Prototype E-mag: EM00033 Restored

[Bunny]

The Beginning: Splashed E-mag (EM00033) was featured on AirgunDesignsusa.com in 2000/2001. The pictures really showed off what the E-mag could become. It came with a warp left body with a revy, custom warp feed, and a flatline tank. It also featured a crazy fade/splash anodizing as well. I can’t confirm it, but I have a feeling PK Selective had their hands on this e-mag.

This prototype also featured a few rare parts such as the Lightening Bolt E-mag valve and custom aluminum selector switch.

The Chop / Controversy: To my understanding AGD Tech Carl Bonta was given the e-mag as a gift and just like the other prototype EM00035, Carl decided to chop up the splash e-mag to make it lighter and more efficient. After it was modified, it sold in the open market to AO member DarkRipper.

As soon as DarkRipper received the marker he ran into a lot problems. The marker was controversial since it was heavily modified E-mag made by an AGD tech. It was never meant to be sold to the general public because of the modifications that were involved. Tom Kaye had to step up and do damage control to make sure people understood that the modified prototypes were not under warranty.



Since DarkRipper had so many problems he decided to make a deal with his friend and he traded away the infamous prototype. His friend brought it to a paintball tournament in 2001 and had KayleAGD tried to fix it.

That is the gun from HELL!!!!

I worked on that gun for hours while I was in pittsburg. It was butchered to no end. Only later did I learn of the guns history and receive an *$$ chewing from TK for fixing It. If anyone wonders why AGD won't fix it ... It was a proto gift and they lost money on the gun building it . And if they repair it then they will be investing more money in something that never sold.. (bad business)

Most of what was wrong was in the electronics. It looked like an abortion from the middle ages..The warp links and the power wiring were redone by me . This work was not something I am very proud of, but I was on the road and didn't have much to work with. The gun worked fine and the guy was happy when he left, other than the lecture he got from TK. He was an innocent victim here so I fixed it the best way I could. If the electronics are still working then the gun will work. There may be issues with standard parts , like the on/off pin length, that may have to be custom fit. It has been too long and too many guns ago to remember exactly what it took to fix, but it did work..

Gone for good: DarkRipper’s friend Sandman123 actually had an outstanding offer from Tom Kaye to trade the prototype for a newer E-mag. Instead he decided to sell it for $600 to AO member rsuave991. Less than a month later in 2002 rsuave991 tried to sell it on pbnation, but did not get any bites.
I cannot find any information online, but between February and June 2002 the paintball gun was sold to a paintball player in Florida. This is where AO member Cyberious made an offer to purchase it and he reunited two of the earliest prototype e-mags in existence.

DATE	OWNER	INFO
1/1/00*	AGD
1/1/01*	Carl Bonta
8/31/01	(AO) DarkRipper	https://www.automags.org/forums/showt...6523#post56523
1/12/02	(PBN) Sandman123	http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.p...794&highlight=
2/07/02	(AO) rsuave991	http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.p...794&highlight=
6/30/02	AO) Cyberious	https://www.automags.org/forums/showt...345-Thanks-Tom

Over the next few years Cyberious used it as his primary marker.

“EMag #33 I bought here in Orlando from someone. It was my primary marker for a couple of years. It played in a World Cup and multiple other Tourneys. It was always the fastest shooting marker on the field. It also was at Shatnerball 2 and was used by my brother-in-law there. You can actually see it in a few scenes of the DVD.

Even as trashed as they were when I got them, once I fixed the electronics they both worked great for me for some time. As I used to help AGDJon work the booth at WorldCups and other events I always had to hide them in case Tom came by as I knew the sight of what Bonta had done used to make him mad. Heck it made me mad.”

Throughout the next few years from 2002-2008, Cyberious parted the battery packs on AO and decided to make a Clare themed E-mag around the valve. Around 2008 he decided to post both prototype valves for sale on AO.

My Story: I was fortunate enough to be on AO at the right time and found that both E-mag valves were posted for $100 each. I decided to take a leap of faith and offer $200 for both. I have never seen anything like them before so I decided I had to have them. After researching the serial numbers I quickly realized that these were actually the legendary prototypes that AGD did not want the public to have.

Part gathering: From 2008 to 2013 I had the valves sitting in my parts box with the thought of one day trying to build them back to their original specs. Piece by piece I was able to track down exactly the parts I needed to reanodize to restore this gun. In early 2013 I decided to use FXanodizing for the splash effect and sent Mario over an idea of what I wanted.



I sent all the parts over to and had him get to work on trying to match the anodizing. The only picture I had of the build was from AGD and it didn’t really show exactly all the techniques used to achieve the look. It took a few weeks, but Mario came back with some bad news. The dye he had would not take correctly to the parts. He mentioned that the rail may be a different type of aluminum.





At the time I was pretty bummed because the way the fade came out. It looked really bad and he agreed. He didn’t want something like that leaving his shop. I decided to call him up and we worked out a deal to do a “Cosmos” effect on the gun instead. It involves over 5+ colors to achieve the look and is one of Mario's signature designs. I figured I would rather have a good looking gun instead of one I absolutely despise.

[Bunny]

A few weeks later I put together the Cosmos E-mag and sent it over to BigEvil for a full overhaul. By now you probably realized I have an obsession with all things AGD so in my down time I saw a beautiful stock black Xmag for sale. I thought maybe I could try and trade the Cosmos E-mag and offer cash to see if I could make a deal. I worked out a great deal and hopefully the new owner will appreciate the Cosmos E-mag. I lost a lot of money from that build, but I think each person in the transaction came out fine.


*My girlfriend got Simon and TK to sign a battery pack for me at Tunaball <3

Within that time it took to reanodize the E-mag I did recieve a bit of good news. I got a message from Cyberious from my other prototype e-mag build thread and he said that he had a few original parts from the splash prototype e-mag I was trying to restore. I was super excited to see what he had.



I couldn’t believe Cyberious still had the matching barrel, sight rail, body, and selector switch. I figured they were lost forever, especially since it was chopped up 10+ years ago.

Once I got the original parts in my hand I realized that I was completely wrong about the color scheme the e-mag had. I made the mistake of looking at the original picture (on the left) and never realized how the flash made it look like a different color. I was pretty happy realizing the mistake and now I have a second chance of making this look exactly how I want it to.



For years I thought the anodizing was black to silver to black with splash, but with the original parts it showed that it was a blue/pewter fade to black splash. Later, I realized that the filename for the photograph I used as an example was call “bluefade1-190.jpg” I sure had an eureka moment after I realized that.

Now that I’m fresh out of E-mag parts my journey starts back up looking for parts to use for the 2nd build again. Luckily, I had some good timing and I was able to strike a deal with KNM to purchase a cheap Tac-One E-mag. All I needed left was a few more E-mag Jewels, STD Gripframe, aluminum powerfeed plug and a Luke Warp Bracket.



After a few more months of tracking parts I decided to contact Stephen@CausticCustoms to perform the anodizing. I have used countless anodizers in the past and after all my other anodizing woes, the only guy i’m sending my projects to is Stephen.



I sent Stephen my idea and decided to package up all the parts and send it over to him so can get a better look of the splash techniques/colors. I omitted the part that he is suppose to correctly color match a splash anodizing job from PK Selective back when they were the best anodizers out there. I didn’t want to freak him out.

I sent him the parts on a Wednesday and by Friday he sends me this picture...



This is the reason why I will only send my parts to him from now on. The way he polishes the parts is crazy. He sent me an e-mail friday night with his idea for the anodizing and since he was awaiting for another customers gun in the mail he decided to do mine next. By Sunday he sends me this...



All I could say was “wow.” It was exactly what I was looking for. Less than a week I received my package from Stephen. From door to door it took 6 days including shipping from VA to TX and back. He really puts the competition to shame :-)

The most important part of the build was to have the original look of the gun. The barrel, body, sight rail, and even the aluminum selector switch are 100% original. They are exactly the way Cyberious sent them to me. Scratches and all. I really wanted to treat the build like restoring a classic car.



So what do you guys think? In retrospect this was one of the craziest builds that I have ever done. It was such a weird experience from the highs and lows and back up again. It involved 12+ years, tons of research, an E-mag, Tac-One, X-mag, patience, $$$, luck, timing, and insanity. Personally, I think it was worth it in the long run to rebuild the two earliest E-mags in existence.

[Nobody]

great read beginning to end. your AGD/Mag research is fabulous. can't wait to peg you for my own little project, since you drank all my beer at Tunaball

[Billz804]

Awesome. Great write up, too.

[Laku]

Just, WOW!

[Levi]

Mmmm... AGD porn!

Awesome write-up and great pics!

[sjrtk]

Great build and great write up the only thing I wish i could change would to be part of it.

[suaze]

Great stuff Rob. Another beautiful build.

[Justus]

I love reading these build threads. Awesome job, man. Entertaining even for the rest of us, I can't imagine how you feel seeing it completed!

[AGD]

WOW! Blast from the past for me, thanks for keeping them alive! I will email Carl, I am sure he will love it too.

AGD!!

[BigEvil]

When do I get it to put it back together


Great job Rob!!

[Vegard]

I enjoyed this read

[Bunny]

Nobody: Lol, i'll get you back eventually.... Feel free to send a PM when you want to start your project.

AGD: Try to get him to chime in about the prototypes if you can

BigEvil: I'm waiting for a few more projects to come back before I send them on up

Every one else: Thanks for the kind words. It is a lot of work to come up with all of the information so I really hope you guys enjoy it.

[DarkRipper]

Ah, my old Emag.

I REALLY wanted to like that gun but it was horrible. It was beautiful and the design was amazing, but it was so inaccurate... That was my main issue. The electronics worked fine while I had it... I just couldn't hit anything, no matter what barrel I used.

Tom Kaye offered me a full replacement gun/revvie/etc for it but I didn't take him up on it.

I'm glad to see it's not at the bottom of a landfill. /edit wait, I guess there's only some parts left?

Interesting history work up, thanks!

DR

[djinnform]

So rad! I just mailed a box of parts to Stephan 5 minutes ago.

[hobbesTZ]

That blue to purple is the single nicest Emag I have ever seen.

[Bunny]

Living Legends 7 Update: Picture me, sitting at the LL7 paintball museum with KayleAGD talking about old mag parts. While he was rifling through his old parts box, I spot a splash e-mag frame. I instantly knew what I was looking at. I ask if I could see the grip frame and I walked over to the museum wall and put up the frame to my finished e-mag. It is the EXACT e-mag frame that was missing off this gun many years ago. I was pretty stunned to see it and showed Kayle what was going on. He told me he also has the rail somewhere, but it was cut many years ago to fit a warp body.



What are the odds?

[Bunny]

Second Update: Just got the rail in. I still can't believe after all these years I was able to track down more parts to this gun. The only things I am missing are the warp bracket and the battery pack. The rail may look a bit crazy, but I really like seeing the history of this gun all chopped up. I just want to say thanks to Melissa and Kayle for sending the rail over to me

[fishmishin]

You never cease to amaze me bro, wow. That is way cool getting your hands on even more original parts to that marker !!

[Dayspring]

I remember when he pulled that out of the box. I thought you'd hit low orbit when you saw it!

[blackdeath1k]

That's pretty cool.

[Ragu310]

That's awesome!

[bowcycle]

awesome that you got even more parts and thanks for resurrecting this thread. It's a great read.

[BigEvil]

I remember when he pulled that out of the box. I thought you'd hit low orbit when you saw it!

HAHAHA. I thought he was going to jack him right there and then..

"Sharron, start the car..."