Custom Covert II with Magwell

I really appreciate the function of an enhanced magazine well in a pistol so when I was building the Tactical Entry II, and knowing that it has its own magwell included in the conversion kit, I've decided I'll switch the mainspring housing of the Covert with a Nova mainspring housing with built-in magwell.

 The Nova flat-checkered mainspring housing I originally installed in the Covert and is now in the Tactical Entry II

This is now the Nova mainspring housing installed in the Custom Covert II

Below are photos of the Kimber Custom Covert II with its new mainspring housing installed.

Kimber Tactical Entry II: The Frame

Yet another month of hiatus for me and this blog. Once again, this post should've made it to this blog sooner but then again...no excuses.

This post will cover the step by step process of how I built the Kimber Tactical Entry II. Basically, this is the same as the process I used in building my Custom Covert II so this will be in less detail. 

Now onto the build.

The first thing to do is to remove the mainspring housing pin of the Night Warrior.

Then the mainspring housing is removed. After that, the hammer spring and the plunger can be removed from the housing.

I used the Nova mainspring housing that I installed in the Custom Covert II. The original Night Warrior hammer spring and plunger was installed into it. I removed the grub screw that holds the lanyard loop to install the steel magwell that was included in the Hurricane conversion kit.

It took a lot of time to install the magwell into the Nova mainspring housing. At first I thought it wasn't a good match but after so many hammering it fit OK. When I helped my friend who did the same custom work on his Night Warrior, we also experienced the same difficulty installing the magwell into the Night Warrior original mainspring housing.

After dealing with the magwell, the grip safety and thumb safeties were removed from the frame.

Then the grip panels were taken out next and the plunger assembly was removed.

The main frame screw was then undone.

As well as the side screw of the frame.

The magazine release was taken out.

The magazine release screw and spring was transferred to the steel magazine release included in the conversion kit.

The three-finger spring was then removed from the frame.

Next removed were the frame pins.

With the pins and screws gone, the inner chassis can be removed easily. The trigger assembly was also taken out of the original frame.

By removing the cover on the chassis, the hammer and sear can be accessed.

The original sear was replaced by the steel sear that was included in the hammer set.

The original hammer assembly was taken apart and the original hammer strut was installed into the Kimber type hammer.

After assembling the hammer, it was installed into the chassis.

The aluminum trigger from the conversion kit replaced the original trigger.

The trigger assembly was then installed on the Tactical Entry frame.

The chassis came in next.

The plunger set was inserted into its slot in the frame.

The Kimber grip panels were screwed to keep the plunger into position. (They will be removed later when the mainspring housing is to be installed because they cover the hole where the mainspring housing pin goes in.)

The frame pins were put into place.

The side frame screw was placed back.

Then the chassis was completely held into the frame with the inner frame screw.

The mainspring housing, grip safety and thumb safeties (all Nova Kimber types) were then finally installed.

The Tactical Entry II slide was then installed into the frame. It actually took no filing at all to install the slide into the frame. The slide was tight fit into the frame but just a few slides and racks to lap the slide into the frame and the gun cycles smoothly (this is a complete opposite of what I experienced with the Covert). The only problem I had was that the magwell was positioned not very good into the magazine slot and it somehow hinders the magazine from being loaded into the pistol. I had to file a lot of metal to have the magazine seat into position. This was not the case with my friend when he installed the magwell into the original Night Warrior mainspring housing. I used a Nova.

Kimber Tactical Entry II: Internal Parts

I have already discussed the internal parts that I usually would replace in customizing an airsoft 1911 so I'm just going to do some sort of recall on these parts for the Tactical Entry build.

The first major component that I would replace is the blowback housing or blowback unit. Just like the Covert, I used the Airsoft Surgeon Super Lightweight Speed Blowback Housing for the Tactical Entry because it is about 50% lighter than the original BBH of TM.

The next internal part I replaced is the hop-rubber. I used the Laylax-Nineball hop rubber because it is believed by many to provide better sealing. Based on the Covert that I built, this hop rubber works like magic as just a small turn of the hop towards the "on" position from the "zero/off" position gave me a very straight, consistent BB flight.

Now here comes the interesting part. When I built the Covert, my M.E.U. was already using a PDI 6.01 Palsonite inner barrel. After finishing the build and testing the gun out, the Palsonite barrel-Nineball hop rubber combination works wonders. In this Tactical Entry build, I planned to use the Nineball 6.03 inner barrel to see which combination works better. (I will post the results in a different entry)

Again, like the Covert, this custom build used other internal upgrade parts that are already included in the kits. The upgraded recoil spring is included in the Hurricane conversion kit and the steel sear is included in the Nova hammer set.

In my next post, I will discuss the steps in building the slide!

Just a special thanks to all my readers, followers, and supporters...even though there's not that many of you yet. Thanks!

Wired out.

Kimber Tactical Entry II: Other Parts

In my pursuit of a very realistic airsoft Kimber 1911 pistol, I replaced the original parts of the Tokyo Marui Night Warrior with Nova parts that is unique to Kimber 1911s. This is basically the same as what I did to my Custom Covert II when I built it.

The first part that I really wanted to replace is the grip safety. Tokyo Marui Night Warrior's grip safety is a SFA-type with a bump while the Kimber Tactical Entry II has a smooth grip safety.

Next is the thumb safeties. The Night Warrior's thumb safeties are Kings type. Kimber has their own unique design of thumb safeties and Nova has recreated that design for airsoft 1911s.

The next part is the hammer. I used the hammer set same as the one I used for the Custom Covert: the Nova Kimber type hammer. It comes with a steel sear and pins for the strut.

Another part I replaced was the main spring housing. I removed the checkered main spring housing that I installed on my Covert and replaced it with another checkered one with a magwell. The one from the Covert was the one I used for the Tactical Entry because the Tactical Entry kit includes a magwell to be attached to a regular checkered main spring housing by removing the lanyard loop.

This was installed to the Custom Covert II

This was moved from the Custom Covert II to the Tactical Entry II

One part or set of parts that I used in the Tactical Entry build but not in the Covert build is the stainless steel full length guide rod and barrel plug set. I used a PDI full-length guide rod and plug set which looks exactly like the one on the real Tactical Entry II.

One more thing worth mentioning here is that I used my seasoned Tokyo Marui 1911A1's barrel bushing in the Tactical Entry because the one that is in the Night Warrior is silver; and the Tactical Entry has a black one same as the 1911A1.

I will be discussing the internal parts I replaced for this custom build next time. They are actually the same as the ones I used for the Covert but I'm posting them anyway, just for the sake of consistency.

Thanks!

Wired out. 

Kimber Custom Covert II: The Frame

Almost a month ago, I posted the steps on building the Kimber Custom Covert II slide. I'm now posting the build process of the frame. I know I should've posted this sooner but, well...no excuses. Here it is.

Before I begin with the actual steps on building the frame, I'm going to show and tell you a bit of a backgrounder. When I got the parts and the kit needed for this project, I immediately test-fitted the different parts like grip safeties, thumb safeties, and the main spring housing, into the frame. I found out that Nova parts are not drop-in fit with the kit unlike the TM original parts. So I did a lot of filing on the frame (which was supposed to be just a little had I known where to file). In the photo below, the parts filed off the frame were clearly shown.

I've filed a significant amount of that bar between the tangs of the frame to fit the Nova KBR grip safety.  Also seen in the photo is the inner part of the frame where the thumb safety slot engages and because of the thick powder coating on the frame, it needed to be filed, as well.

This top view of the frame shows just how much of that bar was left after the filing.  I should've just sawed it off and saved lots of time!

Now, on to the build itself. Again, I followed LaZouche's video in his YouTube channel on the step-by-step process of disassembling a Tokyo Marui 1911 or MEU pistol.

First is to put the thumb safety of the MEU into the "safe" position and pull the left side part out of the frame and then do the same on the right part.

Then, by removing the pin at the bottom of the grip, the main spring housing was removed.

The hammer spring was then released from the housing by pushing the plunger down with a pin and nudging the retaining pin to the side.

And the plunger and the hammer spring was placed inside the Nova main spring housing. This housing is identical to the real steel main spring housing as the retaining pin is inserted from the rear and not from the side like the TM's.

The next step is to remove the grip safety from the frame.

And then the three-finger spring.

Using an allen wrench, the screw that holds the frame and the inner chassis on the side is removed.

And the screw inside the front frame is removed, as well.

The Hurricane conversion kit includes a screw for the front of the frame. The original screw from TM and the one from the kit have different thread pitches, thus the TM screw cannot be used for the Hurricane frame.

Comparison between the two frame screws (Hurricane on the left and TM on the right)

After the frame screws were removed, the pins behind the grip can be easily pushed out.

With the pins out, the inner chassis can be freely taken out of the frame itself.

By following the video linked above, the chances of losing the tiny spring on the side of the chassis is minimized. This spring is very important and one must make sure not to lose it.

The chassis was turned to the other side to keep the spring from flying out of its slot.

While in this position, the screw that holds the part that locks the hammer assembly can be removed.

In my desire to get the most realistic look of the Custom Covert, I replaced the hammer with a Nova Kimber type hammer.

Comparison between the original TM MEU hammer (left) and the Nova Kimber hammer (right).  Notice the difference, especially the protruding part, at the bottom of the hammer.  That part is there for the half-cock feature to work -  which is not really important in airsoft guns.

The hammer strut was removed from the hammer.

All of the parts not used for my projects were kept in plastic pouches and labeled before storage.

The next step is installing the hammer strut into the new hammer. This took me a very long time as the pin is a bit bigger than the hole. I really had a hard time punching that pin into the hole.

After about an hour of hammering the pin, the strut was installed.

The plastic cylinder that holds the hammer into position is placed.

The Nova hammer set comes with a steel sear so I replaced the original sear.

I put a small amount of silicon oil on the surfaces of the chassis for easy installation into the frame later. The slide spacer that comes with the kit was also placed in its slot on the left side of the chassis.

Going back to the MEU frame, the magazine catch was removed by turning the screw clockwise and slowly releasing it. It was then slowly pulled out of the frame and about half-way through, turned 180 degrees, then taken out of the frame completely.

With the magazine catch out of the way, the trigger assembly can be removed.

By taking out the top pin, the trigger and the trigger bow ca be separated. In the photo below, the two pins were removed out of the trigger. As I mentioned, only the top pin should be removed to separate the two parts. I have taken out the bottom pin by mistake. And I learned from it.

Here now, the magazine catch screw and spring were taken out.

And then installed on the magazine catch that comes with the conversion kit. The original TM mag catch is a very tight fit for the Hurricane frame.

Then inner chassis was then inserted into the frame and locked by the two pins.

The side frame screw was replaced.

As well as the front screw.

The  three-finger spring was also installed along with the main spring housing inserted just to keep the three-finger spring from becoming loose and coming out.

Again, back to the original frame, the grip screws and the grips were removed to gain access to the plunger assembly.

The plunger set was taken out once the grips are off.

The plunger was installed on the new frame.

The Lasergrips were screwed with a hex screw to hold the plunger set in position. I didn't use the original flat-head screws to achieve the realism I want.

The new magazine catch was installed.

The grip safety was then held into position.

Then the new main spring housing was installed along with the Nova Kimber type thumb safety (left side only).

And now, the slide and the frame are both ready. I had done lapping of the slide and the frame and they now fit perfectly.

Presenting now, is the finished product of my first airsoft custom work: The Kimber Custom Covert II.

Watch out for my next project! Thanks!