Punic War Libyans

I generally buy everything that is of reasonable quality, and fits my definition of ancients (anything before gunpowder), and the Carthaginian Allies, by HaT fit into this category. So with the purchase of this set i got my first Punic War Libyans (along with a number of other figures). Later when i purchased Zvezdas Carthaginian Infantry i got a few more. 

These form the back bone of my Punic War Libyan ally contingent. I would hesitate to call it an army, since I think it is too small. Here is the entire "tribe" lined up and ready for battle. 

As can be seen it consists of 4 seperate units. Three more or less identical units, of spearmen (from the HaT set) with various shield patterns, and of course a "mohawk" which was dyed red. All accurate according to my sources.

Then there is a unit of Libyan spearmen as they look when made by Zvezda. They have somewhat cruder shields, but they have an iron rim. Also they are very clearly wooden, so it would be hard to mix these figures with the ones from HaT, that seem to have hide over there shields.

And then.... we have the command element. I like to group these with the Zvezda Libyans, to make a bigger unit. There are after all only 6 Libyans from the 2 boxes of Zvezda Carthaginian Infantry I picked up. Here we have them.

Only 2 of them are ordinary figures, that can be bought of the shelf, both from the HaT set. Two of the others are simple head swaps. (Can you recognize what set they come from?) And the last two, the Tribal Leader and his standard bearer are alittle more complex conversions. Have a closer look:

Standard bearer:

Tribal Leader:

Generally i like the work i did on these Libyans. However one thing bugs me. Are they supposed to have black skin? Or should they have been more like the rest of the Carthaginians? If you know the answer, feel free to tell me. Don´t think I will repaint the figures, as I like the look of black skin and red hair. But I am curious to what the answer might be.

~Claus