Spanish Tercio

[NeilMartin]

Hello,

I promised photos of my Spanish tercio last year I think but it has taken until today to have the opportunity to arrange the scene, apologies for the delay. This is the first time that I have set up my full tercio of 80 Playmobil Klicky soldiers (real tercios had 3000 soldiers).

My tercio is formed of three types soldier,

arquebusiers with firearms,
pikemen, and,
soldiers with pistol and sword (for close-quarter fighting).

This may not be entirely historically correct but my formation looks good and I like it 

There are a number of sources of information for tercios including Wikipedia and an excellent book 'The Spanish Tercios 1536-1704' by Osprey Publishing. Tercio formations can also be seen in the film, 'Captain Alatriste - The Spanish Musketeer' starring Viggo Mortensen.

The pikes and arquebusier firearms are not Playmobil, they are custom made by a Spanish chap and sold on eBay.

The four photos are,

( 1 ) an overall view of the tercio,

( 2 ) a closer view of the soldiers,

( 3 ) the green uniform arquebusiers have different heads/hair/beards to make them distinct individuals. In this photo you can also see the '12 Apostles' - the bandolier worn by each arquebusier with 12 shots worth of powder in pre-measured containers. For Playmobil the bandolier only has 3 Apostles but regardless of that the Apostles are a fabulous detail,

( 4 ) a rear view of the tercio.

I hope that you like this scene, when I first came across the Playmobil Spanish (Conquistador) Klicky soldiers, with their morion helmets and the 12 Apostles detailing I was instantly drawn into the world of Playmobil. I've now expanded my Playmobil interest into other themes but my Spanish tercio remains my favourite Playmobil creation.

Best wishes,
Neil

[hauden_lukas]

Nice!

One of the the main themes I am collecting.

Unless you intended to do so, I would encourage you to vary the individual soldiers a bit so they look less “uniform”.

I see you used resin/3D printed accessories - did you make it yourself?

[tahra]

They look great - and I like the detwinned klickys (attack of the clones this is not!) - I also tend to like my soldiers in uniform too...   (but not twins!)

(thanks for sharing - and for the background)

[Klickteryx]

I see Geobra used the chest armour print for the back too. I guess kids can't tell the difference but it looks weird to me as the back plate never had a ridge down the middle and was flat along the bottom edge.

Regarding clones, soldiers with the same facial hair tend to look similar. So other than replacing a couple of the black haired soldiers with brown you don't need much variation.

What are the pikes made from that the soldiers don't tip over?

[Basie10]

I don't mind a bit of uniformity - I think soldiers tend to look the same anyway (doesn't the army try to remove all traces of individuality).  Anyway - great work.  Those pikes look deadly.  Wouldn't want to be a mounted soldier trying to charge into that lot

[NeilMartin]

Hello,

The pikes and firearms were made and sold on eBay by this Spanish chap,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/steinerplaymowar

The pike shaft is wood, I guess that the pike blade and the firearms are resin but I've never asked.

I've used (white) Klicky bases to stop the Klickys with outstretched pikes from falling over, The pikemen holding their pikes vertically can stand without a Klicky base.

I know of white, sand and clear plastic Klicky bases, do Playmobil manufacture green Klicky bases yet?

Thank you very much for the kind words and suggestions, I will try for some customisation of the pikemen in the future, different hair styles and colours, different types of beard, maybe different sword belts and such like.

Thanks & Best wishes,
Neil

[Macruran]

Beautiful work!