Hello All,
here,s a start on a 1/16 German Para in Winter wear.The quilted jacket certainly needs patience,but there are only the arms to see at the moment.
Comments welcome.
Andy

Excellent!!I expected a Falls in the Russian winter ... commercial?

Hi Vaux,
Commercial it will be, all going well.
Andy

Stunning looking already mate.
Following with interest.
Gells.

Excellent start Andy and great work on the quilted sleeves. Following.

Cheers Ken

not my cup of tea, but it looks promising

Come on Jason, Have a look at what it is.....not what it isn't.

Hi Jason,
Get real mate.
Everyone knows bunny slippers didn't come into production of the German Military until 1945!

Yes I do care if somethings historically accurate or not. The trouble is with you types is you think you're correct all the time without actually having been there! I was a bit like this when I was much much younger..then I got a life. You get caught up in what you think should be with absolutely no deviation or concession whatsoever. You guys are so concrete in your thinking that you compare complete fabricated examples (Bunny Slippers???) with actual possible examples. I wonder where all this negativity comes from. Are you happy within yourself? The world won't end mate. Can you show us your sculpt of a German Para wearing 100 percent accurate boots? If you cant get any life through worrying about a paratrooper wearing hi leg boots I can recommend some good anxiolytics.

Can you honestly not stretch your imagination that maybe one paratrooper out of many thousands might actually have worn different boots to the ones he was issued with?? Didn't they wear out? Weren't supplies limited?
There is a possibility that he would wear jackboots but pointy Aladdin slippers? C'mon mate get it in some sort of context. I think it quite laughable that you even think to compare a perfectly feasable situation with a pie in the sky suggestion.

Hope this helps,
Gells

Yup it sure does say it all mate.
I hope I meet you at a competition sometime so I can show you my version of a double face slap.
Gells

Hello Andy, Looks really great so far. I like the pose, and the helmet tilted back. The sleeves look fantastic also. I think the jackboots add interest to the figure. Something different. Very interesting Andy, will follow this one. Regards, SG

Hi Andy,
the pose is convincing and I bet that you did some background checks about his equipment.
As far as I know specialized paratroop-equipment like helmet, jumpboots etc. were treasured and worn with pride among the airborne units but supplies were sometimes a problem - especially for the battleworn paras at the eastern front.





Cheers,
Martin

Impressive work Andy, awesome!

Cheers, Ski.

Another cracker Andy

Rob

I don't usually comment, but as a sculptor and former military, this topic is of particular interest. Having served in one of the more disciplined branches of service regarding uniformed attire, I can attest to owning and wearing field gear that was not only "non-issue", but was technically civilian manufacture. Why wear wool OD long-handles when polyproplyne worked better (dyed black or green of course)? If it worked, and I didn't have it, I bought it. If it just looked cool and could be strapped on somewhere, so be it. Some of it was vintage, to include the M1 Carbine bayonet that I carried as part of my 782 gear to open up MRE's, and a Baretta 92S in lieu of the issue .45 ACP before they were an issued sidearm. I slept in a lime-green North Face sleeping bag that I stitched up into a regulation camo poncho liner (toasty warm). Every soldier or Marine of every time period swapped or procured non-issue gear. I wore cammies that had gone out of regs after Vietnam that I found working in a warehouse in Germany when I was a high school student, and wore jungle boots that I picked up in an Army-Navy surplus store! As poorly supplied as the German army was, in the winter of '42-43, the reality of the footwear becomes ambiguous, and I can easily defer to the sculptor's interest. They might well have been a final parting gift from a starving brother in arms. But that having been said, they still need to be well executed and true to the time period!
Plausibly mixed accoutrements can be both realistic and interesting, but purely just my opinion.
RSG

Gentlemen,
I have based this sculpt on a photograph from one of my books.The photo shows a young Para wearing boots.If the photo depicted other kinds of footwear ,I would have modelled that instead.There is a choice in research matter afterall,
This is my interpretation of the research material I have.
Must admit though rivet counters dont do alot for the hobby.
Cheers
Andy

My goodness!
Actual German Paras wearing Jackboots?



Whatever next?



Gells

Fantastic figure Andy!

Love the pose, very realistic.

I will not claim to be an expert, but do own quite a lot of books on fallschirmjager. To my knowledge every fallschirmjager was issuesd a pair of 'marschstiefel' or marching boots as part of their kit to be worn in barracks and off duty with the fligerbluse and fligermutze. As the photos show they were also worn in the field when the fallschirmjager were deployed as ground troops. Hope this helps.

All the best mate!
Jon.