Airsoft Armoury - Ops Core Helmet Redux

Hi Folks,
time for another update on a little Airsoft project. As some of you might remember last time we saw the Ops Core Fast Helmet replica it looked a little like this:

 

Since then I've played a few games in it and come to love it, the only problem is that whist it does blend in, often it also stands out, mainly against the greens. It just ends up as a brown spot.

With that in mind I recently purchased a nice Multicam helmet cover from the wibbly wobbly web, now im not normally a fan of covers but i must say this does look sweet.

 

My only concern is, that like the MICH (that i will be selling soon) it loks like its missing something. I cant quite put my finger on it but just not sure what it needs. Any thoughts?

 

Airsoft Armoury - MICH 2000 Helmet Completed

Well folks the work has been completed and the pictures are finally here. Some time ago I started work on my MICH and bought a load of odds and sods for it as seen here:

As you can see this was origionally going to be a MICH with a marpat cover, however since I bought all these items I moved away from Marpat and over to Multicam so decided the cover wasnt really suitable. I decided then to spray the helmet and move to a patterned design.

In the end the parts used were the NVG mount, a set of Ops Core Rails, the surefire replica, an emerson chin strap and the velcro i ordered. The origional strap bought was flawed and unusable so i had to replace it.

To paint the helmet it was base coated Sand before being wrapped in the Scrim net in the picture above. Once wrapped I dusted the helmet with Olive Drab and Dark Earth paints, both mixed well and gave the finish below:

Personally despite the bulk of the helmet compare to my FAST helmet i like the effect. There seems to be something missing and i would like to add some more bits to the helmet, I just cant put my finger on what to add though.

So there you have it, the completed (at least base completion) of the MICH 2000.

Any thoughts and comments on the helmet would be great.

Airsoft Armoury - Ops Core Helmet Completed

As followers of the blog may know I have recently picked up an OPs Core Fast helmet. Overall despite inital concerns about the colouring etc it turned out it didnt need too much work afterall. Though as you can see there was plenty to add to it:

 

some of the items pictured but not used were things like the peltor side mounts, others such as the peltors are rigged to my vest so dont appear in the pics below, but the pads inside the helmet were adjusted to allow me to wear the all together.

 



So to start up with here is an overall veiw and we can go in to more detail as we go on:

 The helmet has had additional velcro added to allow the mounting of patches, lights and potentially at a later date a camera. The rails were tightened and mounting posts for my regulator goggles were added.

nothing specoal just a close up of my multicam Union Jacks, one of which will be replaced eventually but I think these are great quality patches and some of the best produced I've seen in a while.

 A picture of the rear showing my customer name tag, again great quality and the little Union Jack finishes it really well. my only bugbear is that the edging doesnt match the flag patches but thats nothing major.

 In addition to the patches a V-Lite was added to the top, whilst it seems counter productive to stick something big and glowing on top screaming "shoot me, shoot me!" it really helps on night games as I can just activate it and call hit. In addition occasionally having an identifier in CQB helps.

As you can also see a surefire replica helmet light was added to the side for general lighting purposes. Initally I did use the specific surefire mount but I felt this stuck out way to far so instead I modded one or the rails mounts that came with the helmet and made a much lower profile mount.

as you can see the surefire helmet light also has red lights for low light operations (apparently) but i just think it all looks cool in red.

 

So there we have it the completed Ops Core helmet, hopefully you guys like it and hopefully the Mich 2000 will look half as cool.

Airsoft Armoury - Ops Core Helmet Work in Progress

Following on from the MICH 2000 we have my newest addition, I have recently picked up an OPs Core Fast helmet. This doesnt need too much work but theres enough to do to make it fun, the helmet and its accompaniments was a good buy as you can see:

the first thing to do though is to spray the helmet, as you can see its very dark brown rather then tan. Once done its time to add the velcro and then adjust the pads inside to fit the new replica peltors i have picked up. In addition there is the surefire light and the v-lite from the other helmet to fit on here too. The helmet is a nice fit and the new suspension system they have replicated in it is very comfy.
Once the weathers better I will be able to spray and all being well that will be after christmas day.
hope you like.

Airsoft Armoury - MICH 2000 Helmet Work in Progress

Hi folks,
as an expansion on the airsoft armoury theme I've decided to share some of my kit projects with you. At the moment I'm in the process of upgrading all my kit, I have recently moved on to Multicam kit (more details in a later post) so with that in mind I have decided to update my helmet collection.

First up is my old MICH 200, as you can see this is a bog standard olive coloured helmet made from fibreglass.

nothing special I know but to improve it and bring it more in line with current trends and helmet tech I have this little lot to add to the beastie:

my first improvement will be to spray the helmet with a skin style pattern (the scrim is for that) before adding the following accessories:

• genuine issue pads
• tan chin strap
• ops core rail set
• nvg mount
• surefire helmet light and mount
• v-lite replica
• velcro (awaiting delivery)

these should add a nice edge to this helmet and make it work well with not only my new multicam kit but will also work well with my marpat and tan kit (good for nice woodland games in summer). Will post more pics when the work is complete but unfortunately its a tad too moist to spray at the moment.
Any questions on the helmet, parts or anything please let me know.

Machinator248 Chimera Conversion Kit - Product Review

Time for the blogs very first product review, I hope you all like and if you have any thoughts or suggestions please let me know. Each Section is marked out of 10 and then the marks fiddled about to give an overall mark for the item and seller, hope its of use. Enjoy:

The Machinator248 Pegasus Chimera Conversion Kit

Product Name: Pegasus Chimera Conversion Kit
Production Company: Machinator248 (ebay seller)

Price: £15gbp (at time of purchase)

General Summary:
The Pegusus Chimera Conversion kit is as suggested by the name a converion kit for the standard Imperial Guard Chimera Tank, this kit allows you to convert you Chimara to have a smaller troop area and set back turret, as well as an option to use a hi-tech looking turret, combine with a Standard GW Chimera this gives your tanks a unique look on the battlefield.

Review

Purchasing and Delivery:
Purchasing of the item was somewhat unusual, this kit was origionally availible online but after the usual shanninigans with non GW kits the only place to obtain this kit is via direct mail on Ebay. This email was quick, courteous and straightforward, at no point during the email did I feel like Machinator248 was going to run off with my money and all comms were asking me if everything was satisfactory. Payment was as expect via paypal and again everything was followed up in a timely manner.
Delivery was quick, around a week but considering it had to get to the UK this is often better then most GW/FW/BL packages.
SIDE NOTE: check out machinator248 on ebay for some very cool baneblade/shadowsword components amongst other things.
Result: 8/10

Packaging and Presentation:
The model was shipped in a nice padded envelope which initially I was worried about but on opening discovered that additional packagin material was included and this helped protect the model in transit. Personally I would have prefered a small card box or similar but i appreciate that this is not a business as such and is a side venture so I underrstand the need to keep costs down.
Prentationwise I wasnt expecting huge boxes or patterened bags, i was please however that every component had its own individual ziplock bag so everything had that extra bit of protection.
Result: 7/10

Quality of Materials and Manufacture:
Being a resin based conversion kit I was initially concerned with the quality of the models, both in terms of air bubbles, overcast and casting stalks. As you can see from the pics this need not have been the case:

There were no miscasts in the kit i recieved, casting points only had small lumps and for the most part all edges were sharp. The inclusion of a hatch to cover the hole in the lower hull was also a nice touch.
The details on the body are great, the rivets scale well with the Chimera ones and the large hatch is good as well. I am however not the biggest fan of the turret but have converted mine as a spare.
Result: 9/10

Ease of use and Scale:
As you can see from the above pictures the model needs little clean up and other then the usually wash for resin is workable straight away.
The kit is a great add-on for the current Chimera and really does add to the look, if you are starting an army this would be a great place to start for looking at alternatives, as I have an exsisitng for with Chimeras I choose this kit to add something familiar but different for my Inquisitors ride. One caveat the kit came with was that FW turrets dont fit, it has since turned out that this is not the case and as you can see from the pics below this kit works well with the chosen base tank:

As you can see a great model that works well with current GW Imperial Gaurd products and one that looks like it should have come from FW.
Result: 8/10

Value for money:
Most definately good value for money, given a similar kit from FW would cost at least £20-25gbp I personally cant fault it and feel it is worth the money, just because of the time it saves converting your own chimeras.
When you also factor in that you can buy the Imperial Guard Chimera Chasis sprue from Let the Dice Decide for £10 this makes the complete conversion only marginally more expensive then the standard Chimera.
Result: 8/10

Overall Rating and Final Thoughts
Overall a great kit and one that I am please I picked up, whilst it is only WIP so far I hope to feature the model more on the blog as it gets further on in its progression. The kit however is a great buy and would recommend it to anyone who is new to converting, resin and just wants something different with little to no hassle. A good solid product.
Result: 8/10