Open Fire gives you enough plastic paratroopers for one platoon that consists of a command team, six Rifle/MG teams, a bazooka team and a 60mm mortar team. Open Fire is a Market Garden themed starter box and the paratroopers are a support platoon for a British Armored Company made up of British Sherman V and Firefly tanks. I appreciate the number of British tanks found in the box, but as a Yank and fan of the new plastic paras, I wish it was a US Paratrooper Company with British armor support - that way, I could have got two of these paratrooper squads.
All infantry in Open Fire come with Battlefronts new slotted bases. These bases are really nice and allow you to glue each figure into a slot. This conveniently hides the base the figure is on and eliminates the need to build up putty or basing material around the feet of each figure to hit the stand.
One thing that I found odd about the paratroopers was the arrangement on the sprue. Both Germans and Paratroopers were on the same sprue. They were grouprd well to avoid confusion or mix ups, but I could easily see someone with eye sight worse than mine mixing the figures up unintentionally. I even found my self squinting at times just to make sure I was putting Americans and Germans in the right piles. This means I am going to have to double check my Dads figures before he start gluing them to bases. Also, be careful not to bend or break any gun barrels when clipping the figures from the sprue. Some of the figure's rifles stick out, and I broke one barrel off and bent a few sent cutting them on my hobby table.
The sculpts themselves are really well done and in some regards have more detail than Battlefront's metal paratroopers. I say that with some regards because it is important to keep in mind that some detail is lost because most of the figures are one piece plastic figures. For those of you not familiar with the plastic process, the molds cannot hold the details you would find on some parts of a figure. For example, the bottom side of a backpack wont turn in, it will simply cut straight back into the model.
This short coming common in plastics is not apparent from the front of any of these figures. The front side of the paratroopers is very detailed down to buttons, eyeballs and wrinkles in the face. Yo will find this on the back of the figures around the backpacks, shovels, canteens and on the helmets of the .30 cal gunner.
The .30 all gunner and loader are a two piece figure/team. The firing arm and the loading arm are connected to the gun. I found that I ham handed the assembly on these figures and didn't get the arms to line up and perfectly as I would have wanted. However, the figure still looks awesome and reminds me of the days of playing with little green army men.
As you have seen, I painted my paratroopers for winter warfare to go with my Late War Bulge American army. The figures painted really easy and have that over exaggerated detail Battlefront is known for. I personally like this style of detail as it make painting easier and I find that the detail is more apparent and visible when the figure is finished and on the table.
I am really excited to see these plastic platoons become available separately from the Open Fire set. I can see my self collecting and entire paratrooper force made up of plastic troopers. I would also encourage people who haven't picked up Open Fire yet to run out and do it. It is a steal of a deal and full of goodies. It is a great tool to help get new players into FoW and a great way to build your force. Locally, the four of us who have picked up our own sets have been busy swapping troops and tanks from the box set in preparation for armies and miniature wargaming adventures.
If you have picked up Open Fire or have any thoughts on Battlefront's new plastic paratrooper or anything else found in the box set, share it with the rest of us on the WWPD forum.
“Craig Baxter is the Director of the WWPD Northern Research center in Anchorage, AK. When he’s not contributing to WWPD.net he is busy blogging, painting, modeling and rolling dice. You can find more of his work and articles at frozengamerak.blogspot.com.”
All infantry in Open Fire come with Battlefronts new slotted bases. These bases are really nice and allow you to glue each figure into a slot. This conveniently hides the base the figure is on and eliminates the need to build up putty or basing material around the feet of each figure to hit the stand.
One thing that I found odd about the paratroopers was the arrangement on the sprue. Both Germans and Paratroopers were on the same sprue. They were grouprd well to avoid confusion or mix ups, but I could easily see someone with eye sight worse than mine mixing the figures up unintentionally. I even found my self squinting at times just to make sure I was putting Americans and Germans in the right piles. This means I am going to have to double check my Dads figures before he start gluing them to bases. Also, be careful not to bend or break any gun barrels when clipping the figures from the sprue. Some of the figure's rifles stick out, and I broke one barrel off and bent a few sent cutting them on my hobby table.
The sculpts themselves are really well done and in some regards have more detail than Battlefront's metal paratroopers. I say that with some regards because it is important to keep in mind that some detail is lost because most of the figures are one piece plastic figures. For those of you not familiar with the plastic process, the molds cannot hold the details you would find on some parts of a figure. For example, the bottom side of a backpack wont turn in, it will simply cut straight back into the model.
This short coming common in plastics is not apparent from the front of any of these figures. The front side of the paratroopers is very detailed down to buttons, eyeballs and wrinkles in the face. Yo will find this on the back of the figures around the backpacks, shovels, canteens and on the helmets of the .30 cal gunner.
The .30 all gunner and loader are a two piece figure/team. The firing arm and the loading arm are connected to the gun. I found that I ham handed the assembly on these figures and didn't get the arms to line up and perfectly as I would have wanted. However, the figure still looks awesome and reminds me of the days of playing with little green army men.
As you have seen, I painted my paratroopers for winter warfare to go with my Late War Bulge American army. The figures painted really easy and have that over exaggerated detail Battlefront is known for. I personally like this style of detail as it make painting easier and I find that the detail is more apparent and visible when the figure is finished and on the table.
I am really excited to see these plastic platoons become available separately from the Open Fire set. I can see my self collecting and entire paratrooper force made up of plastic troopers. I would also encourage people who haven't picked up Open Fire yet to run out and do it. It is a steal of a deal and full of goodies. It is a great tool to help get new players into FoW and a great way to build your force. Locally, the four of us who have picked up our own sets have been busy swapping troops and tanks from the box set in preparation for armies and miniature wargaming adventures.
If you have picked up Open Fire or have any thoughts on Battlefront's new plastic paratrooper or anything else found in the box set, share it with the rest of us on the WWPD forum.
“Craig Baxter is the Director of the WWPD Northern Research center in Anchorage, AK. When he’s not contributing to WWPD.net he is busy blogging, painting, modeling and rolling dice. You can find more of his work and articles at frozengamerak.blogspot.com.”
