F2 Illustrator Paintball Gun

[Kevin]

TheFeral Action Sports Illustrator was an iconic blowback semi auto in the early nineties. I caught up with the men behind the illustrator at the 1994 NPPL World Cup in Florida. In the first photo you can see Mike Oaks (left) holding an F2 illustrator whilst on the right Ken Farrell is holding the then new armed forces training pistol. Mike handled marketing and sales whilst Ken handled design and engineering. I spent a fair bit of time with them during the World Cup. They were both very passionate about their products and a lot of fun to be around.

The second photo shows Mike and Ken at the after game dinner. The final photo shows an armed forces training pistol. The image behind the marker is on a promotional t-shirt that they were selling at the tournament. Both t-shirts and posters were available in a Terminator themed design featuring the F2 illustrator. Very nice! I snagged a couple of each but they are long gone now.

Atlong last, paintballers have access to a holsterable semi-auto paintgunat a price low enough to be an extra or backup. With proper maintenanceyour paintgun shouldnt be failing, so a back-up shouldnt be necessary. However in 24-hour games, you can be on the field for hours at a time. Having a paintgun small enough to be hidden, or carried while carryinglarge and ungainly scenario props can be a real advantage. There have been holsterable semis before,but each has had their own drawbacks, which kept them from being widelyused. The Crosman 3357 was one. Not a true semi, it was a doubleaction revolver. The long trigger pull chambered each ball and cockedthe hammer. Its accuracy was poor, and it only held 6 paintballs. In addition, the 50 caliber paintballs it used were hard to come buy. It did, however have an extremely high coolness factor, since it was afunctional revolver. The AGA semi-auto pistol used the same valveand breech with as the Crosman, but featured a spring fed 8 shot magazinein 62 caliber. 62 caliber paintballs are next to impossible to findtoday, but back in the late 80s they were in use in Tippmann SMG-60s and62-caliber conversion WGP Snipers. Later came the AFT a holsterableversion of the F2 Illustrator. While effective, it had a hefty pricetag, and was somewhat awkward in shape. Like the others, the AFTis no longer manufactured. Currently in production are the custombuilt Squall from Palmers Pursuit, and the Sydarm from Airgun Designs. Both are top quality products, but both cost almost twice what low costproduction semis cost, placing them out of the budget of many recreationalplayers. Additionally the Sydarm is only available to police andmilitary units as a training tool.Enterthe Sidekick semi auto. A 10 shot 68 caliber semi-auto that sellsfor under $100. Of course the road from idea to the playing fieldwas not so fast and smooth.in 1998, Chris Goob Nall of the MayberryMarauders paintball team (all of the players on the team have nicknamesfollowing the characters from the Andy Griffith Show) saw an ad in ActionPursuit Games for a small holsterable semi auto and pump paintgun. After a number of phone calls to the listed dealer, he learned that thesemi was not yet available, but the pump was, so he ordered it. It was a slightly modified version of the DSDS pistol. The DSDS isa Nelspot style pistol with a molded plastic receiver built for delivering68 caliber scent marking balls for hunters. After receiving his pistol, and usingit on the field, he found it lacking in a few areas. Now you don'tneed to be a rocket scientist to have ideas how to improve a paintgun,but it doesn't hurt. Goob took his background as a manufacturingengineer who works on missiles, and called the pistol's manufacturer directly.After a number of calls, there wereimprovements in the design, including materials changes and the additionof a velocity adjuster. Goob started an on-line paintball store,paintballstuff.com that was oriented toward the scenario player, and paintballstuff.combecame the distributor of the new Sidekick pump action pistol. So, what about the semi? Gooblearned from the manufacturer that they had built some rough prototypes,but nothing that worked effectively. He collaborated with the manufacturer,tweaking here, and adjusting there, and beta test versions were put inthe field late September of 1999. We had the opportunity to use oneof these for review. The final production model should be ready midto late spring 2000.Overall,the Sidekick Semi looks very similar to its pump relatives. The mainexternal difference is a slot cover in the feed area instead of a pump. Internally its a whole different animal. Instead of the Nelson valveconcept, it employs a blow forward bolt and valve system.The physical layout is quite simple,an over/under tube design. There are no gadgets or hoses hangingout of the sides, so it slides cleanly into a holster or tucks under abelt. The grip frame is made of a molded long chain polymer material,which is both lightweight and durable. The main body of the griparea is built up as vanes rather than one solid molded piece. Thisdesign retains strength yet further decreases weight. While the gripdoes not include screw holes, it appears that with a bit of ingenuity,wraparound and flat panel grips such as those made by Hogue, Pachmyer,Pearce Grips, and Pro Team could be installed.Athreaded Delrin plug in the bottom unscrews to release the 12-gram CO2cartridge used as a power source. We suspect that as with the Splatmasterand Rapide paintguns, some players will cut a side slot in the grip allowingcartridges to be quick changed without unscrewing the plug all the way.Two screws hold the grip frame to thereceiver, and for strength and durability, they thread into metal componentsrather than the polymer of the receiver. The top half of the receiver is forstorage. Its front portion is a tube, which holds paintballs. It comes stock with a spring fed magazine tube. The magazine tubeconsists of a strong delrin outer section and an inner section that ismade from a 10 round paintball tube (if you havent been around the sportlong enough to remember those they look like translucent plastic cigartubes). Inside the magazine is a coiled spring that puts constantpressure on the paintballs, feeding them toward the chamber. Fullyloaded, the tube has a capacity of 10 paintballs. In the center, the top half of the receiverhas a small wedge. This wedge redirects paintballs that are pressedtoward the back, down into the breech.In the rear, the receiver is open. It has a C shaped sleeve that slides over a dovetail completing the designlines of the Sidekick. Inside the sleeve is empty space that canbe used for storage of a spare 12-gram cartridge, Magic Beanz, grocerylists, or whatever. The lower half of the receiver containsthe parts that make everything go. In the front is a brass barrel. Because it has low friction, and is easy to polish to a smooth finish,brass makes a great barrel material. Its drawback is that it is subjectto corrosion. Should a paintball break in the barrel, its importantto thoroughly clean and dry the barrel at the end of the day, rather thanlet it sit for a month or two.Inthe rear is the brass air chamber. Inside and underneath it has ahollow pin surrounded by a pliable seal, which pierces the 12-gram cartridge. On the back face is a stainless steel cap screw that is the velocity adjuster. A power tube extends from the frontof the valve body, and resting on it is a blow forward venturi bolt. Inside the bolt, a piston blocks the power tube.When gas is applied to the Sidekick,the valve chamber charges with gas. The internal gas pressure pushesthe piston forward in the power tube a fraction of an inch until the boltengages the sear, which is protruding up from the grip frame. Thesear assembly itself consists of 2 pieces of aluminum, a forward sear andback sear. The forward sear is the part that holds back the bolt. The back sear sits on the front arm of the trigger. When the triggeris pulled the back sear pulls the forward sear down, releasing the bolt. Once the bolt has been released the forward sear releases from the backsear, and spring pressure pushes it back up where it waits to retain thebolt for the next shot. Once the bolt has been released,the gas pressure forces the piston down the barrel and the bolt forward. At the front of its stroke, the barrel is sealed, and holes in the rearof the piston allow the gas to travel through the bolt and fire the ball. With the pressure in the air chamber relieved the mainspring then returnsthe bolt to the rear position.Forbeing a blow-forward semi-auto, the Sidekick is very simple in structure. There is no on/off valve and there is no pressure regulator. Ideallya pressure regulator and a valve that shuts off the gas flow into the valvechamber when the bolt is forward would increase gas efficiency and velocitystability. However they would also increase the bulk and cost ofthe Sidekick. Since the magazine holds 10 rounds and a 12-gram cartridgehas enough gas to fire all 10, Goob felt that further complication to thedesign was not desirable. Apiston inside the valve chamber is positioned by the velocity adjusterand determines the volume of gas it can contain. Performance on the field:Before we hit the field Goob remindedus that we were testing a beta model. That means a version that isready for field testing, but not the final product. By the time thisarticle is in print, production models should be available.We loaded it up and stepped onto thechrono range. First shot over the chronograph, without adjustmentwas 290 fps. 9 trigger pulls later, in rapid succession, and thevelocity had dropped to 203 fps with every ball hitting a 50 gallon oildrum that was roughly 20 yards away. At longer ranges the accuracy was betterthan we had expected, but it was the close-up point shooting we were mostconcerned with, and close in, the Sidekick was dead on. Between shots,the velocity dropped anywhere from 8-15 shots per second. For longballingthis would be a problem, but at 20 to 30 yard ranges, where a light pistolwould be most advantageous, it seems to have little effect on the abilityof a shooter to hit their target.The Sidekick does include front andrear sights, but we completely ignored them. After all, the whilelight pistol idea is: draw, point, and shoot, very fast. While some of the Sidekicks being testedhad no leakage problems, others including ours had slow leaks in powertube seal. This meant that if a 12-gram cartridge was left in thegun for several hours it would leak away to uselessness. We solvedthis on the field, buy putting in the cartridge, but not giving the CO2knob the final twist until just before we planned to shoot. Goobexpects that the leakage problems will be completely resolved shortly,and does not plan to release production models until they are.Theother drawback we found was the spring feed system. Loading freshpaint we had absolutely no problem loading and firing 10 shots at the shootingrange. The limitation we ran into was not with the paintgun, butthe paint. In the hot, humid Florida weather paintballs quickly becomeflexible and soft. Add body heat to that from tucking it into a pairof BDUs and the paintballs eventually become smooshy like water balloons,deforming under the pressure of the drive spring. When they are deformedenough, they will not feed into the breech.The paintballstuff.com web site suggestsloading only 8 balls, and we found better usability when we loaded only5 paintballs into the feed tube. Even then after a couple of hoursin the hot air, ball deformation became an issue. Another solutionsuggested by Goob was to replace the spring fed tube with a standard 10round paintball tube. This does not put any stress on the paintballsfrom the spring, so deformation, even if the paintballs do become soft,is avoided. The drawback is that the rate of fire is reduced slightly. Players running without a feed spring need to tilt the Sidekick upwardbetween shots to make sure that a ball drops into the breech. Incool weather and indoors, paintballs remain stiff and brittle, and in indoortesting we found the spring feed to work great, holding the paintballsfor hours at a time without and trouble.The Sidekick Semi auto is availablethrough www.paintballstuff.com.

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