As contrary to the armourer on my last post, here is another armourer from "the land down under" who seems to be way better off than his competitors:

http://www.motionpicturearmourer.com/catalogue.doc

Not only his hardwares are up-to-date (says the latest M4 variant - must be post-1996), it seems the current legislations does not affect his collection whatsoever...so I came up with 2 conclusions:

1) He made his guns with his lathe and other relevant machinery (shown on the last 2 pages) so he doesn't have to export his guns after it is used;

2) He has another armoury nearby Australia (assumably Thailand because it is the most firearm-friendly country around the Asia-Pacific region) so after a gun is used he can simply store it back overseas until it will be used for another film...

I would love to be as talented as him!

Not Thailand, Jim, they have a very small inventory of prop guns there, and some co-production companies actually recommend using an Australian armorer.

Didn't find them to be gun friendly at all, lots of gun shops on one particular street, owned by Indians, with no inventory, just catalogues, and/or grips, it was rather strange. Licensing is a big deal, there.

The bigger shows use armorers from the UK, the US or Australia, at least this is what I am being told (we are prepping a very "gun-heavy" production, that may shoot in Northern Thailand at the moment.)

The guns available in Thailand are somewhat old, and unreliable, there are military weapons available, but they come with soldiers or police guard on set, and are not adapted for movie use, ie, they have external military blank adaptors which look pretty bad. The Minimi came with a bright red BFA, which we sprayed black, which then smoked like mad as it heated up.

http://www.siameye.tv/services.html

This is one of the companies we are talking to, you may have to scroll around to the weapons section, the link looks indirect.

*On my last trip, the armorer showed me a photograph of his inventory, amongst the rusty AK's, I did find a pair of MAT49's that looked like they had been dug up at Dien Bien Phu, and a Guide lamp Grease gun that absolutely refused to cycle. 1908 Luger's and 1911 .45's that looked like they'd fought on the losing team in every conflict since their design.

JJ

I suggested Mr Fox had his armoury (assumed strictly for storage only - don't have a business there) in Thailand because as no new guns are allowed for Australian armourers, they have to find somewhere nearby to store their new additions (instead of getting rid of them everytime a film finishes) - I won't dare to imagine what'll happen to the guns & Mr Fox himself if the guns are stored in Papua New Guinea / Fiji / Vietnam (Indonesia may not be a bad choice though)...and I'm sure if I ask Mr Fox where he store his guns he'll simply ignore me...

First let me get off the topic a bit...if you're looking for good armourers to work with then you can consider the 2 theatrical weapon suppliers in Hong Kong. They'd already participated in numerous Hollywood productions and I'm quite certain they're the more economical choices (depends on what you're after)...

OK back to your response...Thailand in comparison is already the most gun-friendly around the entire Asia-Pacific region (imagine the neighbouring countries - even chewing gums are prohibited). In the early 90s, anybody can buy .22 calibre pistols like toys (i.e. no licence required) and apart from the .45 and larger calibre, licences were extremely easy to obtain for .38, 9mm (even for .40 S&W because it's just under .45).

It is unfortunately the world trend to tighten up the gun laws and Thailand's no exception (since 1994-95), gun shops started not to display their guns (mainly for security reasons) and after they sold up their .45 guns no new stock added since (i.e. now on special orders only).

When I looked into the window displays back then, most on display were shotguns and before, SPAS 12 & 15 were considered as sporting shotguns as well (at least it wasn't restricted and every shop stocked) - all become the history...especially after all these anti-government movements.

On top of that, guns are extremely expensive (especially the import tax imposed on those made in the US & the Europe - expect 5 times the normal prices for certain models) and therefore many Asian/African clones available on the Thai market (e.g. Egyptian Berettas "Helwan" & Indonesian Hi-Powers "Pindad").

The Gun Street that you're talking about is close to Chinatown - but I don't think even the taxi drivers know how to get there...if my memory serves me right (I'd read it somewhere) then the largest shop owned by the Indians was the exclusive retailer of Browning guns...

Finally...the Australian company that Siameye suggested must be the good old Mr Fox!

That's very interesting, Jim, thank you!

Yes, you have been to that same street I think, and it was near their huge China town I seem to recall - even though I couldn't find any guns, I did buy some crazy mother of pearl and colored stone pistol grips, that I have never seen anywhere else for sale (they are kind of ugly and wouldn't really cut it here, I suppose), I used them on the three boxed revolvers Keith David (as the Jazzman) carried in the movie I shot there.

I will look into the Chinese armorer possibility, we will use a Thai coproduction company, so it really depends on whomever they have a relationship with.

JJ