Andy Singleton has been busy with his cutters and putty showing us just how quick and easy it is to convert the new Fallschirmjӓger with a mix of other Warlord Plastic sets;
Andy: Since I saw this set at Salute I’ve been very, very excited to get to work on them, and start a Fallschirmjager force, and on getting a sprue in my hands I’ve noticed there are quite a few bits left over… So a rummage in my bits box and the following Green Devils emerged. I’ve named them to add a bit more personality, so we have Joseph the Leutnant in his great coat, Fritz in his blue tunic and jump trousers, Hermann in a tropical uniform and finally Karl and Hans wearing the early war jump smocks
Joseph
My Lieutenant was made using a great coated Russian from the Winter Russians set, as well as arms, head and pouches from the Fallschirmjӓger set. To make the uniform a little more accurate I carved off the Russian straps and reshaped the back with green stuff to more closely resemble the German greatcoat, and then used green stuff to sculpt on new cuffs.
Fairly simple to do, but probably my favourite of the conversions, and a nice and dramatic officer!
Fritz
Fritz will probably be serving as a squad leader in my army, although I’ve not given him any rank badges yet. Fritz is wearing a Luftwaffe tunic and Fallschirmjӓger jump trousers, and was made using the body and arms from the new Grenadier kit, with a Fallschirmjӓger head.
The Fallschirmjӓger tunic was a shorter garment than the standard tunic worn by most branches of the German military, and so I used the figure wearing the late war short tunic out of the grenadier set. To this I removed the chest pockets with a sharp blade.
To make the trousers more accurately resemble the Fallschrimjӓger Jump trousers I rolled a small sausage of green stuff, and wrapped this around the top of the boots, blending it into the trouser leg carefully.
Karl
Karl is a very easy build, I used the flame thrower arms from the Blitzkrieg Pioneer set, and a kneeling body from the Fallschirmjӓger set, which was also the source of the head.
Marrying the metal parts to the plastic was easy, and to add a little more detail I added some shoulder straps using green stuff for the flame thrower. Simple, and done!
Hans
Like Karl, Hans was a very simple conversion, using the assault firing MG34 arms from the Blitzkrieg plastic set and a suitably dramatically posed Fallchirmjӓger body and head, a nice early war LMG gunner was added to my force
Hermann
In areas of hot weather such as the mediterannian theatre and Tunisia, Fallschrimjager sometimes wore the Luftwaffe tropical uniform. This consisted of a 4 pocket tunic in a broadly similar cut to to the standard German tunic, as well as baggy trousers with a pocket on the left thigh.
To make Hermann I used a body and arms straight from the Grenadier set, and used the same techniques to make to make the trousers baggy as I did for Fritz. I also used green stuff to add a small map pocket.
Colours
I’ve listed the colours used in the table below, as well as the Games Workshop equivalent. I use Army Painter inks for shading, and then build up layers of highlights and glazes, however here’s the base colours I use, and then you can use whatever techniques you favour to make the colours your own.
| Item: | Vallejo Colour | Games Workshop Colour |
| Great Coat/Fallschirmjager tunic | Luftwaffe Blue | Thunderhawk Blue |
| Trousers | Russian Uniform | Nurgling Green |
| Tropical Uniform | Green Ochre | Zamesi Desert |
| Helmet (uncovered) | Luftwaffe Blue | Thunderhawk Blue |
| Helmet (splinter camo) | Pastel Green, Luftwaffe Camo Green, Leather Brown | Zandri Dust, Death World Fores, XV-88 |
| Jump Smock, Helmet (Green cover) | Pastel Green | Zandri Dust, with some green mixed in. |
As you’ve seen from Andy’s excellent work the new plastic Fallschirmjӓger are totally compatible with our other German sprues such as the Grenadiers German weapons sprue and Blitzkrieg plastics.
You can read more about this elite force in Osprey Publishing’s Warrior series Fallschirmjӓger German Paratrooper 1935-45
If you need the tools of the trade then have a look at these:
Complete your collection with a full Fallschirmjӓger 1500pt Starter Army:
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon