Air force figures are usually either sitting in the cockpit, relaxing between flights or doing something rather dull like refuelling, so this emergency set brought some unusually active figures to an airfield scene. The set included an ambulance and a crash tender, plus the quite generous number of figures pictured above to make the scene come alive. The ambulance was accompanied by the doctor, stretcher case and stretcher bearers as shown. The doctor wears regulation RAF jacket and peaked cap, and holds a stethoscope to the patient, who seems to wear a flight suit and boots but has been relieved of his helmet and any other items of kit. The bearers are almost certainly the same pose, but one has come through the mould-making process so badly that it is hard to tell. They wear the RAF version of the army battledress, called 'Suits, Aircrew' in 1940 and then 'War Service Dress' in 1943.
The fire crew consist of the man holding the end of a hose, another with a fire extinguisher and a third wearing the standard asbestos suit for rescuing crews from burning planes. The two fire-fighters wear the same uniform as the stretcher bearers, including the side cap, which is something of a surprise as we would have expected at least a steel helmet and quite possibly other protective clothing. The asbestos suit is a good model of the real thing, although the man himself is in a very static pose. Completing the bottom row is the driver figure for the two vehicles, again in War Service Dress.
The main problem with these figures is that there is plenty of flash, although to be fair the pictured examples come from a recently made set and this is a very old kit so the mould may have seen better days. As we have said, one of the bearers has fared particularly badly, but overall detail is reasonable, although there are a number of sink holes on these ones, and some, old or new, suffer from mould marks in very visible places. The bases are quite unnecessarily small too, so these figures are not without their challenges, but they remain a popular subject and certainly rank amongst the more memorable figures to be found in Airfix kits.
Below are examples of how the completed kit was illustrated in Airfix catalogues. The first is taken from an early catalogue, and clearly shows different models and figures, so is likely to be prototypes photographed before the final tooling was made.
