Carbon bought an Alias. preliminary review.

[Carbon]

Ok so i bought an Alias. After much thought and playing with other people's guns i've decide to settle on an Alias. Basic reasons: they are common, easy to fix, easy to shoot, balances well and nice upgrade paths...ubiquitous essentially.

The gun comes in a black box. Along with it, a 12" Assasins .689 barrel (made by CP as i understand) and some lame zeroxed instruction manual for a 2k2 itimidator, a cheat sheet of for the frenzy 127.4 board, some stickers and NO WARANTY CARD. Granted, you can download the latest and comprehensive version of the Alias manual online but, come on...this far along in in their line of guns and no printed manual?

Build quality:
I looked at the anno and milling. Everything looked flawless. There were no visible tool marks on the exterior of the gun, no rough burrs, nicks or blemishes. Granted the milling on you typical Alias is not very complex. The black to red fade was very nice. The gradient was smooth and gradual. This is consisten with most Timmies i've seen, so it was no surprise. A battery was included with the gun.

After removing the less than mediocre grip panels, i accesed the grip frame. As expected the interior of the clamshell frame was a bit of mess. Everything was crammed in there and tucked away with little consideration for the path of the hoses and wiring. Despite the mess, the hoses did not interfere with the fuction of the gun. As i understand it, some folks experience a little bit of drag on the trigger return due to the hoses rubbing the trigger. I did not experience this, although this may become an issue when installing a new trigger.

The wiring was a minor consideration. They are thin, so be carefull when accesing or manipulating them. A little Heat shrink would been a nice touch but, that would be too much work for them.

The trigger guard on the gun was a little loose. As i tried to aleviate this by tightening the mounting screws. I then realized the screws were to long as they were already snug in their pilot holes. Maybe by this was done by design, im not really sure. But once the gripframe cover was back on the rattle and looseness nearly dissapeared. I guess i'll have to find some shims.

Overall, decent build quaillty. Although for a gun like this i expected more.

Next, i checked the regs. I opened up the HPR, sure enough there is grease where there should of been. I repeated the process with the LPR and the ram. All greased up and ready to go.

I installad the macro line kit and attached my 68/45k Dynaflow, which had been set to the 600psi range. Gassed up the gun, set it to Dry Fire mode and started shooting. The gun shot beautifully.

Play day.

The gun shot a consistant +/-5 strings over the chrono with the stock barrel. At this point the only parameter i've adjusted was the debouce level. I increased it from the stock setting of 12, to 15 (less bounce). This menu is accesed by a 3-button memebrane panel on the back of the grip. Various parameters for bounce, dwell, eye modes and ROF modes are adjusted through the LCD display window on the prip panel. These button are about the size of a pea and may not provide the user with enough tactile feed back, especially with gloved fingers.

I shot a hopper full effortlessly. Now im starting to overlook the minor shortcomings of this gun. A person who comes from shooting an Emag should have no problems getting used to the stock trigger. If the paramters for activation point, post travel and trigger-return-strength adjustments doesn't suit you, there is a whole plethora of 3rd party triggers available in different cofigurations and geometry.

The gun shot accurately throughout the course of the day. I had no problem getting pack shots and hopper shots at good distance. I played back to mid, during 7 man games on a regulation size field. Shooting close to 3 cases of Steel brand paintballs (thank god for team paint), I did not have one chop. I did get 2 or 3 in-game barrel breaks over the course of the whole day, which I managed to shoot through, all the while retaining a good amount of accuracy, once the barell cleared. This made me wonder why they dont ship with larger bore barrels.

The gun balaces well, a little forward heavy with a full Halo B, a 68/45 and an Empire no drop rail. It was easy to snap with and it felt really familiar to me. Switiching hands felt natural and fluent.

anyhow that is all for now. More when it develops.

Also ask question if you have any.

[quik]

These came out like a year ago!

[onedude36]

These came out like a year ago!
This is AO remember?

[WARPED1]

Let's see spme pictures!

[Carbon]

These came out like a year ago!
you're a fast one! :D



im always late to the party

[SCpoloRicker]

Overall, decent build quaillty. Although for a gun like this i expected more.

Pretty much. ;)

[Torbo]

be glad you live in cali. if its anywhere near cold expect to break every single ball you try to shoot.

i used to love timmys, i shot them for 2 years. I think that their quality has dropped, and they straight up dont work in the cold.

[Load SM5]

My alias has always been my cold weather gun. It just flat out works everytime I air it up. I've never even had to replace an o-ring on it in the 2 years I've had it. But you're right, it's not great with cheap paint or too brittle paint in cold weather.

It's for sale btw :D

[The Action Figure]

pics?

[Load SM5]

pics?

I don't know if you mean mine or not....

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/LoadSM5/timmy003copy.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/LoadSM5/timmy007copy.jpg

[Steelrat]

Carbon, its been interesting to see the evolution in guns you have owned over the years, starting with your mech mags. I think that your playing ability has definately increasd enough to warrant a gun like the alias. I, on the other hand, was always playing with guns that were beyond my abilities ;)

I owned a Naughty Dog, which is essentially a milled alias. While it shot fine, I found the quality of the marker to be a bit lacking. However, it was light as a sono***un, and that made it easy to toss around and play with, which (I have found out) is very, very important to playing a fast and mobile game. And they should be flogged for sticking that lame 2k2 manual in the box of $1000+ markers. FLOGGED!

Look at replacing the lpr with a JDS or AKA one, and maybe swap out the torpedo. Violent makes some interesting delrin products for alias-type markers, and tadao makes a great board for them. Finally, and this is the biggie, get an adjustable ram cap. The bolt on the alias and intimidator-type markers doesn't always sit in the right place in the breech, which can lead to chopping. The adj ram cap lets you fine tune the bolt position.

I'm looking at getting an 06 borg myself. Same general principle.

[SpecialBlend2786]

I'm looking at getting an 06 borg myself. Same general principle.

Good choice.

As for the Timmy, I shot my first Alias a few weeks ago and found the marker extremely comfortable to shoot.

[Flow_Tech]

whoaaaaa its AO. havent been here in forever, glad to see some of you guys are shooting other stuff then mags now. tehe. alias's are good guns, i had one for most of this year and never had a single problem with it.

[phantomhitman]

how much do you want for it load, i have always wanted an alias

[Carbon]

Carbon, its been interesting to see the evolution in guns you have owned over the years, starting with your mech mags. I think that your playing ability has definately increasd enough to warrant a gun like the alias. I, on the other hand, was always playing with guns that were beyond my abilities ;)

I owned a Naughty Dog, which is essentially a milled alias. While it shot fine, I found the quality of the marker to be a bit lacking. However, it was light as a sono***un, and that made it easy to toss around and play with, which (I have found out) is very, very important to playing a fast and mobile game. And they should be flogged for sticking that lame 2k2 manual in the box of $1000+ markers. FLOGGED!

Look at replacing the lpr with a JDS or AKA one, and maybe swap out the torpedo. Violent makes some interesting delrin products for alias-type markers, and tadao makes a great board for them. Finally, and this is the biggie, get an adjustable ram cap. The bolt on the alias and intimidator-type markers doesn't always sit in the right place in the breech, which can lead to chopping. The adj ram cap lets you fine tune the bolt position.

I'm looking at getting an 06 borg myself. Same general principle.

yeah, the moment i bought the gun i was thinking upgrade, which kinda bummed me out. I suppose its just highly indicative of paintball guns in general, they tend to be slightly under enginered or have some silly quirk. I would of gone for the Ego, similar operation, better build quality but, something didnt feel right. At this point IDK if i made the right choice.

Shooting the Alias was a stark contrast to shooting my emag. Although they both fast and handle well, i found the Ailas has a "smoother" feel, Even with the LPR at 85psi.

An LPR is definitely a future upgrade. At this point i haven't come across an LPR related problem (creeping and dropoff) that would justifiy spendin the $60. But the ram cap, is defenitely my next purchase.

In regards to paintball in the winter, dont paint companies adjust their shell formulation specifically for the season? So as to be less brittle, during the colder months.

[Steelrat]

In regards to paintball in the winter, dont paint companies adjust their shell formulation specifically for the season? So as to be less brittle, during the colder months.

I think you have to buy paint thats made for winter. I'm not sure that they change the formulation on all paints during the winter.

[Eatem Alive]

timmys are light but after lugging around that e-mag for so long, the alias must feel like a feather

[Carbon]

timmys are light but after lugging around that e-mag for so long, the alias must feel like a feather
big time. The geometry of my setup is nearly identical to my emag, so the the learning curve is virtually nonexistant.

[Carbon]

Ok now this is justplain dumb.

Now my eyes dont work.


Testing out some really brittle paint i manage to break a ball in the chamber. I cleaned it ever so gently when i got home. Now regardless of what eye-active mode i put the gun in it is capped at 12 bps. This basically means my gun wont shoot over 12 bps on normal mode. Anyway i'm just seething now. I just ordered a set of new eyes and an adjustable ramcap.

anyway i certainly hope its the eyes and not the board.

I guess this is where you get to laugh at me....

[punkncat]

I am somewhat suprized that you would place this 'review' up. You may as well have said 'review of timmy'. The reason they put the old manual in there is because other than milling and whatever software they have currently loaded the newer timmys are all essentially the same and have been for years. It amazes me that people still desire their markers they way they do.

.....IMHO nothing more that really expensive pneumatic Spyders. :eek:

AGD needs to discover this marketing scheme. Remill the Emag and call it the "all new" model every year.I mean hey, Kingman (Bob Longs inspiration) does......

[quik]

I guess this is where you get to laugh at me....

K

Hahahahahahahahaha.

[Flow_Tech]

Ok now this is justplain dumb.

Now my eyes dont work.


Testing out some really brittle paint i manage to break a ball in the chamber. I cleaned it ever so gently when i got home. Now regardless of what eye-active mode i put the gun in it is capped at 12 bps. This basically means my gun wont shoot over 12 bps on normal mode. Anyway i'm just seething now. I just ordered a set of new eyes and an adjustable ramcap.

anyway i certainly hope its the eyes and not the board.

I guess this is where you get to laugh at me....
did you take the frame off or anything?..make sure NONE of your wires are pinched.make sure its in forced mode and make sure the ram cap is adjusted correctly.

[68magOwner]

eyes out of alighnment? try wedging a small slip of paper in there with the eye to keep it straight *hard to explain without pics

[Steelrat]

Ok now this is justplain dumb.

Now my eyes dont work.


Testing out some really brittle paint i manage to break a ball in the chamber. I cleaned it ever so gently when i got home. Now regardless of what eye-active mode i put the gun in it is capped at 12 bps. This basically means my gun wont shoot over 12 bps on normal mode. Anyway i'm just seething now. I just ordered a set of new eyes and an adjustable ramcap.

anyway i certainly hope its the eyes and not the board.

I guess this is where you get to laugh at me....

Unfortunately, low build quality is one of the downsides of the intimidator-series guns. As I mentioned, my ND was fraught with low-quality construction. Everytime I consider a bob long gun, I just think back to those days.

Or, just think of Mighty Mikes lasoya. I played with that thing one day, and it rocked hard. Unfortunately, that was the first time in like 6 days of play he had got it to work right, even with repeated trips to Delta paintball.

Hopefully, its an easy fix.

[Load SM5]

I doubt your eyes are bad. Take the eye covers off turn the gun on with the bolt out of the way and hold the eyes tight with your fingers. See if the noid clicks or not. If not, then they're just getting bumped out of alignment with the covers on. Try putting a paper or electical tape shim between the eyes and the eye cover to hold the eye alignment.
If you're still having the issue then check the wiring like Flow suggested and make sure nothing is pinched. Worse case scenario I'd call BLAST. They have excellent customer service. You may have gotten a new set for free.

[Carbon]

Ok the eye prob was not actually a problem. It was just me trying to be a know it all. The gun works just fine.

To add, i just installed a Hybrid adjustable ramcap (timmystore.com), it cut down the blowback a good amount. The balls are no longer jumping up out of the feed neck. Although this was really never a problem, i suppose now, it wont ever be.

anyway im just fiending for the weekend. Hopefully the fields will be open new years day/eve. I need to shoot someone. Its driving me nuts.

[hobbesTZ]

By design the Timmy isn't the smoothest marker on the block, but I think certain other features set it apart from the rest of the flock. You can split the trigger frame in half very easily with the frame still on the marker. The trigger is held in by a screw so you don't need to hammer away at a pin. The wiring is good, I've screwed around with it a lot and it never failed me. The gun comes apart very easily. The regulator splits right in half and the LP comes right off the marker by hand. The bolt just slides right out the back and so does the ram after taking off the ram cap. There aren't really any problem orings and if one does happen to go bad replacement parts are extremely plentiful. Speaking of parts it's not just orings that are available. There is a rediculous amount of parts for the gun, and a lot of them are pretty cheap. You can get boards with all the features you could ever want for $40+. There are a number of rams, bolts, LPRs, trigger frames, front blocks, ram caps, and feednecks. The gun works great stock, all it really needs is a ram cap which are also very easy to find and are cheap new or used. Solenoids are around $60 if a replacement is needed. Much cheaper than a Shocker/Nerve 'noid, and also easier to aquire. I also hear BLasts customer service is pretty good, but I can't think of any situation why you'd need to send it out, it's really easy to work on and information is also available all over the place.

Anyway, all those are features high end guns should have. The ability to easily pull every piece apart when you need to, plenty of parts all easy to get, and stuff like that. The Timmy has all of it and if you can't get past the negative hype from people that haven't actually owned one or just dismissed it as junk because they never took care of it then you're really missing out.

[Carbon]

The Timmy has all of it and if you can't get past the negative hype from people that haven't actually owned one or just dismissed it as junk because they never took care of it then you're really missing out.


true. Sometimes the anti-hype is as bad as the hype.

[Eatem Alive]

i have owned an alias and a dm5...i still have the dm5. it shoots consistantly great all year round. the alias didn't handle paint to well in the colder weather, and yes, i tried various types of paint. the dm's are my preference. i did like the alias a lot, but like i said, only in warm weather.

[Carbon]

yeah, i was actually looking around for a lighter grease that swells orings a bit. Just a precaution for the cold. Granted anything you use other than dow 55 voids the waranty, but hey what am i gonna do?

And actually the DM line of guns was the 3rd option i was going for. I was thinking of getting a DM6, but opted out for a more budget concious approach.