Finally, I was able to get about 5 hours of sleep making me more alert and energised for the second day of the IWA Outdoor Classics 2018. Saturday is when we expect more people coming to visit the trade fair as there is work and of course, it is Saturday.

I got up early to write the first day’s AAR and was able to finish it around 15 minutes before 0800H. We have to be at the Nuremberg Messe early so we can have our breakfast early and also post the update at the website. As for Master Chief, it’s to get an early start as he had to do a retake of the videos due to poor audio capture yesterday. Whilst I uploaded the first day photos at the Press Room, he went ahead of me to the exhibit halls to start the doing the videos.

Good thing I was able to finish the upload by around 1000H and had to rush to help him out. Luckily he mad quick work of the take so I just need to bring him to our day’s appointments starting with Gunfire. Bartosz was already there waiting for us and had Patryk ready to present some of the nice stuff the company has such as those from Specna Arms and the GFC Custom Division. There are improvements in the Specna Arms line including the addition of the G Series. For the Custom Division, we saw for the first time a double-barreled M14 which basically a custom work of welding two M14 EBRs together and building a contraption to fire them together as one. Cool job.

We dropped by Classic Army and DM Diffusion after to look into another double-barreled M4, the DT-4. First announced at the SHOT    Show 2018, it was also on display at the event. We’ll try to get more information either today and tomorrow as we needed to rush to the ICS booth and have Luis do a retake of the first day video before we go for a lunch break by 1200H.

Right after lunch we immediately went to our next appointment which was the LCT Airsoft in Hall 7. Bella Chen together with their CEO, Kevin Lin, were there on hand to greet us and his sister was ready as well to present the product they are pressing hard to promote, the LCT Airsoft LC-3 series. Already a famous amongst players for the build quality and attention to detail, it is becoming one of the company’s best sellers.

If you are wondering about the LCT AK blowback series, there is no release date announced for the complete EBB. But for existing owners of LCT AK AEGs, including the other LCT airsoft rifles based on the Russian weapons design, they will be able to get the EBB kit for them to install ahead of the release of the complete EBB.

We went back to Hall 8 to be ready for our next appointment which was with Valken Tactical. But we were too early and tried to see of Silverback Airsoft was available to present their products. Luckily they were and Nishal and Dennis talked about their upcoming products such as the DesertTech SRS and MDR airsoft replicas with the latter having a really nice looking gearbox with 10mm bearings.

The Kaiju was ready when we got to the Valken Tactical booth and he stressed on the customer support that Valken is proudly promoting. Players can ship to them for free, units with problems or defects and they will fix them. He also goes over the ASL and Alloy Series which are the latest in the AEG offerings from Valken. He also introduces their Lithium Ion batteries that are much safer to use the Lipos as well as have enough capacity to power AEGs at optimum levels.

King Arms are heavy into promoting their TWS series, which are nicely made series of AEGs. They now have a PDW/SBR in the mix as this is the trend for this year. Also, the CAA Airsoft Division Micro Roni kit, a more compact and lighter version of the famous RONI Carbine Conversion Kit was on display as well.
Modify-Tech are introducing the latest member of their XTC family, the XTC AEG which has a generous and easily adjustable PDW stock and improvements from its bigger brothers, the XTC and and the XTC-CQB. They will also be introducing their own shotgun very soon and they say it gives better performance over the competition. For the MOD24 owners, there are new parts and accessories that they can now purchase.

Angel Muro of Airsoft Megastore has brought in the Lancer Tactical AEGs and for the first time outside of the U.S. we get to see them. There are the second generation of Lancer Tactical AEGs as well as unique AEGs that they will releasing soon such as the LT-29 and LT-30. Lancer Tactical are now getting more traction in the U.S. for their improving line of AEGs that give better performance at a price point that even the most budget-conscious airsoft player cannot refuse.

Eleonora and Luigi of FreeShot SRL, the Milan-based airsoft vendor made ready for us to check out the prototype version of the upcoming Bolt Airsoft AK74SU with the BRSS. We first saw this in Taiwan during the MOA Exhibition 2017 but it was mainly an “exploded” version with all the bits and pieces shown rather than one complete AEG. The blowback and recoil is impressive indeed.

For the last part of our appointments was the cocktails at ASG where everyone in the airsoft community at IWA 2018 converged at around 1600H.   We compared notes and kept each other updated on what we have spotted and seen on the second day.  We called it a day at around 1730H as we need to get back to the hotel to transfer videos and photos and prepare for the biggest moment of IWA Outdoor Classics 2018…

… MEALSIM 2018. Over 50-strong airsoft players and vendors thronged to the Burgerista in the Nuremberg City Centre. It is the first MealSim event in the world and it is an international one with more players coming from all the four corners of world. Burgerista did not disappoint, though service was a bit slow,  but their burgers more than made up for the wait we had to endure. Thomas Mikkelsen of ASG did an excellent job coordinating the man-on-meat event and by 2130H we went to Finnegan’s which was just two doors away from Burgerista for more MealSim Action.

With everyone tired after a long second day, the MealSim was a weclome respite. The burgers of Burgerista and drinks at Finnegan’s surely made the end of Day 2 a memorable one.

There are talks that a MealSim USA will be organised too. Excellent!

Oh by the way, Femme Fatale Airsoft got a tattoo at the event, courtesy of Umarex.

Day 2 Photos on the Popular Airsoft Facebook Page.