The Central Powers here are Germany — the army that held the other side of the wire, and the throne behind it. The range runs from the field-grey infantry who marched into Belgium in 1914 to the stormtroopers of the war's last year, by way of the aces who fought for the sky and the imperial and royal houses — Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg — whose uniforms opened the war. These are the men the Allied figures elsewhere in the store were shooting at, and they are sculpted as soldiers rather than villains: cooks and bandsmen as much as gunners and grenadiers.

One practical note before you build. This collection mixes two makers at two scales. The W. Britain figures are 1/30 — roughly 60mm — matte-painted on sculpted groundwork bases. The Tradition of London figures are 54mm, gloss-enamelled, on flat bases. Each is excellent on its own terms, but the two won't sit convincingly in one diorama: the size gap shows, and a groundwork base won't meet a flat one. Group W. Britain with W. Britain and Tradition with Tradition, and both look right.

Where to start depends on what you're after. For spectacle, the Kaiser and his court in full dress. For the war itself, the 1918 stormtroopers or the German infantry of 1914. For the famous names, Manfred von Richthofen. And there is a domestic side most ranges skip entirely — a field kitchen, men peeling potatoes, a mess tin waiting to be filled. The Allied troops they faced have their own collection. Every figure is sold individually.