The Future of VORSK Livestream: Ross and Tom from talk new and future VORSK releases!
Ross and Tom
Ross was formerly the head of NUPROL's marketing team and has since taken the position of creative lead at VORSK, being responsible for a large part of the design work and development of VORSK's product line. Ross is deeply involved in the design process at VORSK, with many designs originating from his concept sketches and being tested by him personally.
We have met Tom before, back when he was a NUPROL marketing team member. Now he has risen to Ross's former position as NUPROL's marketing manager and has taken over many of Ross's old duties.
Ross put it best, to quote the man himself: "Who we are? We are excited Airsofters who like business, creative ideas, and especially love the industry, it's the best industry in the world as far as we're concerned!"
These two gentlemen are the big guys of both NUPROL and VORSK, and we are very grateful that they have joined us for the steam, and even more so for the insight they have given us into their design process, their aims as a brand and some of the exciting and unique platforms they have coming for us down the line!
So, on to the interview! We had some excellent questions from both our viewers and of course Stu, our host, and some thoughtful, honest and insightful answers from both Ross and Tom. We are also treated to some hints of what is to come from VORSK, and a sneak peek of one of their awesome upcoming GBB pistols! If you watched the stream live you are amongst the first lucky few to be introduced to this unique, stylish and practical GBB handgun!
Q: VORSK is the younger part of the pairing with NURPOL, what was the ethos behind it, where did VORSK come from and why was it necessary to bring VORSK to the market?
ROSS: "VORSK was brought to the market as one of those brands for our "what if" ideas, with no limitations and without being beholden to a real-world platform. There is no limit with VORSK designs, we just make things that we think are really cool. VORSK is born of a vision of creating something unique and exciting!"
Q: You can see from the things behind me right here that you aren't spending a lot of time chasing licencing and stuff like that, if you have a shape or design in mind that's really really cool, do you just make it into an Airsoft platform?
ROSS: "Yeah, pretty much, it's like the Top Gear of Airsoft! For me, I have always been very into getting things right, like making sure everything is 1:1 but equally, the way the industry has gone and is going, having free creative control of this kind of stuff is quite important and the industry is going that way anyway. Being able to create all these projects at VORSK, we will go over some of the ones that are already here, there is a unique story behind every single one, and I think that is what is different about VORSK."
Q: We are talking about this before the stream, I have been at it (Airsofting) now for 15-20 years, as a player not necessarily working in it but back then it was all, not stitch perfect, but you were chasing a look, you wanted your rifle to look like this or that, have things changed?
ROSS: "Oh man, you are talking to a guy that was worried about what aerial I had on my fake radio! Yeah, I'm actually quite jealous of all the options available to new players now, I think my first skirmish was in 2003 maybe 2002, and yep it was all sort of funnelled into milsim or open day. Nowadays, Milsim stuff is cool and I really enjoy it myself, I think there is definitely a place for it but people also want unique guns which is where VORSK comes into play."
Q: We tell people every time, play Airsoft how you want to play it! Is the aim of VORSK is giving people that option?
ROSS: "100 per cent, that's it for me, at VORSK we are not trying to force anything on you, NURPOL do loads of milsim replica options. VORSK, for me, is about having something that has an identifier, it's unique but in a way that is believable. It has a boutique American firearms vibe to it, this stuff could easily be available in the real world. And then you've got stuff like the OSIRIS that has just launched and the story behind that, for me personally piqued my interest years ago, and we just had to make it. That was a project that we chased for quite a long time, a bit of a vanity project!"
Q: That change in the Airsoft community, going into the Sci-fi "what is possible" style replicas must give you a wealth of design ideas. Where does that process start, pencil drawing or?
ROSS: "Basically that, pencil drawings! We pretty much draw something, and take inspiration from real-world platforms, we have a very unique setup for what we do. Some of the stuff you end up with is hideous, to be blunt, but some of it is really cool, and we wonder "why haven't we done this before?" It goes from drawing to 3D designers, becomes a 3D model and then is prototyped. After this, we get our shooting sample."
Q: Does each one of these steps potentially have a hard stop if something goes wrong?
ROSS: "I have had projects that have made their way to 3D and we have just decided against continuing. You have to draw from your experience, and I think that for us, everything we do I can tell you now, directly, is with passion and love for this sport and this industry, and what we design. And you will find that sometimes if it doesn't fit into that mould the harsh reality is you can't push it and you just have to leave it."
Q: The OSIRIS, the history of this is what started this one off, rather than a pencil drawing. This was to be the go-to full auto platform for a pistol. As you can see, as an M9 this is very different, you can't see the barrel, it is a full-auto pistol with select-fire, and you've built this from the ground up when it comes to the slide and all that?
ROSS: "Yeah, so for that you're quite constrained, that comes with the Milsim passion. How do you make it correct, but make it unique and make it VORSK, there is definitely a line to be crossed, with the VM9, that we have yet to announce, though I guess we are announcing it now, that has a lot more VORSK styling."
Q: If you are watching live you are the first to ever see this. Obviously, it's got a lot of kit on, this one. Very different, you've got the cuts in the slide, the serrations at the back?
ROSS: "Again for that, you are less constrained. The OSIRIS was designed off something that existed that I felt needed to be resurrected. The VM9 is just safe or semi, it's not select fire but it has the VORSK look with its cut slide, and the stippled grip. You can see design-wise, the VM9 is pretty mad, it actually has an actual RIS rail to mount a red dot!"
Q: The dot you see on the top of this, you normally see with some of the other pistols mounted directly to the slide. With the VM9 you have about an inch and a half of 20mm rail on the back, could you put a T1 red dot on it, or another red dot?
ROSS: "You can take the red dot off, and the rail beneath it is not screwed on, it's not going to loosen over time or come off because it's actually part of the mould. You also have the rear iron sight which is visible down the centre of the RIS. It's quite unique, but I'm not silly, some people are looking at this now saying "ahh my eyes!" I get that, but that's the point, it's more options for Airsofters with different tastes. The VM9 has been a funny one as it's gone through various production stages. We have been quite up and down, and one minute we will think "oh I dunno, it's quite different" but other days we think "ooh actually this is quite nice". So it's practical, it's supposed to be used, you might not want to put a suppressor on the front or a torch on, that's fine, but it has that option."
From Daniel on Youtube: Would VORSK sell parts, like slides so we can change colours?
ROSS: "Interesting question, we already do for some of the Hi-capas and EU pistols. We kinda haven't pushed it yet as a brand because it's more about building platforms, but VORSK is very young and one of our goals is to provide parts availability for all of our platforms. VORSK is viewed as a platform, an ecosystem, that's why we have our gasses and ammunition, you don't have to use it if you don't want but when we are producing we have to have a benchmark."
TOM: "Going back to the point about spares, one of the things you mentioned in the original vision is that you wanted customers to have access to spares, the journey from the original factory and production to the end-user in the UK can be quite long. So if you want parts you can contact us or your local shop."
Q: That is a big thing in airsoft, as soon as anyone gets anything its "what can I add to it, what can I do to it" but touching on what you were saying about testing and the design process, you have brought the gas out and are testing on your range, so going forwards all your platforms are tested on your own gas and ammo?
ROSS: "Correct, that kinda goes back to the ecosystem thing. So for me, when we get our shooting samples we only use V6, V8 and V12. The idea is the pressures and the gasses we use are consistent. When it comes to early development we use high pressure air, otherwise, we would be going through thousands of cans of gas a year!"
Q: Is that more for functionality than performance?
ROSS: "Correct, once we have got it to a shooting point we start testing with our gas. The HPA we use is at the correct pressure to simulate our gasses but we use our gas during the final tuning. I'm not one of these people who believe in closed platforms, so I try to steer away from that, and I think using our gas as a metric is fine, it's not one of those things where you can't use anything else."
Q: Either the testing, design or marketing, what is the hardest aspect of creating a new platform?
ROSS: "It's preconceptions, it's been hounding this industry for years, that's fine, it's quite fun and we enjoy dealing with it. Everyone's got an opinion, I love it. We all disagree here, just before the show we were discussing platforms and you don't like this platform, and that's just fine. There's a lot of negativity in Airsoft, not just towards us but other brands too, the industry is very positive overall but obviously, the negative stuff is louder."
Q: Do you think not being able to do the shows, or not being able to physically get the product into players' hands because of COVID has slowed you down on the marketing side of things?
TOM - "Oh yeah, definitely, IWA has not been happening so the big boys in the business have not been getting together, they're starting to get going again now but yeah not being able to get out on the road with the new products showing players, things are starting to speed up again now. "
Q: On average what kind of timescale to go from pencil drawings to 3d printed prototype to the first shooting prototype to the final product?
ROSS: "I'll use the Vengeance as an example, that project was my enginers vision, and that took from us talking about it to it actually happening was probably around 16 months. I've got projects I have been working on since day 1, and at that point, you are talking possibly years. You can't see them yet but they are here and they are cool. The vengeance was based on the standard VORSK Hi-capa, and from that perspective we kind of know where we are, so that saves a lot of time. I would say, realistically the Vengeance took 8 months, however, we were also working on the standard one at the same time which took probably 6 months. As I said, it really depends on what goes into the project. The OSIRIS you could argue took 24 months, as it's been sitting there saying "please make me, please make me" and you do a little bit here and there and that project becomes one of the things you work on in your own time because you're sad, like me! Then you end up with this project that needs to be made!"
From Danial Carcas on youtube: Would VORSK make an HPA adapter for their pistols?
ROSS: "I think HPA is a difficult one really, I have to walk a line between personal views and business. I won't rule out making HPA adapters but for us it's really at its peak with V6, V8 V12 gas propelled. The difficulty is with HPA that people can run their regulator at a much higher pressure than our pistols are designed for, and this could blow off the slide. If you are a responsible HPA user this shouldn't happen but we still have to factor it in. As I said before, I don't believe in closed platforms and I won't rule out HPA adapters for this reason."
From The Scottish Cat 32 on youtube: Would VORSK ever decide to make a Light Machine Gun?
ROSS: "Because I have been involved in this for quite some time, I have seen some working GBB LMGs in Asia, some prototypes. The problem with LMGs is they are meant for sustained fire, and with gas blowback sustained fire is an issue. You can drive down the cooldown, use better gasses, maybe you get a hot day but ultimately sustained fire with gas blowback is a challenge, which I like, I wouldn't rule it out, there are various things you can do but if you were going to do that you would probably have to make it HPA."
From Kevin Cator on youtube: Would VORSK ever consider making an M4 platform?
ROSS: "Logically, like I just said, yes we will get there. Pistols are where you would start, but we want to make gas blowback accessible, I have always loved gas blowback, even SMGs and rifles. The passion really got going for me running some of the older stuff, GBB SMGs, running 10 mags across the chest. My dream personally is to make all avenues of gas blowback accessible, fun, affordable, and provide parts support. "
Q: Being Airsofters, you have produced something from scratch, all the way from doodles to an end user product. Is there any of these platforms that is your favourite, either via looks or the project itself?
ROSS: "Yeah, do you wanna go first?"
TOM: "Mine was the lastest one we released, the OSIRIS, the whole sort of reviving something that's lost to the annals of history, the concept of them going for real steel military contracts, and if that had won it could have changed the military history of sidearms. Just the whole idea that Ross and the team at VORSK have managed to revive that and bring it about for Airsofters to purchase!"
ROSS: "My favourite project hasn't even been announced yet, so I can't talk about it, but my favourite is probably the VX9, again, I love the OSIRIS for all the reasons Tom mentioned. It's gotta be the VX9, it was cool to make it and get it right, that was important to me. The VX9, when it came out, it was really cool for us. As a project, it was very much based on a game model, which had its own inaccuracies. An example is the ridge on the top, which is exaggerated to match the video game model which was a decision we had to make in the design process. Inlaying the rubber within the wood grips was a nightmare, I'm so glad we carried on, everything even down to the trigger has the adjustable trigger pull, ours doesn't work but it was all part of the original design."
From Lee Mountfield on Facebook: How about a shotgun? Sorry, just joined!
ROSS: "You know, right, yes! I'm finding it difficult because we know the next 4 years, ultimately it's a time thing, we have a lot coming down the pipeline in the future."
Q: Obviously we have been on about the pistols and potentially rifles and LMGs in years time, is there any other part of the VORSK range that's going to expand, you have the BDS side of thing, the holsters, we have talked about the mags?
ROSS: "Without talking about unannounced projects if it's to do with your replica, you've got your gas, your ammo, your gun, anything you can think of that is related to these things we probably have it in the works. Are we suddenly going to jump over to being an AEG brand? Nope, we are definitely focussed on what we are doing with this stuff."
Q: So we have covered quite a bit on the design process, knowing what you know now, is there any part of the projects you have done that you would change or tweak?
ROSS: "I think really, no, anything we had done differently we wouldn't be here right now talking about it! Realistically of course lessons are learned, you increase productivity you make things better, and you increase the quality. There are things from a running things perspective that we would change, again we support our old projects, and all our moulds get updated. Everything we release is ready to be released, but later down the line if we come up with a better way we will update it. We don't make a product and then forget about it. We are always looking, learning and updating things."
Q: And if something does change, it's not going to affect compatibility in the future?
ROSS: "Exactly, compatibility for me is a big thing, as we announce new projects this year and next, you will get what we mean about being friendly and focussing on the end user's experience. We are very much on that, I don't ever want to leave customers high and dry."
VORSK's latest release - VM9 OSIRIS GBB
The VM9 OSIRIS is VORSK's most recent addition to their unique GBB pistol lineup, and like many VORSK pistols, comes with an interesting backstory.
The slide of the VM9 OSIRIS is designed after a rare piece of history, the Phrobis Navy side for the M9 platform. Intended to solve issues with the original pistol resulting from its lightweight and open slide, the new slide design added reinforcement around the known weak points and filled in the port above the barrel which was known to be a source of dirt ingress. This slide design became known as the "Dolphin" slide, primarily due to the logo of Phrobis being a dolphin. The real VM9 never went into mass production but was reportedly a robust and reliable design.
The VM9 sports a 6.03mm tightbore inner barrel and adjustable HOP-up, housed within a beautiful and unique metal slide and frame. The VM9 is available in a wide variety of finishes, from discrete matt black to eye-catching silver, as well as VORSK's distinctive brushed aluminium finish providing a touch of antique styling. Just like the real thing, the VORSK VM9 also boasts a full auto fire mode, adding to the fun and helping you keep enemies' heads down when some suppressive fire is needed.
Great stream, we're sure you agree! The guys have given us some remarkable insight into the process at VORSK, from initial concept art all the way through prototyping to the finished piece. We also have plenty to look forward to from VORSK, with their upcoming VM9 being shown to the community for the first time on this stream!
Putting Ross and Tom on the spot appears to be a great way to extract useful information, thanks to our wonderful viewers and, of course, to Stu for their probing questions! Some excellent answers from our friends at VORSK and NUPROL, with some exciting hints of potential future gas blowback projects coming in the long term...