"Republican Roman Shield Designs and Decals " Topic

I'm in the process up upgrading and re-basing my old Foundry Republican Roman army. I remember when I painted them, the current thinking was that Republican Roman shields did have designs (the WRG book talks about "whorls"), but nobody knew what they were. As a result, everyone just paints then various shades of a monocolor.

Does anyone have any pictures of what these designs might look like, or new speculation?

And, has anyone followed up and made some 25mm decals? I've got almost 200 of these guys, and no longer have the stomach to do it the old-fashioned way . . .

The only information I have seen about Republica shield patterns is in the Osprey book about the army post 2nd Punic War. They have some illustrations of carvings showing bars radiating from the spine/boss of a couple of shields (they look quite celtic to me...) The theory of plain shields seems to come from one monument (Adamklissi?) which showws plain Roman shields and Macedonian shields with carved patterns. Whether the Roman shields on this originally had patterns painted on them is anyones guess.

I have done my Romans with plain shields just to accentuate the businesslike look to the army. I might give the Allied legions shield devices just to differentiate them.

I think that prior to Marius Republican Romans supplied their own arms and armor and were considered to be short term soldiers and full time farmers. So like the city state Greeks I would suspect that the shields really were plain, or as you got to the Triari who presumably had more money since they were the best armed in the legions, that shield designs might be clan designs, Julian, Claudian, Scipio, etc. or even left up to individual interests.

Painting shields appears to be one of the most common occurances in ancient warfare. Your tribal armies such as Celts and germans didn't have standing armies but still often painted their shields.
I believe that it is likely that the Republican romans did paint their shields. I plan on putting shield designs on mine. More than likely it will be a simple pair of eagle wings or a wolf motif.