"Offensive Miniatures WWII US Airborne Review" Topic

Upon my request, Dave Jackson at Offensive Miniatures has sent me a few figures from their new line of 28mm US Airborne for comparison and review purposes. I was looking for figures to supplement my existing Artizan miniatures and was intrigued by this new miniature line, which looks great on their website when Offensive Miniatures first made the announcement.

These pewter figures are every bit as well sculpted and detailed as they appear in the hi-res pics on the Offensive Miniatures web gallery. Everything from facial expression to weapons to kit are rendered in painstaking detail. The knee and elbow patches are delineated to facilitate painting. The anatomy is more realistically proportioned than some of the other lines, and should please those who prefer realism over the more exaggerated, chunkier styles. The miniatures are also the cleanest I've seen in casting, and required very little trimming/flash removal.

As far as their compatibility with other popular figure lines, I would say you can mix them with Black Tree Design and Bolt Action Miniatures (I think they're called something else now) without any issues. I find Artizan Design's paras a bit too chunky compared to these, however, and probably would not mix them. I don't own any Victory Force paras, but I would imagine those to be even bigger.

In sum, Offensive Miniatures new paratroopers are a fine new addition to the collections of 28mm WWII gamers.

Thanks for the fine review/comparison.

To add to your comments… I bought some to go with my Victory Force and while the sculpting quality is as high the size is noticeably different. Real shame… had to trade them off.

Cheers,

Burkhard

I've noticed that they [in common with others] are still producing US Paras with BARs---I thought this wargamer's myth had been dealt with a while back.Its an inconvenient truth [for a start my 20mm Paras are WRONG ] BUT I havent as yet seen anything to support the presence of BARs-the squad lmg was the .30 cal mg. This is evident from reading "Band of Brothers" for example. Ive seen theories/excuses about units PERHAPS carrying them unofficially etc but it doesn't feel right. Nevertheless the BAR men just won't go away! Very nice figures however.

Regarding the BARīs… there is a book by Don Burgett describing his expirences in Normandy. He passes by a soldier from an ID and thinks that it was a good thing they did not have any BARīs in their TO&E since it would have been useless and dangerous during a jump.

I have converted all the Airbourne minis with BARīs to either Garretīs or Tommy Guns and the poses actually lend themselves well.

Cheers,

Burkhard