WHO ARE WE?

The title, "WHO ARE WE", is a bit of a lie. Everything you see here, the 3D models, fancy renders, and graphic design etc, was made by myself, Jon.

From a young age, I have always enjoyed playing with airsoft guns. I would browse and window shop for guns I could never afford at the time, shoot my friends with the spring pistols we owned, and spend countless hours watching skirmish videos (thanks, Scoutthedoggie). Then, everything changed when my mum bought my first automatic electric gun (labelled as "AEG"), which was the Double Eagle M900A, an AK47 model. The performance jump compared to the spring pistols was insane in terms of range and rate of fire.

However, the excitement was short-lived as, to rudely discover on the second day of owning it, the internal plastic gears had shredded themselves such that the gun no longer fired. But, I saw the opportunity to take it apart and learn how the mechanical systems worked so that I could fix it myself. So, with my pocket change, I purchased spare parts here and there to keep it going.

When I finally had more money as an adult, I began exploring all sorts of platforms and bought many second-hand items just to take them apart and learn how they functioned. Through this, I realised that there was a lot of copying and pasting of the same products. The same M4 and AK models released each year. Clones built upon clones, repackaged with superficial changes, a new brand name slapped on it, and often came with the same flaws as all the others that came before it.

By around 2020, the market had begun to feel very stale to me. There was hardly anything worth exploring anymore as I already knew what to expect from most platforms, from their strengths and weaknesses to the upgrades they needed. At the same time, I had started getting into desktop 3D printers, as the ability to create something in CAD from your imagination and have it in front of you within a few hours was magical to me. So, with decent knowledge of airsoft systems from years of tinkering, and wizardly skill in 3D modelling, I made the decision to design my own airsoft platform from scratch, which would go on to become the MOSQUITO.

The MOSQUITO quickly became very popular on Printables with the public release of the Open Beta 1 model. It was lightweight, compact, easy to make, and still had the same firepower as every other airsoft gun. I had actually succeeded in designing something different and practical. At the same time, I also established the HYBRID ARMORY community on Discord to gather other creative individuals who also enjoyed 3D printed airsoft designs and could provide valuable feedback to improve the MOSQUITO.