The Kit

Eduard's new figure kit comes in their standard top opening cardboard box. In it there are two dark grey plastic sprues bagged in a ziplock bag and an instruction sheet.

With what is provided on the two plastic trees, you can assemble four pilots and two crew members. What is immediately noticeable, is that Eduard decided to give to their figures a dynamic attitude. As you can see on the top cover artwork, the goal was obviously to depict a "scramble" scene during the Battle of Britain.

The overall moulding quality is typical of Eduard's previous efforts in the same field. If you already have an Eduard figure kit, you probably know what I mean. The figures are molded is several pieces (two legs, torso, two arms and the head) and this doesn't make the assembly easier. Even worse it sometimes gives an "unnatural" look to the figure and this is exacerbated in this RAF set. In their previous sets it wasn't that serious as the personnel was mainly depicted in standing poses, but in Eduard's attempt to give the RAF figures a more dynamic attitude, they made things look even less realistic in my opinion. The figures, once assembled, look more like "fat robots" than British WW2 pilots. Two of them (the crew members) even have bullet holes in their heads because of sink marks(see red arrows)!

I decided to place one of the RAF figures aside one from each of their currently available sets (Luftwaffe, Japanese Army and VVS) so that you can make yourself an opinion. I personaly think the RAF figures are their worst effort. I also compared one with a similar figure from the ICM RAF set... no comment!

Now the most irritating is that this new set doesn't provides any additional accessory. There was a table, some tools and armament in the Luftwaffe set and a very nice bike in the Japanese Army set for example. Both even had a small photo etched fret for the smaller details parts. There is nothing like that in the RAF set despite the fact that the price is the same!? Only six figures and that's all! Doh!

Conclusion

This is by far the worst figure set made by Eduard. Not only do the pilots and crew members look too fat, but you get less for the same price when you compare this set to others produced by Eduard. The Czech manufacturer is making some of the most fantastic aircraft model kits but these figures are really not to the same standards. I would only recommend them to a modeller who absolutely needs dynamic figures for a Battle of Britain diorama and who is willing to wait some time until they have finished their diet.