Stanimir Stratev is a vendor I found on Facebook. Specifically, in the 'Big 1/32 WW2 Plastic Toy Soldiers and vehicles' group. He is one of the up and coming manufacturers enabled by the advancements in 3D printing. As far as I know he produces his own designs. He offers vehicles, figures and artillery pieces with focus on World War II. So far he seems to have many more vehicles than figures, but he seems to be adding figures at a good pace. Besides the German Paras that I recently purchased, I have also seen him offer US infantry, US Paras, US Paramarines, German Waffen SS, Soviet Infantry, Soviet Scouts. Given the explosion of figures available via 3D printing, I am no longer aiming to acquire every available set that becomes available. Instead, I am being more selective and only getting sets that fill a gap or add to a limited supply in my collection. The German heavy weapons sets below are one such example. One way to see Stanimir's figures is to go to the FB group and search for posts from him. Alternatively, you can contact him on FB messenger and ask him about his sets and he will send you pictures. His customer service was very good, and his communication prompt and effective. Pricing and shipping times were also very reasonable, even though the package came all the way from the Netherlands. We are looking forward to Stanimir's success and future figures. For now, you can check out two of his sets below.
Stanimir Stratev's German Paras Heavy Weapons Set 1
The center piece of this set is the Mortar team, but it also contains a machine gun with a bipod, a sniper team, and a guy firing a panzerschreck. Lots of firepower here! Which is precisely why I decided to get them. One thing to note is that the finer bits of these figures are fairly thin so you do need to be careful with them. But you can order them in whichever scale you want (1/35, 1/32, 1/30) so if you go larger, you will get figures that are a bit more robust. The other reason why I got them is that they are very well sculpted. The poses, the proportions, and level of detail are just right. I have a feeling they will look very good once painted. I also like the fact that they are all crouching, suggesting that there's a good amount of opposing fire coming at them. Now I just need to find some ruins or trenches to let them take cover.
Stanimir Stratev's German Paras Heavy Weapons Set 2
In this set, the main piece is the mounted MG team. Besides the gunner and the helper feeding the ammo belt, you also get an ammo runner, and an observer helping to direct the fire. Protecting the flanks of the MG there is a man with an MP40 and just in case an armored vehicles tries to over run them, we also get a guy with a panzerfaust. As you can see, these guys are wearing the knee pads which also offered support when jumping. Initially I thought this made them specific to the Crete operation, which would have been odd given that they are equipped with a panzerfaust which was introduced later in the war. According to Google's AI, German paras continued to use knee pads even when deployed as ground troops as they offered protection when crawling over rubble and rough terrain. I can see how that would have been pretty helpful in a place like Monte Cassino! Unfortunately I can't find any pictures to support that claim, so I will let you be the judge of that. At any rate, these guys will be a very welcome addition to my German airborne units fighting in Crete and beyond!
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