Replacing the Wooden AKS74U Upper Handguard With a 'Tactical' Vented Version...
A Cheap and Cheerful 'Upgrade'?
Time was - when I was most obsessed by my MILSIM airsoft hobby - that 'only the best would do' when it came to replacement or upgrade parts for my airsoft replica guns. But those days are long, long behind me now.
I was what airsofter would can a' real steal [RS] fanatic', each replacement part I bought for my AEG collection would have to be either a exact replica made from CNC metals or - better - a real parts modified to fit an airsoft gun! No cheap Chinese 'pot metal' or plastic knock-off part for me! Needless to say, this was a very expensive obsession!
Above: Back in the day - when the Russians seemed like they were 'the good guys'
(wow, that changed again very quickly) - these were the sort of real loadouts
that I an others were keen to emulate in MILSIM airsoft.
Fast forward eight years or so and my airsoft collection was gathering dust in the back of my attic. I had given up the hobby long ago, mainly due to health reasons [it's a young or fit man's game and I turned to computer shooters like Battlefield 3 to get my pew-pew fix].
Now, I am ready to finally part with my collection, either by selling the best guns to a dealer (which you must do by law) or by donating the other bits and bobs to a local club.
The problem - though - is that when I gave up the hobby I was right in the middle of a comprehensive upgrade program, modifying my collection from a Soviet era inventory of guns to a 'modern Russian' (post Soviet) collection of guns. So, long story short (too late) all my guns were in a state of disassembly!
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| Above: A real Russian AKS74U heavily customised with parts made by the company ZENITCO. This is what I had hoped to convert my airsoft replica into. |
I had intended - at the time when I had a well paid job - upgrading all my guns to the (then) latest 'tacticool' AK variants (just as the then Russian Army was), buying real or replica versions of parts made my companies like ZENITCO and the like... That's a LOT of money!
So, here we are now - all those year later, and I am no longer a 'real steel' nut. Cheap plastic or even 3D printed parts - an option that wasn't available to me back in the day - will suffice.
Gun No.2 Project Reveal
I've pretty much covered all the work I had to do to finish upgrading my beloved AKS74U in an earlier post (click >here< - opens in new window), so, this post is just the 'reveal'.
Even if I could afford that now, buying anything Ruzzian is a no-no!
Basically, the part creation - using 3D printing - went OK. It's could have been better and I was sorta confined by the quality of the 3D printer I had, which meant that I had to do a lot of finishing of the part to make it look passable. But, I am much more open - now - to things just being 'OK' so I can get this airsoft gun off my hands.
So here's the final result...
It is a simplified version of the Zenitco B19 upper rail, I have left out both the top mounted Picatinny Rail for mounting optics and the lower connecting points for the additional Zenitco receiver dust cover. But, those aside - and if you squint - my 3D rail matches the look quite nicely.
(I omitted the Picatinny Rail as I - as you can see in the above photos - I am using an alternative mean to attach a holographic sight. I do not like the way the gun balances with an optic mounted too far forward. Just personal preference.)
So, there we have it... Well, I say that BUT, while clearing out some more dust covered boxes I found the P1 Stock replica that I had also bought, intending to fit to the AEG...
Still, hopefully that should just be an easy upgrade.
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