paintballHomepaintballPicturespaintballTechnicalpaintballTournamentpaintballRecreationalpaintballFieldspaintballStorespaintball
paintballBeginner InfopaintballNews And ArticlespaintballLinkspaintballResourcespaintballVideopaintballContact UspaintballSearchpaintball

A look at the WDP Angel

by
Paul Mavor

 HTML conversion by Bill Mills


 

My girlfriend bought me a T-shirt last year with the slogan "He who dies with the most toys wins". To many paintballers, myself included, this is their life motto. If their Paintball marker is not the sexiest paint monster around then they will upgrade at all costs. The Angel is the latest in the next generation of electropneumatic markers and is made in England by WDP the same people who brought you Forrest Paint and Hyperball.

Features

The gun itself features many standard features that are upgrades in most other guns. These include I was puzzled at first as to why a sight rail was built when the feed port is vertical and any line of sight would be obscured by the elbow. The Angel's creator John Rice told me that the sight rail was there purely for aesthetics. It also serves to strengthen the construction of the main body which is really very solid. When the marker was being developed they weren't quite sure whether the market was ready for a vertical feed hopper and left the sight rail in the design in case they reverted to a left or right hand feed. The vertical feed proved successful as testing showed it could feed 1.6 paintballs more per second than other models.

The bolt is made of very lightweight industrial strength plastic called nyloil that is very readily removable from the gun by pulling a single knob and rotating it 90 degrees at the back of the gun. Called Rotabreech, this is a really excellent feature that saves loads of time when cleaning.

The Angel comes in semi or full auto option which is changed via a chip beneath the hand grip. Timing and velocity of fire can be adjusted on this chip to fire up to 15 shots a second although it is factory set at between 10 and 12. The fully auto chip is devastating but for legal reasons can at present only be sold in the US where it comes as standard.

Like the RT Automag the Angel is air or nitrogen only.

I must admit that I was a little worried at first that the Angel having circuitry and batteries inside would be a bit fragile. This is definitely not the case. I have seen a couple of Angels take knocks that would have broken other markers in two. Instead only the elbow was snapped off.

Electronics

The Angel charges up from a cigarette lighter which plugs into the back of the gun. I was a bit worried about this at first because what happens in the middle of a game if you get a flat battery when you need it the most. Fortunately a full charge will give you 500,000 shots (a whopping 200 cases of paint) or 20,000 if you are using a VL2001 the add on extra hopper. I personally wouldn't leave my expensive new toy in my car for all to see (and steal!) but I am told an adapter to fit into a home PowerPoint is readily available at an electronics store such as Dick Smith/Tandy/Radioshack. These deliver enough power to theoretically charge up 50 Angels at a time so would certainly do the business.

A LCD display will be developed for the back of the marker when the market is ready for it. This will feature a display of

Testing

I gave the Angel a good workout with 300 paintballs over a radar chronograph. All the shots fired were between 285 and 299 fps and were very accurate. The Angel had zero shoot down which meant as fast as I could pull the trigger there were no duff shots.The gun itself is incredibly silent and if it wasn't for the great splotches of paint in a tight grouping I wouldn't have realised it was firing at all. The trigger pull is really light and can be adjusted to be even lighter. Velocity is adjustable in two ways:


Both these turning screws are recessed so neither needs a locking nut for tournament play.

Intellifeed Hopper/VL2001

This is an add on extra to the Angel but is well worth the few extra dollars. It is basically a Viewloader 2000 hopper with souped up paddles and a lead directly into the back of the marker. When the fire rate is greater than 1 shot per second then the paddle will start turning to feed paintballs. This system is alleged to feed paintballs 40% faster than a standard Shredder hopper. This equates to up to 15 paintballs per second which is the fastest the marker can fire. It also has the advantage that when you are sneaking about the field the motor on your hopper won't suddenly start whirring giving away your position when you accidentally tip your hopper on the side.

Factory

The Birmingham factory where they produce the marker has 10 full time staff working 24 hours in two shifts. Something like 80% of the markers they produce are sold to the States where the Angel is doing big business. The rest are sold in Europe and world-wide.

The Angel was designed and invented by John Rice. He has a good background for the job having studied metallurgy for 5 years at Cambridge and worked most of his life in the electronics industry for such giants as General Electric Corporation (GEC). With the Angel he combined his hobby and his career when he joined WDP as technical director 2 years ago.

Mods/Alterations

The original Angel as released has not been altered very much since its launch in early 97. The only slight changes have been a stronger exhaust valve and a slightly heavier trigger pull. On the first batch of 100 or so markers the trigger pull was too light especially with the addition of double finger triggers causing the marker go off whilst the player was walking the field. This has now been remedied. Apart from the double trigger mod and the aesthetically pleasing splash anodising there is not a lot else to do to improve the standard set up of the Angel. Planet Paintball have developed a low pressure mod which although it may improve performance has the down side of using more air. The Eclipse Angel also features a machined body which is lightened and restyled.

Maintenance

To maintain the Angel to fire pallet loads of paint then all that is needed is a good lubricant. Automag lube or a similar non hydrogen based lubricant such as high grade engineering oil is ideal. There is only one major moving part - the bolt - and this deserves special attention. Simply wipe the outside lightly with oil and wipe of any excess. The electronics can be tested by an on board self test diagnosis detailed in the manual. Service kits are available but are really only for qualified repair agents and dealerships.

Conclusion

Unfortunately it won't make you play better Paintball but the Angel will certainly give you the edge in competition play. This is only the first generation of electropneumatics and will set the standard for the future. Buds and Mags - watch out!

Copyright © 1992-2019 Corinthian Media Services.

WARPIG's webmasters can be reached through our feedback form.  All articles and images are copyrighted and may not be redistributed without the written permission of their original creators and Corinthian Media Services. The WARPIG paintball page is a collection of information and pointers to sources from around the internet and other locations. As such, Corinthian Media Services makes no claims to the trustworthiness or reliability of said information. The information contained in, and referenced by WARPIG, should not be used as a substitute for safety information from trained professionals in the paintball industry.