scout around on a WW2 airsoft forum or two, as I did, you ought to be able to get one pretty easily



That's all, folks, as far as new additions to my collections are concerned for this month. If you fancy one of the guns, I would heartily recommend the services of LWA. What's more, they offer it at the best price for a UK based retailer. Happy hunting

1 comment:

Chris said...

if you want to make you fast mags more secure put the upper parts under the molle as well cant go anywhere and cant catch anything on them then :) and the belt bit is great i use the blackhawk one on all my belt set ups and so much better than a drop leg :) and lastly the ppsh very sexy need to have a nosey at firebal if you have it :)