Another unit of Peltasts

 

Mercenary Peltasts the old Minifigs way

A week or two ago I took command of my 1970s Minifigs Persians and learned - well you always learn something - I learned that I didn't have enough infantry skirmishers. Plenty of slingers - both Persians and mercenary Greeks - slingers in abundance. By only a single unit of proper 'lights' and those Agrianian's more appropriate to the armies of Alexander than Darius. 

To rectify this I broke into my stash and uncovered a batch of unpainted PB 9 Mercenary Peltast with Pelta. Which is to say javelin armed skirmishers with the small shield, generally known as a 'pelta', that gives 'peltasts' their name. As luck would have it, at some time the past I'd already cleaned these castings up and replaced all the javelins with brass rod. So, there wasn't much to do apart from give them a blast of primer and paint them up. 

I thought I'd have a go at photographing these with the mobile, rather than crank up the steam engine on the old Nikon. As you can see, we have mixed results. The tabletop photo works nicely but the individual close ups are a bit off. I might have to investigate the inner gubbins of the beast to figure out how to get clearer close-ups. 

Spot the odd base colour! 

Along the way I experimented with a different mix for my base colour, trying to get as good a match as I could for my old mix. Unfortunately, Warlord stopped selling their paint when The Army Painter changed their paint range (AP were the suppliers), which meant the green I was using was no longer available. Since then, I've been sampling endless pots of green paint to try and get a match. One of the bases in the new unit is a different mix, but I thought it was close enough, so I didn't bother repainting it. Depending on the light it looks a little different or not. These things are sent to try us. 

These are the close-ups I took using my phone and the light box I normally use for these photos. Something not quite working here, but you get the idea I'm sure. Classic Minifigs pose for this figure from the original PB Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars range circa 1972. Based on illustration number 9 in the Phil Barker book of the same name.