A cold day at Strategy Plus, Connecticut. I looked forward to the return of airsoft to this great field and I wanted an impression of some type of Spetsnaz soldier but I couldn't decide on which umiform to wear. I was dead-set on the Splav M21 Assault vest but wasn't sure on the uniform. I opted to let the Red-Alliance forum decide. I posted some nice choices and although it was a tie between this and the Splav Bekas in Berezka, I broke the tie and went with "Flora jacket with field-grey pants." The following are a few pics I shot after a long day of airsofting.

While the Flora jacket may be comfortable, it is 100% cotton and probably wasn't the best choice for a day that fell below the freezing mark. Although I wore just the right amount of underlayers, the cotton would not have dried as fast as I needed it to had this been a longer scenario that went into the night. It is, however cut in the old style of Russian uniforms and has a nice feel to it and has adequate room for layering. I like the colors of flora. I originally didn't take to this pattern as I felt it was not "elite" enough. I have since changed my mind and I'm very glad I did. It's colors are more fitting for spring and summer but my good friend Ron informed me that he had a hard time spotting me. The black balaclava was only worn here for these photos. My soaking wet grey synthetic and ANA kamysh maska were drying on my dashboard!

Evident in some of these pics are the details of the M21 vest. The Red-Alliance patch and Spetsnaz patch can also be seen.

The M21 vest. I was VERY surprised at it's overall performance and found it extremely easy to use. While temed as an "assault vest", I would actually term this as more of a police vest. The layout of pouches dictates this assumption. The AK pouches are too few to let it fall into the assault role and the presence of shotgun shell slots in the front horizontal pouches make me believe that it only needs a pistol holster and it's a full-blown police vest. I'll give a proper review in the "gear" section eventually.

I will only add that the added web belt gives the user the bonus of adding pouches which helped supplement my magazine load. I was able to also use a Splav gas mask pouch on the back as a daypack and my maxpedition dump pouch for spent mags and odds and ends. Great for taking refuse out of the woods too... power bar wrappers have no place in the forest!

My AK103 at this stage is fast becoming an AK74. While the mag used is the 7.62X39 type (modded from realsteel) I would eventually seek out the Star AK74 mags and change the look of the rifle completely. The Ribbed dust cover went on the reciever sort of by accident and well,...

...you know how it goes.

I enjoyed this look quite a bit. The pants are not quite as blue as they are in these pics - they are more neutral and look a tad more OD in actuality. They seem to go well with whatever I wear on top. I was very impressed with the vest and it won't be the last time I use it. I also like the LES camo: especially on the gas mask pouch with it's heavy amber/mustard base color. In fact, I liked it so much, I ordered an M21 BDU in this pattern. Can't always be kamysh and berezka, ya know!

Anyway, this impression was based on a generic idea of Russian soldiers operating in Chechnya. With so many photos to refer to, it's hard not to be inspired.