Not Quite Useless Figures

 

Heller / Airfix WWII British Paratroopers.  Some people, including me, consider this to be one of the worst Airfix sets, after the Infantry Combat Group and the first edition German Infantry.  Still, they did include a drop box and a couple guys gathering their parachutes.

I have recently re-evaluated this set and purchased several more of them.  The mortar is pretty good and gets a crew of two kneeling guys.  I add the guy looking at his watch to the crew, giving a crew of three, and the radio man goes with four mortars so they have a battery with communication.  After having watched the science fiction monster movie Reptilicus for the 117th time I decided to do a Cold War Danish Army.  In the movie some of the troops seem to be wearing the British Paratrooper helmet.  So a few of these guys will graciously donate their heads for that project.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilicus

Someone on my Facebook Airfix figures group posted a group of American football players he converted from several Airfix sets, many of them from this set.  So I decided that I would use many of these to create at least two football teams of 12 men.  There are 11 on the field at a time but I wanted each side to have a guy with the ball.  The grenade thrower will fill that niche.  Other figures from the Airfix Tarzan, WWI British Infantry, and Robin Hood sets will also join my Army, Navy, and maybe Air Force or Notre Dame or perhaps USC football teams.  The British paratrooper helmet looks a lot like an old fashioned football helmet and so more of these figures will donate heads to the project.

The guy shooting his gun up into the air seems a very ironic pose for a paratrooper.  It's like he is a traitor to the other guys in his group. Of course he could be firing at a sniper in a tree, or a German in a second story window, but we don't get this pose in any other Airfix set.

Mr. Bending Over guy will likely end up as another mortar crewman.  The guys being wounded will be the first to volunteer to donate their heads to either football players or the 1961 Danish Army. 

Some of the other figures in the set will become henchmen for various nefarious organizations like Thrush, or SPECTRE in my James Bond / Espionage games.  After they get a suitable painting in a blue or gray uniform.  They may also get a head swap with figures wearing Ridgeway Hats or berets as is often worn by henchmen.  There will also be a few used as Royal Navy.  In the James Bond movie Dr. No, a British patrol boat picks up Bond at sea, with a Bond Girl and they are wearing these helmets and web gear, in their light blue shirts and dark blue pants.  So while I won't use them for WWII British Paratroopers, I am getting a lot of use out of them.