UMG - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

silentsmoke

Registered: September 2004
Location: London
Posts: 29

Review Date: 30/8/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �198.00 | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Fantastic build quality
Cons:	None really

After doing some research behind (also seeing and holding these first hand) both Stars� and G&G�s version of the UMP 45 I decided to order the G&G one. I�ll start off with the reasons why. Stars� manufacturing quality is of a high standard, though this is their first aeg release � which puts me off. That�s my main reason. I have heard problems about the G&G M14 problems, but with a good knowledge of gearbox mechs I�m not worried at all.

Placed my order with WGC and three days later it was like Christmas again. I also ordered an 8.4v 1200mah stick battery, but will explain more about that later

On arrival first thing that struck me is that the box is quite small, beautifully done with pictures of the aeg with a nice red penciled background. On the right of the box there is a serial number which is also on the UMP � nice touch.

I expected a shoddy insides but no, nice cut grey polystyrene which has three parts which �plug� the aeg very securely. Everything is nicely boxed and the manual is in English, again a lot of time has been put into this release.

Lifting it out of the box, there is a very nice weight which is slightly forward of the trigger. The bodywork is fantastic even though it does not support proper markings, just like the real thing. The body has very, very slight mould lines and imperfections, but so does the real thing. Nice matt black/grey dull shine to it all over, with a clear navy trigger selector pattern. Metal parts include bolt lock, front and rear sights, barrel and 20mm rails. The mag which is 70 rounds is very solid and fits the mag well without any wobble � nice to see that sorted.

I scanned through the manual and connected my battery. The detail of the manual is nice and with good pictures. Nice sharp loud sound which is crisp. Full auto is like a standard MP5, which is good. The barrel length is 225mm which is the same as the MP5 series.

Version three, standard plastic bearings, black polycarbonate piston, piston head with no bearings, reinforced gear set (standard ratio) and reinforced spring guide with no bearings. The hop system is metal and seals well with the mag and nozzle. The nozzle comes with the rubber seal inside, saves on ordering one! All the standard parts are rock solid. The good thing about this setup is that you could if you wanted to just upgrade the bushings and stick in a larger spring as the spring and piston are free and not attached. Cronos 260fps - 285fps.

I have upgraded mine with a silent piston head, systema oil less bushes, M100 spring and systema version 3 spring guide with bearings. I have also removed a cell from an 8.4v 1200mah so it is now a 7.2v 1200mah battery as I want to reduce the rate of fire. Just waiting for the silencer to arrive!!

I can confirm that when you open the gearbox nothing springs out to get you, it all stays in place. G&G�s version three is just like the TM one, which is good. The only little concern I have is that the selector switch system main gear which runs underneath the gearbox is made from plastic, while the rest of it is metal. I am sure that this is not a problem as the plastic is very tough, but would prefer it to be made from metal.

The hop up bolt can be locked via the catch on the other side of the receiver. This makes it easier to access the hop up system.

The hop up system is made of metal and G&G have made the non hopped setting with a slight hop when you look down the barrel. If you use heavier bb�s and want more accuracy then it is worth a try.

I am currently waiting for four more 70 round standard magazines and the G&G silencer to arrive.

I will/have adding the following:

G&G Silencer
King Arms sling
G&P Aim Point Red Dot Scope with a �L� Low mount
V900 or M500 flash light as it would look so cool.
6.03mm TN 229mm Barrel

Testing.

The first thing I did after having lots of heads turn was to load up my 70 round magazine. Inserted and battery connected, we are ready to test. I wanted to set the hop for the best distance possible. Ten shots later, everyone was surprised by the straightness of the bb�s. So took it for a game, remember only one magazine. Got some kills then got taken out. Did the hop test again and it has started to wear in. All I had to do was to move the hop one and a half millimeters forwards. I put though 300 bb�s and the hop stayed in place.

Conclusion

If you are after an authentic looking UMP, then the Star version is for you. I do not like the tacky look of the star magazines with the fake rounds, nor that you only get only two 20mm rails. I love the G&G UMP (UMG) as it is very, very solid (I stood on it!) and everything is well made which includes the imperfections. The aeg is of a medium weight which is great for CQB and general woodland action. It�s an MP5 with a version three gear box with a sexy body!

PS Got the mags and silencer. The silencer is unmarked, but it looks so damned good!

Just what I've always wanted

Thanks

Dino "silentsmoke" Butcher

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M4SDII Recon look

blazevich

Registered: January 2005
Posts: 127

Review Date: 16/5/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �280.00 | Rating: 7

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	awsome externals, couldnt find a single flaw on the outside
Cons:	internals leave alot to be desired, plan on upgrading

This is going to be a long read, so, get comfortable or get over it.

(photos are randomly placed in the photobucket account below)

http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a91/blazevich/airsoft%20related/

I ordered this gun for the pure heck of it. I had a few hundred sitting around collecting dust, and I always like the UMP styling so I figured what the heck.

I ordered the UMG for 280$ shipped at www.airsoftextreme.com.

The box, no one really cares about so I'll save you the details.... it works.... that's all you need to know.

The Externals

Stock:

Out of the box- Out of the box, the stock is motionless. (Unless you decide to fold it to the right of course) There is a rubber pad on the back, and on top to make a sort of cheek rest. There are two holes made to attach to slings. Aside from that, there�s not much to say about the stock. It folds over to the right, and you won�t have to worry about the catch breaking off anytime soon.

Four months of playing- after four months of playing, the stock is still as good as out of the box. (For the most part) I have noticed a SLIGHT movement going up and down, just a few millimeters at most. This should only bug the pickiest of airsofters.

Grip:

Out of the box- The grip. I don�t know. You hold it. It works. It has is checkered (I think that�s the right word) on the right and left, and has ridges going down the back. I guess it helps you hold it better or something.

Four months of playing- same as out of the box.

Selector Switch:

Out of the box- (For the select stupid out there) the white box is safe, red with on bullet is single, and red with four bullets it auto. The selector switch gives a nice click with each selection. I have notices a small glitch in mine though. When you are holding the gun in your right hand and moving the switch form safe to auto, and auto to safe. It works fine. But when you are holding the gun in your left hand, the switch seems to be a bit more stiff then the other one, and is not nearly as clean.
This could be a mass problem, or just one with mine. I am a leftie, and I just adapted to it. It isn�t that hard.

Four months of playing- I have noticed that occasionally it won�t �click� into place. It still works, it just might bug some that lack the ability to deal with it.

Magazine Well:

Out of the box- It is a place to put the magazine. Duh. It is small enough to keep the magazine from moving around to much, but big enough to make reloading fairly easy

Four months of playing- the magazine moved from front to back just a tad. Not enough to cause feeding issues. Not a problem, just putting that out there.

Front grip:

Out of the box- If you plan on leaving the RAS off this gun, then I plan to hunt you down. This gun looks as bad as my white, ugly butt without the RAS in my opinion. The RAS serves its purpose, I currently have a vertical fore grip on there, and my idiot sibling is trying to convince me to put an M203 on there as well. (meh) I wouldn�t be worried that the M203 would put to much stress on it, it would just look stupid.
No matter how hard I try, I can�t get this gun to bend or flex under any stress given anywhere. +1 for extremely solid weapon G&G!

Four months of playing- I�ve noticed that the rails are bending under the stress from the vertical fore grip. It�s annoying. It is so bad, that I can visibly see the rails curving in the middle. I�ve been randomly switching out the bottom one for the right and left ones for a temporary solution, but eventually I think I�ll just try to find rails made out of a more durable metal. This normally isn�t a problem, but if you plan on sticking a laser pointer or anything that requires to be straight with the gun, then you will have a problem.

Sights and top rail:

Out of the box- The sights are amazing. You can adjust them to pinpoint accuracy (for the most part). The V-sight I actually don�t use that often, but it�s still nice to have. Don�t plan on anything being wrong with these sights. The rail is handy. No more digging out a few 20$ bills from your already-somewhat-empty wallet. You can fit anything from a red dot scope, to a high powered rifle scope (um no�. don�t plan on that) with no extra cost to you.

Four months of playing- I�ve noticed the top rail is starting to bend, like the front rails. This, I would consider more of a major problem. Red dot scopes and normal scopes are useless when the rail is crooked. I�ve been improvising with a folded up sheet if cardboard paper to keep it from bending too much, but this is on my list of things to replace.

Barrel:

Out of the box- What is there to say about the barrel. It is a tad bit shorter then MP5 barrels, and it doesn�t have any threading (booo). I noticed that it is a free float barrel. What that does for airsoft I have no idea. But it�s pretty neat.

Four months of playing- same as always

Bolt:

Out of the box- This is the sweetest feature on the gun. Not only can you do the �HK slap� without worrying about the lever, but the bolt catch actually works. Of course, this just adds to the realism, it has no practical purpose for actual fights.

Four months of playing- I�ve actually TRIED to break the cocking lever. I can�t. I�ve don�t the HK slap so many times I thought it would have broken weeks ago. But it is still strong as ever.

Hop up:

Out of the box- When you pull the bolt back, you see a lever type hop up adjustment thing (I don�t know) It doesn�t exactly like to stay where you put it. I gave up and just used some hot glue and tape to keep it where I like it. I�m partially convinced that the stock G&G hop up rubber helps cause the double feeding issue, which I�ll talk about later.

Four months later- I replaced the G&G rubber with Marui rubber and it works flawlessly.

Silencer:

Out of the box- It makes this submachine gun feel more like a rifle for some reason. It is a quick attach / quick detach and takes away the �crack� but that�s about it.
Some will notice that you can unscrew the bottom part from the rest of the silencer. DON�T do that. I did that, and I spend the rest of the hour trying to putt four metal pieces back in that keep the silencer attached to the gun when you want it attached. It was a pain in the ass.

Four months of playing- Well, some idiot at G&G design thought it would be a good idea to put one piece of plastic in an otherwise full metal silencer. It was the piece the kept the silencer straight. It stripped over time, and on mine it is non-existent. The silencer on mine is now free to turn left or right. Not a problem, it still says on straight, but it just turns and it�s annoying. But I got over it. Lets see if you can.

Performance

This is where the gun just goes down the drain (for mine at least). Plan on upgrading.

Stock:

As a stock weapon, it was just sitting on a sling on my back in case someone happened to pop up within a few feet of me. Honestly, mine wasn�t worth much more then eye candy and intimidation.

On semi the double feeding issue was there. It worked fine on semi the first day, but day two came, and I would have 20-30 shots mis-feed on semi in a 70 round magazine.

On automatic, the spread was so big that i couldnt hit the majority of my targets

I had four standards and they all sucked. So I tried an experiment. I took one and left it alone. I lubed another. I left one loaded over night. And I left one loaded over night, and lubed it.

None of the above worked. My UMG was a worthless eye candy as a stock weapon.

Upgraded:

I replaced almost everything replace able, and now my gun is the single best airsoft weapon I�ve ever owned.

I installed the following:
PDI 1** spring
Deep fire titanium reinforced piston
Systema torque up gears
Systema torque up motor
Systema polycarbonate piston head
Marui cylinder head
Metal bushings
Marui hop up
MP5 length barrel
And I switched form standards to high caps.

Now I can hit something the size of a CD from 100 feet away and can hit a man sized target roughly 150 feet away.

I can turn my hop up all the way down, and get the range of a stock Marui.
This gun is a kick ass upgrade platform.

Upgrading was a pleasure too. Getting to the gearbox is so easy; you would have to be blind, half drunk, with both hands tied behind you back to have any problems what-so-ever.

-take magazine out
-pull the pin near the stock
-push the hop up unit forward while pulling down on the grip
-push pin out of middle of the grip, and unscrew the middle screw on the bottom

And then you have the gearbox

Opening up the gearbox is easy too. No more digging through your tool trying to find that star headed screw driver. The entire gun can be taken apart with two hex wrenches. (at least I think that�s what they�re called)

And G&G made a special cylinder head and spring guide, so the spring won�t fly out when you open it up. THAT is the real gem right there. They made the spring guide 1-2 mm longer, so it sticks in the slot when you open it. And there is an extra block like thing on the front of the cylinder head, so it only comes out when you want it to.

Overall

Buy it. Now. But plan on upgrading, or pray that the one you get is one of the better ones in a batch

UPDATE about one year from original purchase:

cocking handle broke-- aparantly that is a problbem on the real steel weapon too.... which is stupid.... "our guns are so realistic, that the parts that fail on the real gun, fails on ours!!"

biggest problem yet: lack of fuse... people i lie not, this killed my gun and nearly caught fire to it.

i was running a 170% spring with a systema motor and sanyo 1100 mah battery.
i played TWO GAMES after upgrading that gun, used moderate bursts, noting to extreme.

but at the end of both games, once i got into the fast paced gaming which required frequent firing, i noticed that the gun was jamming because the battery was losing it's power.
i play with 6 people, so "frequent firing" is like... two high caps within half an hour

the first game that happened i thought nothing of it, but the second game, the gun wouldn't fire even after i recharged the battery
*keep in mind, the gun had been working fine in target shooting up to the second game*

so i took the gun apart and changed out the 170% spring with a stock one.
i plugged in an 8.4v battery to the gun (recently charged) and it couldn't pull the spring.

i plugged in the 9.6v sanyo into a stock gun, and the ROF was slower then from an 8.4v.

took the gun, and motor apart, and addded with the battery the broken parts list is as follows:
-wires... mostly black... useless
-motor... almost as black as the wires... completely worthless
-battery...can't pull a stock spring

around 100$ish worth of damage which i don't quite have right now.

so i stripped the gun down and sold it for parts

i wounder what dude at G&G descided in some meeting, "hey, ya know what... lets make the battery compartment big enough for a stock 9.6v battery.... but (this'll be hilarious).. lets NOT put a fuse in there! hah.. that'll be funny...imagine reading all those complaint e-mails"

so my opinion still stands, buy it now, but plan on upgrading with a fuse thrown in somewhere

COUNCILSAMSH

Registered: June 2006
Location: The University of CHIEF ILLINIWEK
Posts: 256

Review Date: 12/12/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �154.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Solid construction, great upgrade platform
Cons:	possibly disappointing stock performance, no fuse

I have to say I agree with most of the points made by the former review. I will just comment on a couple of them

2x feeding issue- yes, this is a problem. I have found something interesting, though
The hicap mags do not double feed for me with the G&G rubber- locaps did
with systema and marui rubbers- same results

The spring in the locap seems to be a bit overzealous. I opened up my mags and snipped off a bit of spring. Now I have no double feed issues.

Stock performance for me was a bit better than in the previous review. I got about 325 fps w/ .2's, and decent accuracy. Fine for CQB, but not ready for woodland or other outdoor games.

So I fixed it!

Systema M1**S spring
Guarder piston
Systema piston head
Systema cylinder
Area 1000 cylinder head
left the gears, bushings, motor, spring guide
New shim job (the factory one was pretty crappy)
Also a note- upon first opening the gearbox, everything looks pretty , uh, dry. So make sure you have that Li grease handy.

Upgrading was a breeze. This has got to be the easiest AEG to work on in the entire world. two pins, one screw, and the gearbox is removed.

I now get probably a 7" grouping at 100', in about a half a locap's worth, which is fine by me for such a short gun. I suppose one could do the inner barrel in the suppressor thing.

Pros

Built like a rock
Nicely colored plastic
Good heft
Easy to work on
Very nice folding stock
Great sights
4x rails included

Cons

Trades (UMG??)
Mold lines (although I bet the H&K one isn't too much better)
Big magazine can get in the way
poor shim job
Lack of grease in gearbox from factory

Well, my cons are pretty minor, so all things considered, this is a great gun. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a CQB weapon, or anyone willing to upgrade to make it an outdoor weapon.

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http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n10/COUNCILSAMSH/deuserbar.gif

Jsres

Registered: June 2007
Location: A Rock in the ocean
Posts: 361

Review Date: 7/3/08

Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 3

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Nice looks
Cons:	gearbox quality, overall better QC

The Buy

I purchased this gun from one of my local stores as it was gonna be my new primary after my AUG died. originally i didnt expect to pick this AEG up but i had asked them for something different. so they pulled out this decent sized box and opened it up. I was just amazed by the look of it and bought it without second thoughts.

Testing at home

So i charged up my stick battery and proceeded to load up the 70 round standard. As i tried it on Semi, the gun proceeded to double feed. As i was unknowledged in the art of mechbox technicalities i brought it down to the store that i bought it from. They said it was the tappet plate and that they would replace it for free. I also asked them to install a spring to bring it up to 300 fps.

few days later...

it was fixed but the gearbox quality was so poor that they had to look for a spare v3 box. I had my old AUG gearbox so they used that to make a decent running gun

Game day (nite game)

played cqb and the battery consumption was terrible...

Back to the shop

they re-did the gearbox but after that i was just kinda mad and such at the unreliability of the gun that i sold it.

I did buy the hicap for the gun which broke after a couple games...

I would not recommend this gun to anyone as the time and effort to make this into a skirmishable gun is not worth it.

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CURRENTLY CHECKING OUT THE GIRLS...

HUMANS+AIRSOFT GUNS=HUMAN TARGETS

[quote name='Pkekyo-Nor' post='1818437' date='Jun 25 2008, 02:49 AM']STDs are like Pok�mons... You're not cool until you've caught'em all.
- Same thing applies to airsoft Wink

[/quote]