General de Brigade

[IainB]

Hi,

1st battalion pompoms were in a solid colour, other battaions had white discs edged in the company colour. I'm painting 28mm perry so should I put a white disc in the rear of the pompom or does it not really matter

Thank

iain

[Chris Ginn]

This is news to me, I did not think there was any battalion distinction to pom-poms in the French army. I await the reply of more learned gentlemen with interest. However, as I am only using 15mm and I tend to use 6fig company bases, just putting 6 coys with the right colour pompom together, I do not think I will bother with the repaint if the answer is afirmative. In 28mm I think I would want it correct, but yoy would probably need to file the pom-pom flat before painting.
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Chris G

[IainB]

This is just for the centre companies so the popmpom is oval shaped so fairly flat anyway.

Iain

[Giles]

Iain - that is my understanding. I've been painting the same Perry figures and I paint the pompoms in white (yes, they are more pompoms than discs) and then edge in the correct colour as best as I can.

[RAMCSEARCH]

Just a tip from an old hand with poor eyesight and a shaky hand. I now it's counterintuative but with fiddly things like this, try painting the edge of the pompom first then dot the white centre in afterwards. I do the same with cuff flaps now, paint them the edge colour first then paint the flap colour on with one stroke afterwards, then dot in the buttons if present ...
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Simon W

[Sprunglin]

Hi

In line regiments, post 1808, officers had a larger wool pom-pom / plume - if not plume, houpette - in company colours, although they were white for staff, red for grenadiers, yellow for voltigeurs (for both officers and other ranks in these two companies).

The colour scheme for centre / fusilier companies was (supposedly) dark green, sky blue, aurora, and violet for the four fusilier companies 1 to 4 respectively – in French vert fonce, bleu celeste, aurora (jaune fonce), violette. Grenadiers red; voltiguers yellow.

Post 1812, whilst fusiliers of the 1st battalion retained pom poms, those of 2nd and subsequent battalions had white discs showing the company number, edged in the respective company colour. I would imagine (I have no definitive information) that the rear of the disc would also be white. I have no information on the colour of the number. Rene North might be a good bet for a source, try his Uniforms at Waterloo. All my french have pre 1812 regulation uniforms

Hope this helps

Ant
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Sprűnglin

[Chris Ginn]

Ahh! this explains why I had not heard of it, since my infantry, apart fron the Young Guard are in pre 1812 uniform, although they origionaly represented the army of 1812.
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Chris G

[RMD]

The 'disc' is actually a 'lentille' which is a sort of squashed pompom with a dimple in the centre. It souldn't be a flat disc.

[Giles]

Is anyone able to confirm the pompom colours for officers, standard/eagle bearers and drummers in fusilier companies? I have seen white, I think, for officers, but the drummer and eagle-bearer on the new Perry plastics have both pompom and "tuft" on top of it (like the flank companies) and I'm not clear what colours these should be. Options would seem to be:

- white pompom and red tuft;
- company colour pompom with red tuft;
- white pompom and white tuft;
- gold pompom and white or red tuft.

Any thoughts?