Quote Originally Posted by mildot View Post
What was your impressions of the Brushstroke gear from Freedom Ventures, would you consider it "Mil spec" or leaning more to towards "knock off"? Also quality? fit and finish? Sizing?
Would describe the material on the lighter side? or heavier? etc. Thanks
I'd say it's somewhere in the MilSpec range. It's not Crye quality, but it's not "Chinese knock off" quality either. Quality seems ok, though I am worried about the elastic used in the Combat pants size adjusting bands. Sizing is good, possibly slightly big. I was overly cautious with the pants size, and ordered a size up. They ended up almost too big, and I like my pants baggy. Next order will just order my normal size. The material is very similar to Army ACU material, so relatively light weight. Definitely not the heavy weight cotton that WPG uses for their offerings.


A friend drove up from Texas unexpectedly this weekend (bad marital separation, had to get out of the house), and we decided to get some range time in and LARP in the woods. Photo dump first:









Final picture, comparison with my buddy's MultiCam:


I'll let the photos speak for how the pattern seemed to work in the environment. Overall, I think it did well, and we'll see how it looks here in a month or two when things get more green.

As for the gear (ya know, the point of this entire thread), the kit mostly worked as intended. Few points:

The Good
The plate carrier was as comfy as possible, and played well with the battle belt. I had no issues getting to anything on the kit, or moving around in it. I liked having the option of putting my field top in the AVS zip-on pack when I put on the combat shirt, so that concept seems sound. One thing that I was worried about was the relatively small and thin Tight Chutes sling replacing my V-Tac slings. It worked fine, though I do miss the ability of the V-Tac to be over tightened.

The Bad
The ACH and my Walker's didn't play well together. I really couldn't stand how tightly compressed my head felt trying to wear both of them. This seems especially odd since I've worn both together before around the house, but no matter what I tried, nothing seemed to make it work. Definitely something to work on, and maybe even consider a high cut helmet. I'm resistant to those, because I don't want to give up the extra side pieces, but may have to consider it. The other issue I ran into was using the zip on pack to hold a CamelBak. It was advertised as holding one, but it would not fit for anything. I'm going to have to figure that issue out, or I'll have to abandon the zip-on panel, or go without a hydration bladder.