The new British Airborne plastics from Warlord Games provide a host of options on the sprue. Gamers are able to put together 30 miniatures using the whole boxed set, with each sprue allowing you to build six miniatures.
Apart from the kneeling pose, the basic ‘bodies’ have a nice sense of movement – they aren’t just ‘standing still’, these are men in combat.
Talking of combat, there are a host of weapon and equipment choices on the sprue, most of which are part of pairs of arms that fit on any of the bodies. There are Lee Enfield Mark IV rifles and Mark V Sten submachine guns a-plenty. There are also support and specialist weapons like the Bren light machine gun, the PIAT anti-tank weapon and, a nice touch, a Lee Enfield rifle with a sniper scope. There is also a hand holding a Webley pistol, grenades, a set of binoculars, packs, canteens, belt equipment, bandoliers and more, including a hunting horn!
All these choices allow you to field rank and file and command options. But the options don’t end there: Warlord has included heads in both airborne style helmets and berets for British paratrooper and glider landing troops. A great touch is the chance to field some or all of the figures as members of the often sidelined Polish airborne, in their distinctive berets. Both the British and Polish Airborne units were renowned as tough fighters, from the initial parts of Operations such as Overlord (D-Day) through Market Garden (including Arnhem and the ‘Bridge Too Far’) and on into Varsity and the crossing of the River Rhine.
The set also includes assembly instructions, waterslide decals and examples of painted figures. Also, given the fact that these are plastic figures in the Denison smock, a small amount of conversion could see these serving as SAS troopers for the mid to late World War Two period in North West Europe, up to the 1970’s in Cold War-era British forces, perhaps with a change of weaponry. This is a really useful set of plastics that shows yet another step forward in the quality of such miniatures from Warlord Games. The sprue layout and options available are impressive, as is the decision to remember all those who served in the British Airborne forces.
