For those that have played any of the previous games, you’ll fit right in. Nothing major has changed. Quick word of warning though, if you buy it, unless you like the making of DVD’s, there’s no point getting the collectors edition really. The poster and free warhammer online item they seem keen to sell on the back of the box is also in the standard edition (I know, because I bought the standard one )

Of course, as soon as the  music boots up and that famous Red Alert music starts up, you’ll not stop yourself from smiling, espcially as it accompanies the obiligtory FMV to start the game.

Where to start? Probably with the FMV’s as I’ve mentioned them! The FMV’s are quite star studded this time around. Well so was C+C3: Tib Wars but these are quite higly regarded actors. Jonathon Pryce (Tomorrow Never Dies, Brazil), Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show) and J.K. Simmons (Spiderman 1, 2 and 3) all star in the FMV’s and add to the gameplay. Also the game contains some very attractive actresses which make the FMV’s easy on the eye These are also well acted in the cheesy C+C fashion. Don’t think think anyone can compare to James Earl Jones though when he was in Tiberian Sun

From Russia With Love....

Game play is very similiar to before. However all units now have a secondary function. Some are very useful, others are not. You’ll have to experiment with them to find the best combinations.

The new co commander aspect is very nice and not one I’ve got used to yet. The game can be played co-op online and via  anetwork and both of you can fight against the enemy. Hoever you can play single player and in which case, the computer controls the other commander. And they aren’t amazingly useless so it’s worth having them around. You can give them basic orders so they work nicely as a diversionary tactic. And it does pay to keep them safe and help them out, as they can very often help you out.

Graphics are still the comical kind of fashion as in RA2 which I agree in. C+C isn’t a serious strategy game really. The Tiberian ones (GDI Vs NOD) seem to be the more serious of the 2 series but regardless, this is a damn good play.

Auto patching is most welcome. Saves hunting for the patches online.

Overall if your after a good RTS to while away the hours, you cant go wrong with Red Alert 3. Another great title in the C+C series.

Having a decent pair of boots is one thing, but does anyone consider what they put on there feet before the boots? I certianly never used to and I must admit my feet are terrible due to 21 years of abuse.  I enjoy my hiking as well as airsoft and admittly, this is how and why I originally bought these socks.

Doing a 268 mile hike (the entitre Pennine Way in one go!) during the summer led me to think about getting some real liner socks. If you hike, you might know that it helps prevent blisters and damage to the feet if you wear a liner sock beneath your normal sock. This is because the fabric of the outer sock that will be moved and rubbed by the boot will only rub against the lining sock and not your skin, preventing blisters forming as easily. For this purpose, I bought some socks that to me sounded like the ideal candidate.

1000 Mile Socks

These socks I bought for hiking but I’ve now started to wear them for airsofting as well. Oringinally I thought I had the only pair of 100 mile socks they made but looking at there website, they have a large large range!

It turns out I have the Tactel pair from the Outdoor Section. These are dual lined themselves so lead very nicely to airsofting as they will  perform fantastically being worn as the only pair of socks.

Since wearing them on the walk, I’ve noticed I got no blisters and now after a games airsofting, I have no hotspots from my boots or rubbing. Unfortunatly, the feet still smell a bit after a game however I wasn’t expecting miracles of the socks! They do seem to prevent sweating as much as  used to through which is very nice.

Very brief review but I just wanted to say a few words on how good these socks are and ok, they aren’t the most important bit of airsoft kit, but remember, you’ve only got 2 feet and you don’t want to annoy them to much as they may not like you for it in the future!

This was the opening game of First and Only’s (see what I did there ;)) site in Leeds. As far as I’m aware, it is the first site in the middle of Leeds (and only!) It’s a 5 minute walk from where I live so I decided it would be very rude not to be at the very first game!

First impressions

Wow… I did a little research on the site and it appears this place is on Wikipedia.

This is the front of the building…

Image from Wikipedia

Impressive, no?

And I think the site lived upto the expectations I got from this. Wikipedia says that this was the largest room in the world when it was first built which filled with a bit of worry. Large open spaces with no cover don’t make for good airsoft sites, however I was to be surprised as I later saw.

The safe zone was reasonable. Quite full and a lot of people used cars to get kitted up. Not really much different to the games at Phoenix Urban. However, my impression of this place was better. Seemed better run and there was a far higher marhsall presence (see later)

All guns were chronoed to start with and tagged with a cable tie, which I thought was a good idea as it let marshalls see which guns had passed or not. Site limits were 350 fps for AEG’s, 400 fps for semi auto snipers and 500 for bolt action snipers. I assume there was an engagement range but I cant remember hearing one in the brief. Unlike a few urban sites I’ve played at “up Norf” (being a southerner!), they did have a version of the bang rule were if you were close enough to tap someone on the shoulder, a call of bang would “kill” them. Much nicer than point blank range and quite thankful for i, even though I know it’s hard to do at times!  Maybe that foam sword WILL come in handy?

Games

Oh this was good. The site is HUGE. First game we played in a smallish office section that was great fun. Our team had to defend 3 places against a small attacking force. As we died, we joined the attacking team. This game went well as it showed the excellence of the marshalling and the site. The office complex was designated single shot only, something which I’m a big fan of, having played at Spectre. This forces you to aim and make sure you hit with your first shot, whilst also minimising the pain from full auto!!

During the games, the enemy stormed our position and I got caught out where a medic couldn’t heal me and I was stuck in the middle of a firefight and a marshall came in and pulled me out. Very sensible of him, less so for me for standing there!   Medic rules were in affect for most games… You get hit, call medic, get medic’d, carry on, get shot again then either head to respawn or the safe zone depending on the games. This is a great way of doing things I think. If you don’t get medic’d within 5 minutes, you bleed out and take the second hit. Keeps games fluid I thought.

Second game was in the main section of the mill (the large room!) However, the organisers had excelled themselves and had installed hessian walls. Ok, so these aren’t solid but they provided cover and split the place up nicely. However it was at this poitn I noticed some cheating. Using my new DE UMP (well new to me), I shot two of the enemy. I distinnctly saw the BB’s bounce off them and the two of them shake the hits off and ignore me. They kind of looked at me and got back to what they were doing (not shooting me oddly!) However a marshall saw this and  sent them straight back to the respawn which was good. The marshalls were excellent all through out the day and hats off to them for doing such a good job!

We completely wiped the floor on this game and thus the marshalls then had to plan the games based on how well we’d done rather than keep it balanced. This kinda of “on the fly” game planning realyl worked well and helped to make the day a good one!

Lunch is provided in the price which is quite expensive at £30 a game. However the site and the games made up for this. However the lucnh was a bit poor and had I known I was only going to get a boiled hot dog and a can of drink, I would have taken more food. Me, greedy? Not really.. just hungry!

I went to this game by myself my usual airsofting mates were already  busy or had attended a large weekend the week before. However the players there were friendly and by the end of it, I’d spoken to a good few of the players around me in the safe room. I didn’t go to the pub after the game but I’m assured that when the day is done, they head to the local for a few drinks.

Overall, it’s a fantastic site and I will be attending the next game on the 19th, this time however, I will be attending with mates.

Best Bit - Killing half the enemy team with a well palced BFG throw - Seeing a marshall storm across the room telling people that there dead.

Worst Bit - Lunch - Not forewarned, I wasn’t prepared for the small amount. Also the cheating at times. However the good marhsalling prevented most of this.

So I’ve continued to try and make my kit along the lines of what has been “laid down” by the team. However, I’ve not updated my progress here!

Imperial Guard

As you can see, I’ve made some progress. Since this picture was taken, I’ve bought myself the correct headgear (a rifle green beret). I’ve also bought a foam sword from Tesco that I intend to paint up to represent a power sword or close combat weapon ( those familiar with warhammer will know that guard officers always seem to carry swords, however much they suck in close combat!)

This will be just a prop generally for standard airsoft games and probably wont be used but there are plans for the guard “regiment”  to get together and play games where this sword would come in handy. This isn’t really one of the exepsive LARP weapons you can buy, but it is LARP safe however which is a bonus! I guess LARP safe is actually harder to satisfy that being kiddy proof obviously!

I’ve also bought myself a blank firing grenade. Now this was an impulse purchase and my initial reaction after buying it off a forum was that if I didn’t get on with it, I’d sell it to my pyro happy mates who love them. I’d never got on with these before really. I mean they were good fun but a useless in woodland and far to expensive in case you lost them in the woods. However, now I seem to be playing urban more, they seem to come into there own. This was seen at the weekend when I used said item at The Temple (First and Only’s new site in Leeds, stay tuned for a review!)

I’ve painted this with what appears to be an Imperial Eagle, however it’s more an eagle shapd blob and I feel it needs some other method of making it identifiable as mine. I saw some at the Temple on Sunday with neon “streamers” and this seems like a reasonable idea but to me, a bit to tacky. I think I’ll head down the Russian way and use some blue electric tape for my next game!!

I’ll also try and get more photo’s of myself and my kit next game. With luck, one of the other Scarovar regiment may be in attendence as he himself is also based in Leeds and it would be good to have a mini meetup.

Anyhow…

I picked this up a two weekends ago at a game at Spectre Wargames near Hereford. For the princely sum of £30. New. Considering the price it was a crime to leave it there!

Anyhow, it was at the Urban site (which is now closed as it was the final day I attended) and this seemed like a good gun to use, however I didn’t really get a chance to as I’ll mention later.

First Impressions

This gun is solid. Couldn’t say what of it is metal but it’s hefty. Quite hefty. We’re talking probably about the same kind of weight as my RPK. It’s also solid enough to be used a sclub when the 50 round magazine is empty! The finish on it is excellent. However the only let down in my eyes, is that when the bolt is forward, the internals of the gun still show (that silver bit). However if the bolt is placed at the back, you open the hop adjustment so you have to put up with it. I’m going to paint it so it’s not so obvious.

Stripping the gun is insanely easy, so easy it had me stumped. Just where the folding stock is, there’s little twisty knob that you turn, then slide the entire front end off. I’ll get a picture of it when I can. Here’s where you put the battery in as well. Runs off a mini battery. Obviously the one included isn’t upto much and don’t mention the charger!

Main downside, is lack of mags. RSOV are currently out, as are anywhere in the UK. And only 50 rounds doesn’t last long.
The reason this gun was £30 was because no one really wants it. I guess it’s had to much bad press as the nazi gun but in my mind, it’s quite a nice SMG.

Performance
Ah, here we reach the point to wince.

I picked it up, put battery in, walked to chrono, fired. 330 give or take. Not bad, bit hot for Spectre Urban (300 limit as it’s close and the entire site is like the barns at MIA) Seemed odd, there was no single shot function. Safe or full auto. Went into game and fired 3 shots before the gun stopped working. Completely. No idea what was up with it. However, Yams, the owner, just swapped it for another one at the end of the day. This one I have now DOES work. Quite nicely I may add. RoF seems a bit slow and this was with my 9.6v RPK battery attached as it’s the only battery I have with a small connector to hand. Might need to nvestigate that further.

However, the flaw seems obvious now. The swith next to the bolt is the fire select. Single and full auto. The safety is a little switch at the bottom of the grip. Odd I know. So I can assume the one that broke on me was flawed from the start because the single shot selection didn’t do anything and stopped the trigger moving. However putting this on safe does not stop the trigger moving at all. Just stops it shooting.

Anyhow, it’s now working nicely and I cant wait to get some more mags to make it skirmishable. Just need a Whermacht uniform, call myself Lieutenant Schaffer and then I can re enact Where Eagles Dare O0

On an interesting note, I found out that the nobbly bit at the front of the barrel is for when the soldiers where in vehicles, they can rest the gun on a fire hole and this would reduce the recoil upward. (Mount it, pull the gun back into your shoulder)

In the future the standard weapons are lasers from what we’re told. So I have to convert one.

I managed to pickup a second hand TM G36C to be used as the base for the conversion. As people may or may not know, second hand sales are a lot harder to police now in the UK due to the VCR act. I’m a registered member of a game site so I can purchase guns either from a site or second hand from sellers. It was just a case of giving my UKARA membership number etc to the buyer and it’s upto him whether he sells it or not. I managed to get it off the actual Scarovar team forum.

Anyhow, part of the benefit of this purchase was that it was part of the way towards the conversion I had planned, in that it already had the G+P solid stock on.

This makes it look more like the lasgun in the game and fiction. There are however other varients. The Death Korps of Krieg regiments have a lasgun that very closely resembles an M14. However, the Scarovar regiment are using the versions wielded by the Cadians in th game.

The first and only section I’ve manged to do so far is add the magwell conversion. The mags used in the G36C aren’t like those used in the lasguns. Therefore we needed to change these to get the right look. Luckily this was easy enough to do in the airsoft world as there were two piece of kit to help us. Firstly, it was the M16 magwell adapter for the G36. I bought mine on Firesupport for a good price, There are two versions avliable but I found the Private Parts one for sale in the Uk and bought it.

It should be noted that Firesupport are one of the places I get my gear.  They offer good prices and have good service. This shows with this order. I ordered the magwell adapter some time ago but haven’t recieved it still. I talked to the guys and it appears that Royal Mail has lost it and at the time, they cant offer me a refund as they can’t claim it’s lost until 15 days since it was posted (as I type, I believe that’s tomorrow). However I bought it again as I need it for a game this weekend and they kindly offered to send it next day delivery at an extra cost of 50p and if the other one ever arrived, I was welcome to send one back and get a refund. So top notch to those guys and just reinforces my disdain of Royal Mail. It’s not the first time they’ve lost stuff for me.

Anyhow, the second requirement for the conversion is the M16 mags itself. Ideally these are the VN mags and wanting to follow the look of the models more, I opted for a box of King Arms mid cap VN style mags. With luck, Airsoft Supplier, had some them come into stock the day I rang up. While I was there, I also ordered the G+P tracer magazine to give me an idea what this would look like with tracer fire. It is after all a lasgun and lasgun fire light bolts. We’ve all seen Star Wars

Anyhow with that all done, this is how the article looks at the minute.

Not bad for a half hour change over and removal of the rails. The ammo I ordered from Ironfoot Airsoft as they finally stock fully biodegradable ammo for a decent price now. MIA only allow the use of these biodegrable BB’s on site because they are an organic farm. Now they have them at reasonable prices, I’ll use them where I can. Just my part to prevent plastic everywhere.

Tracer magazine works nicely. It’s a nice bit of kit and looks ace when firing. However the BB’s get dimmer if you fire on auto because the BB’s are only exposed to the UV LED when they are near the top of the mag. Because I aim to be using it on semi when using the tracer BB’s (these are expensive! 800 for the same price as 3300!!) this wont matter. Just for looking good I’ll use 100% tracer rounds in the mag when playing in the dark. However, if I was using a tracer silencer (which is now on my list of to buys!) I would mix the tracer with other BB’s to get tracer rounds like the British army use (3 non trace to 1 trace generally).

Anyhow, I’m using it this weekend and we’ll see how it works. I’ll also be dressed in my new loadout, which is semi complete. Just don’t tell the commisar I’m not wearing correct uniform! I don’t want a flogging detail!!!

I fancied toying with a completely different loadout. I enjoy being the odd one out on the battlefield really for some reason. Wearing Russian camo was part of that. I was different to all the DPM, Flecktarn and American camo wearing players. However, I wanted something else. Just because. Something not Russian related (for a change! I’m not stopping my Russian gear! I in fact have a few plans on how to add to that as well )

However whilst browsing the forums I stumbled across an idea that seemed fantastic to me so I got in touch with the guys and got started with my loadout. So now I’m currently an unofficial member of the 9th Scarovian Rifles, a Warhammer 40,000 themed Imperial Guard airsoft team…

Warhammer 40,000

Right, if you’ve not heard of Warhammer 40K, then you cant really call yourself a sci fi fan. It’s a massive tabletop game set in the 41st Millenium made by Games Workshop. However it has such a following that there are a large series of novels and background to the game, it’s a big a universe as something like Stargate, Star Wars or Star Trek. To me, the backstory appeals. I am a sci fi fan at heart and the stories, espcially the Gaunts Ghosts series of novels is excellent. So when I recently dug out my old warhammer figures in my recent house move, I got hooked on the gaming again and decided I’d start my Imperial Guard army I’d always wanted to do. And a the idea of an Imperial Guard loadout in airsoft reared it’s head…

9th Scarovian Rifles

So being a lurker on ASCUK forums, I knew that I wasn’t the first person to have this idea and I got in touch with a few members of the 9th Scarovian Rifles, a team dedicated to replicating an Imperial Guard regiment from the tabletop, onto the Airsoft universe. Because of the massive amount of work they’ve already done, I pretty much only had to buy the kit and equipment! And they’ve got it all setup very akin to a regiment with a kitlist etc. That might put some people off a team, having a set kitlist etc but I think in this case it deffinetly suits the team espcially with the look they’re trying to put across. I wiuldn’t call myself a real member yet because we’ve not played together but I have the majority of the kit altogether for it.

I’ve not managed to get most of the item together for a picture, because they are currently either in shipping or aren’t in a state to be photographed as yet.

However, I do have a photo of the standard issue uniform for the 9th Scarovian Rifles.

The standard uniform is based on the ACU pattern. I bought my ACU from Flecktarn for the very resonable price of £20 for the entire set! This is the Bulle copy of ACU but having bought Bulle kit before, I know it’s decent kit and will last a good while.

So from the horrible horrible ACU camoflague, I then dyed it using Dylon #34 (olive green) to get the finished result.

I currently have the webbing on it’s way from Flecktarn (it’s sat in the post office due to the bank holiday ;( ) and I have parts for my new (well second hand) G36C to turn it into a standard issue imperial lasgun.

When I have more pictures, I’ll post some more on the new loadout.

In the mean time, if you fancy visiting the 9th Scarovian, just visit the forums at Grim Darkness or visit the Yahoo group.

The Emperor protects

My RPK was out in force and performed admirably. I do think I may need a new hop rubber and hop bucking because at the minute I only have a piece of biro inside the hop! I think this showed at the game. However I did manage to get a good amount of kills with it that day. I did find some problems with my cheap airsoft mags and I’ve now decieded I’ve had enough of the cheaper mags and I’ll stick to the more expensive magazines. With hindsight, they seem like false economy.

I wore my Berzerka pattern camoand it bleneded in nicely. It allowed me to do some sneaky flanking manovures which is how I really enjoy playing airsoft games. I also used my 6SH92 rig and found it to be the comfiest rig to use with the RPK (considering it’s a support gun, I lie down a fair amount).

Games were good as always. The afternoon flag game was great fun with the spin on it. The flag game is where two teams have to put there flag on 4 points and keep them there for the game. However as a twist this game, we had a game with a third team whose job was to basically mess everyone else up by either attacking points or mremoving flags etc. Added a really nice spin to the game and made it that much more interesting for me (not sure how the other teams took it though!)

Also, the airsoft commando team have improved admirably and managed to crush us quite well whilst we were playing the “Defend the village” game so congrats to them!

Overall it was a good day and gave me some food for thought regarding the RPK. It’s now nice I have a loadout fairly much sorted for it.

However, I’ve recently spent some money on another loadout (not Russian related!!) and I’ll be giving details of that as and when I feel ready

I have a Rex Design M7 pattern version though I believe you can also get it in a Bekas pattern. This is the first time I’ve come across the M7 and it’s a nicer fit than the Bekas I’ve used before. I might have mentioned it before but it’s very comfy! The trousers itself are very nice, with elasticated bottoms so the trousers don’t slip up the boot and the waistband also has a degree of elasticity. The material is a lot lot thinner than that of my Flora which is good as I bought this as a summer/spring/hot weather uniform to complement my KLMK. The uniform also thoughtfully has some mesh in the crotch area and in the under arm sections allowing air to reach these sweaty places more easily. (yep you all know it!) The uniform could be worn easily without any t shirt or base layer but I have a habit of doing so and in this weather we’ve been having in the UK recently, it got a tad warm.

As for effectiveness, I was unable to test this out as much as I would have liked due to the nature of the game we played (our team was attacking a lot and camo just doesn’t hide you when you supporting an infantry assault down a road!) However I thought it seemed to blend in fairly well with the sunny weather we’re having and with the sun coming in thought the leaf canopy.

Unfortunately because I ordered a size or two to big, I managed to rip the crotch section slightly. And the buttons seem a bit to large for the button holes and it can be a major struggle to do them up. However I reckon this will get better in time and use.

Overall it’s a very very nice piece of camo and one of my favourite ones I’ve owned. Also I think it’s the first time since I started airsoft (4 years ago!) that I’ve had a complete set of camo in one pattern! (as in boonie/hat, shirt, trousers and webbing/vest) Not since I skirmished in flecktarn have I worn all one camo pattern.

Picture from RSOV.com.

The silencer recently arrived, mainly due to it taking time to reach me from my mate who had ordered it as part of a team order.

My initial impression of this silencer was good. It has an impressive weight and I ordered the lighter aluminium version over the heavier steel one. It has an nice weight.

However, when I attempted to attach it to my AK47, I came across my first problem. The small section of the silencer you see above the TM in the picture above is what attaches the PBS to the AK. It screws into PBS at the base of the silencer. The problem is with the attachment to the AK. The AK itself has a small nipple (for want of a better term) that extends out of the front sight that stops the flash hider unscrewing. The attachment on the silencer was to small to allow this nipple to lock into place. I filed this down for quite a lot. This allowed the attachment to to fit.

The second problem was related to the first. My attachement wasn’t quite locked into place and whilst trying to screw it off, the attachment section actually screwed off INTO the silencer, thanks to the attachement screwing onto the AK one direction and into the silencer in the other. However I managed to remove it by unscrewing the thinner front part of the silencer from the fatter rear section.

Eventually I got onto attaching it and test firing. This is were the big disappoint happened. BB’s would not exit the silencer and those that did, exited in pieces, shattering inside. Having gotten into the silencer before, I had another look inside. The sponge rings inside I believe are casuing the issue. It’s low quality foam inside and probably wont silence BB’s much but I’m mainly using this as cosmetic aspect for the AK. That leads me onto my next article where I investigate it further and find out how to allow the BB’s to exit unaffected. I have already found out that the problem is not related to the fatter rear end as I have attached that to the AK and use it without any trouble. So my next article will be how I managed to fix the silencer.