Laziness or nerdyness? You decide.

Recently, I managed to build a kind of Frankenstein-ed hodgepodge of a M-16A1 type of AR, assembled from an assortment of spare and new parts. I put it together to give as a gift to friend and I really like the way it turned out. It's certainly not a completely correct representation, the barrel is a heavier profile and is a couple inches short, the color is black instead of grey, and the lower is an A2 design. Other than that, I still think it looks pretty good. 

Very nice. Just ignore the open triggerguard.

It's not my first foray in building one, as the AR that I have for myself is one I put together as well. When I did so, I was at my brother in law's house and I got one of the best compliments from my nephew, "I don't know of anything more Saint Grendel than for you to come in here with a box full of metal parts, and leave with a functioning firearm."

I obviously have a preference for the retro style ARs.

Assembling ARs is pretty fun and I like to call it extreme legos. The lower receiver has a few things that can be come three-handed affairs, but is still very simple overall to assemble. As long as you aren't dealing with a complete idiot, you can teach anyone to put one together, as they are quite simple. It's even more simple if you just assemble your own lower and just buy a complete upper (or vice-versa). 

However, what I really want to do, is to assemble a G36. This sucker was built to be modular from the get go, so assembly is just stupid easy. Basically all you need is a torque wrench, a vise, and a couple small specialized tools for installing the barrel to the receiver. Pretty similar to assembling an AR upper, but simpler, as there's really nothing else left to do. After that, the remaining parts are self contained and it's basically the same as putting it back together after field stripping it. 

Now that is one pretty rifle. This is the exact build I'd like to go for.

They do sell parts kits for the type I want with the barrel length I like at a few places, but the problem is two fold: first, the specialized tools needed to install the barrel are both expensive and hard to find. Then, I would also need to get a TG36 receiver from Tommy Built in order to make it, but it's a shame that the guy never seems to keep anything in stock for long at all. So, who knows if I'll really be able to build one anytime soon.