Lancer Tactical mk 18 cqbr

Right off the bat I'm going to come out an apologize for the lack of pics with this review.  I recently purchased one of the low priced lancer tactical cqbr's for a buddy as a birthday present.  This will be his first AEG, so Welcome to airsoft Sam.

Anyway, before I handed it off I went through the internals.  I'm really pretty impressed with these for the price.  externally there's nothing special.  It's solid plastic, buffer tube, outer barrel, all of it.  I was surprised thought that it does have a full length gas tube.  I lot of sportline models don't.  This is a nice bonus because the bull length tube helps to stabilize the delta ring.  With a rail and a vertical grip you have a lot of leverage on the delta ring to loosen it up.

The only piece externally that was disappointing is the rear sight and the vertical grip.  With the rails on it, you won't have any trouble mounting aftermarket grips and optics though.

internally this AEG is pretty much on par with any other sportline out there.  I'd say it's just as good as any classic army sportline or stock JG.  The spring guide is a ball bearing one, but mostly plastic.  the bearings seemed a bit iffy, but it'll take any standard 7mm bearing.  The mechbox itself is WAY ahead of a classic army sportline costing twice as much.  Some shimming and AOE adjustment and it seems pretty good to go. The only other issue I had is the motor.  Lancer Tactical uses the same motors as some of the JG guns.  unlike most airsoft guns though the pinion has a set screw on it.  this one was missing the little set screw so nothing was holding the pinion on.  quick trip to the hardware store will solve that for about 75 cents.  I just replaced the motor with one out of my parts box.

anyway, the really amazing thing about this is the weight.  These things are super light weight.  I mean, this gun probably weighs in at half of what my custom m4 does in cqbr mode.

1 additional minor grip.  the mag release is plastic and seemed a bit less than solid with some mags.  I just replaced it with another mag release out of my parts box and that really helped it out a lot.

bottom line, even with over $1k invested in a custom m4, i'm still considering one of these.  the full plastic will take krylon camo paint well and with the reduced weight i think one of these would make and awesome backup and lower fps cqb gun.

I recently purchased my first new AEG in several years.  I’ve been wanting a lmg for awhile, and also wanted something new and better for my mujihadeen loadout so I went with the Cyma rpk.

I have to say, I’ve been really pleased with this one.  Mine chronoed in at 375 at my local field, so great usuable velocity.  Most reviews I’ve read have clocked it closer to 420.

Anyway, I’ve played a few games with it, so here’s the break down.

The battery is a huge disappointment.  The battery compartment is short and oddly shaped so, pretty much only a custom battery is going to fit in there.  It comes with a 1200 pack.  I rebuilt a small type 1600 mah pack, but still wasn’t very happy with that.  It should get you through the included mag,  but I picked up a large drum to go with mine and was planning to use it.

I drilled a small hole in my stock, and have been using a 7.4v 30c 5000mah hardcell lipo by ecopower.  It’s pretty much the house brand for Amain hobbies.  They’re cheap and come set up with deans plugs.  I like the hardcell packs for airsoft because they hard case gives the pack some protection from hits, bumping into things, etc.  The ecopower batteries are horrible.  One pretty much failed on me right away.  I've been running this in a external battery pouch and have been really happy with that setup.  In the future I'm planning to switch to Venom Racing's new battery with built in monitor.

Rof has been decent, nothing to write home about, nut nothing to sneeze at either.  It’s a pretty good usable rof for an lmg.  Just moderate.

Range and accuracy is really where this gun shines.  It has a 500mm barrel in it, and honestly should be able to easily accommodate a longer 650mm barrel.  Using the stock barrel and hopup the lmg can practically serve as a dmr.  I think with some upgrades including a scope, a long tight barrel and good hopup, you could easily build a solid dmr out of this.

Externals are phenomenal.  I really wish more ak’s were built like this.  The rpk really isn’t any more difficult to strip than most ARs so that’s a great plus for this one.  Remove a couple of screws and a large pin and you have the front end off the gun with the barrel and hopup.  Few more screws and you have the mechbox out.  Easy as pie.

The stock does wobble a bit out of the box.  Other reviews have indicated this as well.  It’s really an easy fix though.  Just remove the stock and pad the metal post it screws to with some electrical tape.  Tap the stock back onto the body, screw it on tight and wobble gone.

I’ve already stripped mine completely to have a look at the internals.  Shimming seemed ok.  Not great but not horrible.  Pretty much the same for the AOE.  I picked up a new cylinder set for mine and immediately ran into some issues.  Turns out the RPK uses a version 2 cylinder head, not a version 3.  The only other issue I’ve ran into with mine is the liberal use of red loctite on the barrel and hop-up.  I’m planning to either replace or mod the stock hopup.  In a standard ak, the adjustment slider has the internal upper to support it.  In the rpk, there’s nothing there, so the slider wobbles and shifts pretty badly.

All in all, this is a great gun for the money.  Externals are amazing.  Internals, are on par of a cyma.  It’s doesn’t look like anything is going to fail anytime soon, (I have about 10k bbs through mine so far) but they’re not the greatest either.  I really look forward to the potential of this aeg as a project gun.

I will say, coupled with the electric drum, this gun has become feared locally,  it’s long range and ability to sustain fire make this aeg quite formidable.