I just received Tamiya's new kit of British figures and they were well worth the wait.

I'll start with the box art, which is bang on for detail. The artist renderings on the front and sides of the box are an excellent colour reference; I'm sure people new to British infantry uniforms and equipment would be able to finish these figures using nothing else as a guide. There are smaller more simplified drawings on the back of the box and on both end flaps. These are an aide for the placement of the various articles of equipment but they should not however, be used as a colour guide. Also on the back are actual photos of the five finished figures with the part numbers and Tamiya paint references. They are well done using only what is in the box, so rifle slings and such are not shown, but to me the painting standard could be better.

Now on to the inside! There are three sprues - one for the five figures and two matching sprues for all of the accessories. They are moulded in dark gray with very little flash. The figures are broken down into: torso, left leg, right leg, head and arms. Because of the separate legs, I think it will be possible to mix and match leg movements by buying two or more kits. Because of the separate heads it makes it much easier to add after market ones if you intend on making more than five in one diorama (unless you want twins!)

The equipment is beautiful! Far better than their last attempt at it. On each sprue you get: three helmets, three different haversacks (backpacks), three different entrenching tools (two of which have bayonets attached at different angles) three water bottles, six bren gun magazine pouches, two mugs, an equipment bag for the bren gunner, an Enfield pistol in a holster, a pick and shovel, two Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1 rifles, a sten gun and magazine, and a bren gun with optional open or closed bipod. This gives more equipment than is needed to kit out the five soldiers but also brings up the only discrepancy I have found with the kit. The bayonet supplied is the sword bayonet for the older Short Magazine Lee Enfield No.1 Mk.3 - it should be the spike bayonet. As I said earlier, the bayonets are moulded to the entrenching tools (luckily on the backside) so you could just cut them off, or, I have it on good authority, the entrenching tools were a nuisance and therefore not widely used in any event. In that case you could just leave them off and add the nicely done spike bayonet that Dragon puts out.

All in all, a very worthwhile kit if you are into Commonwealth soldiers, and at the price ($12.50) very appealing as up until now it cost more than that for one figure in resin or metal!