Hallelujah !!!!

After a verryyyyy loooooong wait, finally got my hands on an Element Vityaz kit. Bit of a disappointment, though. The package contains upper and lower handguard replacements as well as a pistol grip but that was utterly trash.

So off to the bin for that grip. What remains usable are the upper and lower handguards.




These are made of cheap plastic. Not easily seen when looking at the exterior surfaces but quite evident when you look at the inside walls. But, since these are the only ribbed handguards available right now, these will have to do. Easy to remedy anyway with some paint and, maybe too, some DIY resurfacing.



Planned to include the FN-style pistol grip anyway, so the shitty pistol grip in the kit did not hurt too much.



This separate grip offering is much, much better than that included in the Vityaz kit. The plastic replicates the faux synthetic fiber look and feel of the Cyma Tactical handguards, has a flat, almost greyish color, and is overall a good build. Some mold marks were evident but that's easily sanded off to make for a more even grip surface.

Tried installing the kit and the grip on the Kalash RK 01. The grip rear tangs are not quite the same and there is a big difference in the front cut for the trigger guard.





The lower handguard would be an easy fit. A bit of cutting for the receiver tangs plus some epoxy build up and it would be good to go.





The upper handguard is another matter altogether.




The upper handguard replacement does not come with its own retainer ring. Problem is, the retainer rings on the Kalash upper handguard are connected together and are glued more or less permanently to the wood fitting.

So will have to destroy the Kalash upper handguard to salvage the retainer rings and put them on the kit handguard.

Definite bummer.

Will the Cyma 035 be a better option for the Vityaz makeover?

Stay tuned !

Waiting komrad

After an initial try, looks like it will have to be the 035, kom Alakdan boo hoo hooo

Need to make time to take pics, though.

i tried the element vityaz kit on my cyma ak74u or 035. many shop owners claimed it would fit, and ak veterans say a little carving or sanding is all i need. the truth is, the lower handguard part and the pistol grip are completely incompatible. the pistol grip tabs or fittings do not match at all. and the lower handguard is not long enough to fit the bottom and the fittings are wrong. the fittings can be fixed with some carving with my rotary tool but the lower handguard is still too short. i just had to remedy it with plastc tubing to compensate, which makes it very wobbly. utter disappointment

salamatsky for that, komrad. any pics?

shall we see what kom vityaz finds out?

Rushed to get confirmation of my initial impressions of the Vityas on the 035. Apologies for some blurry pics.


here is the upper handguard on the Cyma:



fits right in with a teeny ween bit of shaving on the front end.


here is a comparison of the length of the two lower handguards:



almost the same length. maybe a few mms difference if you are being OC as you can see from this pic:




and from this top view of the lower handguards:




the biggest difference is in the receiver tangs as can be seen in this view:




the front end of the lower handguard is a bit loose in the locking retainer but that is easily remedied with some foam or epoxy. the receiver tangs will need some cutting to fit and, should you prefer retaining the spring tensioner of the original, that would take some doing. not much though.



the fn-style grip fits on the cyma much better than it does on the Kalash. as expected, the grip tabs are different:



but that is not a big deal. i imagine cutting the tabs alone will give a good enough fit since there is the grip bottom screw to hold the grip firmly. fitted like a glove when i tried it last night -- much better than the stock cyma which is a bit loose. that is due, IMHO, to the very similar trigger slot cuts in the fn style grip:



the fn-style grip, which, btw, is what is in the RS and Inokatsu Vityaz, did fit nicely during the initial try without any alteration at all.


overall, it is my personal opinion that IT IS NOT A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. it can be that if you expect a drop in plug-and-play add on. but if you're the type who wants an effortless dress up, IMHO, don't do ACM. go high end. pay big bucks and, even then you may still have to sweat a bit and spread on a lot of elbow grease.


there is, of course, the possibility that final fit up may require more work than i've projected so far. we will see.


completing the makeover may take awhile ( there's quite a pile of pending projects on my worktable ) but will make sure to update with the a final fit up (one without the planned epoxy strengthening and some other cosmetic preferences) posting in this thread.

the final makeover pics will be posted in a separate projects thread. am thinking that will make it easier to find for other komrads.

thanks for looking.

Nice job...
Waiting for the final phase komrad

biglang sinutsutan si Komrad Vityaz ng Nordic Maiden 'nya. out of touch and out of reach daw sya for a while kaya naatasan akong magpost para sa kanya. everything from here on onwards are direct quotes from several emails he sent to me before leaving for parts unknown.


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Didn't want to have kom Alakdan waiting a long while so i finished the initial fit up before leaving.

Here we go . . . .


One of the differences between the Vityaz lower handguard and the AKSU lower handguard (which, of course, the Cyma 035 has) is the rounded forward end.





Despite this difference, was able to fit the stock 035 retainer without any alteration at all.





It only took a rough cutting of the Vityaz lower handguard receiver tangs . . .





. . . . to get a stable and proper fit with the 035 receiver.



Please note that the the proper fit is ensured by the forward retainer lock on the lower handguard. And that without even putting in the tensioner spring.



To check on the match between the reshaped tangs and the receiver, I took down the front sight block by removing the pin and the grub screw positioning the sight block on the outer barrel.




After checking the fit of the Vityaz Kit lower handguard, reinstalled the front sight block and checked the fit of the upper handguard.





Looking good so far? Here's a closeup of the lower guard retainer lock after both upper and lower handguards were installed.



Now on to the pistol grip.

heto ung 2nd installment ng e-mail ni Komrad Vityaz

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To further illustrate the differences between the Vityaz Kit, the stock 035 pistol grip and the Element FN-style grip, I retrieved the crummy grip included in the Kit for a photo op.





The Element grips have the same receiver tangs while the Cyma 035 and the Kit grips have the same trigger guard slots. Despite its seeming disimilarity with the the stock 035 trigger guard slot, the FN-style grip had an excellent fit with the 035 trigger guard.




As I supposed earlier, all it took was the removal of the grip tangs.

During the fit up, however, noticed that parts of the fire selector spacer cogs were peeking out from the bottom wall of the receiver.




So had to shave a shallow cut off one side of the makeover grip to accommodate that misaligned mek.





Here's another look, from the operator's POV this time, at how well the FN-style Element grip fits the 035 receiver.




Not fully satisfied with the fit though -- will have to shave a mm or so from the top of the FN-style grip to make the bottom mounting screw totally seat into its hole.


All done -- that's it Komrads. The fit up work took all of . . . oh, about 2, maybe three hours total to finish. As it is, the fit with the receiver is tight and stable enough to use in skirmishes. Good enough even for fast-paced speedball games.


Full makeover is not yet finished though. At least not for me.

Will have to build up the inner walls of the handguards to make them more substantial and hefty in feel. Then some more epoxy along the perimeter of the retainer ends to get a better looking fit. Finally, a repainting. Or, maybe an application of automotive rubberized undercoating before repainting to make the handguards more durable.

Will put in the lower handguard tensioner spring too -- just because methinks it looks better that way.


That full makeover report will be posted, with the indulgence of the mods and the admins, in the projects section.


In the meantime, a farewell poster:





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edit: sana daw hindi ka nabugnot sa paghihintay, kom alakdan.

zT

Awesome job komrad vityaz

Thanks komrad zT for reposting kom vityaz email....

nerbyos na nerbyos kasi, nakakaawa naman. kaya pinagbigyan ko na. he he he