Small Scale Military Headquarters

when i first bought a few of the new BBI 1:18 ww2 paratroopers a couple of weeks ago i kind of assumed that the parachutes would be removable.
when i got them home and opened one i was surprised that the straps at the shoulders were not removable and if you removed the string from it you still have this goofy strap standing up on there shoulders.

so i was just curious what you guys did?did you hang them up as if they were coming in for landing, or did you cut the straps off, or did you find a good way to remove the strap without ruining it?

Well, they are removable but you still have the figure wearing the harness, life vest, etc....plus 2 holes in his shoulders.

Some people hung them (quite nicely I might add), but I prefer to display mine pre-jump. I think that is how they look best - all loaded up ready to go with the straps tucked behind the packed chute as instructed:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/415 ... 6057IYmaWp

There really are not many other options, that was the major beef with these guys, 6 of them no less. Then when a 7th jump ready guy appeared in the next wave it was a real kick in the....
What you need is to get your hands on the new battle-ready paras. These are the guys you want to load up on.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/254 ... 8984KwURXK

Aviatornut said he will be getting them this week, I can't wait.

hmm i pulled on the strap on mine becuase it seemed like it was removable but when i pulled it looked like it was maybe painted over and glued on like it would break so i stopped pulling and gave up on that.

i cant tell alot from that picture, are the new ones going to be the same characters but without the vest and such?

I hung mine with the chutes open - they just looked so cool that way! I used a wire frame to hold open the parachute. The frame is hung from the ceiling using and eyehook and fishing line. The line attaches to the parachute using a wire hook, so I can easily take the figures down. Here's a couple pictures:





They're a little blurry as I had to get in a wierd angle to take them due to the fact that these are displayed in my closet.

The new figures, for those that still haven't seen them, do not have the straps, save for one. The new BBI figures consist of three regular WWII infantry and three paratroopers. One paratrooper is the same as the S1 figures, but doesn't come with a parachute.

Tman, that's looks exactly like the way I did mine. I used a few wire hangers and fishing line. Cool.

I did what some might consider ruining mine...I cut the straps, harness life vest etc. off! I got 9 of theses jump ready troops and did this to half of them ( the one guy with the beanie hat I left the life vest on, very similar to the new combat ready one) this was before the combat ready figures were out...still have not seen them in my AO...I just had to have them ready for action. They have pockets on their sleeves and I used these to stick on the front of the figure, IMO looks pretty good. I was hoping toget myself a camera for xmas but had unexpected auto problems, anyway I will get a camera if I have to borrow one because I have wanted to take pics of these for a while... along with my hedgerow busting sherman "sod bust'r"

I have been using the heads off the BBI paratrooper guys with my reissued Series 1 troops (the drivers in the truck, command car etc.)
The head fits perfect with these figures. So, now my S1 guys look a little more battle hardened and not so green!

I have several extra parachutes that I will eventually use as ponchos on the marines or S1 germans. The chutes have the hole cut out at the top of it already to use.

Can you say "truck-load of equipment!" with the paratroopers?

I wish TRU would have a sale on paratroopers, I would buy bunches of them!

i think someone mentioned using clear plastic bowls instead of wire frames to hold the chutes open. Might be a simpler option..

All those pics look great, guys....turning lemons into lemonade, in my opinion.

Here is my little set-up for them, can you tell which one is 21st

ww2collecter wrote:Here is my little set-up for them, can you tell which one is 21st

Nope.

The one holding the Nazi flag?

spect_spidey wrote:The one holding the Nazi flag?

That was my guess - kind of easy to tell, but the do actually go together well.

Might of been harder to tell if the Ruppert 21st Century figure was used instead. Standing Ruppert next to the new BBi Welch figure, makes them hard to tell which company made which from a short distance.

I have mine pre-jump like Digger's. Not much use for them otehrwise but to cast the heads for customizing... Jumping is a cool idea if you have the room, I don't have the room though so they're right there with the XD figure that's deckedout in pre-jump gear and the Falschim too... Dunno what else to do with 'em really.

And there's so many here I can't get the non-jump figures, rangers, etc... Bummer.

Some great little display pieces there

I`ve yet to get any of the parachute figures yet. Though looking forward to getting some soon I hope

Again nice display`s guys

ja
Steel Bonnet

tmanthegreat wrote:

spect_spidey wrote:The one holding the Nazi flag?

Yes, I thought the 21st stood out much more, must be the flag. It just seems like BBi look more "worn & gritty", lot more realistic.