Knowing the environment and your enemy’s movements has always been vital in warfare, and in an age of satellite surveillance and electronic monitoring it is easy to forget that not so very long ago reconnaissance on the battlefield was often down to patrols simply going out and reporting what they found, like this little set from Zvezda. Another of the wide range of Art of Tactic game pieces, this one depicts a British patrol during World War II. Although they wear standard battledress and helmets that would remain the norm throughout the war, the respirators positioned on the chest in the alert position, the gas cape rolled on the pack and the lack of all the usual later-war kit such men often carried gives these figures an early war look, particularly for the campaign in France.

All the poses are really well done, as always in this range, and the detail and sculpting is exquisite, especially on the Bren gun. Every figure needs some assembly, but parts fit together securely yet easily so as usual the quality of engineering is perfect. Some really nice unusual poses make this a small but perfectly formed group of figures, and for once they even make sense when placed together on the single base as shown here rather than on their separate bases, although this closely grouped they would make for an inviting target. Either way this is a very fine product.