The first time I remember seeing airsoft guns was back in the early 90’s, when cheap springers hit the markets in Finland. Back then the guns were plastic toys without hop-up, and a life span of less than two months was expected. These were marketed as toys and toys they were, at least to brats like us running around in the woods. Thinking back we were lucky to avoid serious accidents. The fun lasted for one summer or so and the young minds of ours found something else to do. The sport was put aside, but not forgotten.

The spring of 2000 came along with my 18th birthday and a couple of friends of mine and my brother started to play anew. In those days Airsoft was starting to really grow in Finland, and people were starting to get a bit more organized. You could buy Marui AEG’s from a couple of stores, but back then they cost an arm and a leg. Gas weapons and stock AEG’s dominated the game fields, but at least a third of the players still played with springers. Soon I was a happy owner of a TM MP5K PDW while my brother opted for a TM G3 SG/1. Upgrades were still a rarity, but even back then we couldn’t resist trying to make our weapons a bit more powerful than those of the rest of the crew. A couple of weeks after our guns had arrived, the G3 was laying on the kitchen table with its mechbox completely broken down and two bright minds seeking for the lost spring guide that somehow had managed to launch itself from the box. After puzzling over how the thing was supposed to work we managed to put it together so that it even worked. Leftovers included all the shims of the mechbox, so the sound of the AEG was kind of funny. Needless to say, soon after that experiment a new spur gear was needed. This little setback didn’t stop us from gaining knowledge of the technical aspects of airsoft and soon we both had upgraded guns that even worked.

Quite soon the so called scenario games came along, and we started to travel around Finland and met lots of different people. The sport itself grew each year and we were in the middle of it all. Soon it became evident that there was a great demand for information in Finnish. Sure, there were couple of small websites with some gun reviews etc. but very little related to the technical aspects of airsoft. Me and some of my team mates saw this problem and decided to do something about it. After one year of development juoksuhauta.net (Finnish for “trench”) was launched in the end of 2002. This was the first time I really started to write something about airsoft. From the beginning we set our goals quite high. Articles weren’t published if they didn’t exceed certain standards and everything was to look as professional as possible. During the same time I started my studies in the Helsinki University of Technology, and soon noticed that some of the scientific way of writing had leeched into my writing style.

In the summer 2002 I began my compulsory military service and opted for NCO training. After a year in army greens, Airsoft for me continued as before. Games got larger and larger and everything around the sport grew. In the beginning of 2005 Fire-Publications Ltd. from Finland decided to start publishing an Airsoft-magazine. As writing and photographing had been hobbies of mine, I decided to try my skills in a real magazine. Freelance work was fun and writing fees were welcome to a poor student like me. No one really expected much from the magazine, but it soon became evident that it was a rising star. Very soon Softaaja secured its place in the Finnish airsoft-scene.

The last couple of years have been quite busy for me. I still try to participate in the weekend games and keep my playing skills as high as I can. We are still traveling to various scenario games, but our range has expanded to cover Northern Europe. Maybe in couple of years we will be packing our gear for even longer trips. Airsoft itself is evolving very fast. People are becoming more and more international and the technical side of the hobby is flying high at the moment. It’s very interesting to see what is going to happen during the next few years.

So what I do in Airsoft Soldier? You guys and gals will see some of my regular weapon/gear reviews, but my specialty is going to be technical and mechanical things as well as some “scientific” stuff. In addition to the articles some of the photographs seen on the pages will be mine. I’ll hope that you will enjoy reading the magazine as much as I like doing it.

Cheers - Antti