Well, this isn't really a full upgrade - although the parts are now available to do so if I really wanted to. I treated my trusty little Kalash AKS74U (model RK-01) to a some new clothes this week.

Effectively this make-over turns my RK-01 model into a pretend RK-12. The RK-12 is Kalash's latest all steel model, and is a 'tactical' version of the AKS74U in very sexy black plastic furniture (although it is a bit of a love it or hate it AEG).

Since they released the RK-12 Kalash has also distributing the steel parts and furniture as individual items. This is great news for RK-01 users like myself, who may find that their older pot metal RK-01s are starting to look a little dowdy now (certainly, if like mine, they have been used and abused to the extreme).

Above: The Kalash model RK-12, an steel variation of the AK7U

I bought the black plastic RK-12 foregrip from Ebaybanned.com for just $15.50usd, and I also happened to have a nice steel Army Code brand Bulgarian-style 'Krinkov' flash hider to finish the job. As I said, I could go the whole hog and replace all major parts with the newer RK-12 steel parts - giving my RK-01 a full upgrade, but I'm happy at just changing out the occasional part for now.

Ebaybanned do not charge shipping - but the trade-off is that they use the cheapest postage, which meant that my parts took 15 days to arrive. However, this method seems to by-pass the UK Customs attention - at least for smaller items - and Ebaybanned help this by sending items in separate packages. So if your not in a hurry they seem to be a good choice of HK retailer.

Check out any of the following Hong Kong retailers for RK-12 parts:

> Ebaybanned.com
> RSOV.com
> Gunner Airsoft