TalkPaintballs Team Thunder was created by TalkPaintball.com Forum owner Andy Sables. The team has been set up to help new players get into the big scenario events, But anyone can join at any experience level. You don’t have to be a solo player to run with the team, there are some of the well known teams run with Team Thunder. There are also area  representatives that visit walk-ons throughout the UK to play and to encourage new players to attend big events.The Team will ensure all players are looked after at any event and will show you how the events work making sure that you are included as a player and have a chance to play alongside some of the most experienced paintballers in the UK.

According to their website www.teamthunder.co.uk there are an amazing 71 players, 55 being in the United Kingdom and 16 of them from Germany. This is clearly an international team open to anyone.

Andy Sables - Team Captain

I ran with these guys at my first big game, Staargate Vs Rome 2011 and they made be feel very welcome, They showed me how to get through the weekend, registration, bottle check , chrono and even how to party. Another great addition is team members can benefit  from different things i.e discounted paint, great staging areas and even 10% off fatbobspaintball.co.uk.

If you are interested in joining this great team you can do so by heading over to there website www.teamthunder.co.uk or over at www.talkpaintball.com.  whether your a novice or a pro they will make you very welcome and i can promise you will get the most you possibly can out of the events.

So what are you waiting for?

Finally the Virtue Crown 2 has graced our presence on the paintball market and is now available from most paintballl retailers.

The crown is available in the following colours: White, Blue, Lime, Orange, Black, Pink, Red, Tan and Yellow as shown above. All in all the product looks to be of a very good quality, often with previous speed feeds, players have remarked that after some time they see some ‘sagging’ in the teeth of the speed feed. This new virtue crown 2 offers you the choice to use 10 long teeth, or a mixture of long and short depending on your preferences and virtue has stated that these new ‘ silicone elastomer’ teeth are made to resist sagging as much as possible, whilst maintaining a good reload speed when loading a paint pod through the speed feed.

The speed feed is available for $34.95 + sales tax and £26.95 (inc vat) in the UK. The outer ring comes with a lifetime warranty from Virtue, and they will be releasing interchangable teeth packs in the near future, so in essence you will never have to buy another speed feeder again (unless something else tickles your fancy!).

Checkout the exclusive video of the product in action:

We are very excited about this product and we are happy that a company has taken the initiative to fixing the constant problem of worn out and sagged speed feeders. This product will also allow for some more bling on your marker in the future, when you are able to mix and match teeth to make some good looking colour combinations!

SpeedBall Player

Quotation from Wikipedia ”In 1981, Charles Gaines and eleven others played the first game of paintball, using Nel-Spot pistols which were intended for marking trees and livestock by ranchers. This initial game was a capture the flag style scenario. Later, Bob Gurnsey formed the National Survival Game company, which was the first firm to sell paintball equipment.”

Paintball Equipment

There are lots of different Paintball equipment depending but i am going to only explain a few of the important ones needed to play paintball.

Mask –  The mask is the most important piece of equipment a paintballer will ever need. In my opinion is the first item you should look into buying.

Paintball Marker – (also referred to as a paintball gun) There are a few types of marker to choose from.

• Pump action – manually re-cocked after every shot, not used much now but some some people still love to use them.
• mechanical - uses a sear to lock the the hammer in place and a spring to drive it forward. The hammer collides with the valve releasing c02 or air from the external pressurized tank into the internal bolt chamber which propels the paintball down and out of the barrel.
• electric - instead of the spring and hammer used to actuate the valve and cycle the bolt assembly in mechanical markers, Electric markers use the rerouting of air to different locations in the marker. This rerouting is controlled by a solenoid that is activated by the trigger.

Air System – The most commonly used is HPA (High Pressured Air) . Co2 is still used, but most sites now use HPA.

Hopper / Loader – This connects to the top of your marker and holds paintballs whist feeding them into the chamber ready to be fired. There are a few types to choose from.

• Gravity feed – These are  simple and the cheapest option, the balls fall into the marker with help from the sloped sides of the hopper.
• Agitating – These use a spinning  propeller inside the loader to help stop the jamming of the balls and allow a faster feed rate than  gravity fed hoppers.
• Force Feed – These use a impeller to capture the balls and force them into the marker to allow an even faster feed rate.

Paintball Variations

There are different Variations of Paintball,  but all have the same goal, Eliminate your opponents  and win the game.

Punter Days  –  (Also known as rental/ Corporate events) These are what most people think of when someone mentions paintballing, great for work days out, Stag days or simply just to try paintball. These sites rent you all the gear you will need and can choose whether to play  half day or a  full day. Some sites also have characters such as The Predator that can enter your games at any time and will try and hunt you down. The Games are mostly played in woodlands but some sites can have a field with wood or inflatable bunkers.

Walk-ons  -  These are a dedicated day for players with there own equipment to play on the rental sites at discounted prices. Some sites will also provide rental equipment so players can fetch friends that don’t have there own equipment, a great way for people to see if they will enjoy playing with more serious players before going out and buying there own kit.

Scenario -These games usually have a theme to them and start to become bigger events. Player numbers can easily reach into the hundreds, Can last anywhere from a day to a week!. They are  mostly played in the woods but can also be played in building, disused villages and even deserted islands! Some organisers offer kit hire.

Tournament  – (Also known as SpeedBall) These are usually played on fields with inflatable bunkers and games are very fast and can last only a few minutes.  Usually played in teams of three, five, seven, and even ten players.

SpeedBall Filed

Hopefully this has given you a little insight into what paintball is. Feel free to contact us if you want to know anymore..

Which path will you take ?

Valken have released images of there new marker the Valkon Proton. Not much info has been let out but from what we know it will cost $299.95 (Minimum Advertised Price) , and should hopefully be on sale mid march 2012.

This has been a team effort between Valken and Mokal. Mokal’s version being the Aura, Valken have made some slight changes to there look including different grips, different trigger and milling compared to mokals version. As of yet we do not know what the internals they are using but Mokal’s Aura has the following:

•  Inline bolt system
• direct operated solenoid valve
• Eye shields
• ASA with on/off and purge system
• Intelligent break beam sensor system
• Electronic On/Off
• Adjustable trigger
• 5 firing modes and 4 tournament modes.

So it will be interesting  to see what differences Valkon will have made

We are also  intrested to see what other colour schemes they will have for this entry level marker but after seeing there pink and black one my guess is they will look pretty awesome.

What’s your views on this new marker from Valkon?

When ever i hear people talking about Paintball and how the markers are powered i hear the word “C02″, This is the case when reading post on forums from some new people joining the world beyond punter days.  After being told most people and sites now use High Pressure Air (HPA) instead of C02 this raises the question of “Whats the difference between HPA and Co2?” and “Why do people use HPA?”.

I have seen this being explained multiple times on various forums, So I’m going to try and explain it all here in one place. Hopefully this will become the one stop place for this repeated subject.

a CO2 Bottle

CO2 is fading out and being replaced by high pressured air bottles. Fields used CO2 bottles as part of rental equipment, and very few in the UK still do. Paintball package deals offering an all-in-one setup usually contained a CO2 tank, and can still be found on some websites. I believe this is why people automatically presume its CO2 that is still used. Upgrading from CO2 to Compressed Air can have a huge impact on the performance of any paintball gun. Most paintball markers are now designed for Compressed Air, Although some markers  can still take CO2 with maybe a few spare parts needed.

The CO2 that is filled in the tank is actually in the form of liquid. That’s why CO2 tanks are labeled as 12 ‘ounce’, 16oz or 20oz. Tanks are only supposed to be filled to 80% of capacity. This allows for some gas conversion and pressure changes. In order to power your paintball gun, CO2 must convert into a gas. This involves thermal energy or heat. That is the reason your gun gets cold under fire. The CO2 is grabbing all the heat it can find to convert into a gas. That means under a sustained high rate of fire, little heat is available for conversion and liquid CO2 can enter your internals, freezing the gun and possibly causing damage. Also CO2 is affected greatly by outside temperatures for reason described above. Extremely cold days make it very hard to achieve consistent pressure resulting in velocity swings and shot drop-off. That’s technical terms for poor accuracy and lousy consistency one shot to the next.

a 4500 PSI bottle

Compressed air bottles start at about £35 and can run upwards of £200. Tanks vary in size, pressure rating, material and output pressure. There two genral types of pressure rated tanks on the market: 3000 psi and 4500 psi. This is the rated pressure at which the tank can safely hold. Tanks rated at 4500 can hold 1.5x more air than 3000psi tanks. The cubic inch size refers to the overall capacity of the tank. Tank sizes include 48ci, 68ci, 70ci and 88ci. Obviously the more ci, the more air holding capacity. When calculating the shot volume you times the ci by 10 for 3000psi tanks and 15 for 4500 psi tanks. For example, an 88ci 4500psi tank will give you an estimated 1320 shots on a full fill. That’s 88 x 15 = 1320.

A great advantage to HPA bottles are not only can they hold more air but amazingly these bottles can be lighter, alot are fibre wrapped which is lighter and stronger.  Another great advantage to compressed air bottles is they have a pressure gauge on the bottles reg, this allows you to see how much air is in your bottle. You will never go out onto the field and run out of air after 10 shots unlike with CO2.

Compressed Air requires no conversion therefore is void of the problems experienced with CO2. Pressures are more consistent resulting in better accuracy and less swings on velocity. Since no liquid CO2 enters your gun and covers parts such as orings, Compressed Air is easier on internal parts as well. Normally, those that experience Compressed Air  never go back to CO2 unless Compressed Air filling is hard to find, which is practically impossible now the majority of fields and events use compressed air.

Remember when buy a bottle, make sure both bottle and Reg are Pi Marked to comply with EU legislation for use at events and sites  in the UK.

What do you use? CO2? 3000 psi? 45000 psi?

The Battle of Britain will take place on the weekend of 28/29 April 2012 at the abandoned WWII airfield, RAF Finmere. Its set in 1940 and the scenario sees class warfare break out between the Upper Classes (Top Hats) and the Working Classes (Flat Caps).

Saturday

They have got some brilliant plans for the Saturday which will see players running around firing and giggling in equal measure. Saturday afternoon will see the Battle of Britain ‘Street Party’ where all players are encouraged to bring along a plate of sandwiches, jelly, sausage rolls and any other appropriate Street Party food or drinks. It’ll all be piled on the trestle tables and added to the sandwiches provided FREE OF CHARGE by YPC and Shoreline and everyone will be free to sit down on the benches and tuck in!

The era and scenario lend themselves to great costumes. So they will be running loads of competitions and prizes for the best fancy dress and also period outfits. So dig out those Biggles scarves, Top Hats and tails, Flat Caps, Donkey Jackets and whippets!!!
There will be activities and Paintball games running all day Saturday so amble trigger time will be on offer. One key element to the Saturday fun will be the second instalment of the MODS v Rockers game where the Moderators from EVERY UK based forum will take on everyone else in a Dunkirk style game.

The playing area will include countless underground bunkers, woodland, buildings and the old runway will run through the middle of the playing area………the runway will be ‘THE’ pivotal feature of the game. There is even a submarine thrown in for good measure.

 Sunday

The main Big Game will take place on the Sunday and will run continuously for six hours. Each team will have their own Spitfire which will be located on the runway – these are not toys!!! The objective for the game will be to get your Spitfire into the air. Whoever gets their aircraft into the sky first will win the game.

But here’s the catch………aircraft require fuel.

In each teams HQ will be a massive fuel tank with a fuel gauge. For each litre of fuel that is deposited into the tank, your teams Spitfire will move 1 metre down the runway. Whoever reaches the end of the runway first, their plane will take off and they will win the game. Fuel will be distributed around the site at set locations at fuel depots. Each fuel depot will have a leaking fuel source. The easier the depot is to capture, the slower the fuel leaks out. The harder the depot is to capture, then the faster the fuel will leak out. Each team will be equipped with fuel carrying devices to transport the fuel from the depots, back to their base. But beware…………..there will be plenty of twists and turns!

In the main staging area will be a massive map board of the playing area. Their lovely Battle of Britain girls will be responsible for using their wooden staves to move units around the board (Bomber Command style) so that all players will be able to see which team controls which bases at any time (a retro live updating map of the game).

There will be traders, plenty of traders and all paint and pyro will be supplied at the event. You will not be able to bring your own paint or pyro into the game. However, in keeping with their approach to make this a cheap event, paint and pyro prices will not be at a premium level. They will announce the prices soon but they give you this guarantee – “we will not hike the paint prices to offset the cheap ticket price”. So expect paint prices in line with what you will find at Super6 and other Big Games

Tickets will cost £35.

Yes…..we know that’s cheap for 2 days of paintball…….and no……there is no catch! Camping is free for the weekend. Catering prices will be capped and provided by Knightingales (same people as Staargate). Full menu price list will be published before the game but expect burgers to be about £2…..not a fiver like at some other events! There will be a fully licensed bar onsite – again, prices will be capped to ensure paintballers are not ripped off (£2.60 a pint for draught beer). Rental kit is available for those who do not have their own equipment.

There are Governing bodies for almost anything from Sports to Hobbies, Education to Religion and even Companies, Each Governing body offers different things to there dedicated subject. In Paintball The Governing Body is known as UKPSF – UK Paintball Sports Federation. The UKPSF is a voluntary body and exists to promote the sport of paintball, co-operate with government bodies, local authorities and try to make the game of paintball safe and fun to play.

Justin Rabackoff has been one of Legions big name stars and has closed many games in a way only he could ever achieve. One of the most memorable moments for me was his insane tournament saving flag hang at PSP Chicago against Dynasty in the finals. Moves like this have made him one of the most famous players on the tour and this has turned him into one of the core players of legion that have saved them many losses and won them many vital points. The rumour mill has been grinding away hard in recent days and it has said that possibly he is looking at starting his own team. Has the Legions reliance on his solo stand out performance made him irreplaceable and as such will Legion be facing a huge problem come the new season?

Konstantin Federov is a highly seasoned and talented player who has played for other pro teams before Legion and was one of the main players in the legendary Philly Americans roster along with other names such as Ryan Moorhead and Tim Montressor. This gave him a huge reputation which he has managed to maintain amazingly with solid play for Legion and has saved them from many situations. He has gone onto play for Art Chaos Moscow in the Millenium series which is a highly unexpected turn of events.

Another terrible loss is Matt Blonski who has been with Legion for a long time and has helped to define who they are and is still a hugely important player in the team. He has decided to step back from paintball in 2012 to further his professional career as he has not been able to do so whilst playing professionally. This will deal another huge blow to the roster of Legion.

Luckily the news isn’t all bad for Legion who have picked up 2 great players which should strengthen their squad phenomenally.  Axel Gaudin has decided to play both the Millenium series for his current team the Ton Tons, and PSP for Legion. He is an amazing snake player who i have seen close matches with great snake play which is very much the style of Legion so he should fit in very well. Their other great pickup is ex London Nexus ace Jason Wheeler. At my first tournament I saw him playing and it really inspired me to want to reach that level. Seeing him obliterate almost a whole team (4-1) in xball is a rare thing to witness and he pulled it off but to put the cherry on the cake after this when he was coaching next to me I started talking to him and he is one of the nicest blokes you could hope to meet. Both of these factors, the skill and personality, make Jason a fantastic player who I am sure will complement the Legions roster in the upcoming season.

The Super 6 events from last year saw the use of technology such as bright LED beacons to indicate which areas of a battlefield were under control by which team, as well as large plasma tv screens showing a live update of which areas on a map were controlled by each team. The events also made use of consistant 4500psi air refills, which had been questioned by site organisations for years due to the fear people would incorrectly try and fill their 3000psi tanks on them, causing an incident. These were but a few improvements Shoreline made to existing big game events, below we have collated a full list of the features on offer at every event this year.

Here is a full list of all the fantastic features you will see at this first leg of the Super6 games:

• Played at the fantastic Skirmish Nottingham site
• Fast Track registration system
• Hard standing, heated flushing toilets. Permanently manned and cleaned continuously
• FREE – Tippmann TPX Pistol Challenge
• FREE – Tiberius First Strike Shooting Competition
• FREE – Traders Tech classes
• FREE – Super6 Academy classroom session
• FREE – Super6 Academy field based session
• FREE – Air Safety Training and pass cards
• FREE – Tech gun tech support (multiple manufacturers)
• 4500psi HPA fills from HPAC
• Multiple Traders
• Multiple manufacturers
• FREE – Shooting Range
• Super6 girls
• Super6 Golden Gun will be on display
• Super6 TV crew will be in attendance making their 30 minute Super6 TV show
• BraNewbs Phtotography will cover D10 and photo sets will be available for only £3.50!
• Scores of overseas players from all over Europe are already committed to attending D10
• Pre Big Game drinks and party meet up at local hostelry – was an awesome party last year!
• Minimum of 4 hours play on Saturday including the Back To The Future mini scenario game (more about those in the Player Pack)
• 6 hour Scenario Big Game on the Sunday
• 4 Command HQ Tent complete with networked PC’s and 42 inch plasma screens
• Mahooosive pyro filled Super6 finale to the game……bring spare pants!
• Super6 trader area – Biggest trade fair in UK Paintball
• Electronic flags
• Live updating maps on 42 inch plasma screens
• Electronic scoring systems and Special Missions delivered via Wireless networks
• FREE – Phone and laptop recharging service
• FREE – WiFi on site
• FREE beer on arrival for all players (something non-alcoholic for under 18′s) – FREE beer!!!
• Super6 eNewsletter updates between now and the event
• On site Super6 cafe from Nightingales Catering with the usual fare plus healthy options at capped prices. All diners will be able to sit down and enjoy their meal and all food prices will be capped at Super6 prices so NO RIP OFF FOOD PRICES:

It looks to be another quality event, Shoreline proved their ability to host some of the best events worldwide with their success last year in the UK, we look forward to see how this year unfolds with some new venues and technology on the rotor!

Tickets for the event are available at: http://www.super6paintball.co.uk

This book covers in depth several aspects of paintball, some excellent knowledge about the sport and there are things in here excellent for experienced and new players alike.

The massive book includes the following chapters:

• The Main Rule Of Paintball? … HAVE FUN
• The History Of Paintbal
• Why Paintball Is Popular
• There Are Several Reasons For The Popularity Of Paintball
• Everyone Loves Paintball!
• Here Are Several Reasons Why Paintball Is A Sport Well-Loved By Many People:
• The Basics Of Paintball
• Finding A New Way To Workout?
• Try Paintball!
• Paintball Can Be Good For You!
• What Paintball Can Do For One’s Health
• How To Ensure That Paintball Will Not Be Bad For The Players
• Safer Than Playing Basketball Or Baseball
• Stay Safe While Playing Paintball
• The Best Places To Play Paintball
• Woods
• Concept Fields
• Speedball Fields
• Indoor Fields
• Fair Play In The Game Of Paintball
• Best Weather To Play Paintball: In The Rain?
• Here Are Guidelines So You Can Enjoy Your Paintball Game On A Rainy Day:
• Add Thrill To Your Paintball Game
• Tips On How To Play The Paintball Sport
• Popular Paintball Games
• Recreational Or Capture The Flag
• Scenario Paintball

FREE

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