This five-man crew is designed for Bronco’s British 17/25 Pounder Anti-Tank Gun “Pheasant”, #CB35071. They are dressed for the Tunisia, Sicily, or Italy Campaign. Each crewman is molded on his own sprue, lettered A to E. These sprues are attached to a central sprue rod, so it looks like they could be mixed and matched later with other figures or weapons sprues. We get a loader, ammo handler, seated gunner, an officer pointing, and a guy standing with his hands on his hips. The instructions are on the back of the box, along with paint references for four different brands.

The molding is flash-free and has very nice undercutting details on the pockets and collars. The heads are molded sideways on the sprue, in one piece. The seams run around the heads on the helmet chin straps, which make then a little too thick. But it sure makes for easier cleanup and painting. I left the heads attached to the sprues and used it as a handle while painting.

Nostalgia – there's nothing that warms the heart more at times. Being the age I am, I remember Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, a marionette based Sci-Fi show which originally aired in 1965-66. The cool weapons and craft, the evil villains, the puppets – all very cool! Lately, Aoshima has been reissuing kits from the original series and this review will deal with my favorite, "The Mole."

The relatively new Chinese company, Meng, has recently released the first-ever rendition of the British A-39 Tortoise, a behemoth ostensibly created to join battle with the German super-heavy tanks being designed at the close of World War II. The mind boggles at the specter of a platoon of (Tortai?) engaging a gaggle of MAUS monsters on the plains of Europe. Of the six vehicles completed, however, only one was sent across the channel for field testing, but it never entered combat.