Peltasts 1 - The Thracians

Back in the 70's every Macedonian army had Thracians. These Thracians all had fox skin caps, tartan cloaks, black tunics, white shields and carried a sickle-like weapon called a rhomphaia.

So, naturally, I had a Thracian unit wearing fox skin caps, tartan cloaks...

At some stage I picked a unit that was obviously confused - they had blue cloaks. Probably thought they were Galations in disguise or something. Still had white shields, as did another unit I acquired more recently. Finally, I got some in the armies I bought from Harry that had white shields with colourful designs painted on them... much nicer.

So I left 'my' unit alone, painted up the shields on the other two to blend in with Harry's, then kept my unit separate while the other three just sort of mixed.

As they stand, the Thracians  naturally make four 6 element units.

 These figures are formed from three separate sources.

However, they fit quite well together - main obvious difference is that the 'original' figures with fancy shields have a faint yellowish tinge due to the varnish aging. The figures with blue cloaks have been thoroughly spread out so that they aren't so obvious.

Close up of some of the shield patterns.

This is a view of the back of 'my' unit. Let's face it, the front isn't all that interesting - plain white shields and the ravishes of time mean a couple of figures have lost their rhomphaia and have been reduced to shaking their fists at the enemy. On the other hand, they have colourful cloaks.