Sometimes a box can contain a surprise, but surely few can compare with the surprise to be found in this box. The title of Field Accessories might make you expect bits of wall, sandbag positions, perhaps some road signs, tank traps - that sort of thing. What you probably wouldn’t expect is half a dozen German soldiers plus some artillery, yet that is what this set contains.

Looking at the accessories first, we find most of the usual suspects that many other sets have supplied. Beside the telegraph poles are what appear to be bits of fencing, and a good number of sandbags for construction of any sort of position. The barbed wire frames and tank traps are also old favourites, as are the assortment of crates, oil drums and jerry cans. Brick walls are not rare either, but here the various shapes and sheer quantity allow for quite a lot of construction. There are even a large number of single bricks, to give ultimate flexibility. The instructions imply you could make entire buildings this way, although we imagine that would be a very tedious task. Still, all of the accessories are well done and useful.

For whatever reason hard plastic figures are usually much inferior to their soft plastic cousins, and these are no exception. There are occasional separate arms or weapons, but these are figures that require little assembly. However what there is is not very well designed - the third figure in the third row is supposed to be firing his rifle, yet the separate right arm cannot be placed in anything like a suitable position. Several of the figures are leaning back very significantly, and if cemented to their base standing straight they would be on tip-toes. The detail is very poor too, and often dissolves altogether. Indistinct and patchy at best, the figures are further spoiled by obvious sink marks in their backs where the plastic has not cooled properly. Weapons too are quite poor, and the gun, which is supposed to be a 37 mm PaK 35/36, is no more than a gun barrel and shield on wheels, lacking virtually all of the firing and other mechanisms. Add the all-too-common mould marks to the mix and these are figures to avoid.

It would seem that this set, or part thereof, had a previous life as a Nitto product before appearing under the Fujimi name. It also appears that many if not all of the figures are based on larger scale Tamiya originals, which was a common product range to copy. While this set may have been Fujimi for several years, its history goes back decades more.

One bizarre feature is that the bases for the figures have various Nazi motifs embossed on them, which must either be hidden on the underside or interfere with the gluing of the feet to the base. The accessories are reasonable, although nothing out of the ordinary, but the figures are very poor, making this product one that is unlikely to find its way into many collections.