ARES Airsoft Full Size L1A1 Battle Rifle Airsoft AEG (Color: Wood Furniture)

"Reviewing based on the wood version.

This gun is stupidly beautiful. It's ridiculous. Pictures do not do it justice. I wanted this gun for months before buying it, and I watched tons of videos and drooled over pictures the whole time.

But I was still not prepared for how gorgeous it is. The wood they chose is perfect - rustic and textured. I swear it even smells like an old firearm, the scent you find at a war museum. Slap a scope and flash hider on it and you'll be inundated with compliments. It also feels solid, from the mags to the stock to the weight balance.

If you want a really beautiful gun, it's hard to do better than this. The visuals alone are worth the price for me.

That said, the dirty rumors about the internals are mostly true. They're about what you'd expect in a $200 AEG. When I took it to my first game, my rounds weren't hopping, and I found that the barrel was seated sideways, so the nub was missing the barrel window. The hop up wheel also doesn't have a lot of friction, making it hard to hold its position if you're using lighter ammo. The nub itself was horribly cheap. The battery compartment is tiny (though slightly larger in the black version I hear). The selector switch got loose after two days. The trigger isn't as bad as some people say but also not great, and the gearbox isn't reinforced, despite the gun being a likely candidate for DMR builds.

But these have all been worth the hassle to fix. I even went further and HPA'd it with a PolarStar F2 - Rodd from PolarStar helped me take measurements and determined you can do it with the Ares M4 F2 kit, replacing the nozzle with an F2 #15. Now it shoots like a dream.

I realize that most people will want a high performing gun out of the box when spending north of $600, and that's fair. This isn't the gun for you in that case. But if you want a sexy L1A1/FAL that'll take your breath away, it's worth the extra work.

Side note: The FN FAL scope mount that Evike suggests does NOT fit correctly, and will wobble. You have to buy the one that Ares makes.

"It’s a beautiful gun, wondering if the gear box will be ok with a LiPo battery,

"A mostly look at the outside, which is 9/10

This wood version just arrived. It is so good it`s hard to believe it`s not real, and in another life I used the " real" ones, which naturally had a bit more weight. The wood furniture is superb in fit and reddish/brown finish color, far better then the " real" aftermarket stuff put out over the last 30 year's.. The numbering is mostly in the right places. The sights are correct even to the gray/black metal finishes.
I predict that even at this somewhat high price it will go out of stock fast.