I just wanted to make a quick post with some comparisons of West Wind Productions 28mm Separate Head System for their WWII Berlin or Bust. If anyone thinks this should be turned into a more formal article, I’m all ears for pointers.

West Wind Productions Separate Head System Review

 As an avid Imperial Guard player, I’m always interested in putting in conversions that make my miniatures stand out from everyone else’s. One of the ways I’ve always done this is the addition of heads to give characters or distinguished soldiers their own unique look. However, the range of heads to add to an Imperial Guard miniature and still keep in its military theme is quite limited. The most obvious solution is the plastic Catachan heads who bear a striking resemblance to action movie heroes. 

 

These heads have always served me well though, and with some green stuff for hair or other headgear, they achieved the effect I was looking for. However, after falling in love with Forgeworld’s Elysian Drop Troops, I’d come to find that my technique of Catachan heads just wouldn’t look right on these airborne soldiers that are closer to a true 28mm rather than GWs heroic 28mm. I made an effort to put modified Catachan heads on my Elysian Officers, but they still looked out of place. I needed a new solution.

Lo and behold, around the same time I was looking for an alternative, The Miniatures Page posted an article on West Wind Productions new line of separate 28mm heads. These looked like the answer to my problems! Still, 28mm has many different meanings and I’d need to experiment with the product in order to be sure.

 

I took a trip over to West Wind Productions home page, and had little trouble navigating their online store. After reviewing the SHS line, I settled on the American Bare heads and the British Paratroopers in Berets. The company had great communication with me and sent both the automated messages letting me know my order had been received and personalized responses to some of the comments I left. It was shipped from the UK on 17 December and arrived on 26 December, a little under two weeks using standard shipping during the holidays. 

 

Packaging is nice, and retailer friendly, and each contained 5 sprues of 4 heads. Of the sprues, there are two different types, so 8 different heads to choose from. My only complaint is that while my British Paras came with 2 of one sprue and 3 of the other, my US troopers only had 1 of one type and 4 of the other. They are relatively free of flash, except for the British Paras have a small mold line running over the top of the beret. 30 seconds with a Dremel cleaned that right up, though.

 

As far as size goes, these are pretty close to true 28mm. That fits the bill perfectly for my Elysians. They are about the same size as Forgeworld’s bare Cadian heads.  A test run of the bare head on a Cadian body shows they don’t look all that bad there either. I think the pictures speak for themselves, here. In all, I’m happy with my buy, and would highly recommend both the SHS bits and West Wind Productions to anyone looking for their next conversion project.