Restoring a Marushin Beretta M-84.............

Hi,

Great to see a website dedicated to this.

Along with L&S, Crown and Marui, I found Marushin the finest model gun kit manufacturer.

I bought two Beretta's in 1989 and need to replace some worn parts. The schematics on plugfirecapgunsuk's site look identical to the original manual I still have, albeit mine being in English.

I e-mailed plugfirecapgunsuk, as of yet they have seemingly been too busy to answer me, so I would like to throw this to the forum;

I have 3 questions :

1. Is there any other trustworthy company who can supply spares to the UK? I have had mixed reviews of dentrinity and their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

2. In my opinion,  the three parts which will attract the most attention will be the slide, barrel and PFC shells, the rest are randon cast metal parts, not obviously gun. Regardless of the courier, will these still be under scrutiny by customs, even in a dissambled state?

3. In the picture of the Beretta M-84 on the plugfirecapgunsuk site, the slide clearly says Pierce Bullet Guardian MI Cal 9 Short whereas my version says PIETRO BERETTA GARDONE VT Cal. 9 Short. What's that all about?

I would appreciate any help.

Best

Loopylou

Hi Loopylou, and welcome to the forum.

You might try www.mg-props.co.uk or www.modelguncollector.co.uk.  Both stock, or can get, a variety of model gun spare parts and are very helpful.  I have a Wa Shan M84, from mg-props, which I am told is a copy of the Marushin version.  I don't know if the parts are interchangeable.  Both sites are reliable and have given me good service over a number of years.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Horsemarine,

Will let you know how I get on, have sent an e-mail to one of the links.

Best

Loopylou

Hi Loopylou

Your model from the markings you describe and the date purchased is one of old "side fire" cartridge models I think. The one on plugfirecapgunsuk is a center fire cartridge model.
So there are some differences.... does yours have a center fire firing pin??

Also out of interest, is your model one of the ones with a metallic finish on the plastic?

Yes the wa shan model was based on the Marushin, but they are not 100% compatible, I just tried here and there are quite a few differences... so it would depend on which parts are needed, also the wa shan is metal and yours is ABS plastic, so for instance the wa shan metal slide on the ABS marushin would have a great deal of trouble blowing back...
To be honest I think you may have problems getting spares for such an old Marushin, they are not that good at spares for current models!!
1st step is to list the parts you need:)

Dear JohnnyV (or Johnny7 OMA?),

Thank you for your post. This is the model:

https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t3452-marushin-beretta-m84

If that the centre pin or side fire model?

The more I read about these Marushin gun kits, the more useless I begin to learn they were, breaking constantly. My model is in black , no blue finish. I once tried to get hold of the Marui blue effect Auto-Mag, (1987) but had to buy the scope sight model which only came in black.....

The reality is, although purchased in 1989-1990, by all accounts these guns might even be as old as 1982, I think? The reason I bought two, was that the first, as you described broke very quickly. I bought the second in haste predicting similar and it broke just as fast.

This was not helped by the fact that I manufactured my own caps from a bastardisation of Marui orange hollow caps and toy gun plastic cap powder, I blew the slide askew on my forth ejection.................

I am waiting on several replies from suppliers and will see where this leads.

Thanks again

Loopylou

Loopylou wrote:

https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t3452-marushin-beretta-m84
If  that the centre pin or side fire model?

Linked instruction is for a side-fire version.
You can see it by how hammer strike is forwarded to the cartridge, to push it onto detonator pin.

Side-fire uses a firing plate (not central), a metal bracket that will push whole cartridge (with solid bottom) onto detonator pin. Center-fire uses a central firing pin, which will only push a moving pin located on bottom of the cartridge.

See picture in this thread for cartridge cut-throughs. "PFC (old)" is side-fire, "PFC (new)" is center-fire.
https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t2280-guide-to-cartridge-types

Here is photo of center-fire cartridge, note that pin can be removed from cartridge bottom:
https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t2485-marushin-for-m84cf
Note how it differs in construction from side-fire cartridge, where pin is integral with cartridge bottom piece. It only looks removeable due to steel spot on brass surface, but is fixed:
https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t2488-marushin-95x27mm-uzi-mp40-sdmk-i


When you look inside your side-fire model, you should be able to see either firing plate, which is the brownish U-shape around silver fixed part (not the pin above it!):



In center-fire model there is a firing pin, here made of white plastic (center-fire):

If they are the instructions I uploaded then it is the side fire version. Of all of the Marushin kits I have, this one is the weakest. The trigger action on mine has always been poor. I lost a pin on mine and it was never the same again. I still have it, but lost the cartridges over a couple of house moves...

All of the other kits have never "broken" on me (I have to be careful as in the past 8 days a TV broke, the central heating Boiler broke, the iron caught fire and today I broke my expensive varifocal glasses!!)

A

Hi all,

Wow, getting such a response here. It has been great hearing from others.

Smootik, I cannot believe the depth of answer you gave me. Thanks so much. I thought I knew everything about model gun kits, but the more I browse here, the more I find out I don't know.

Browning, I have left you a private message, as it is not gun kit related, but may go some way to getting your boiler going again.

Best

Loopylou

Loopylou wrote:

Smootik, I cannot believe the depth of answer you gave me. Thanks so much. I thought I knew everything about model gun kits, but the more I browse here, the more I find out I don't know.

I'm glad it was helpful :-)
I still learn too, and get surprised by things I had no clue about, even after all those years of collecting and learning from guys on the forum.

I think most answers have already been given. I too think you should have a side fire version from the 1980s. I have one myself, it came in metal finish which is said to rub off easily so I never handled it much. I am not sure if there will be spares available. Maybe forum member Shazhib from Japan can help, but finding old spares is very difficult, even for him in Japan.