This is what is usually referred to online as the Type 56 Chest Rig, with the Type 56 itself being a chinese domestically produced AK-47 that’s very, very similar to the infamous russian Type 3 AK.
Somewhat like the rifles in question, these ‘chicom’ rigs represent a piece of economical, mass production that does exactly what is necessary from a high level perspective and essentially nothing more. Frankly, if you just need to carry some mags and frags on your chest, you can’t really knock them from a large scale/military standpoint, they will do that for you. It’s not a fast reload, but if you’re the member of The Party who’s deciding how to equip your conscripts, you don’t care about that.
That said, I am a capitalist dog who’s very spoiled when it comes to equipment, sleeping in a nice bed and getting 3 meals a day. The wooden toggles on the pouches flaps here are very cheap to mass produce but aren’t exactly expedient or ergonomic. The standard waist strap is literally the exact same as a kitchen apron – flimsy fabric you have to knot yourself. The primary material is smelly canvas that soaks up rain.
I didn’t want to actually change the external appearance in any significant, noticeable way, but I did want to address the aforementioned shortcomings (main fabric aside). So I sent this rig off to a fella over here who usually does bergan and MTP uniform mods. He added velcro to the pouch flaps while leaving the wood toggles in place and replaced the back strap with modern 1″ webbing (I added the green SRBs). From more than a couple of metres away the rig looks the same as original for playing baddies (90s meaning), but is functionally a good bit better overall. Shoulder straps are original as they do the job fine. Obviously you could make many more changes to improve the design, but if you went much further you’d start altering the aesthetics.
If the bloke in question says he’ll do these mods in future I’ll edit this post.
You can get these same type rigs for the grand sum of £13 from Flecktarn.co.uk (one of the best businesses here but they have no page) and from AP and Varusteleka.
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