The story so far: My venerable Kalash AK74U has started to look a bit sorry for itself lately. Despite my attempt at weathering to hide all the dinks and scratches it is clearly in need of - and deserves - some sort of re-vamp.

As I am seriously toying with the idea of buying a second AK74U (I have seen a nice deal on a VFC version) I thought this would be a good opportunity to try something a little different. So I decided that I might convert my original 74U into a mini-SOPMOD AK.

I've had the Bulgarian style Krinkov for some time, but I have now added to my 'mod box' a very cheap set of tactical AK components, which includes: extended cocking lever, modified selector switch and extended mag release. The idea being that once I have collected all the bits I need I will undertake the conversion.

Part of this upgrade will be substituting the original Kalash pot metal externals for newer steel versions (which hav started to come onto the market since Kalash released its steel AK74U). As you can see above, this includes a steel front sight, which is cool as it will replace my repaired pot metal sight.

The next parts I am looking for are a AK74U Picatinny fore-end - a replica of the Sampson tactical AK rail system. This will allow me to stick on a vertical grip and a red dot.

OK, so it's a bit of a heresy, but I quite fancy doing a 'Russian contractor' loadout for the summer - I've seen some nice photos of Russian 'freelancers' working in Iraq, wearing a nice mix of Western PSD Operators kit and Russian weaponry!