The difficulty for many companies wanting to produce a wide range of World War II sets is that they would simply be repeating the output of others. Revell have avoided this problem by making their long-awaited British Infantry set suitable for the late war period, a unique distinction at the time.

The set has the now standard Revell 12 poses, with two men attaching to a separate base. The poses are reasonable though not exceptional, and should prove satisfactory for most uses. The men are clothed and equipped in a highly authentic manner, with mostly late-war items but some variation to reflect the uneven appearance of all armies of the period. This is most obvious with the helmet, which is the Mk III 'turtle' shaped replacement to the familiar Mk II with its rim. However, though all assault troops were issued the new helmet prior to D-Day, the Mk II was still much in use even at the end of the war. The men also wear the standard 'Battledress, Serge' and the Pattern 37 web equipment, which correctly varies between the men as some have got extra ammunition pouches etc. Several also wear the leather jerkin.

Weaponry is equally well represented, with rifles and Sten sub-machine guns being the favoured types. One man is running carrying a Bren Gun while another is prone firing his Bren. We also have a figure carrying a PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) over his shoulder. Finally the 'pair' piece is of two prone infantrymen firing a 2in mortar. All the weapons are appropriate for the D-Day period and nicely detailed.

Sculpting is uniformly excellent, flash is almost non-existent and animation cannot be faulted. At an average of 25mm in height the figures are a little too tall however. Still it is good to see Revell using a bit more imagination and producing a set that adds to others already available rather than simply duplicating them. This was the first historic set Revell had produced for several years, and its quality merely served to remind us what had been missing, since by this stage new sets from them had slowed to a trickle.

Note There are some reports of Revell putting the old Matchbox British Infantry figures in this box instead of the original figures we review here. Perhaps a packing error at the factory, but whatever the reason it is as well to be cautious when purchasing this set!