Partly an event review, partly the result of some prodding from @airsoft_katastrophe on insta, a blog about an away trip with a difference this weekend, to an airsoft fair. And as far as I’m aware, the only one of its type in the UK. And it’s well worth a visit. Here’s how my day went.

About a week ago, I was looking around for options to fill a weekend in because I had a week booked off work. The usual suggestions came up – local skirmishes, UKAL meets, maybe some rifle testing. But out of the blue came a suggestion from teammate Cuv – there was an airsoft fair on in the far south of the country (Newark). Never been before, not cropped up on my radar, so I did some digging to see what was on offer. On a personal level, Lonestar Tactical and Kydex Customs were present and I wanted to at least go and say hi and thanks. Beyond that, I thought the Midlands Airsoft Fair was an opportunity to do a bit of socialising and of course buy some kit, and a rare one at that. For some reason we don’t have much of this in the UK, beyond the National Airsoft Festival, that I know of.

So I headed to the subtropical south with Cuv which was a couple of hours drive, and met friends Alex and John there. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, bar a few cans of energy drink and some tech talk on the way down. We arrived at Newark to see that there was also a non airsoft militaria event and a biker meet on at the same time, and as the sun broke out, we arrived at what looked like a row of large farm sheds and a pretty sizeable queue, with a 20 minute wait until opening. Bizarrely the event is set up on the Saturday but there’s no entry outside 10am-3pm on the Sunday, which felt a little short lived. Surely it’s better for airsofters to have it on the Saturday and game on the Sunday but again, it’s an opportunity to do something different with your Sunday.

£5 was the entry fee on the door, and walking in we were greeted by;

a) a strong horse stench that reinforced that farm shed atmosphere

b) rows of stalls brimming with every piece of tactical gear imaginable, both retailers and players shifting kit

c) thousands of fucking guns 😎

There was a raffle, and an AttackSense target range at the back where you could test your shooting skills head to head with a friend, although I didn’t want to spoil anyone’s day by beating them. There were patch manufacturers, a photography stall, even donuts (massive donuts though although being at the peak of physical perfection I had to show restraint). Everywhere you looked, there were wants and needs. I’d been deliberately limited to £60 cash by the anti-airsoft authorities in my house, and managed to slip my bank card in for “emergency food and drink” so an epic spree wasn’t on the cards. To any airsofter, this is heaven from the moment your eyes adjust from the bright sunlight outside. Where most of our shopping is done online, this is somewhere to get your hands on everything and not be disappointed at out-of-stock notifications.

One of the first stalls I came to was Lonestar Tactical, whose face masks have genuinely been a godsend, especially in warmer months. I reviewed one here. Now, as a disclaimer, I am a brand ambassador for Lonestar but still buy their stuff with my own money – I like their gear and wanted to show support. It was nice to finally meet and throughout the day I kept coming back to chat.

Cuv decided it best to have a walk round first and see what was there, then start delving into specific stalls. A good shout. At the far end were Kydex Customs, who sent out a mag pouch that I reviewed last year. They’re doing some really great stuff and we learned that they’re already expanding from their recently expanded new premises, and are moving as well into real steel. As well as the myriad holsters you’d expect, one product that caught my eye was this :

Yep, a mk5 thunder flash retention pouch thing. Save digging your mk5’s out from the bottom of a utility pouch. We were also given a free striker clip for pyro. Many years ago I tried in vain to tape striker patches onto rigs but the UK weather would wash them off. Obviously, you want this clip positioned on molle or a strap that isn’t square on your chest, so you’re not lighting pyro up into your face, but it’s versatile enough to go anywhere on your person. I might attach it to the rear of my belt so I can strike pyro off my ass crack. These only retail at around £6 but are a great backup for when you lose all those striker lids.

So, meet and greet done, I had to go and empty my bladder from half a crate of cider the previous day. Walking back out, we bumped straight into eye pro legend Heroshark outside at the main entrance. Despite being one of the most famous names in UK airsoft, he wasn’t overawed by meeting me and we chatted for a good 15 minutes with Cuv particularly interested in some custom work. Lovely guy. I also had the opportunity to sort of have lunch with Andy of Chairsofter fame through Alex, who had recently done a Chairsofter show for UKAL. Femme Fatale was busy offloading personal kit to finance some real grass for her dog. I said hi…

I’m not currently looking to buy any guns, my budget certainly wouldn’t allow it despite most stalls offering 10% off on the day, but it’s great to be able to go and pick up and try things out. Especially when there’s a Bren and a Lee Enfield SMLE on display.

There was an ICS stall complete with ICS Captain Liam, and I clocked pretty much the only sniper-related item on show (disappointed about that, nothing there for us camo fanatics) – the ICS Tomahawk. It’s the latest major sniper release, and I was very keen to pick it up. On the forums, there are concerns over the overvolumed 61cc cylinder seriously affecting performance which is all you want from your rifle at the end of the day, though Camman seemed to like it in his review (although it was sent to him free). It’s hard to know who to listen to these days, so I had a good look over it just to say I’d seen it. The mag is an awful design, and that’s me being polite, and needs reviewed, the bolt handle was nice, ergonomics aren’t to my taste but ICS aren’t known for their snipers so hopefully they come up with something decent on their next attempt. It’s not bad externally in terms of the finish but it does feel clunky. I didn’t get to shoot it so it might redeem itself on performance despite the AEG buckings, but the way it feels I’d rather have it in the house as a tacticool toy rather than a serious field sniper, but each to their own.

I put the Tomahawk down and erased it from my memory by finally having a close look at the VSR One. It’s a beautiful rifle and with a sprung magwell, fixes the only issue the VSR ever had. Probably a little compact for sniping outdoors but I’d quickly swap to a 430mm inner with a big silencer to balance the cylinder-barrel ratio out anyway.

Airsoft Direct had a pretty immense stall in the centre with most guns out on display and available to handle, from FAL to FAMAS, M16 to M14. Most of us do unfortunately have to buy blind off the internet, unless we get to have a look while on site, assuming anyone has it. This is a great way around it, and although we have airsoft shops they’re scattered and unlikely to carry the range of several combined. There were also gun parts galore for any upgrading you might want to do, and thinking back I should have picked up some Maple Leaf Omega nubs while I was there to save on postage but priorities were elsewhere. Before even setting foot on Southern soil, I had a list of things I wanted in advance so that I didn’t end up coming back with purchases I didn’t really need, because I lack discipline when it comes to surplus stores. And so to finish this quick review, I’ll go over what I found for my Black Hawk Down Delta project while sifting through heaps of second hand gear, and a few random photos.

There are some items I need to ebay that I know I won’t just find lying around. I didn’t have fountain of military knowledge Bubba handy either to advise on purchases; he was marshaling at Dirty Dog. So to keep things simple, I decided to go hunting for ALICE ammo pouches, harness, or water bottle pouches, and any useful gun bits for my slightly-wrong M4A1.

So, Kat, here’s my shopping.

First up, an ammo pouch with US printed on it, the older version which may well be an original issued piece Bubba tells me, hiding under a pile of more modern pouches. £2 where I was looking on eBay at around £15. Later on in the afternoon I saw one of the newer ones poking out of a big bits box and the seller dug out a second for me as well, offering two for £5. That’s half the belt built already. Not the most exciting of purchases to some but it was to me – I wasn’t going to walk out of this event with a £2000 HPA’d DMR. Also, a last minute spot by John, the knee pads were going for £5 and without checking, I thought they looked pretty correct. A bit dirty, but nobody wants to turn up at an event looking too clean, like their sponsors just threw a crap load of gear at them for some posed photos. I like used and some of this Delta kit may well get a bit of real or artificial weathering in advance.

It’s not much, but I’d got a bit too excited earlier and found a classic army a2 upper for my rifle. For a fair few years now, I’ve been looking for this but without resorting to paying £120+ for a G&P one. I’ve got lots of other projects to finance.

This battered yet beautiful piece was £50, and being “CA” (Classic Army) should fit perfectly with the rest of the rifle. Though it was an agonising wait to test the fitting when I got home.

This battered old project gun was originally held together with sellotape and blue tack but I’ve learned a lot about teching and building AEG’S with it. It’s gone from a very vaguely looking BHD M4 that someone threw together 15 years ago to something now getting close. Although to be honest there’s now not actually much of the original boneyard M4A1 remaining because the first move was to drop a whole new gearbox in and most of the externals gave been slowly swapped out. But meh, whatever. I’m very excited now, even if it’s not perfect enough for the purists.

A great day out that I’d recommend to as many UK players as possible. Sometimes it’s worth having a little break from skirmish to do and experience something different.

And you might even get to meet me or someone else interesting if you’re there next year.

(Couple of other things I’ll review shortly once I’ve done some testing…)