TheFull9

Be interested to hear some of your experience thus far. Which models have you been fitting and how are they holding up?

VCRA covers import, so I think you need a defence to move a RIF from the ROI in to the UK. I'm not 100% on the law of how the countries are separated etc, but I'm fairly sure that such a move would be considered importing to the UK. If anyone's read that bit of the act more recently feel free to correct me.

On a firearm you do need plastic covers, these thin, lightweight modern rails get real hot, real fast. Ironically it's actually relevant to airsoft (for me anyway) in the reverse fashion, because I have crap circulation in my hands and holding a bare metal rail all day during a game in the winter will literally put me down and out of action without decently thick gloves and plastic panels.

It seems cheap, but I've owned 2 myself for many years at different points and seen a fair few out on the field, never known anyone mention having one fail. It's a copy of the Tac Tailor 2-piece MAV so no R&D costs and as I say, made in china but using real military materials and very well stitched. I've got a BULLE backpack here that I've had pretty much since I started skirmishing (probably 9 years old now) and even with all the fancier stuff I've got here, I've no plans to get rid of it because it's showing no signs at all of failing. There aren't many reviews because not many people go on flecktarn.co.uk these days and it's not tacticool to run anything but a multicam plate carrier any more, even if you massively sacrifice quality in order to get 'that look' (not that you really have 'that look' in a £50 rig), something people learn once they've been playing long enough. I could go in to a very long spiel about trends in airsoft and gear over time, but sufficed to say since YouTube got really, really big and forums died down a lot (about 2012 ish I'd say) and SF impressions got big and the militaries and SF dudes all switched to compact plate carriers, people have just been going for a look and not asking around on forums and reading guides like they used to in order to get the best value for their money. Hence why everyone just buys condor, viper and emerson PCs because they assume that's the right thing to do and haven't used any other gear before in order to know any different; which is understandable in the online environment we now find ourselves in. When I started playing there were none of these knock-off £30 multisham amour carriers that you see absolutely everywhere now, most people were in some sort of webbing, belt or chest rig which is completely different to what you'll see on the field these days. MOLLE and Picatinny were only just coming in to popularity in fact.

If you want something cheap and you want that look, then hey go for it it's your loadout, just make sure you get it for a good price that's not verging in to the territory where you could buy something much better. You're always rolling the dice with Emerson/TMC etc though, some of their stuff lasts people ages, some falls apart 2 games in. Again when you search around the classifieds and ebay my experience has been that chinese gear like that is a really poor choice generally when you can get stuff like warrior much less than retail quite often, or even stuff like old brit issue webbing (PLCE or earlier) for absolute peanuts that might be used but will still literally last through a couple of world wars. You sacrifice looks if you want to be operator, but if you want stuff that'll actually be well built on a budget you sort of have to; a really good plate carrier just isn't cheap to make. To answer something I missed in your OP, yes Arktis is great kit, I just recorded a review on some of their apparel today. Their old chest rigs are pretty legendary. The other option I often suggest for people who want high quality and skrimish practicality on a budget is this chest rig. BULLE stuff is like Warrior, uses mil-spec materials (unlike emerson and condor etc) and they go way OTT with the stitching so it's seriously solid, but being made in china brings the price right down compared to most US made kit. http://www.flecktarn.co.uk/odtmb2nx.html

Sorry, buy anyone who uses Condor for actual combat is being straight up insane, regardless of who they are. It's fine for airsoft, absolutely, but trusting your life to that gear (which is not definitely not built for life-saving applications) only shows you're either the craziest risk taker the world's ever seen, or don't have a clue about nylon gear. The fact you can get a Tac Tailor PC for 75 when the Condor costs 60 says to me that actually, the quality to price ratio on the Condor is really pretty terrible comparatively speaking. I'm bound to get flamed for this for daring to say anything against the cheap chinese brands, but when you can get something of far superior construction for such a small increase in price then going with the airsoft kit just doesn't make sense. Long term you'll be saving money with the better quality kit. I get that people have a budget and that £15 might just be going too far, but saving up for an extra month or however long will no doubt pay dividends in the long term.

Supposed to. Apparently hexi gives off some cyanide gas when you burn it. Nice to know eh?

Not 'bought' exactly, but newest arrivals for reviewing and T&E. -FirstSpear Vertical Envelopment Pack -FirstSpear Modular Fight Strap -Blue Force Gear 'Uber Loops' x 2 (the other one's on a sling right now) -BCB FireDragon fuel and field cooker Apparently this stuff from BCB is replacing the current issued cooker and hexi blocks in service, so I'm hoping it works well when I try it out.

And may this be a lesson to anyone unaware about Osprey. Good for saving your organs from grenades - Not so good for nice, safe airsoft. As for what to use, honestly any chest rig or anything that is a dedicated plate carrier rather than an armour carrier (like the Osprey or the US OTV that have lots of extra bulk for soft armour coverage), they'll all work better. This is the best deal you're gonna find on a top quality PC in the UK right now (short of some amazing ebay deal): http://www.tactical-kit.co.uk/tactical-tailor-plate-carrier-modular-22001-7050-p.asp You can add PALS panels on the sides later. I recommend them fairly often because the price to quality ratio you're getting there is immense, but the "gear" viper and their ilk clone looks more tacticool so nobody every buys one. Otherwise, any Warrior rig will be far better built than an airsoft-only brand, if you can budget for it and are the sort of person that's not gentle on your kit. Definitely get on ebay and all the forum classifieds, there's always people selling solid stuff because they want a different camo this season or whatever. I got one of my FirstSpear PCs for £100, so the deals are out there.

G&P with some stuff.

In that price range, the brand names may vary but they all just come out of similar (or often the same) factories in china. Whether it says Nuprol or G&G or whatever, all just rebranding. All the cheap EoTech copies I've tried have been really bad, same with all the cheap T-1 copies. Only decent red dot I've had under £50 was one of these I bought about 9 years ago: http://www.landwarriorairsoft.com/aiming-devices-mounts-and-bipods-c7/red-green-dot-scopes-c75/g-p-military-type-30mm-red-dot-sight-gp121-replica-p1616 Haven't used it much for a while, but last I checked it still worked. Only clone red dot I've ever had that had genuinely clear glass in it, no blue or brownish tint what-so-ever. Pretty durable with a well built tube as well all things considered.

Well, you can always.. er.. rest the mag against a wall, or shoot the Minimi sideways, heh.

I like the look of the EPM bases personally, but then I often like things that are widely regarded as ugly if they have good design and utility built in to them. They're much better to actually use as a monopod in the prone than a flat plate, doubly so vs a metal mag and I always shoot the L85 with the mag rested when I'm on the range so it's something I've tested out a fair bit over the years.

I sure wish they'd implement the automatic system for not quoting pictures here... Personally, I find the EPMs infinitely better than the Hexmags in terms of fitment and quite a lot better in the construction department, but as with any magazine it really depends on the rifles you're going to use them in (as far as fitting goes).

I'm not sure where some companies get this VN thing from, they're just 20 round magazines, that's all. Practically, it depends what you're doing. Lying prone a lot you're limited on how high you can elevant the weapon using 30rnd type magazines, so sticking to the 20s will be beneficial. But if you're unlikely to ever need to shoot at a point above you (or lob shots at a point that's level with you) then go with the 30s for the increased capacity.

That right there is very much a case of send-it-back to the 'tech' along with a firmly worded communique. Unless it somehow got battered in transport the person who's done the work FUBAR'd. You don't work on a gun's piston, gears and spring then just not chrono it before sending it off.

Brand spanker UKSF AC combat shirt to replace my normal AC combat shirt in the same pattern that was waaay too small (apparently a Crye small is different to everybody elses).

100% pure iron with the new 'Tactical Pirate' sea-water based coating.

Well yeah.. at least half the players at your average skirmish are 13 years old. Of course they'd be easily distracted. Wouldn't happen to me though, I've taken off like a thousand of those lady chest holsters brazzers things. Total expert.

Peltor make a lot of different ear defenders, in my post I was referring to their ComTacs (I have the 'XP' set) which are a specific product aimed at military and police usage primarily; they're fairly pricey if bought new since they electronically amplify ambient sounds but cut out instantly when a loud bang occurs in the wearer's vicinity. I've got my own set for airsoft and used them a fair few times in work since they've become popular on military ranges in recent years. Very high level of construction quality. I was also issued a set of their non-electronic basic defenders for work around aircraft which are a far more basic construction, but also massively cheaper. The genuine Peltor products (as with anything, there are cheap chinese clones floating around) are certainly not flimsy though, I've seen guys on fast jet squadrons use the same set every day for years. I think I lost my own pair in the end when moving between camps on one occasion, but I got a fair amount of use out of them with no signs of them giving up on me.

Goggles, lower face plastic half mask attached to them, baseball cap and Peltors for the ears, that's my standard head gear.

Giena Tactics order came in, combat shirt and trousers. Still at home right now, gotta wait a few days to get my hands on them and see if they're any good.

Yeah you only see that option for covering trademarks at retailers because of yankistan. In the land of litigation and guns, corporation's gun trademark laws/copyright holdings are actually very strictly enforced by their customs. British border force wouldn't have the slightest of scoobies about that the trades on an M4 or Glock or whatever would even look like; long as you comply with the VCRA you're good.

It's barely changed from stock comparatively speaking. I'd say that would class as 'less' given the stuff you can change on an AR (i.e. literally everything).

The central torso fabric on most combat shirts will be something thin and designed to be cool, comfortable and fast at wicking moisture. It varies a lot by brand though, cheaper ones that would be terrible to wear in real combat will have a non flame-resistant synthetic fabric that's actually better in a lot of ways for airsoft usage because it transports sweat more quickly.