Germany had taught the world lessons in the use of tanks with their Blitzkrieg in the 1930s, but after disbandment in 1945 it was not until 1956 that the then West Germany was permitted to again organise armed forces. This set from Preiser bears no date so must be assumed to be ‘modern’. The difficulty is there is no clue as to when this set was released, although we can safely assume that it was sometime in the mid-nineties.

We must admit that we are not well qualified to assess the accuracy of this set. Literature on the German Army in the 1990s is extremely limited, at least in English, and the references shown below all refer to an earlier period, so we do not know how relevant they are to 1995. However all the figures wear a variety of fatigues which are pretty common to all armies in the modern era, and we have no reason to doubt the authenticity, particularly as the set was produced in Germany, where the real thing was in plentiful supply to act as a reference. A couple of the figures have web equipment that looks correct, including the pouches on the belt and the respirator on the left hip, while some have winter gear.

All the standing poses seem to be sentries or on some sort of guard or traffic control duty. The seated figures are presumably the tank crew of the title, as are the top-only figures, which could be placed on tank hatches. The general atmosphere is relaxed and no one seems to be in combat, which is fine, and all the poses are really nicely done.

The sculpting is very good, with as much detail as necessary and good folds in clothing. In this case the depth of the detail has not been exaggerated, as sometimes happens to assist painting, so can easily be obscured by excessive paint. There is no flash, and none of the figures require assembly. For the sitting figures this means some detail is lost on the upper legs, but nothing to get excited about, and after all such figures are intended to be in vehicles where they would be very hard to observe anyway. As 'HO' scale (1/87) these are smaller than 1/72, but for some tank kits in particular the difference can be hard to notice and even be an advantage with limited space for figures.

The accessories sprue contains a number of cans and a machine gun, plus a number of circular hatches as might be found on the turret of a modern tank. These are presumably for tank kits that do not offer a separate, opened hatch, so the figure can be added without losing the hatch, which is a smart idea.