The French wore red trousers from 1829 to 1914, and when reformers proposed something less visible a former war minister named Eugène Étienne told them: jamais — le pantalon rouge, c'est la France. Never. The red trousers are France. In August 1914 the army went to war in them. By December the government had adopted horizon blue, and by 1915 the same army was under the Adrian helmet — the first modern steel helmet in the world, twenty million of them made, and adopted by other Allied armies afterwards. The country that would not give up its red trousers was the first to put steel on its soldiers' heads.

This is the after. Eight figures — an officer, a standard-bearer, a trumpeter, a corporal and four privates — all in horizon blue under the Adrian, and not a red trouser among them. Which is why the Zouaves belong on the same diorama: their officer is still in the old garance, because he is 1914 and these men are 1916. The Tirailleurs tell it again. And the infantry walking beside the Renault FT are in exactly this kit, at the very end of it.

Tradition of London model 801. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Eight-figure set — an officer, a standard-bearer, a trumpeter, a corporal and four privates, 1916. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.