Who makes the best 28mm Early Fallschrimjager

[anton ryzbak]

Looking for Fallschrimjager for the period 1939-41. Who makes the best? I would prefer plastic over metal but I am open-minded.

[carlos marighela]

Pretty sure all the existing plastic range of early war FJs (Warlord) are late war.

The Perry metals are in later war open smocks as opposed to classic step-in 'bonesacks'. Off the top of my head, I can think of four specifically early war ranges. The Offensive range that are a good match for Perry are also depicted with late war uniforms and weaponry.

Foundry, which may be a little bit shorter than the others but are mostly accurate for 1940/41 period paras.

Crusader, who do early war FJ and are very nice sculpts. You can get a little variety by mixing in select models from the complementary Artizan design range which share the same weapons and similar sculpting style. The Artizan FJs are nominally late war but have a mix of smocks early and late. I have the Crusader FJs and they are lovely figures. My one nit-pick is that they are all equipped with the steel gas mask canister as opposed to the soft canvas one that was issued when the FJs were still conducting parachute drops. May not matter to you and it can be remedied with snips and some putty if it does bother you.

https://www.crusaderminiatures.com/list.php?cat=9&sub=24&page=2

https://www.artizandesigns.com/list.php?man=15&cat=102&sub=141&page=1

The May '40 range looks to be very accurate in terms of kit and dress. No issues with gas mask carriers. How available they are I don't know. They seem  not to restock existing ranges and move on to the next range.

https://www.may40miniatures.com/product-category/may40miniatures/fallschirmjager/

Finally there's the Gorgon range. Bonus for you if you are US based as they are as well. Good looking, accurate figures, would match with Artizan and by extension Crusader as IIRC they were sculpted by Mike Owen who did the Artizan range. The fly in the ointment is availability. Whenever I look at their website there are always large chunks listed as 'sold out', currently that's half the riflemen poses. That said you can supplement these with Crusader if you fancy.

https://gorgon-studios.myshopify.com/collections/world-war-ii-fallschirmjager

[Rickf]

1st Corps make some nice early war German Airborne figures.

[Tom Dulski]

 I really love the May 40 stuff in terms of accuracy and the Foundry one were very easy to paint. Either one works well and you can mix them with Warlord very easily.

[Daeothar]

I have both Artizan/Crusader FJ's and those from May '40, and they're both great.

I love the Artizan ones (they were my first) because they're really easy to paint and they're sturdy. This is especially visible on their weapons, which appear quite stubby and thick, compared to the May '40 minis.

Those are especially awesome, but their weapons move a lot towards the realistically proportioned, meaning that the rifles are both thinner and longer compared to the Artizan offerings.

I bought them to work well with my May '40 Dutch, but since I already had a bunch of the Artizans, I'm still on the fence whether I will mix them or not...

[anton ryzbak]

Thanks Carlos, you saved me a ton of time searching!
I will be checking these out.
Now who remembers the maker of the Churchill witha tommy-gun mini?

[westwaller]

Warlord Games? But I don't know if it was a special edition or not?

[carlos marighela]

There are at least three figures of Churchill with a tommy gun out there. Warlord, Gripping Beast and IIRC some resin prints. Take your pick.

[Orctrader]

Foundry and BTD.  Metal though.  Mix well.  Mine aren't painted...yet.