Post by schmitty on Aug 17, 2005 1:54:38 GMT -5
In case you haven't heard a Japanese company called Echigoya has released an electric conversion of Shoei's MG42. They are very expensive and are limited in production. I just purchased one and here is my quick review...
Let me start by saying that the value for money ($2300) is very poor compared to a Marui gun. But you have to realize that these are hand made guns produced in a very limited quantity and this is why they cost so much. I put so much blood sweat and maybe even some tears into the custom guns I've made (Vickers, Bren etc..) I would hope that they would command the same type of high price.
Opening the box was a bit of a let down, Unlike a marui or even a Marushin gun there is no fancy box with nice styrofoam pieces cradeling your new pride and joy. Rather (like other shoei guns) the box is plain brown and the gun is just rattling around inside stuffed with whatever happened to be around for packing that day (mostly japanese news paper) and forget about those great Marui instructions with fantastic exploded view diagrams and hilarious comics showing what not to do, instead the instructions are just two poorly photo copied pages.
I was initially a little disappointed with the look and overall quality of the gun, but this may have been due to the fact that I have been recently working on a real MG34 parts kit and obviously the quality just isn't near the real thing and it looks a little toy like compared to the real thing. In particular the plastic stock looks cheap and wiggles around a lot. But as I spent more time studying it I realized it is actually very accurate and quite well made.
It is 80% Shoei so I'll only go into the differences that are particular to the Echigoya AEG.
The gearbox is very nice!! It is a bit similar to a PGC gearbox from the top M249. The lower part of the receiver houses the motor (a Marui eg700) and gears with metal bushings. The gears are phoenix self shimming gears (marui compatible) The main spring can be removed and replaced without dismantling the rest of the gearbox, a huge plus.
The hop up is from a marui Aug and is very reliable and easy to adjust. The BB loading mechanism is a bit strange. It holds 300 BB's internally and a separate motor (looks like an rc servo) turns a belt driven (yes BELT!) feed mechanism. I was skeptical of this method to begin with, but it works perfect and never misses a shot!! (so far).
The gun is full auto only, as is the real mg42. It has a fake cross bolt safety switch that is permanently in the safety off position. I find this a bit annoying but I can live with it. It has a cheap electrical (non-scale) safety switch which broke on mine after a few minutes of use (easy to bypass). I will replace it with something a bit more up to the task
It holds a Aug type (1700mah) battery in the stock. A screwdriver is needed to access the battery (bad). The price includes an assault drum (currently still in development) that will increase the BB capacity from 300 to several thousand. It still has the Shoei feed tray that will not accommodate a real drum so how they will attach it is a mystery at the moment.
The Best Part: It shoots fantastic!! Stock it is shooting 375 fps with .20 BB's and has a very realistic high rate of fire. It is very accurate and the gearbox looks and sounds like it is built to last. It weighs about 10.5 pounds with battery(only 1 pound heavier than Shoei MP44 aeg) . This is less than half what the real thing weighs and this is good and bad. Bad in the sense that it isn't realistic but good in that you can actually use this gun in the assault role and not just defense.
I have to admit that I don't use my Bren gun to often for the simple reason that it is so heavy that you are at a disadvantage since everyone else has much more portable guns that shoot just as hard and far. It might be different at a WWII dedicated event but most of the time I am playing against the usual hordes of M4's and AK's.
Overall I would say that this is a very usable gun and not just a wall hanger. I will try to add some pics when I get the chance.
Schmitty
Let me start by saying that the value for money ($2300) is very poor compared to a Marui gun. But you have to realize that these are hand made guns produced in a very limited quantity and this is why they cost so much. I put so much blood sweat and maybe even some tears into the custom guns I've made (Vickers, Bren etc..) I would hope that they would command the same type of high price.
Opening the box was a bit of a let down, Unlike a marui or even a Marushin gun there is no fancy box with nice styrofoam pieces cradeling your new pride and joy. Rather (like other shoei guns) the box is plain brown and the gun is just rattling around inside stuffed with whatever happened to be around for packing that day (mostly japanese news paper) and forget about those great Marui instructions with fantastic exploded view diagrams and hilarious comics showing what not to do, instead the instructions are just two poorly photo copied pages.
I was initially a little disappointed with the look and overall quality of the gun, but this may have been due to the fact that I have been recently working on a real MG34 parts kit and obviously the quality just isn't near the real thing and it looks a little toy like compared to the real thing. In particular the plastic stock looks cheap and wiggles around a lot. But as I spent more time studying it I realized it is actually very accurate and quite well made.
It is 80% Shoei so I'll only go into the differences that are particular to the Echigoya AEG.
The gearbox is very nice!! It is a bit similar to a PGC gearbox from the top M249. The lower part of the receiver houses the motor (a Marui eg700) and gears with metal bushings. The gears are phoenix self shimming gears (marui compatible) The main spring can be removed and replaced without dismantling the rest of the gearbox, a huge plus.
The hop up is from a marui Aug and is very reliable and easy to adjust. The BB loading mechanism is a bit strange. It holds 300 BB's internally and a separate motor (looks like an rc servo) turns a belt driven (yes BELT!) feed mechanism. I was skeptical of this method to begin with, but it works perfect and never misses a shot!! (so far).
The gun is full auto only, as is the real mg42. It has a fake cross bolt safety switch that is permanently in the safety off position. I find this a bit annoying but I can live with it. It has a cheap electrical (non-scale) safety switch which broke on mine after a few minutes of use (easy to bypass). I will replace it with something a bit more up to the task
It holds a Aug type (1700mah) battery in the stock. A screwdriver is needed to access the battery (bad). The price includes an assault drum (currently still in development) that will increase the BB capacity from 300 to several thousand. It still has the Shoei feed tray that will not accommodate a real drum so how they will attach it is a mystery at the moment.
The Best Part: It shoots fantastic!! Stock it is shooting 375 fps with .20 BB's and has a very realistic high rate of fire. It is very accurate and the gearbox looks and sounds like it is built to last. It weighs about 10.5 pounds with battery(only 1 pound heavier than Shoei MP44 aeg) . This is less than half what the real thing weighs and this is good and bad. Bad in the sense that it isn't realistic but good in that you can actually use this gun in the assault role and not just defense.
I have to admit that I don't use my Bren gun to often for the simple reason that it is so heavy that you are at a disadvantage since everyone else has much more portable guns that shoot just as hard and far. It might be different at a WWII dedicated event but most of the time I am playing against the usual hordes of M4's and AK's.
Overall I would say that this is a very usable gun and not just a wall hanger. I will try to add some pics when I get the chance.
Schmitty