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Strikeout = Vouched for by several people.

Maxmini
Victoria Miniatures
Statuesque Miniatures
Ramshackle Games
Puppets of War
Scibor Miniatures
Anvil Industry
Kromlech
West Wind Productions
Kabuki Models
Spellcrow
Evil Craft

I have a "shopping list" with products from all of these manufacturers, and while I've heard of some of them before, I haven't heard of others, but I've found them all through this site. Does reality match the pictures?

Take for example these and these shoulder pads. Is that level of detail possible at a 28mm scale?

 calamarialldayerrday wrote:
Maxmini
Victoria Miniatures - no idea
Statuesque Miniatures - no idea
Ramshackle Games - no idea
Puppets of War - Very well made. Minimal flashing, smaller parts well made
Scibor Miniatures - Really lovely, plenty of detail
Anvil Industry - Really awesome, and great levels of detail
Kromlech -Again, very well made, great detail and sturdy
West Wind Productions - no idea
Kabuki Models - no idea
Spellcrow - no idea
Evil Craft - no idea

The detail level is surprisingly high on each of those.

Only one I can vouch for is West Wind - I've got a lot of the Empire of the Dead stuff (painting link below). The metals are lovely models to paint - some flash/ mould lines to clean up, but nothing major. The resin vehicles were a little more problematic with some mould slippage, but the West Wind guys were excellent at replacing those.

I have a lot of pieces from MaxMini, Victoria and Scibor...

First MaxMini, they have a lot of great stuff and most of the smaller stuff I got was just perfect. But the "Confession machine" for example I bought had several broken spires, that weren't even in the box - which means it was shipped that way. I wrote them and they sent me another - also broken.
So the quality control is not outstanding, but I'd still order from them again for small stuff.

Victoria I've ordered a huge lot of metal conversion stuff, I LOVE the heads... the last time I ordered the international-shipping took quite some time. I emailed them, they dispatched a SECOND shipment immediately... then I eventually got both and they told me to keep them. Great people, great products... highly recommend.

And then Scibor, I probably own the most of his stuff... it's all awesome; I have at least 4 of the "Sanguinius" type models he was making a while back. Once he did some extra customization on a few 'stock' models for free before he shipped. I also highly recommend going Scibor.

The rest I don't really know... I got a few Kromlech pieces on an ebay bits buy that were nice but I have no dealing with the company themselves.

Kromlech: Amazing quality on the 90+ Orks I have from them.
Scibor: Only a couple models, but the casting is very good. Some of it can be very fragile, though.
MaxMini: Only bought one thing from them (set of legs), but the quality was good.

Victoria Miniatures - Excellent quality resin, good service and decently priced. Also, she's a member of the forums, has her own N&R thread here that she or her sculptor update regularly with previews, new products or general news about their range.

I got two boxes of the tankbusta style orks. I would put their resin quality up their with Forgeworld.

I can vouch for kromlech and maxmini.

Got some turret parts from kromlech and a 'mean green gobbo' from maxmini, both had crisp details, no bubbles and no warping etc.

Worth the pennies.

Spell crow have some ork heads I fancy getting.

I bought a Patton X from Kabuki. Flawless quality and detail.

Anvil is about as good as it gets, I have an army of Anvil Exo-lords and the casting is perfect!

I have bought box-fulls of stuff from both Victoria Miniatures and Anvil Industry, and heads & figures from Statuesque Miniatures, and it's all been outstanding.

Quick delivery, well packed, good service and excellent quality products.

I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending these companies and I'd buy more from them tomorrow if I could afford to.

Great. The only companies you guys haven't mentioned are Puppets of War, Evil Craft, and Ramshackle Games. I'm not terribly fussed about Ramshackle as I only have one item from them on my list and it's not terribly important.

I'm buying lots of heads and shoulder pads and things for conversions. I can't wait.

Ramshackle is pretty good. You can even get miscasts from them for dirt cheap.

Ramshackle I had good value from swift delivery but the Resin is cheaper more bubbly stuff than most still fine for gaming miniatures

Puppets War, my experience has been ok, with only a few mould lines and air bubbles here and there (no worse than I've gotten from Forgeworld).

HOWEVER, it is worth noting that my most recent purchase was about a year ago and was only for some heads and shoulder pads. The biggest items I've ordered from them are weapon turrets and I bought those 2-3 years ago. Since then they have had fairly well documented quality control issues and a lackluster approach to dealing with them.

I have nothing but the highest of praise for Maxmini, Kromlech and Anvil.

Thought Victoria Miniatures' quality was disappointingly mediocre given how good the reputation is.

I've had good experiences with Puppets War - fast shipping, decent casts. I've heard from others that cast quality can be a little variable, but haven't had any issues with that myself from 2 or 3 purchases.

Ramshackle is great for making some really unique looking vehicles very quickly. The resin is very brittle and hard making it difficult to work with. The pieces can be hard to assemble since they are cast in a open mold and that open side is often uneven and bubbly. Despite that I really like how they turn out in the end.

Well put Depraved also the price is great

Honestly the bits from Ramshackle are the ones I was least concerned about, so it's not a great worry.

Does anyone know where I can get standard looking Marine backpacks?

Maxmini and Anvil make a bunch of marine compatible backpacks

I have some of the Maxmini ones in my list, and I don't really like the Anvil ones. I was hoping for something that looked a little more like the standard GW ones, but neither GW nor FW sells Loyalist backpacks. It's weird.