Author Topic: HurricanE Kimber Tactical Entry II  (Read 7267 times)

Offline Windos

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HurricanE Kimber Tactical Entry II
« on: August 10, 2012, 06:52:57 pm »
Recently I had the opportunity to assemble a HurricanE full metal kit of the Kimber Tactical Entry II.


Real Steel
From Kimber America:

Combines the performance-enhancing features
demanded by law enforcement and military
professionals with .45 ACP power.




What the kit includes


The main part of the kit is the beautifully engraved (metal) slide and frame (with integrated rail.) All the trademarks are deep and accurate.

The kit also comes with a lot of extra parts to make a decent replica of the Tactical Entry II:

  • Metal Barrel (Silver).
  • Upgraded recoil spring... 120%/150%? I'm not sure.
  • A mag well to attach to the MEU style main spring housing.
  • Correct trigger, magazine release, slide lock and Kimber style sights.


What's "missing"?
As good as the kit is, there are some extra parts "needed" to make an accurate replica:

  • Full length guide rod (and obviously a matching open ended guide rod plug.)
  • Kimber style grip safety.
  • Kimber style ambi thumb safety.
  • Kimber combat(?) hammer.

The donor gun
The donor gun used for this build is actually two halves of two different Tokyo Marui pistols. The slide was from the MEU and the frame was from the Night Warrior.




Other parts used
There were a few extra "performance boosting" parts used in this build. For the record these are the only internal upgrades I consider really "worth it" unless you’re replacing broken parts.

First we have a PDI Raven 6.01mm inner barrel.


Second up is a light weight Blowback Housing from 5KU.


Finally a Nine Ball hop rubber.



The build
This kit is... amazing. All internal parts were literally drop in (i.e. no parts required work in order to fit into place.) This meant that the initial assembly was just a matter of a complete disassembly and reassembly, swapping in the kit and aftermarket parts where appropriate.

The main portion of the work comes from fitting the slide to the frame. As this was my first metal kit, this process took a long time as I was being over cautious about taking off too much material when filing and sanding the rails. Slowly but surely however, the slide became a lot smoother and is now a pleasure to manipulate.

The kit looks great and I would not hesitate in getting one for myself if the opportunity came about.


What I learnt
BE CAREFUL WHEN SWAPPING TRIGGERS. This is definitely the part in all pistol work that I am the weakest at... those damn tiny pins that hold the trigger to the trigger bow are a bitch to remove.

In trying to remove them during this build I actually bent/misshaped the trigger bow which caused all sorts of performance issues (which I thought originated elsewhere and spent many hours trying to fix in that other area.) Swapping out the trigger instantly sorted out the problem. Lesson learned, outstanding favour called in to replace the bent bow.


The finished product







Random picture build log, with a little bit of comentary

First steps in disassembling the donor gun, slide and frame separated and barrel bushing removed.


Next to go is the ambi thumb safety.


Then the main spring housing.


I was curious to see how the mag well worked so decided to do that straight away, first you have to remove the lanyard loop.


And bash the mag well into place (with finesse :P)


With the main spring housing and thumb safety gone, the grip safety comes out too.


All the innards, out on display. Notice tape on the other side of the inner frame? That is to make sure a tiny spring stays in place, better safe than sorry.


Tiny, annoying, pins out of the trigger. Separated from the bow.


New trigger fitted.


With that done, the frame is reassembled easily.


Fitting the aftermarket barrel and hop rubber.


Hop back together and about to be inserted into the new metal outer barrel. The outer barrel is pretty loose, but doesn't appear to cause issues when firing the pistol.


First fitment of slide to frame... this is as far as it would go. Out came the needle files and sand paper, it took a few hours to get it right (and probably still could do with a little fine tuning.)
"This thread has just stuck its head up its own arse and is back where it started.."

Offline Windos

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Re: HurricanE Kimber Tactical Entry II
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2012, 10:56:56 pm »
Tried setting up a ghetto light tent/box... then the lamp I wanted to use blew a brand new bulb, then the other lamp I thought I might try instead blew yet another bulb.

So here are some pictures of this Tactical Entry II in a ghetto light box with light by my phones LED flash, not as ideal as intended lmao.

















"This thread has just stuck its head up its own arse and is back where it started.."