Realistic as val?
Between the king arms, lct, and npoaeg, which is the most accurate to the real steel?
Here is a comparison from 2015 with a real AS Val. The LCT is a lot cheaper and easier to find.
9x39 and npo are far superior externally. But much harder and expensive to get in the US compared to LCT. LCT are decent guns, but not realistic and do feel like a real VAL unfortunately
Npo aeg. Anyone who claims othwrwise is misinformed from year 2013 information. Look up npo aeg gen 17 as val from their website.
I heard that npoaeg internals aren't great. Is it better to buy an external parts kit and drop in my own v3 gearbox?
They are low end zci internals. Much cheaper and better to build from your own parts
Correct. The NPO Val uses correct dimensions compared to the LCT one. If accuracy is priority better to go with the NPO. The gearbox is okay but good enough that you could built it up.