Phantom Gear Red "Zaslon" Plate Carrier w/ QD Buckle System
(Color: EMR)

"Very good quality repro of a Gearcraft Atom. You'll definitely have to adjust the harness to find the right fit for you but with how it works, you'll be able to get it dialed in for various body types and heights. The magazine placard is something to be desired, I had to remove the shock cord to get it to fit 5.45 mags, but it works. After examining the carrier, I didn't see any loose stitching which is always a plus. My only complaint is that the ROC buckles are reverse, the pull side is connected to the carrier and not the cummerbund which is odd but it is manageable. Overall I am pleased with it.

"After a delay that felt like eternity, (pre-order was pushed back twice?), I finally got my hands on this thing. I was searching for a real Gearcraft ATOM for quite some time, so seeing this appear on the new arrivals page was a god-send. 5 months or so later it arrived at my doorstep.

You might be wondering, is it any good? For $150, it's actually pretty sick. Compared to my buddy's real russian ATOM, this is an excellent replica, nailing almost every feature 1:1 in extensive detail. There are a few molle sections and velcro pieces here and there that are omitted but hardly anything noticable. The material is somewhat cheaper than the real thing, but for RUSFOR LARP purposes it's good enough to hold up.

Fitment wise, it has an exceptional range of adjustability. I'm 5'9 and 150lbs and it looks great on me, even with a smaller frame. It also looks and fits excellent on my 6'4 herculean homeboy (but it took a WHILE to figure out how to adjust it properly.) The adjustment system is complex, but actually makes this plate carrier accessible to a wide amount of body types once you figure it out. I ended up running it with the BAV foam liner on the inside and had it fitting like a dream. I threw some level 4s in here just to see how it would feel with actual plate weight, and I was strikingly impressed by how comfortable this thing is with weight. This thing was built to carry ARMOR.

As with any budget replica, there is some imperfections I have to complain about (though minor)

The included mag pouches are... good but not great.

Like the images suggest, it is probably a good idea to ditch the bungee cords immediately. They just don't work with AK style magazines. Probably fine with M4 mags though. I think the triangular lips on the magazine pouches are meant to replicate the russian version, but they sorta end up getting in the way of re-indexing sometimes. They do have kydex inserts (which is GREAT!), but you can notice that they are somewhat cheaply retained inside the pouch. I peeled one of the inserts back and noticed some glue holding it in place. Ew. Doesn't seem to affect the function, I can rip magazines out and insert without too much issue, but little things like that do remind you that you're wearing a clone and not a genuine piece of battle-tested equipment.

Is the Phantom Gear Zaslon worth it? This is legit, probably the single best option if you want to get a RUSFOR style plate carrier on a budget. For the price, it's damned fantastic. Is it better than the real thing? Definitely not. (though given the standard Russian infantryman's budget, I wouldn't be surprised to see them picking this thing up haha)

9/10, but I'll round up to 5 stars since I can't do 4.5/5

"this is great kit especially for the price, the mag pouches with the inserts feel very solid. Great for my milsim west homies. adjustment can be kinda tricky but all and all this vest rocks highly recommend.