Salient Arms International Glock 34 Project

A friend of mine from Hong Kong was kind enough to buy me a SAI Airsoft Surgeon Glock 34 slide whilst he was home for Easter. This was the perfect excuse to start a new project. I wanted to create a race pistol along the same style as Chris Costa's G34/G17. The top slide was pretty much a complete unit, almost a drop in kit from what I've heard from Knuckles. I wanted to fit a red dot on the top slide which would work one of three ways. Either I was going to get a Silverback red dot adapter then find the appropriate red dot or I was going to get the NineBall direct rail mount or finally, I was going to drill two holes in the top of the slide and do a direct mount in front of the rear sights.

The first and last option were not so appealing as I have worked with silverback red dot mounts and it is a nightmare trying to find the right red dot to use! As of yet (through 3 other projects), I have yet to find a red dot that fits on the adapter. The drilling option was not appealing as I didn't want to damage the slide and getting it wrong could potentially be a £300 mistake! I went for the direct mount in the end which was not the cheapest option (about £60 compared to the £20 silverback mount) and not the lightest option. I also invested in some AABB tritium sights which are about £40 in comparison to the £90 NineBall sights. On first glance, they are very good. They work as they should do however, I have now owned 3 pairs of them and its obvious they are not made to the same quality control standards that NineBall maintain. But, when saving £50 and a pair of sights that will work all the same in the dark, I'm not hugely fussed. The front sight was a pain to install on the SAI slide, I had to sand down the base by about 1mm to be able to get it to fit in the slot.

When looking at parts, I invested in the Action copper recoil rod which matched the "gold" copper coating on the SAI barrel. I also invested in a Hi-cappa 5.1 TK twist barrel, I haven't used one yet as I've always been stuck in my ways with PDI however, this was an excuse to do something different. The mandatory NineBall Air chamber purple hop up rubber was bought as well to be fitted. When looking at the weight of the rail mount and optic, I thought it would be wise to invest in some light weight parts. I ended up getting the AIP lightweight blowback housing and the light weight hop unit. Unfortunately neither came with an installation guide... But the hop up unit is literally a drop in unit, you just need the dial and hop bar to complete the hop unit. The light weight blowback housing was also pretty much drop in, it just needs the nozzle and valve parts. The unit already comes with a piston head and 2 sizes of o-rings to produce different FPS and blowback. As of yet, I haven't got the blowback housing to work well inside the SAI slide... but it's early days as I only started work on Sunday morning (writing this on Monday morning).

Interestingly, Guns Modify produce an SAI adjustable trigger! I bought one in black and gold to match the pistol and installed it with surprising ease! The trigger pull needs to be adjusted before installation which means a lot of assembly and disassembly to get the trigger pull perfect. The trigger itself is nice with a strong spring behind the trigger safety so you can't accidentally squeeze the trigger. I will probably be modding body slightly as the trigger safety is not as secure as I would like. I had also bought and installed the AIP and Guns Modify extended slide catch and take down bar, both of which were easy to install and make the operation far easier! The final part missing is the magazine release. I wanted an AIP extended magazine release however, I am struggling to find the TM version in stock at the moment.

I have invested in the AIP steel trigger set but after a few reviews, I will more than likely fit the Guns Modify zero trigger later on. The steel kit is pretty much a drop in as well with just a matter of pulling out all the old trigger parts and replacing them with the new ones. All the modification needed comes from the wear of the action. 

The next steps for this kit will be to sort out the nozzle and the action. At the moment, the nozzle jams which is a massive pain. I haven't had the time to look at why but I'd imagine the nozzle return spring is getting stuck in the body. I might have to balance the recoil spring with the hammer spring as they're from two different kits which means they are probably not of matching power. Once all that is sorted and the G34 cycles as it should, I will be sending the lower off for stippling. There is a company near me called Tactical Textures who have a very interesting portfolio and their Facebook page boasts some very good work! The final step will be to think about magazines and mag wells. I am undecided between +2 magazine bases or the CNC aluminium plates. I also do not know whether I will fit the 5KU gold mag well flare or keep it straight.

I did find a big flaw the the NineBall direct mount (which is a shame for £60 of metal), the screw the provided me was substandard. I ended up having to get a flat cut into the screw as the allen head was so small and the metal was so soft I managed to burr the head on my first installation! The AABB sights were a minor pain to install however, I'd imagine that wasn't solely the sights fault. After dealing with RA-TECH for two years, I am more than confident that the CNC SAI slide probably has front sight holes that are 1mm or so too small.

If you want to see more photos of the project, check out instagram through @Airsoft_Addicted and twitter through AirsoftAddicted. A friend of mine also started up a facebook group to share our custom gun work so join and enjoy! The final product of this project is looking to be completed in July so keep an eye out. Between now and then, I will be reviewing the TM HK416D recoil shock and a few upgrade parts for the Kriss Vector.

ASCU V2 fitted to an APS ASR-110

I was up until 1am last night working on installing the ASCU V2 to the APS ASR-110 (2012 version). I should say before I get started that the 2012 version definitely DOES NOT have a MOSFET fitted despite what the retailers will tell you. All the other specs seem to be accurate. The ASR-110 uses one of the new hybrid gearboxes which seems to be pretty good, I found one structural weakness related to the E B but to be honest I could take or leave EBB... The only EBB systems that have impressed me have been the ARES G36 and TM recoil rifles...

APS ASR in Black (also comes in DE)

Before installing the MOSFET I had a quick look through the instructions and checked the gearbox. I found (the hard way) that my selector plate was metal. I have never seen a metal selector plate in a stock AEG and I am sure this is a QC error from APS. Anyway, a friend sourced me a new plastic selector plate that I sanded down to size. I would strongly advise NOT cutting it with snips like the manual suggests... This is purely because the cheap rigid selector plates will shatter and you'll have cost yourself £10 or so...

So, to remove the gearbox I had to separate the upper and lower ,then remove two body pins. The one next to the trigger and at the rear. The stock tube has a large screw inside it which unscrews and releases the rear of the gear box. I then unscrewed the motor plate, removed the motor and unscrewed the pistol grip. Finally all I had to do was remove the magazine catch. Once this was done the gearbox still wouldn't lift. It appears as is APS have installed a functional bolt catch that stops the gearbox from lifting out. All you need to do it get a pin pin punch and knock the pin out and pull the bolt catch out.

Once I had pulled the gearbox out, I removed the main spring to reduce the tension in the gearbox. Now I had a very typical version 2 gearbox sat in front of me. I proceeded by unscrewing the spring loaded bolt catch that is attached to the gearbox - it covers one of the gearbox screws. I would like to mention tone careful with this part as the spring can launch out. It happened to me but thankfully my mechanics bowl "caught" it. I undid all the gearbox screws then used a thin screw driver to open the gearbox. Force of habit for me is to open the gearbox is such a way I could use the screw driver to hold down the anti-reversal latch (ARL).

At this point I would like to take the time to express my hate for the ARL. It's a horrible component in the gearbox and responses for many rage quits in my products... In fact... The ARL was responsible for the decision to sell my last G36.

Once I opened the gearbox I removed all the gears making sure to note on a piece of paper how many shims were in each gear both at the top and bottom. I did later re-shim the gearbox but its somewhat irrelevant as the gearbox was well shimmed and arguably I wasted my time trying to improve it. I removed the trigger and piston components. I then unscrewed the old selector plate and installed the new trigger sensor unit. This is where the first modification came in. The screw that holds the trigger mech in place is too long for the sensor unit. It protrudes out and would later interfere with the selector plate. I ended up cutting 2mm off with snips which worked.

I then ran the data cable from the sensor unit out the gearbox. This is the easiest bit to get wrong. If you don't fit the data cable correctly then the body pin will cut the data cable either disabling the ASCU or messing up your full auto capabilities. I fitted the motor cables to length so that when the pistol grip was fitted, it would fit perfectly with no slack. This required some fitted of the motor and pistol grip to check length. I ended up using a weak adhesive to glue down the cables just to make sure. We're talking about a threadlock style adhesive applied with the tip of a tooth pick. You want to be careful as glue in the gearbox can ruin your kit!

Once the wires were laid, the gearbox was reassembled and the gears were held in place using rare earth magnets. I'd recommend using magnets, it will make your life a lot easier! The gearbox was fitted back into the body and the body pins were fitted. I'd strongly recommend at this point using an allen key to clear the holes just in case the cables are in the way. This will help prevent cutting the wires! The stock tube was replaced with the nut and screw and it was tightened. I spent a lot of time on this making sure the power wires weren't cut from the rotation of the nut.

That was me pretty much done! The entire process took about an hour. I am no experienced gearbox tech but I am sure this could be done in half the time. A lot of care needs to be taken with the data cables. Mess that part up and you have ruined your MOSFET and potentially more!

I did in fact manage to snip one of the data cables and now my gearbox is locked to semi-auto which is a pain. A new data cable has arrived but due to studies, I haven't had the time to work on my gearbox or my blog :( I would strongly recommend a MOSFET trigger system, the trigger response of my gun has been hugely improved and it protects my gun against my insistent use of LiPos.

My next project is looking to be a TM next gen. HK416D which be tricked out with a spectre drop in FET from BTC, a Noveske outter barrel, a flare function tracer and a TK twist barrel.