Priliminary review of the King Arms L1A1 and a warning about the Magazines.

bullets

My order from ehobby arrived this morning,
got hit with Duty but it was not opened by customs.
Unfortunately the 2 spare mags I ordered never arrived,
they were missing from the package.

I ordered a King Arms L1A1 because my Star L1A1 does not work,
A Top cover for it so I could mount a scope.
A Tac vest which seems ridiculously small!!!
And 2 spare 90 round mags Which were MISSING from the package.

I've emailed asking about the mags and am waiting on a reply.

Initial impressions.
The KA L1A1 is much better quality than the KA FAL
The KA L1A1 is no way near the quality of the STAR L1A build wise.

The KA L1A1 Rate of fire is not as good as the KA FAL,
It feels lighter than the Star L1A1

The handguard has a gap on the top where the two halves meet,

The Cocking lever does not pull back as far as the Star Brand.

The Fire selector switch is weird, it fires on Auto on the semi selection and single
fire on the Auto selection.

The Scope rail wobbles all over the place this WILL need to be fixed someway
as it will drive be mad if I have to skirmish with it.

The blow back is pretty much useless, the cover that cycles to simulate blowback
goes about 1/3 of the way you'd expect.

If you look at youtube videos it would lead you to believe the body locking lever
works like the real steal and you can take the cover off etc and open the
aeg just like the real steel, this is not the case,
you need to unscrew the motor, take off the magazine release catch (a bitch to get back on)
take off the body locking screws and the body still does not separate but you can pry
it far enough to access the top cover.

It says you can fit a 12v battery in the stock but a large type 8.4v barely fits.
I am hopeing I can use a 9.6v battery without modifications to the AEG
to increase the rate of fire.

From left to right, Star L1A1, KA L1A1, KA FAL


All 3 models of AEG have incompatible magazines. If you include the Classic
Arm SA58 that makes 4 different types of FN alike mags that are incompatible.




More detailed review to follow at the weekend.

bullets

Just an update, My first time ever loading a youtube video,
boy it takes a while direct from camera avi to youtube,
must look into converting before uploading.

This Chronos between 319-323 fps with a .2g BB, straight from the box.

King Arm L1A1 with fairly crappy electric blow back.
+points it makes a nice louder aeg noise with the mechanical action,
-points its not very impressive visually.
(Bullets puts his hands together and prays for a modern GBB someday)

Also the Top cover for the mounting of a scope
(Which is King Arms brand) does not fit right and wobbles
all over the place which is really annoying.





The Paint finish and overall cosmetics of the King Arms L1A1 is a Matt Black slightly powderish finish to
it, it seems to scrape off very easily, the Mags also will get very worn looking very quickly. This may be
good if you want a battle worn look. Under the top cover there is oil grease for the blowback action this
as you can see has stained the outides areas. The body locking nut piece in the centre of it seems to look
like copper colour metal under the paint. Again Star L1A1 paint does not come off and is a harder metal.


The paint finish on the star is more rugged, tough and a satin shiny black finish and does not scratch as easily.

The carrying handle on the Star is stiff, The carrying handle on the KA is loose and rattles a bit.
Both are strong enough to be functional.....ie you dont worry about actually using it.



They magazine release catch needs to be taken off to strip the gun.
The KA L1A1 looks/feels weaker than the Star L1A1,
The KA FAL switch being the best of all 3 and at the right hand side of the AEG
which I find more natrual for my thumb to find when doing a mag change with left hand.

bullets

Star L1A1 is first pic, KA 2nd pic.
The cocking leavers are different in colour paint wise.
The Star pulls back further than the KA one.




The KA FAL hand guard is worst cheap and nasty,
The STAR hand guard is the best nice.
The KA L1A1 hand guard it good, strong, a bit more matt in colour but has a gap at the top.
The last two pics show the difference in texture between the KA FAL and KA L1A1



The KA FAL butt plate is soft rubber and comfortable.
The KA L1A1 butt plate is ABS and slides off to open.
The Star L1A1 butt plate is ABS and pulls back and swivals to open.



The gas regulator is stiffer on the KA L1A1 (this is good)
The FAL and Star L1A1's are loose (annoying)

The trigger on the KA L1A1 goes from safe to auto to single fire.
The trigger on the others goes from safe to single to auto.
(But on the Star L1A1 the trigger physically wont goto an auto setting without
opening of the body)



Lastly here is a pic of the different battery configurations, aparently you can fit a 12v battery in here
but Its hard enough getting the standard large 8.4 one in. I'd love to know if this AEG can handly 12v
withough ripping its innards apart.

One thing I never liked about the L1A1's was the flash eliminator. I always
preferred the FAL flash eliminator/flash hider.
Unfortunatly when I tried to swap the Fal one onto my L1A1 and they did not fit.

It bewilderes me as to why the Same Brand King Arms FAL/L1A1 has parts that are not compatible,
like the Top Cover, The Flash eliminator, The Magazine.

azamat

bullets wrote: »

Initial impressions.
The KA L1A1 is no way near the quality of the STAR L1A build wise.

I dunno if I am getting this right. You are saying that the Star L1a1 is of better quality than the KA, right?

bullets

azamat wrote: »

I dunno if I am getting this right. You are saying that the Star L1a1 is of better quality than the KA, right?

Evening,

STAR L1A1 The Best Quality.
King Arms L1A1 comes in 2nd place
King Arms FAL comes Last rather disapointing compared to other two.
Classic Arms SA58 (yet to purchase so cant comment)

The External Feel, Look, Attention to Detail and general build quality is Better on the Star L1A1.

So far in airsoft I have never seen anything better when it comes to FAL/SLR's

I cannot say about the internals though.
My STAR did not function correctly out of the box
due to something with the trigger/fire selector switch area,
which I never got fixed due to Living in Limerick and not wanting the hassle of posting something up to Dublin to get someone to look at and then getting it posted back.
(I dont skirmish really as I mainly only collect airsoft
gear so it was not a priority to me)

The KA L1A1 I've actually skirmished with and I had some
weird issues where it just stopped all of a sudden and would not fire, a fiddle bewteen auto/semi a few times and an it would fire again fine for a while, but every so often stop. Also the mags seemed to Jam up no matter how well they were lubbed.

Almost forgot to mention:
The King Arms replacement topcover with the Rail does not fit right on the L1A1 it rattles and wobbles.

~B

thermo

have you used the CA SA 58? how does it rate against the star/ KA L1A1?

bullets

thermo wrote: »

have you used the CA SA 58? how does it rate against the star/ KA L1A1?

Not had a chance to try the CA brand. But its on my list of things to buy
at some stage.

~B

thermo

did you see the extra pics i posted of the sa58?