This set is part of the Caesar 'Assembly Series', which means it contains a large number of parts from which you are supposed to construct your own figures however you want. It sounds great in theory, and the numbers of each part are illustrated by our sprue image but are broadly similar to the parts found in the set of 1943 German Infantry reviewed here. Indeed the weapons/kit sprue and the faces sprue are the same as appear in the rest of this series, leaving just the main body parts to be unique to the paratroopers. This sprue also has a number of items that were unique to such men, including the bandolier often worn around the neck, the cloth gas mask bag and of course the distinctive helmet.

We discussed the merits of this kind of kit approach in our review of the infantry, so won't repeat ourselves here. However as with the infantry set we found that the range of arms and legs did not offer as wide a variety of poses as we had hoped. For example, the figure on the box cannot be modelled as there are no straight right arms. We also noted that the legs are not all the same length (making due allowance for bent knees of course), so the range of sensible poses is not as great as might be supposed. As can be seen above, while everything fits quite well the result is not quite as realistic as a single-piece figure or at least one with a dedicated pose, but that is the price for the flexibility this set offers. Certainly a good paint job will help matters, and those with sufficient skill can do more with the parts, so there is certainly scope for more variety here.

For obvious reasons all the figures wear the same uniform, which is to say the jump smock and paratroop helmet. This looks fine, although the fact that everyone wears knee pads is unfortunate as most tended to discard these after landing to ease movement. Generally the clothing and kit is all correctly done, however, so no real problems there.

The sculpting is good too, with good and clear detail. We found no flash or other blemishes on anything here, so this is well produced. With several sets of paratroopers already on the market the main appeal of this set will be the assembly aspect, and regardless of accuracy or quality of sculpting it is likely to be the putting together that will decide whether most people buy or not. We are not big fans of this type of product, mainly because the resulting poses are not usually quite as natural as the dedicated sculpt, but for those that like this kind of thing this set delivers most of what you could want, and doubtless by mixing and matching with other sets a lot more poses can be achieved too.