Age of enlightenment

[henry_martini]

i've always been looking out for a genuine PM part to insert into shakos...what part number is this holly? did you have to trim it? (not your style )

I went the natural way and cut it from this pm branch.
http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-07-9680

Obviously one can cut many from it. And as it is soft rubber like material they fit and sit tight even without maximum accuracy. 

[cheng]

thanks H_M! (sounds like Head Master )
to learn more, so were you depicting (artificial) green pom-poms or were there regiments wearing leaves from trees for some special reason? any photos or drawings to share?

[henry_martini]

to learn more, so were you depicting (artificial) green pom-poms or were there regiments wearing leaves from trees for some special reason? any photos or drawings to share?

As far as I know these tufts were used in the beginnig (ie. at some point during the 17th or 18th century) to distinguish army A from army B. With all the mess of uniforms, unit types and coalitions at the time it seemed cheap and easily recognizable. Especially the reichsheer (the army of the holy roman empire including the austrians) used it as a field sign e.g. in the war of the spanish succession and the second war of the polish succession. I guess at least some austrian units stuck to it. There are pictures from late 19th century in which some still have leave tuft (probably oak normally) on their headwear. I do not know if there were also artificial, more durable ones.

18th century:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=125815&imageID=90238&total=64&num=40&parent_id=120436&word=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&sort=&imgs=20&pos=47&snum=&e=w

Napoleonic, bottom of the page:
http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/Austrian_infantry.htm
This site is highly recommendable also otherwise for all things napoleonic.

[cheng]

oh thanks Michael...thats very informative!
I like to be histirically correct (but still allowing our PM simplicity)
btw, I couldnt connect to the napoleonic site...maybe its temporarily down, I'll try later but really quite keen to at least stick a small napoleonic caps with these just to add variety to our other white/red/yellow pom poms

[henry_martini]

Link fixed.   

[cheng]

Link fixed.   

Micheal, still not working for me 

[Justindo]

I like your cuirassier best, Michael.