The KJW 1911 Custom (ALPHA) edition

This custom build is our first keep checking back for more builds to come. We are starting with the KJW 1911 Metal that we picked up from
Airsplat.com It has a great price it retails at $99.99 Our friends over there got it to us very fast, one day turn around! All in all a very solid well performing gun. The gun it self has a very good sturdy feel. It is a full metal frame, and it has some plastic components. Stuff lie the Nozzle and the grips. But for the most part it is a full metal gun. The finish is great a nice even satin black not that it is going to stick around for too long. The KJW also accepts Co2 mags that can be purchased separately, we are not using them for this project. The first thing we did with this gun was put it through the ringer. We put close to 5000 rounds through it using Green Gas, propane, and a couple of Co2 canisters.

Our findings

Well at first I was not to super impressed with the gun as the mag capacity was very high but the mag could not hold enough gas to fire all the BB's through it. The Mag holds 26 rounds but with the gas load it only fires 8-12 rounds. Not too bad it is similar to a real steel 1911. But we wanted more. So we tore the gun down and took a look at the gun and the internals. The nozzle was made of plastic and bright red. it had allot of excess plastic that we shaved off the nozzle. Further more we noticed the the nozzle recoil spring was very week. So we located another spring in hopes that it was part of the issue with the low shots. I ran a few more mags worth of BB's through it and the same thing. We took it down again and I noticed that the seal in the nozzle was very small and not quite right. I was able to locate another seal as well as a nozzle. I rebuilt the slide with the new nozzle and the seal. The gun performed great, I was able to push it to 18-20 shots per fill. Very happy with this out come.

Customizing.
The next thing we did was start to make it ours. The first thing we did was remove the orange tip as the gun looks as if it had been dipped in orange paint. About 3/4 of an inch of the slide has the blaze orange tip. We were able to scratch the orange paint off the slide with a finger nail. This made the gun look amazing, gave it that traditional 1911 look. Now please remember modifying the gun like this will void your warranties with the seller. Bo Not do it if you are not sure about the gun. Or the warranty has expired. The gun continued to perform very well I then decided i would like to polish the slide rails. So I got out the trusty Dremel and the wire wheel and took the slide rails down to the bare metal. Then I used A buffing wheel with some metal polish and went to town on it until I achieved a mirror finish. I re assembled the gun and bout about a 100 BB's through it. It felt great, smooth and easy action. I decided I wanted a bit more of a kick. So I found a recoil spring with a higher tension to give a stronger kick.

Once full assembled it felt great kicked nice and hard. Now I am starting to get a bit bored with the gun. So I decide i want to see what I can do to customize the gun a bit more. Since this gun is mostly metal "aluminum" I figure it could be polished out pretty nice. Now this is my first adventure into doing anything like this. So I started with a Dremel with a wire brush attachment. It worked but it was very slow moving. I got a bit frustrated and I started to sand it down And i started with a sanding drum on the Dremel. wow! what a mistake. It marred up the slide a bit. But we live and learn!. Thats when I decided to use a orbital with a very fine sand paper. And I ran all the paint down on the entire frame after tearing all the components off the gun. After about an hour of work the whole frame was bare save for a few choice little spots on the gun.

So the gun is fairly silver at this point save for the parts a specifically decided to save such as: The Hammer, Trigger, Safety Lever, Mag Release. Grips, Grip Safety, Outer Barrel.... and a few other choice parts. I Used a metal polish called Lightning shine. I used a Dremel polishing bit and made most of the gun look similar to a mirror. I was able to make the gun function once finished. Please note if you are going to do this please make sure you pay attention to the order things came out. As they will need to go back the same way. Once assembled with the OEM grips on it I was not really happy with the looks of it. I took it with me when i went to pick up some parts at the Airsplat warehouse and they were able get me a great deal on a set of MEU grips for it. Big thanks go out to the guys at Airsplt for all the help the have given me with this project.

I got the gun home and I started to install the grips, I came to find out that the grips for the WE 1911 MEU will fit somewhat but the grip will need to be modified to fit this frame as the gun is made to accept Co2 cartridges. I decided to take the WE logo emblems out of the grip in order to put int the Marine corps. Logos. Overall this is a great look for the gun. I hope you enjoyed this custom gun project. Keep an eye out for our future customs. You can also request customs to see done or reviewed by emailing The Airsoft GuRu