Special Projects
Phoenix Rising – The ARES G36c from the ashes
The story of a Rebuild Bargain

PART ONE – Spotting the Bargain

The mission is clear, A high end AEG for little cash!

There are different type's of airsofter - those with lots to spend and those who don’t, I fall in to the "those who don’t" category. So how do you go about obtaining a cheap, well known Brand of AEG?


A WORD OF WARNING
Before taking on a ‘Project’ or broken AEG or GBB you do need a little skill and confidence with using some basic tools. Most broken guns require just simple little things for example new wiring, wiring connectors, or broken mech-box parts. So being confident in your use of a soldering iron, and basic tools will be really handy and a must for this project, especially if YOU don’t want to be reselling your bargain purchase due to inexperience. This is meant as a guide to show how I went about buying and rebuilding a gun that I have never worked on before but do have 8 years experience with other AEG’s and enough tools to hand to take on the task.

Where to look
Start off looking on the popular Airsoft forums like ZeroIn and Arnies and checkout all of the Broken Gun Sale and Wanted threads or adverts. I usually stay away from the clone guns as some people seem to think that even when broken they’re worth over £100... but if your careful you can get some bargain deals with ACM guns . You will need a bit of luck so check as many forums as possible.

Considerations
Consider carefully and research the AEG you’re going to go for BEFORE embarking on your Project, some are easier than others! Take the Tm Famas range, parts for these guns can be difficult to find and when you do find them they can cost a lot! All of this needs to be budgeted for. For a first project stick to the more common types such as AK, M4/16, G36, MP5 and G3 so plenty of scope in that lot if parts are missing or should need replacing without stretching budgets too far.

Some Basic Questions to ask
Now you have found your perfect project you now need to contact the seller and start asking some questions:
* can you see a photo of the gun or parts (if you can’t be suspicious)
* Cost, how much for the gun or parts (avoid direct payments and cash only offers from new or members with little or no post counts.)
* How is it broken?
* How old is the gun?

Protect Yourself
One great way of protecting yourself against fraudsters and scammers in ANY transaction is to ask them to add you on a social network site like Facebook and get as much contact information as you can - Home number, email address, ensuring that these accounts have been established for some time. These details can all be deleted after the deal has finished, and they can help expose the fraudsters. ALWAYS opt for Recorded Delivery! This might cost a little extra but its worth it for the peace of mind for both parties.

Having done all that I’ve finally settled on my Project AEG and got myself an ARES G36C that has been fully taken apart by a players younger brother. After various emails and looking over the players Facebook page I find all the trusted information I need and the transaction made for the AEG, stripped down in parts with 3 hi-cap magazines and a mini battery all for the princely sum of £60 including delivery. If need be I can make my cash back by breaking it down to parts if needed but I was hoping for a gun to use at my local urban CQB site SWAT AREA51.

It’s HERE
Its not long before I get a very worried looking postie knocking on the door holding an Xbox360 box , after a pause he asks “ Do you know what your expecting? “ as he gives the box a little shake that results in a sound resembling a broken vase . He was soon happy to find out it was meant to sound like that… and was not a smashed Xbox. It gave me a little chuckle at least.
The parts were not well packaged, but this was a broken gun at the end of the day and the seller had kept the gearbox parts all together in a zip lock bag luckily for me.

After a brief look over the parts and ‘stock take’ I was happy only to find 1 cosmetic missing part and that was the left hand side selector switch. All major body parts had very little wear – I thought I’d nabbed myself an excellent bargain!

Next we will look at building the gun up and if it even works....

Catch up with previous posts in this series:
Phoenix Rising Announced
Phoenix Rising PART TWO - The Build
Phoenix Rising PART THREE - Rise of the Phoenix
Phoenix Rising PART FOUR - The Phoenix Strikes
Phoenix Rising PART FIVE - Player Feed back - the final installment

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Checkout the KingArms website for more great upgrade parts from shims, gears, mech boxes, motors and more plus their range of AEG's and accessories

This Article & pictures are copyright 2011 by Yossers Airsoft Odyssey © and John Williams and may not be be copied or reproduced without permission. You may link to this page.