Thanks for all the information. On the home cast soldiers I was trying to find out what unit the maker was trying to represent. I thought the photo of the crown and number "19" on the horse blanket might have some significance.
You mean the hollowcasts? Well, the light blue coats could suggest that whoever painted them might have intended them to be Bavarians, regardless of how accurately the other details depict Bavarian soldiers or not. I don't know of any British units that wore a coat like that. Or maybe he just painted them on a whim. As for horse blankets in the Kaiser's army, they usually had a crowned monogram with the initials of the ruler of the regiment's state-"W" for Wilhelm of Prussia, "L" for Ludwig III of Bavaria, and so on. Shoulder straps could have a crowned monogram, too, or the number of the regiment, or some special badges, for training schools, etc.
Some collectors who focus on Britains classic figures do like to produce their own versions of subjects that Britain never made. There was at least one commercial maker who did that, too. So, a collector might take the Prussian Hussar figure, and either repaint it, or cast copies and repaint it, and make one of the other Imperial German hussar regiments-there were 20, altogether. The same goes for other types of cavalry, infantry, artillery, and support & specialist units. Or he might even get replacement parts and refurbish old toy soldiers, like our late member johnnybach did.
It's too bad whoever made these didn't get to label them. I'm doing that, with the ones I make. I'm putting them in boxes, and I've made up a label for them. I'll write the subject on the label. I also made small labels that I can glue to the undersides of bases. But not everyone does that, and to retrofit ones I did earlier will take a while to accomplish, too.
Prost!
Brad
