During World War II Hungarian tank units made use of a variety of tanks purchased or donated by allies, but also utilised two domestic machines, the Toldi light tank (based on a Swedish design), and the Turán medium tank (based on a Czech one). However, although they did receive a handful of Tigers from Germany late in the war, their tanks were not able to stand up against the Soviet machines that they faced, and Hungarian armoured units suffered very high casualties during their operations, which were mostly in the Soviet Union. After the disasters of late 1942/early 1943, when the Germans lost confidence in them, many Hungarian units were used on anti-partisan duties, where their outdated tanks were not an issue.

Hungary’s armoured units entered the war in 1939 wearing mostly the Italian tankers helmet, which had a thick padded rim and a leather neck curtain, but later (apparently from 1942) first radio operators and then all ranks started to wear the M1939 helmet. This was of a similar shape but lacked the padded rim and had prominent radio headphone housings built into the flaps. Seven of the poses in this collection of figures wear this later model, although one (row two, figure three) is missing the headphones, which may be a mistake. The remaining five figures all wear the Hungarian side cap, similar to those of other nations but with the front of the crown forming a pronounced peak at the top. Various styles of overalls were worn, and some of these figures may have these here, but the most obvious item of clothing which many of these figures wear is the leather jacket. This started the war as double-breasted, and had a single conspicuous breast pocket flap, but shortages of leather lead to a single-breasted version being issued, and both styles are depicted in this set. Five of the poses are certainly not wearing overalls as they wear ordinary service trousers, which were tapered to the lower leg and tight, held by several buttons at the calf. Most of the rest look like they either have overalls or else ‘technicians trousers’, large bulky trousers worn over service dress and sometimes even the jacket, supported by braces. The last figure in the last row is an officer, and is distinctive in his long coat and riding boots. While all these items were issued at different times, they would have been seen together, and the variety of clothing here is a good representation of the uniforms during the war, missing only the very late war M1944 overalls that took their inspiration from German uniform.

Orion have made many sets of tank crew for World War II, and have delivered a consistent array of poses. The first man looks to be in combat as he seems to fire his pistol, which would be quite rare but adds some action to the mix. The rest are either in relaxed posture or else busying themselves around their vehicle, including a couple that are handling jerry cans. These all make perfect sense for a scene of tanks behind the front lines, and although we are not big fans of the positioning of the running man, there are no objectionable poses here. The two seated figures are always particularly useful, especially for open-top vehicles, and our favourite is the man smoking a cigarette (hopefully well away from any fuel).

Another consistent aspect of Orion tank crew sets is the really good sculpting, showcasing all the detail required as well as good proportions, natural poses and faces with character. We were pleased to see little details like the goggles several have on their head, and the belts and pistol holsters all look good too. There were a couple of bits of flash on a couple of figures, but otherwise these are amazingly clean and free of unwanted plastic, so a really nice job in producing the mould and the sprues.

Each set of Orion tank crew pretty much sets the standard for us, and this is no exception. Faultless research, beautiful sculpting and poses which anyone should find easy to use around one or more tanks, make this the definitive, and to be fair so far the only, set of Hungarian tankers. Orion should be loudly applauded for tackling the less obvious subjects such as this in a sea of World War II sets, and doing so with all the quality you could hope for. If you are building a Hungarian army for the period then this is an obvious element, but it will also be about the most attractive one too.

And before anyone points it out to us, yes, we know the box shows a Nimrod self-propelled anti-tank gun, not a tank!