Brad, tell me more about "no mustache" . . . I'm finishing the Frank Miniatures Leib Officer, and it has a prominent 'stache.
Sure thing, Don! In Europe, from the early part of the 18th century, up to the French Revolution, generally, gentlemen didn't wear facial hair, and as officers were gentlemen, they shouldn't have any. There are exceptions, of course, such as hussar officers. Even among civilians, facial hair fell out of fashion in that period. I'm not sure how or why the fashion changed. The Old Dessauer wore a mustache during the last years of his career, the early years of Frederick the Great's reign. But generally, an officer in any of the European armies of the time would not have facial hair. Non-commissioned officers and the rank and file would, and in the Prussian and other German armies, grenadiers were encouraged to grow them, to help enhance a fierce and warlike visage (I used to grow a goatee for the same reason, as my game face when I played softball).
King & Country made the same mistake with their Hessian officers. The mounted and foot officer figures have nice moustaches that would be appropriate in 1910, but not 1775.
Once we get to the French Revolution, there was a deliberate break with the previous style, including abandoning wigs and powder, and we see facial hair come into fashion, and the pendulum has swung back and forth many times since then.
Anyway, for me, it's one little thing to look for, along with drinking vessels. Too many sculptors and modelers depict tin mugs, when a stoneware or pottery vessel would be much more appropriate, because a pewter vessel is easier to depict. As a beer drinker and a collector of beer mugs and glasses, I'm just aware of it. When I see something like that, it makes me ask myself whether the sculptor or modeler might have missed something else.
Na, prost!
Brad