out of commission

The entire team went to one of the shops in Ortigas to attend some gunsmithing lessons to learn how to maintain our guns and do some basic repairs/upgrades. Everything went well as we were able to open up Verchie's MP5 and reassembled without a hitch.

After a couple of hours break (the master gunsmith had a meeting) we went ahead and dissasembled "Michelle". Even before turning the first screw I already had a bad feeling of what I might discover. I was only worried about the semi auto not firing and maybe the motor height not being set properly.

True enough, the motor's pinion gear was almost stripped and the cut-off lever (for semi auto firing) needs replacement. But then we noticed that the switch assembly was broken and the wires were showing signs of being chaffed. So that would need replacement too.

While inspecting the gearbox, Uncle Jimmy (the gunsmith) noticed that there where some scratches on the gearbox made by the motor. Further inspection showed that this was due to the pistol grip/motor assembly not being seated properly on the gearbox. He needs to dremel and file down the gearbox some to get a good fit.

To sum it up, here are the things that need immediate attention:
1. New switch assembly
2. New cut-off lever
3. Modifications to the gearbox

Now, I don't know if all this work will be done in time for the great Pampanga game this Saturday with Semper Fi. Luckily Sir Art (of Apocalypse) was willing to lend me a gun for the game if "Michelle" won't make it in time.

Add the fact that "Irene" is starting to show signs of having a cracked slide and the red dot scope not battle ready it was starting to be a shitty time for waging war. And oh, did I mention that funds are particularly running low at this point in time?

The bright side of this however gives me a bit of hope in the near future. These are as follows:
1. I now have the basic skills for maintenance and better working knowledge of AEG parts interactions.

2. The gun was consistently shooting 340 FPS before we opened it. So despite have the small nuances above, I might be able to upgrade it to shoot in the 450s. Great potential for the gun.

3. The shop offered to send the original gearbox to G&G to get replaced with the new one. Even though I didn't buy the gun from them.

Hopefully soon everything will be at peak performance.