Kimber TLE/RL II - ArniesAirsoft

Author

Shao14

Misopethamenos

Registered: September 2004
Posts: 306,044

Review Date: 1/12/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �103.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Good weight, nice finish with no seams at all, good blowback action and accuracy
Cons:	small bug with the slide catch, questionable durability on green, mostly plastic, expensive.

Introduction

The real Kimber custom 1911 style pistols are well known for it's reliability and affordability, especially its Custom II was officially adopted by the LAPD SWAT in 2002 (and most other regional SWATs thereafter). The Kimber TLE/RL II (TLE stands for Tactical Law Enforcement, and RL is for rail) is basically the Kimber Custom II with integrated 20mm rail for mounting accessories.

Western Arms is well known for its attention to detail, its high quality of finish, its licensed trademarks, and its famed SCW system. The downside is the price tag on most WA gas blowback airsoft pistols and its inability to run green gas, however, one's airsoft experience is not complete without owning at least one WA GBB at some point. So, here I am, holding my very first WA GBB, the black version of the Kimber TLE/RL II, and asking myself, is it really worth it? Read on and find out. In the rest of the review, I'll use Kimber to refer to the black WA Kimber TLE/RL II unless otherwise explicitly specified.

Thanks go to GnG for their fast and professional service, again.

First Look

The Kimber came in the usual WA packaging: a simple black box with SCW in big fonts written on top, but without any pictures, nicely cut styrofoam holds the gun securely in place, some BBs (without indication of weight), dissembling tools, and some paperwork including a generic manual for 1911 style pistols.

Picking up the Kimber, the weight was impressive. It is built of heavy weight plastic material, and weighs around 1030g, about only 40g lighter than a unloaded real steel Kimber TLE/RL II. The weight felt balanced, and the single stack grip is very comfortable to hold. The grip has a nice rubber feel to it, but I am not sure whether it is rubber or some kind of plastic. All the control levers and buttons are at the usual places as a 1911. Shaking the gun a bit, it feels pretty solid with minimum rattle. It also feels colder than other plastic guns. I guess it's because of the heavy weight material used, or just my imagination.

Closer Look

The external of the gun is pretty much all plastic except the scews, sights, and the magazine, but the finish of the plastic is rather impressive as the rumor. In fact, one really needs to touch everything to make sure it is plastic, and I am still not totally sure whether the control levers are plastic or metal (even the part below the grip safety on the back of the grip). They are too small to touch, and the texture on them look just like the texture on the frame or slide. They could in fact be metal under a thick layer of paint. That'll probably explain the cold feeling I get everytime I pick up the gun.

The finish was so good, that I was looking for any seam lines at all, and couldn't find any. The slide, frame, trigger guard (inside and out), grip, beaver tail, outer barrel, all finished to near perfection. Only the tip of the beaver tail has some tiny tiny bit of uneven paint, and the side of the thumb safety has a faint trace of seam.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/Kimbuttom.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/Kimback.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/Kimtop.jpg

The outer barrel, spring guide rod, and the breach are polished, and the paint looks quite good and convincing, and in fact, the spring guide rod could be metal, but I can't tell for sure. The trigger and hammer have a different shade of silver finish that's not as shiny as the outer barrel and breach, but the paint is even, and can be easily mistaken as metal parts.

The trademarks are nicely engraved though the Kimber trademark is said to be a bit off from the real one (because WA does not have the legal license from Kimber, at least not yet), but one will have to compare the two side by side, and possibly look under a microscope to tell. Here's a comparison taken from AirsoftExtreme
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/meusoc10.jpg
(note: the guns in the above picture are not the TLE/RL II, but the trademarks are the same nonetheless. The WA airsoft is the one with the orange tip.)

In short, the finish of the Kimber is the best in a plastic airsoft gun I've seen. (A shame it's plastic.)

Performance

Even though I bought the Kimber as a show piece, I have to find out what's the big deal about the SCW system. The Kimber uses the SCW version 2 system.

The new single stack mag holds 21 BBs in double stacked formation. There's a little lock on the back of the mag, and when the mag is empty of gas, the lock can be pushed up to lock the release valve down. Make sure the release valve is unlocked, and gasing the mag is no different from any other GBB, turn it upside down, and line up the mag inlet and the gas can nozzle to gas it.

First I tried the 134a gas in about 20 degree C room temperature. The gun shot all right. Maybe I've been spoiled by always shooting my TM P226 on green gas nowadays, so nothing on 134a really impress me much. The Kimber does have a nice kick even with 134a gas. The accuracy is pretty good, certainly combat accurate. One charge of 134a gas lasted just over 2 mags, but the slide sometimes failed to lock back on the second mag of BBs depending on how fast you pull the trigger. There's also a upward kick (i.e. the tip of the barrel is kicked up), might be the trick of the SCW system. Although the kick is not as powerful as the kicks of my TM guns with green gas, but the TM guns mainly kicks backwards, not upwards.

The blowback was certainly good for 134a gas, but still a long way off from my P226 or Hi Capa on green gas. Although I've heard stock WA guns tend to have problems using green gas, but I decided that a little test wouldn't hurt. I gased the mag with green, and now the Kimber kicks just as hard if not harder than my P226, and the muzzle report is a much louder and more satisfying bang.

The accuracy on green is also quite decent. The following shows my usual 30 feet accuracy test. Room temperature, standing, two hand grip, paced shot, using .2g BBs on green gas. Not counting the one shot that went to the upper edge of the target, the rest formed a nice grouping.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/Kimtarget.jpg

The power of the Kimber is also quite good, especially with green gas. Having no chrono, I shot the Kimber and the Hi Capa 4.3 side by side at a cardboard box at close distance (about 2 feet), both using green. The Kimber shot right through both sides of the box while the Hi Capa only went through one side, and made a dent on the other. With 134a gas, the Kimber can only shoot through one side at the same distance.

Are there any side effect with green gas? After a few mags on green gas, nothing broke, but the slot where the slide catch stops the slide shows a bit wear, and that slot might be broken if green gas is extensively used (it is a known problem with some other WA GBBs), but my USPc used green gas all this time, and that slot was worn, but never broke (my TM P226 and Hi Capa 4.3 do not even show any sign of wear at this location), but I wouldn't advise anyone to try it unless he/she's thinking about fitting a metal slide if the plastic one breaks.

After a few more hundreds of rounds shooting, the outer barrel unscrews itself a bit, and one can just screw it back on tight.

Dissembly

Dissemble the Kimber is just like dissembling any old 1911. Take out the mag, disengage the safety if it's on, hold the slide back for about 1.5 inch to line up the notch on the slide with the slide stop, and push the slide stop out of the left side. Now the barrel slide assembly can be slided out forward. To take out the barrel, first use the barrel dissembly tool to turn the front plate of the barrel sideway and take out that plate, then take out the recoil spring assembly, and slide the barrel assembly out from the front.

The hop up adjustment is under the back of the barrel, and needs a hex wrench to turn it.

With the gun dissembled, one can see the slide rail on the frame is metal, so is the inner barrel assembly.

One problem with the Kimber is that the lever that's supposed to keep the slide catch down when the mag is not empty is a bit short, and does not apply a downward pressure on the slide catch as it should. It's a subtle point, and although it doesn't affect the basic function of the gun, I'm surprised that WA missed this when all other details were replicated. Or maybe it's just my copy that has this problem.

Conclusion

The Kimber is certainly a nice looking piece. If one must have a stock plastic gun that look as good as the real steel with zero seam line, get the Kimber or any of the WA high end GBBs, but the performance is no better, but comparable to a stock TM P226, which is almost 50% less expensive. Personally, I'd like my gun to perform at least as well as it looks, and I'm pretty poor, so I don't think the better finish on the Kimber justify the huge jump in price, and this might be the only WA GBB I'll ever buy, but with the new MagnaTech system coming out, it'd be interesting to see how those turn out.

------------------------------
SEARCH FUNDY Member My Airsoft Gallery

bronney

VSR am teh best!

Registered: February 2005
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 1,349

Review Date: 4/12/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):
Cons:

Just to add to the original review on the use of green gas and slide lock notch wearing. I made myself some flow restrictors much like those on AI:

http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/uploads/1133208358/gallery_4913_176_62769.jpg

And use green excusively now. Play with the size of the hole until green gas feels like 134a. And you'll be in green gas heaven Smile

The slide stop notch will get damaged if you use green without a flow restrictor. And even with one, it'll wear eventually. A tricky is just don't let the slide lock by adding buffers on the recoil rod. You can either add white silicon rings, foam rings, hard abs rings, or even a good valve o-rings.

Add them so that when you pull the slide back with a mag in, the slide stop doesn't catch. I tend to make it 5mm short just to be safe.

Other than that, the kimber's a cool gun. I couldn't resist the silver version hehe.

http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/uploads/1133208358/gallery_4913_154_36542.jpg

------------------------------

http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/uploads/1123301616/gallery_4913_176_2827.jpg

Join in Arnie's TS Server and chat voice!! 72.36.135.154:8222 Teamspeak!
My Airsoft Gallery | Hissing Sid's Still Da Man.

Quote:

Sledge: Don't know what it shoots on 134a, because I'm not a girl.

PenGun

Registered: October 2004
Location: Dublin
Posts: 549

Review Date: 11/2/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �115.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Crisp blowback, detail, weight, reliability, pretty accurate
Cons:	Finish a bit iffy (by WA standards), mag catch scratches mags...

This gun was bought to replace my good old SCW1 MEUSOC which is a bit rattly after so much use.
The Kimber has better blowback and seems more reliable (if that is possible!). The balance seems better too probably because of the steel recoil rod (which most 1911s don't have).
Its a very solid, ultra-relaible piece and the details, like a seperate extractor, Kimber sights and the metal 30lpi checkered backstrap, are superb.
Only one or two niggly things like paint chipping on the mag and a slight mark on the slide prevent me from giving a 10/10. Excellent gun, but being a WA you already knew that Wink