Description

I am sure no one would expect to see an article on a Tupperware® here, were you? Just to prove you how impartial I am, when Hawkmoon and I were designing the Airsoft Project, we decided to include a Glock in the reviews, since Glocks are widely used by shooters and LEOs, so using an Airsoft equivalent for training purposes could be interesting to some of our members.

The pistol I choose to review and test is a Taiwanese version of the Glock 19. It is made by a company called KWA, and was kindly provided to M1911.ORG by the good folks at Airsoft Extreme. There are several Airsoft versions of the G19 in the market, made by several companies. There is a strong debate also, about if the KWA version is the same with the G19 made by KSC, which is a Japanese company. I am not going to enter into this debate, since I have no access to the KSC version, but by comparing the pistol I have in hands with the ones made by KSC, and shown at various Internet sites, I can say that there are at least some cosmetic differences and two functional differences—but more about those below.

So let's see what you get when you buy the KWA Glock 19 from Airsoft Extreme.

First of all, I have no idea what the box in which the G19 is usually packaged looks like, for the simple reason that the pistol was first send to Hawkmoon, who collected all the Airsoft pistols we received, and then forwarded to me for the testing. I've asked Hawkmoon to send me this one, without the box, for reasons related to the stupidity of the Greek Customs. Hawkmoon provided the photo you see here.



The top of the box is cardboard, which slips over a formed plastic “bead board” tray designed to hold the pistol in one recess, and the accessories in a separate compartment. This arrangement appears to be somewhat the norm for pistols originating from companies whose names begin with ‘K.’ (Compare with the photo of the box in Hawkmoon’s review of the P14.)

The KWA G19 is as ugly as the real pistol. However, when I first took it into my hands, I kind of liked the feeling (I then asked my wife to take my temperature, to make sure I wasn't sick or anything). Here is the pistol, as it came to me.



The pistol has a metallic slide and outer barrel, all painted black in a way which imitates the Tenifer treatment of a real Glock's slide. The G19 that I got, was definitely the ... stealthiest pistol I've ever seen. It is totally devoted of any markings, except a dummy serial number in the usual location for a Glock.



Nothing else was inscribed on the pistol: no Glock logo, no model number, nothing! I do not particularly care for the logos etc, and I actually liked it that way. Imagine how difficult it would be to remove the Glock logo and replace it with the Tupperware one?? LoL.



Another thing that is missing, is the trigger safety found in a real Glock. The trigger is slotted to for the safety and drilled for the safety pin, but the safety is not there. This is one of the differences between the KSC G19 and the KWA one.



Again, since this is not a real pistol, I do not care much for its omission, but if you are after a really correct imitation of the real-steel (steel? I should have said "real plastic") pistol, please be aware of this difference. Also, be aware that this difference exists only in USA, from what I hear, in Europe, both KWA and KSC pistols are sold with the trigger safety installed. The sights are consistent with the real pistol ones. A triangular front with a white dot, and a rear with a white line around the sight opening.



The front sight is unfortunately secured in a very cheap way, the tenon of the sight is just melted to form a round patch of plastic, and this is the only thing that secures the sight on the slide. Maybe I should visit the local Glock distributor and ask for another one!



Coming to the frame, it is nicely checkered the way the real Glock frames are, at the rear and the front strap, as well as at the trigger guard area. The sides of the grip are stippled in a more subdued way, and include two minute thumb rests, which help when gripping the pistol, without being obtrusive.



Quality-wise, the frame has a seam all along its middle-line, which if seen on a 1911 Airsoft pistol would be a reason to totally dismiss it, however I am not sure if the real Glocks do not have this seam around their frames too. There is nothing functionally wrong with this, it is just an appearance problem.



The front of the frame's dustcover is contoured to include a fully-functional light rail. And I say fully functional, since some other pistols I've tried had a light rail for appearance only, and I am referring to the Hi-Capa here, whose light rail is not dimensionally correct, and does not include the securing cuts. The G19 light rail is perfect, if not a little too tight a fit.




Finally, the pistol which came to me, was customized by Airsoft Extreme with an upgraded recoil spring by Guarder, and upgraded magazine gas valve by Hurricane. The magazine's capacity is 22 rounds.

In the next page, you can read how to disassemble the pistol and our shooting tests results.