Hey Guys, any recommendation/ suggestion for after market .50 and .30 cal weps. I am working on some WWII soft skins that need some help

Plastic or resin/etch???

Adlers Nest has some fantastic MG barrels, but not entire guns. I've seen resin MGs, but didn't think they looked a whole lot better than original kit parts.

Verlinden did lots of resin weapons, often with photoetched cradles. They are out of production, but should be all over ebay.
Some of their stuff is a mishmash of eras and features and some was overscale.

Legends makes resin guns, .50 for sure but these may be more modern.

Another option depending on your comfort with photoetch would be Eduard etch sets for the given vehicle. These often have PE additions to the kit gun, but require filing or carving off molded on details. Their website www.eduard.cz has PDF's of the instruction sheets you can check ahead of time.

There are a couple of dedicated injection plastic gun sets, but those are are not really my jam.

You can also check out some 3D printed sets on Shapeways.

Tasca/Asuka makes perhaps the best injection molded .50 Caliber MG, they sell them as a set of two. Academy also has a nice set of American MG, including both .50 Cal and .30 cal.

Yes either of these sets with aftermarket brass barrels would be your best option. I used to prefer the JB model and RB model sets but they don't seem to make them anymore but Aber come a pretty close second

I agree, I use the Academy set a lot and is the most cost effective. Tasca/Asuka is more expensive and difficult to find, although it will get more easy to get them since they changed over to Asuka and have more sellers. But the Tasca/Asuka sets are by far the best, giving you the same effect you would get with a turned brass barrel.

The very best M2s come from Live Resin in Russia, available direct at www.models-hobby.com or from various resellers. He does the 1940's-1990's M2HB and the current M2 QCB in packs of 3 guns for about $8/£7 (at today rates). I've just ordered half a dozen packs today. He also does various modern and wartime mounts, ammo boxes, belts and loose rounds.

The associated company Tahk (Tank) used to do excellent resin M1919's and both early and late types of mount. But these are long OOP and very hard to find now. Believe me - I've been looking! ET Models do an etch set for 2 M2's with mount, ammo box and holder etc (EA35-003). They also do a set with a nice resin M2 and the etch set (EA35-040). Eduard used to do a set of 3 early etched mounts for the M1919 (35030) and 2 mounts for the M2 (35031), which may still be available .

Voyager do a couple of Israeli MG sets for Tirans and Shots which have an M2 and 2 M1919's in resin plus mounts, boxes, etc (try VBS0123). They're £9-£10 a set.

Check out the Zebrano resin M2's, which come in 2 different mount types. They're not bad at all for about £4 each. They also do ammo boxes in a couple of types and ammo belts.

Beware M1919 sets where you have to roll your own barrel jackets from a flat etched sheet and attach a wire barrel and resin muzzle. Nightmare. RB Model do very nice brass M1919 barrels that you can pick up for as little as about £1.70 each. They also do M2 barrels, but the perforated barrel shroud is a little basic and maybe a bit short. The Orange Hobby ones are good and a reasonable price. You can pay £10 a barrel for some brands.

Panzer Art have just released some extremely nice 0.30 and 0.50 ammo boxes, possibly the best yet. Etched ones from the likes of ET are good for showing opened or crushed cans, open and discarded lids etc but are damned fiddly to assemble.