May Theme Weeks - 2011

In 2010, Grey Ops ran a series of series (not a typo) of articles in May, focusing on four different subjects (that ended up being reduced to three, then back up to four). Those subjects were:

• Gear
• Camouflage
• Scenarios
• CQB

Breaking News: Operation Milsim on the Ropes

From the proprietor of Operation Milsim in release several hours ago:

Hello everyone,

It is with my deepest regret that I must inform everyone in this fashion about some very sad news.

As of earlier this afternoon, I am no longer associated with "Operation Milsim", "BuyMilsim.ca", or any of its associated entities.

Spring Camouflage

Is your fall camouflage no longer keeping you hidden? As people head back to their local paintball and airsoft fields this spring, keep in mind how the effectiveness of your camouflage may change. Here are what I consider some prime camouflage choices for spring in non-arctic Canada and the northern United States:

SURPAT

I know, I already used SURPAT as a choice for Fall, but this is a prime camouflage for the transition backwards and forward from Summer to Winter here in Canada. In my opinion, it greatly outperforms CADPAT when you're not surrounded by lush greenery, but still have lots of sprouting foliage around.

RAP4 Operation: SoCal Counterstrike

From a press release from RAP4:

Real Action Paintball is proud to invite you to a new kind of scenario game - one where real military and police operators will train you and evaluate your skills ahead of deployment into this springtime's hottest scenario. That's right: you earn platoon leadership and game commanding roles based on your performance…while learning real-world skills straight from the professionals.

March Contest Roundup

I came across a couple of contests that would be of interest to Grey Ops readers.

First, Paintball equipment retailer PBL is holding a "Win Free Paint for a Year" contest, until April 17th.

Future of Paintball: Pocket GPS Devices

Disclaimer: In the Future of Paintball series, we at Grey Ops take a look at a promising new trend or technology that may affect Paintball in the near or distant future. As Futurism is a difficult science, and we don't in any way consider ourselves "Paintball Futurists", this recurring feature is for entertainment purposes only.

They're ubiquitous in videogames these days, those very helpful arrows always pointing you towards your next objective. Whether you're disarming a bomb, capturing a flag or protecting a VIP, modern day games save you the frustration of getting lost.

3rd DSG Sales Thread Coming to a Close

3rd gen. DSG

The 3rd run of the Dukie Shotgun is coming to a close, if you've got some (not a small amount) cash to spare and are looking to get a seriously wicked pump marker, be sure to check it out. If you're on the fence, read my review of the marker (from when the blog was in its infancy) here: click me.

Video Review #2: Paintball TV Episode 2

As Connor posted recently, the Quebec TV sports network Reseau Des Sports has begun airing a program called "Paintball TV" in French. Those with RDS as part of their cable package can catch the show at 5:30pm Eastern time every Monday. For the rest of us, unfortunately the pilot episode can't be viewed online, but episode 2 onwards will be available on YouTube thanks to user FlashQC. Episode 2 has been uploaded (thanks to Grey Ops reader Max for bringing this to our attention), and can be viewed below in 2 parts:

GameGuard Camouflage

When I saw GameGuard first crop up in the news, I figured it was a fluke. But since then, more and more websites have been covering the camouflage pattern. As a camouflage aficionado, I'm normally pretty tolerant of "out there" designs, but this camo is just plain ugly! It looks like someone took a hawaiian shirt and tacticooled it. Don't believe me? Take a look at this:

News Roundup - March 19th 2011

MCM K1 Delayed

The disaster in Japan has consequences reaching into the paintball world as well; direct from Modern Combat Manufactured's Facebook page:

"Due to the recent events in Japan, K1 upcoming release might be delayed..... Some of the components such as electronic parts which includes the eyes, motherboard, and solenoid are made over there. Our Japanese manufacturer is currently closed for repairs.... Although there are no casualties, they have extensive damages with their infrastructure and machinery..... All flights and sea transports are grounded until further notice. We will keep you posted when more details are coming......

MCM Founder"

Future of Paintball: Digital Night Vision Goggle Lens

Disclaimer: In the Future of Paintball series, we at Grey Ops take a look at a promising new trend or technology that may affect Paintball in the near or distant future. As Futurism is a difficult science, and we don't in any way consider ourselves "Paintball Futurists", this recurring feature is for entertainment purposes only.

In a previous installment of Future of Paintball, we took a look at how LCD technology currently in use could revolutionize Paintball goggle lenses in a few years. Well how sick would it be to be able to swap out your goggle lens for one with built-in digital night vision technology? We may just see that soon enough, if products like Paulson International's DNVG-1 take off.

How To: DIY Night Sights for a Paintball Pistol

You'll have to excuse the water marking of the images, I find these kinds of posts are good fodder for plagiarizers and want to make sure Grey Ops' copyright is preserved.

If you follow the blog regularly, you'll remember that I spoke of some interesting (and cheap) glow in the dark paint that I found online. Here's a brief how to for those of you interested in giving your paintball pistol a bit of useful phosphorescence.

For this mod, you'll need:

• A paintball pistol with fixed sights (I used a T8)
• Glonation paint
• White nail polish
• Clear nail polish coat (not required)
• Q-Tips
• Brush + painting paraphernalia 
• Rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol)

Step 1: Prep your marker/pistol for painting

Everything ready to go.

Pre-Orders Open for Real Sixty-Eight M14s

Here's a quick breakdown of important facts (taken from the pre-order post):

Rifles:

M14 Traditional Stock (Any color):               $850

M14 Traditional Stock with rail covers:       $950

M14 EBR (CAR-stock):                                    $1200

M14 EBR (Classic stock, silver or black):  $1300

Airsoft: More tactical and military than Paintball

Airsoft has been a bit of a hot topic on Grey Ops recently, which is why I found it timely that I received the above letter in my inbox this past weekend. Apparently a group of firefighters in a big city near me are putting together an Airsoft team/league for 2011.

Now what pissed me off about this is not that firefighters spend all of our tax dollars washing their personal cars and cooking spaghetti & meatball dinners for each other every shift. Nor was it the fact that firefighters get hotter chicks. No, what really set me off was the part of this letter that read "Airsoft is similar to paintball but with a slightly more tactical and military approach".

Do you Like Grey Ops?

If you haven't "Like"'d Grey Ops on Facebook yet, you're missing out. Get the latest posts and info as it comes in, and connect with (as of today) 550 other milsim paintball enthusiasts. Mike and myself are both connected through the Facebook page, and your suggestions and feedback will be noticed!

BREAKING NEWS: "Canada-Legal" Airsoft not so legal!

NOTE: If the first thing you notice in the picture is the gun, you might be a little too into this shit.

In January I reported news from an anonymous government source that "Canada-legal" Airsoft guns were at our borders, with paperwork claiming that they fired projectiles between 430 and 500 feet per second. This velocity would've put them square in the legal grey area that .68cal Paintball markers occupy, and they would've been free to enter Canada to retailers everywhere. The caveat was that the RCMP Firearms Centre would first have to test them to ensure that they matched the claims on the paperwork.

People Spoke, RAP4 Listened

This video made me really happy for a couple reasons. Firstly, it's immediately obvious that RAP4 has listened to the feedback from evaluators, and secondly they've implemented the necessary changes to their entire line of conversion kits very quickly. The reworking of the magwell is a perfect change, and should fix the gripes that people had put forward.

Future of Paintball: Isn't Paintball?

There's no doubt that there is a dedicated and active portion of the milsim community that play paintball, and see it as the favoured means of milsim fun. But is the move from milsim paintball to airsoft inevitable? I'm not asking that because of my own personal beliefs, quite the opposite in fact. I believe that paintball is far more appealing than airsoft, and carries with it a much more mature and developed culture. The reason that I asked the question is that more and more focus seems to be placed on airsoft, and some of that focus is coming from sources that were... unexpected. I'll let the facts do the talking:

Case 1: Glenn Palmer

"[...] Paintball is definitely loosing ground to AirSoft so we are developing hardware to improve on the pneumatic AirSoft equip." - Glenn Palmer during an interview with The Catshack Reports.

Paintball on TV - RDS' "Paintball TV"

Another testament to Québec's fascination with paintball, RDS (the French Canadian sister of TSN) is now broadcasting a weekly segment on our favourite game. Dubbed "Paintball TV", it is not so much a speedball oriented program like those that have previously (and unsuccessfully) popped up in the United States, but aims for a more general outlook on the game. I missed it today because I didn't know about it, and am still not sure if there is somewhere I can stream RDS online for free. It airs at 5:30 pm (17:30 EST) on Mondays. I'm looking forward to them delving into the Montreal milsim scene.

Girls With Guns

A buddy of mine recently brought to my attention an article from Men's Crunch online magazine, featuring photos of "Killer" military girls from the armed forces of 48 different countries.

New MCM K1 Pics

Modern Combat Manufactured (site currently under construction) has released pictures of what the final MCM K1 will look like:

Paintball M14 EBR Group Build

HipboyScott of Milsim Empire has exciting news for those of you looking for a milsim marker of epic proportions, he has begun an interest thread for a group build of M14 Mod 0, the EBR. Go to Scott's blog if you're interested, as the thread has been removed. This marker previously won Marker of the Month on Grey Ops, and I've seen it personally at Operation Craig (where the pictures below came from).

Click on pic for high resolution version

Morning Twilight Theatre 2

Hey, why haven't you "Like"'d Grey Ops on Facebook yet? Oh, you have? Well why haven't you subscribed to us on Youtube? You have? Well then give us money or something then. On to the vids:


Recognize 0:25? Looks a lot to me like CQB 2 in Toronto, and seeing as how it's a Toronto group that put it together, I bet it is.

Tacamo MK5 Conversion Kit Testing Wrap-Up

There's one thing I'd like to clear up before I talk any more about the MK5 Evaluation Kit. Certain unnamed members of the paintball media pack took it upon themselves to "review" this kit in a very public and interesting manner. These kits are not review kits (which will come along later) and the fallout from them having been publicized as such has been significant. Sales have dropped significantly with one RAP4 dealer I've spoken to immediately following the "review(s)", and it's been a PR nightmare for RAP4. This was an excellent opportunity for paintball media members and prolific forum members to provide public (at RAP4's bequest) feedback and evaluation of pre-production products, and its something that hasn't really been seen in the paintball industry to this point. Hopefully RAP4 (and other manufacturers) won't be discouraged from this excellent means of testing in the future, because it really does benefit the consumer in the end. Short version: "Don't ruin it for the rest of us."

Marker(s) of the Month (February 2011) - Evil Twins

Two for one this week!

February's Marker of the Month:

Specs:

• Black nickel finish
• Skeletonizes aluminum trigger
• Modified grip (with "window")
• First Strike kit including Lapco First Strike barrel
• Aftermarket magazine release
• X2

RAP4 T68 Post Operation Endwar Package Review

This past December, I managed to pick up a pair of RAP4 T68 Post-Operation Endwar Packages. The markers, having been used at the 2010 Endwar Big Game and subsequently refurbished, were selling at a fraction of the cost of brand new 6th generation T68s.


The packages are still available at the time of this writing, and include:

1 x RAP4 T68 marker
1 x 13CI 3000psi HPA tank and buttstock cover
1 x M4 handguard
1 x M4 top carry handle
1 x 12" spyder-threaded barrel, with M4 screw-on tip
3 x 18-round clear RAP4 magazines

The M4 carry handle can be removed, leaving a flat-top Picatinny rail for mounting sights or other accessories. Also, the threading at the end of the barrel accepts FLASC barrel tips. Pictured here is the FLASC APEX adapter tip threaded on to the end of the barrel:


Regular readers of Grey Ops will know that I've alluded to my experience with these T68s in previous posts, such as the MILSIG 20-round magazine review. Now that I've had a chance to use this marker in several games at Action 500, I'll be doing a specific quickie review and giving my general impressions on it.