Hi friends I'm new to the forum.
I want to order a Marushin M1 carbine online from Thailand. I don't have UKARA membership or any other defence(I'm over 18 yrs old), but the seller says they can provide two tone painting. I wonder if a two tone airsoft can be imported and any import duty and VAT will be charged. Do anyone have first hand experience?
Thanks for your help.
TL DR you technically you don't need either.
You won't need a UKARA to import a RIF from abroad I've imported guns from abroad and never had an issue with customs but escaping import duties on the other hand, I've not been so lucky. Honestly it often works around to be the same price, I ordered two PPS kar98ks from HK for me and a mate as it saved us a lot of hassle.
You wouldn't require the gun to be two toned as you're not purchasing from a UK based retailer plus I honestly wouldn't recommend it if you're going for something period, just wait and get some form of defence. However I have never needed mine to import guns from the East or even European places like Taiwan gun or Gunfire.
Ultimately at the end of the day I've never had an issue importing nor has anyone else I know and I work quite closely with an airsoft retailor and the most I've ever heard of customs stopping airsoft guns for an extended period of time was a bunch of TMs being stopped because leaded solder was used in the manufacturing process lol.
Regardless of what I've said you're always importing RIFs at your own risk defence or not. I'm not trying to suggest you or anyone else ignore the VCRA either 
Hope this helps, all the best! 
Do not import RIFs if you don't have a VCRA exemption/defence, It's illegal. I personally know somebody who did time for it. Yeah you might slip under the radar but if you don't, 5 years is a long time. It's just not worth it. It's a firearms offence and is therefore taken very seriously.
Usually people have the sender put their defence membership numbers on the package so that they don't get a letter through the door asking for proof of exemption or a police visit.
As far as I know importing a two tone is completely fine, as they aren't RIFs. Of course you'd still need to pay import duty but that's a given.
Join a club, get your ukara, or other form of defence, takes a while, but those guns will still be for sale when you've got everything in order.
Who wants a blue or red gun! 
To answer your original questions, a two-tone is an IF, Imitation Firearm, and is legal to import without a defence, without the two-tone it's a RIF, Realistic Imitation Firearm, and it would be illegal to import it without a defence as defined in the VCRA, the most common one for airsofters is UKARA.
However be warned the people dealing with these imports don't always know what the law is, I've had problems with importing airsoft components because the person dealing with it at customs and excise thought anything to do with airsoft required a UKARA 'licience' it took me 6 weeks to get them to release the parts.
As Lord Elpus said the best way forward would be to find your nearest airsoft site that will register their members with UKARA and attend the required number of events to qualify, at that point it will be a lot easier to buy and import airsoft guns, although you may still experience problems.
As to duties and tax, I always factor in the cost of the VAT, which is 20% charged on the total cost including the postage, and a £13-£20 'handling fee' that couriers will charge for dealing with the import tax, sometimes things will come through without having these charges but that is very rare these days so don't count on it.
I do apologise, I've awoken from my sleepend state =P As I previously stated, two tone you won't need but you will need some form of defence (I meant to say Ukara but I began to ramble a bit) This can be anything from being part of an airsoft club to various reenactment memberships.
Hope this clears up any misgivings from my previous post just read it back now and I started rambling about Ukara then then ended up on something else lol!
