Video Transcript
(00:00):
Most modern plate carriers, whether they are of the minimalist, low vis, sort of variety or the larger sort of direct action type load bearing plate carriers, are utilizing swift clip buckles to attach placards for all of your different missions, loadouts, ammo, gear, munitions, all that good stuff. Now, if you're not as interested in running a placard, because you want something that sticks a little closer to the body, doesn't, you know, move around with velcro. Doesn't make a lot of noise. One option are shingles or placard style magazine carriers that rely simply on the velcro of the carrier itself and the velcro of your cummerbund to go on top. There's some advantages to this. It keeps everything closer to the body as was stated. But it also eliminates all of the bulk of having these swift clip buckles up here on top.
(00:48):
So let's go ahead and demonstrate. We have two styles right here. We have our shingle, which is a super sort of low vis, minimalist method of running some stuff on your plate carrier with the cummerbund on top. And then we have the ESSTAC 5.56 placard that we had exclusively made for us. They changed some stuff. They have a similar placard. We removed some MOLLE, added velcro, did a couple other things just to spruce this up a little bit, and this can be used with swift clip buckles. If that's something you want to do with this, where you buckle it in and it sits on top of your cummerbund, I don't really do that. I typically remove the buckles with the one wrap that runs inside, and then I just rely on the velcro on the exterior. So first thing to do is we have these big QASM buckles on the top (Q A S M) we are going to remove those.
(01:36):
So with the QASM buckles removed, now I have a plate carrier that is much more slick on the front for wearing kind of going back to the whole minimalist low vis approach. I can now wear that under a shirt, under a jacket. It's just gonna not be bulging out quite as much, but let's say I still want to have the capability of running some ammo on this. Well, the shingle again, if the goal is being, you know, super low vis or whatever, the shingle is going to really do that the best. Reason being, when I don't have ammunition in the shingle itself, it still sits really flat. And then at any time I'm like "you know what? I wanna… I want to grab my mags and I want to jam 'em into my carrier" There's then a way to have those to be able to run those on the plate carrier itself.
(02:19):
So that's basically how the shingle works. It's just a little more streamlined than running, you know, something like a placard, because if I run the placard on the other hand, hold the shingle, throw the placard on. Even with the ammo removed, you know, for some like weird low vis thing or whatever it's still boxy. It's still big and large. Now the magazines are easier to grab and reload with than, you know, compared to the shingle in some ways. But it is just a little bit more bulky. You're sacrificing, you know, some stuff to be able to run this, but as you can also see running the cummerbund on top of the magazine—you know, the placard or the shingle—itself helps keep everything streamlined to the plate carrier and keep any of that unnecessary velcro noise from occurring that you get from placards and certain placards out there, especially that really don't adhere very well to your plate carrier.
(03:05):
This is not going anywhere whatsoever. The downside to this method though is generally speaking the cummerbund, if it's an elastic cummerbund, which in this case, it is, is going to pull tighter on the mad carriers that are on the sides, which will result in more retention, not necessarily a huge issue but it is definitely something that you're gonna notice. And it does make re-indexing into the two side pouches, a little more difficult once the magazine is removed versus, you know, having it sitting on the front and there's no pressure being applied. So our shingle it's a cost effective way of being able to run ammunition on a plate carrier, minimalist plate carrier. It's obviously compatible with any standard velcro plate carrier out there. You know, the Slicksters, the Spirituses, ours, just slap that sucker on there.
(03:47):
There are two accessory pouches on the sides, because I didn't originally just want that. I thought, you know what? We can add some wings which are gonna fold around the plate bag itself. And that gives you the ability to run pistol mags, multi-tools, flashlights, or what I like to do is literally chop on one side all the way through the—what's it called—the drop loop thingy to get a tourniquet, to actually sit further down in the actual accessory pouch itself. If you don't cut that, not necessarily a problem, tourniquet ends up sitting about that high it's a little bit easier to get dislodged. So literally just chop that, shove it on down. We're good to go. I'm not gonna put anything else in that pouch anyway, that is kind of a one and done modification. But I like it. That's why I did it.
(04:29):
And then I have this one over here that is closed off for my flashlights, multi-tool, pistol mags, which is optimally, where I want those anyway, versus on this side. So we have these available on our website. So if you are running the AC1 or another type of plate carrier out there, definitely consider them or just add them to, you know, if it's something you need and you just want it to be an option. Sometimes you might want this. Sometimes you want something different, a full placard, a full Microfight or something like that. Definitely check it out. We've got 'em at T.REX ARMS.