This element of the Zvezda Art of Tactic wargame system contains two samurai lancers at the trot. Both carry a lance of about 42mm (about 3 metres) in length, and one holds his with both hands. The poses are superb but complicated, and have been achieved by having each figure in several parts. As always with Zvezda these parts fit together very snugly, so no need to glue, and the same applies to the horses, both of which come in two halves. This is somewhat reminiscent of the Historex approach to horses, which at least avoids the problems of producing convincing quadruped poses with a single steel mould. The resulting poses are very good, and we have often wondered why this approach is not taken more often, since it allows for much better horse poses. Only one other set has thus far used this approach, and to date that has yet to be released, so officially at least this is a first for Zvezda.

Samurai armour is immensely complex and tricky to reproduce at this sort of scale, but everything here looks fine. The horses even have the gap down the middle of the saddle, done to reduce weight. Each samurai has a sashimono flag on his back, which Zvezda have supplied in both bright yellow and bright red, presumably to denote 'sides'. Also in the set is a sheet of wet transfers with mons or badges, which would be applied to the sashimono.

While quite time-consuming to put together, these two mounted men are exceptional models because of the poses achieved as well as the brilliant quality of the sculpting. Each horse has an individual base as shown, but the set also includes a larger base as shown here so as to fulfil the primary role of being a unit marker for the game. But whether you game with them or not, these are wonderful models.