The ever-expanding range of World War II Germans from Preiser is clearly trying to cover as many scenarios as possible, and perhaps one of the more obvious gaps in the existing sets is for figures that can be placed in the many vehicles that are available. While tank crews are not so scarce, most other vehicles have at best a driver, so all those lorries and half-tracks would have to remain empty, at least until this set appeared.

As usual the poses pretty much speak for themselves. Most are of soldiers sitting down and clutching their weapons, and are suitable for placing in vehicles as shown on the box artwork. Many are extremely similar, although all are unique in some way, and by swapping arms and weapons more variety can be introduced. Of course the reality would have been much the same - rows of men in similar but slightly different positions, with the odd one doing something different perhaps, so these are perfect for the job. The standing poses are clearly meant to be in the vehicles as well as they grip some rail, and their posture and equipment suggest they are officers.

The sculpting is the usual very acceptable Preiser standard, with many men having separate arms or heads to allow some mixing - in fact there are extra heads in the set for this purpose. We found all parts fitted well, and there was no flash to spoil the fun. As always the set also includes a large variety of separate weapons and bits of kit with which to embellish these men, although it should be pointed out that no one wears the full webbing, so such accessories are less usable here. All the men wear the early war tunic and boots, which might be considered the 'smart' era of the German army, so they would look out of place in the middle of the battle for Stalingrad for example, but perfectly good for the invasion of France.

Given the limited objective of this set we felt the target was comfortably reached. A long-awaited companion to all those German armoured columns, and another success for the figure sculptors at Preiser.