For a set that is labelled as 'Winter Greatcoat Eastern Front' this has one feature that may surprise some - there is not one single greatcoat anywhere. You can search in vain for the classic German greatcoat which for the first winter on the Eastern Front was almost the only winter clothing for many. Instead what this kit of parts contains is one of the many forms of parka coat that the German troops wore, complete with the hood and the single row of buttons down the front. Caesar must surely know what a greatcoat is, since they themselves produced a set of Germans wearing the very garment reviewed here, but for whatever reason these figures have none, although they are fortunate in having the rather better parka, which was common enough on the Eastern Front, so the figures are still perfectly usable.

As this is part of the Caesar 'Assembly' series there are no complete figures here - just around 300 parts which can be used to construct up to 16 figures like the one we have photographed above. Now that is not a great pose we will freely admit, and better can be made, but as with the other sets in the series we were a bit disappointed with the range of arms and legs on offer. The exact manifest of parts can be seen in the image of the sprues, and is much the same as the others in the series, but it is harder than you might think to get many particularly good poses. As with the other sets, all the parts fit well enough and being made in a hard plastic will accept ordinary glue to make a strong bond. The array of weapons and kit is the same as the rest, so that is good, but on the whole a figure with lots of small pieces glued to them like this is not as convincing in our view, particularly as none of them have the necessary belts or straps.

The quality of the sculpting is the same as the rest, which is very good, and the accuracy of all the various parts causes no concern, but we are not convinced about the value of figures made in this way. Still, some customers may very well love the idea, and if so then they will probably find much to praise in this well-made set. The one obvious problem of course is that the title is very misleading (even if the picture helps to warn customers), hence the loss of accuracy, although as winter infantry in general these are entirely accurate.