Hello chaps and chapesses.
Been pondering my next gun project as well as what to spend my birthday cash on and have narrowed it down to my next gun project or a brit uniform. I havent a firm gun project in mind but have been considering making a elcheapio garand of some kind. Making the full length one from a m14 is a bit pricey due to all the parts required and the gas block. So I thought about making a tanker from a m14 socom. its already roughly the right length. just needs a rear handguard(20-30 bucks at the most) and a band of metal around it to make it appear theres a front handguard.
However im not 100% sure it'll look decent enough once done and dont really want to do it if it'll just end up looking more like a bastardised m14 than a tanker.
http://img.redwolfairsoft.com/upload/pr ... -8MM-L.jpg
thats a picture of the airsoft version of the tanker
http://www.gunnerairsoft.com/catalog/im ... ood-01.jpg
thats the kart m14 socom clone. fitting a rear handguard on top the black front of the gun will be easy enough with some dremelling perhaps. then just a case of running a metal band around it to underneath where i will remove that small ris rail. and putting a swivel for a sling on the metal band.
However my main concern is the stock lines at the front and also the metal work at the front. ie that the stock at the front will look to bulky and the gas block simply wont look long enough.
So out of interest if you saw one of those m14's with a garand handguard fittied over the black bit on top and a metal band to give the illusion of a seperate front and rear handguard would you look at it and think "what the chuff happened to that m14?" or would you think "oh that looks like a tanker"
been agonising over that question for several days now and thought it best to ask some advice as Im struggling to decide myself.
thanks
Rhys
I`d say 'have a go at it'. I think someone has mentioned the similarity between the two models so would like to see someone on here do a conversion.
Somebody did mention that the Tanker may be a post war development but this is WW2 airsoft not living history so as long as it gives the impression of a Garand I wouldn`t worry.
The only problem I can see is how to make a short mag as with the normal one it will still look like an M14.
I wish I had some extra cash to attempt these things as you really need one in your hands to find out what can be done. 
With a bit of buchery I recon the KART M14 could look like a G43 
Steve.D
absolutely
the short garand is very nice to skirmish with and getting one of those lil' socoms would be a good cheap way to do an impression. You could use stickbacked plastic on the upper guard to make it more wood like..
Vorsprung durch Blitzkreig !
Speed, aggression and Hugo Boss
the innocent have nothing to fear......[img][/img]
Heres what it could look like 
the tanker was a late war development which never really took off as the barrel length made it kind of shite. it was also really a pacfic only thing but thats not to say someone else didnt try it.
I wouldnt bother with sticky back plastic as getting a real garand rear handguards easy and cheap and will look better. the gas block is alot shorter though
you can make short mags but you only get 12 shots out of them. and yea i agree too the mag system would be a bit of a boon looks wise.
and wouldnt a full length m14 make one of those easier steve? the socom doesnt have much barrel length to play with plus is surely shorter than that gun?
Steve, Rhys, I reccon you should both give it a go,I for one fancy both guns but dont have the time or money for another project at the moment. Let us all know how it works out.
the more and more I look at it the more im kind of talking myself out of it. The stock front wont look quite right and the gas block definetly wont.... still not sure
Im so lazy I will just pretend its a G43, looks more like a G43 than a mp5 in comparison to a mp40, or a AK47 in comparison to a MP44, the short length will be more usefull in the tunnels, but will have to down tune it if I do 
Steve.D
did the kart come shooting fairly hot steve?
and wouldnt a full length m14 make one of those easier steve? the socom doesnt have much barrel length to play with plus is surely shorter than that gun?
The full length m14 is about one and a half inches too short for a garand conversion and is the hardest thing about the conversion to deal with so check the socom is long enough for a tanker.
330fps with 0.2g bbs, but while I had it in bits cleaning all the grease out of it & believe me it was full of it, I re shimed it & fitted oiless bushings & put a M100 spring in it, it now up at 350fps ish, intrestingly enough the spur gear had 2mm side to side movment 
its now well shimed up with 5 shims on it but these are fairly complex to get back together,
Steve.D
the m14 socoms actually almost 20cm shorter than the tanker from memory which is why I'd only really need the rear handguard and it'd be a easy conversion. one metal band around it and it'd look like there was a front and rear handguard. instead of just the rear. however with the non tapered lower stock at the front and short front gas block im now thinking it really wont look right
after putting in so much effort on the springfield and getting it to look(well in my opinion anyway) really good, it'd be a bit of a let down to make this and have it not look right
