Reviews - Real Sword Type 56-1

Over the past couple of years with the growth and improvements in clones, 370 dollars has actually began to be seen as quite a considerable sum to spend when buying an airsoft gun from Hong Kong. 

So what does spending 370 air soft tokens buy you in terms of an AEG these days? Well when it comes to kalashnikov derivatives quite possibly the best ever factory produced airsoft kalashnikov as has yet been made. Bar none. 

First impressions

The RS type 56-1 ships in a rather subdued cardboard box. If big colourful cardboard boxes with funky graphics are your thing then this one isn't going to form the centrepiece of your packaging collection Still don't let that disappoint you because what's inside makes up for that.

Opening up the box reveals an absolutely pristine replica of a Chinese type 56-1 with an orange plastic muzzle tip and barrel guard, stored securely in foam that's cut to fit the contours perfectly, and a steel mid cap magazine wrapped in brown oil paper. 

A comprehensive manual in both Chinese and English with the usual troubleshooting info and exploded diagram of the replica is supplied together with a full colour A3 sized instruction sheet detailing the take down steps required for basic maintenance. Not forgetting your general retro style BB loading rod that some manufacturers still seem to have a stockpile of they're desperate to get rid of

In addition tot he replica and the above bis n bobs we also have: 

A steel Type 56 threaded muzzle piece

A steel twin-threaded muzzle adapter that can be fitted instead of the standard one to allow fitting of air soft silencers 

A traditional AK cylindrical metal factory cleaning kit (contents modified to suit the AEGs requirements and comprising of screwdriver/sight adjuster plus two airsoft attachements for the guns real cleaning rod - typical 'eye of a needle' type for swabbing the barrel along with a second blunt ended one for clearing BB jams) 

A Chinese green plastic oil bottle of the sort that shipped with the original gun.

A dual ended AK rear sight removal and fitting tool

As well as providing a handy screwdriver for removing the (extremely authentic looking) pistol grip the case of the cleaning kit itself also doubles up as a tool to undo the upper hand guard release latch:

Unlike a lot of AK air soft guns the latch on this gun is as stiff as the real weapon and you'll do your fingers a big favour making use of this tool to release the latch rather than trying to do it by hand.

Fit and finish

Much has been made of Real Swords decision to make their AKs dimensionally accurate to the real thing by redesigning the rear of the type 3 gearbox to suit. That same attention to detail is carried into the fit, finish and materials used too. Every single external part of the gun is steel - right down to the stock locking mechanism and its internal components, the bolt cover latch and the trigger (the sort of small parts which many manufacturers are quite happy to leave as cast alloy even on their 'all steel' guns). 

All external parts of the gun are finished to the same standard as the real thing. The receiver, folding stock struts and rear sight base are all in a slightly brushed metal finish, the front sight and gas tube is a matt finish slightly rough to the touch, while the remainder of the external parts (upper receiver cover handguard retaining clips etc) are smooth. 

This is finished off with a nice deep bluing that produces a jet black finish as good as that on my Russian military makarov.