Links to my favorite teams

Being around and about, i have cooperated with individual players and teams. I was lucky enough to play in 3 different countries (Hungary, Greece and the Czech Republic) and get involved with different gaming styles.

I present you links to the teams i am feeling close to or being a member of.

First of all the Red Tigers team in Hungary. This is the first team i ever joined and played with. I met the guys in 2007 when i visited Hungary. The team is strictly Milsim oriented which attracted me in a various ways. I spent the first 3 months of my stay as a new recruit and after i proved my shit, i became a full member. Unfortunatelly i couldn’t stay for more than 7 months at that time. Afterwards, i was lucky enough to visit Budapest again this year for 3 months and reunite with the guys. It’s been a blast being back and having the chance to feel the same urge once more.
The team’s site is here http://tigrisek.digitalmania.hu/

Then, the Brotherhood of the Red Circle. Actually, this is the team we formatted with my buddy Deadlock. The whole thing started 3 years ago when i rediscovered Airsoft. We used to play with Deadlock about 15 years ago and i knew that he is skilled player. So, since day one, i was trying to put him back in the game… After coming back from Hungary, we came together and started organising… Since day one we knew that we had to go the «freestyle» way with the team, because there was no way we could agree on any reenacting factors (well, actually Deadlock being an Applied Arts person, he is into Sci-fi neoprene coveralls stuff, so…) and we knew that we wouldn’t attract any other players. We started putting pieces together and so came the Brotherhood…
The team site (which is under construction) is located here http://www.redcircle.gr/

The Hell Reckies Team. Actually the first batch of people with whom i played with after coming back to Greece. We use to play together in big games and kick ass… They are really good players and guys and we love teasing each other. Actually, i could be a member of their team, but wearing Black is not my style of things, so here you go http://hellreckies.com/index_gr.htm

The Scorpions Team. The second best choice for someone to learn about good Airsoft, if in Hungary. The team consists of serious and experienced players. The amount of Airsoft science in the team is incomparable. Everyone has been so friendly and willing to share his knowledge. If you got any question of any shorts, Wolverine and Thrasher is the person to talk to. Their site is here http://www.skorpioairsoft.hu/

MICH 2000

Since most of our games are MOUT or CQB oriented, having the proper protection is a wise factor to consider. That includes helmet, knee and elbow pads. There are so many options to choose from that makes it difficult to stay on point… Well, for me there are two factors that i had to consider. The looks and the size. It had to be a military style helmet (PASGT, MICH, IBH, LWH, ACH and the like) and to be easy to find it in sizes. Usually replica helmets come in «one size fits all», which usually means HUGE!!!! Since i am wearing a 57 size hat (7 ¼ in US size), the 61 size of the replicas was out of the question. Looking around and asking my team mates, i came across the Chain Reaction Cycles shop located in the UK. Browsing around, i found the ultimate solution… The MACE SAS skate helmet. Yeap, a skate helmet that looks like a MICH 2000. The only odd looking details of this spesific helmet are the 4 air openings around the helmet… Well, no problem with that, i have done bigger mods in the past, right?

I purchased the helmet in a Small/Medium size (54-58 size) and Brown colour, which was a great platform to start from. I bout the helmet for a price of around 25 euros and another 8 for the shipping. This is how it all started...

The moment i got, i had to cover the air holes. I glued a piece of plastic with epoxy resin. Then, i started filling the gap with resin. After some applications, the holes were covered. I sanded the excess of the resin to make it flat and uniform with the shell.

When it was done, i primed the shell with a dark brown spray colour. I let it dry and then grabbed my Montana spray cans. For this work, i chose a Light Tan, Pallish Brown and Flat Dark Earth hues. I applied several thin layers of colour, using an old scarf to create the pattern. When it was dry, i applied 2-3 thin layers of clear mat varnish and let it dry…

So, i got me a beautiful helmet, but it looks empty. So, i had to go the Spec Ops way once more. Inittialy i glued on the shell layers of Velcro, using a hot melt glue pistol. When the strips were secured, i applied lines of glue around them. Then, i painted these lines with a black paint, using a thin brush.

The chin straps were completely useless, so i replaced them with a set of original MSA MICH straps. Unfortunatelly i found them in Foliage Green, so i had to dust them with Tan…

The next step was to mount on the shell a real deal NVG mount strap. Actually, it is meant for the PASGT helmet, but damn these Ebay sellers…

To secure my back up goggles i purchased a set of Goggle Retention Straps from Supply Captain in Coyote Brown. So, now my Arena Flak Goggles are nice and secure.

Finally, since the helmet is made for CQB work, i threw on it a simple Energizer head lamp. I would prefere to go the Petzl way, but i didn’t want to paint it, so i chose to go cheap but with no guilt…
I guess it’s a good work. It looks the part and it’s absolutely stable on my head, compared with the rest of the crappy replicas out there…

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…