This collection runs from the outbreak to the armistice. The British Expeditionary Force of 1914 in soft service caps; the French in horizon blue under the first steel helmet anyone issued; the Belgians, who met a German cavalry advance with bicycles and dogs; the Americans, who arrived last and in enormous numbers. It ends in a railway carriage in a clearing at Compiègne. Everything here is Allied — the men on the other side of the wire are in the Central Powers collection.

One thing worth knowing before you buy. There are three makers here and they do not all mix. W. Britain works in 1/30 — roughly 60mm — with a matte finish and sculpted groundwork bases. Tradition of London and Regal Enterprises both work in 54mm, hand-painted in gloss enamel on flat bases, in the older toy soldier tradition. W. Britain figures sit together; Tradition and Regal sit together; the two groups will not share a diorama base convincingly. Both are excellent. They are simply different things, and it is easier to know that now than when the box arrives.

If you are starting from nothing, Outbreak of World War 1 puts both sides in a single box and is the natural way in. The Signing of the Armistice is the other end of the same shelf, four years and nine million dead later. And if you are building rather than displaying, the British trench sections are the foundation the rest of it stands in.