M249 S.P.W.

NO, IT’S NOT A MINIMI!!!!!!!!!!

The Minimi (short for French: Mini Mitrailleuse; “Mini machine gun”) is a Belgian 5.56 mm light machine gun developed by the Fabrique Nationale (FN) company in Herstal. First introduced in 1974, it has entered service with the armed forces of several countries (Greece being one of them, even though we are 25 years late as usual…). It is configured in several variants, the standard model, the Para version and the vehicle model. The S.A.W. is just the US Army adoption of the same model built in the States.
The M 249 S.P.W. / MK 46 is an M249 variant developed to meet a US Special Operations Command requirement for a lightweight machine gun that would retain the intrinsic functionality and reliability of the standard M249. Weight reduction was achieved by:
· Using a new lightweight fluted barrel (Para length)
· Removing the magazine feed port, carry handle, integrated bipod, gas block regulator (stable ROF of 750 RPM compared to 750-1000 of the other models) and vehicle mounting lugs
· Using a 100 rd soft box magazine instead of the plastic 200 rd one
· Incorporating a titanium bipod.

The work done on the S.P.W. lead to a weight of 5,7 kilos compared to 6,8-7,5 kilos of its bigger brothers. Unique to the S.P.W. / MK46 is the forward rail that accommodates scopes, laser designators and flashlights. So, to make it clear:

Army S.O.COM. units -> M 249 S.P.W.
Navy S.O.COM. units -> MK 46

Since I am not into Seals re-enactment we can just call it S.P.W.

CAMOUFLAGE PATTERN

The finish of the model out of the box is ok, nothing exciting but nothing to complain about. The truth is that the mat black colour seems a little “plastic” though, but that’s because the body is plastic (STAR must do something about it, like to produce a metal aftermarket body…). The “need” to decorate it with a pattern had grown inside me even before I got my hands on the MG.

The feature of the “fast spring swap” is really handy but it created a slight confusion when it came to deciding on the colours and the pattern. If the AEG was intended for CQB games, then it should be covered with tan, light grey, light brown hues. In the case of woodland games it should be painted with more dark brown, OD, dark earth and so on…In this specific case it takes about 20 seconds and a spare spring to up/down grade it between 330 and 430 FPS…Decisions, decisions, decisions…

Finally I went the middle way. I chose the following 5 spray colours:
Chocolate brown (mtnmtn Graffiti mat spray)
Flat dark earth (Humbrol modelistic mat spray)
Arkalis Beige (mtnmtn Graffiti mat spray)
Cream (mtnmtn Graffiti mat spray)
Dark Green (Humbrol modelistic mat spray)

I guess everybody notices that most of the colours are made for Graffiti…Due to the lack of mat model sprays in the market, I decided to use fine-grain mat Graffiti ones. They cost less (2,5 euros per bottle compared to 6 for the Humbrol ones) and the outcome is equally well finished.

Initially the AEG was stripped to its main pieces. The body, the front railed handguard, the magazine, the Fakepoint, the PEQ box, the grip and the stock. They were all wiped with a cloth to remove any dirt. Then every piece was sprayed with a couple of Chocolate Brown layers, used as a primer. It was allowed to dry for a day. Next afternoon I applied several stripes of the rest of the colours. Made sure that the pattern is irregular. It was left to dry and the next day the real artistic work began…Just the stripes don’t make the gun invisible, different or interesting…I had to come up with some kind of a pattern. Well, old news…An “S.A.S.” scarf lend me its little squares to do the job…The scarf was placed on the parts and small amounts of different colours were applied. I didn’t want the squares to be normal and regular (otherwise it would resemble the MAR.PAT. which was not the case here) so in some places I stretched it and in others I just “dropped” it on the surface. It took me a total of 2 hours of messing around with it to complete. Judging from the reactions of the players on the field who saw the final work, I can say that I am extremely satisfied with the outcome…Now, that gives me the confidence to try something along the lines on a future project (an SR25K, a Recon Rifle or a Noveske Diplomat maybe?).

INTERNALS

The internals of the AEG are left stock for the moment. I had the chance to use a chronograph and I have to say that I was impressed. With the factory set I got a 330 FPS velocity which is more than ok for CQB games. The impressing fact that with the stock spring (which is a M100 equivalent) I am getting an amazing 1120 RPM which means about 18-19 rounds per second… For woodland games I purchased a Systema M120 spring hoping to get 390 FPS out of the beast… For some strange reason I never got more than 370 to 380 FPS… I measured with 2 different chronographs but the gearbox is indeed longer than the average ones so the spring can’t give it all it could… Still with the stiffer spring I measured 1050 RPM ~ 17 rounds per second… That’s due to the fact that the motor is described as High Torque-High Speed from Star and I am happy they do… And I am happy for that, because all these results came from using an 8,4 V 3300 mAh battery… Various reviews state that using even an 9,6 V battery can cause such an increase to the ROF that the magazine can’t feed it fast enough, causing misfeeds…

The size and the weight of the 249 is absolutely begging for some more bust during woodland games. Well, I am begging for it since I find it completely dumb to run around a 5,5 kilos machine when the next man can have the same 400 FPS out of his 3 kilos sorry-ass M4… So, the future is painted with vivid colours of a Wild Monkey metal gearbox and a SP 120 spring hopping to reach a level of 420-430 FPS…