Author Topic: 4177 Knights carry case  (Read 4889 times)

Offline Martin Milner

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4177 Knights carry case
« on: August 02, 2008, 13:53:20 »


Picked this up yesterday for £8 - good value for money.



You get a useful carry/storage case...



A klicky, a horse with full (blue, ugh, oh well) barding, two full sets of armour (one fits a fat klicky) which turn a standard klicky into a useful knight, two shields, and one of every hand weapon and polearm seen in the knights series except the Roman gladius (good, it doesn't belong), the plain spear and the blunt lance. I don't think you could pick up all this stuff any cheaper.



The worst part of this set is the klicky himself. Did he just appear in an ABBA video? When did any knight wear gold boots? His top half isn't much better, but at least it can be covered by the armour. This guy is destined for my parts bins as soon as the camera is off him.

Klicky aside, it's good value. I hate the Playmobil fantasy colours and wish their designers would return to historically accurate figures, but for the wide selection of weapons and armour, I'll probably pick up another one or two of these in time.



« Last Edit: August 02, 2008, 15:06:10 by Martin Milner »

Offline Gustavo

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2008, 14:36:14 »


Wow!

It's got all the spears I always wanted to have!!!
(But, according to the price, in local places, I'll have to wait until December, maybe January ... :'( )

But thanks Martin :)! I think I'll be dating it more frequently, in the toystores ...

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Offline playmofire

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2008, 15:13:34 »
Nice review, Martin, thank you.  It's not my line of collecting, but it may cause me to take a closer look at the fireman set.
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Offline Timotheos

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2008, 19:59:50 »
This is tangental to Martin's review but the medieval barding actually makes good Roman barding, too.  The Roman sets' official horses come with those blanket-like saddles, but from the drawings and commentaries I've observed about Roman cavalry, Romans had complex saddles and, when they could afford it, fancy barding.

-Tim

Offline Justindo

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #4 on: August 04, 2008, 07:01:30 »
This is tangental to Martin's review but the medieval barding actually makes good Roman barding, too.  The Roman sets' official horses come with those blanket-like saddles, but from the drawings and commentaries I've observed about Roman cavalry, Romans had complex saddles and, when they could afford it, fancy barding.

-Tim

Yes, the blue barding in this set matches the blue Roman Tribune perfectly.  My Roman officers have barding while my cavalrymen have blankets.
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Offline Tiermann

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2008, 23:41:14 »
Nice review. I think the boots are a bit off too. When I did my version of him (that predates the official one by well over a year) I painted the boots black.

Offline Martin Milner

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2008, 09:20:09 »
Yes, the blue barding in this set matches the blue Roman Tribune perfectly.  My Roman officers have barding while my cavalrymen have blankets.

Thanks for the comments and ideas guys, that's helped me determine between using blankets or barding for my cavalry. I'm going with blankets for the troopers and barding for the officers.

Justindo, so I'm now looking to order a set of saddle blankets for my Cavalry, what colour did you use for yours?

I'm thinking brown for the bridle & reins, with a red saddle blanket. I could have several different saddle blanket colours (maybe red, green, yellow, and pale blue) and use them to distinguish different cavalry units.

Another idea is to use transverse crests for Decurions, but cut them down to a smaller fan - anyone tried that?

Offline Timotheos

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2008, 12:28:48 »
Thanks for the comments and ideas guys, that's helped me determine between using blankets or barding for my cavalry. I'm going with blankets for the troopers and barding for the officers.
 

Hey Martin

By 150 AD Roman cavalry had saddles.  Really any saddle type will do except for the ultra-modern that comes with cowboys.

Romans had a complex saddle that hugged the legs (weight of the rider pushed down on the saddle and caused the four horns to pinch his legs and waste.

This is why the Roman cavalry could be so effective without stirrups.*

* Granted, modern guys have proved that even without stirrups or other support you can still do a lance charge against a solid target. 

Offline Martin Milner

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2008, 13:33:21 »
Aha.



I'm thinking of something like this - the saddle is virtually hidden once the rider's butt is in it, but there's still a saddle blanket underneath, and that's what catches the eye.

Offline Justindo

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Re: 4177 Knights carry case
« Reply #9 on: August 11, 2008, 19:38:14 »
Thanks for the comments and ideas guys, that's helped me determine between using blankets or barding for my cavalry. I'm going with blankets for the troopers and barding for the officers.

Justindo, so I'm now looking to order a set of saddle blankets for my Cavalry, what colour did you use for yours?

I'm thinking brown for the bridle & reins, with a red saddle blanket. I could have several different saddle blanket colours (maybe red, green, yellow, and pale blue) and use them to distinguish different cavalry units.

Another idea is to use transverse crests for Decurions, but cut them down to a smaller fan - anyone tried that?

As Tim points out, the Romans had very advanced saddles, but no stirrups, well before the beginning of the Empire.  As the picture you posted illustrates, however, once a man is seated on the saddle, you see mostly the large blanket and very little of the saddle.  Because of this I have personally opted for the blanket type saddle in the Native American, Viking, and Roman sets.  As you state, there are many different colors to choose from (red, orange, mustard yellow, light blue, light green, black, and brown).  Really any of these colors would work and, as you state, you could use the different colors to distinguish different units or ranks.  I would say that red or mustard yellow would probably the two best choices for regular auxiliary cavalry, but I would use light blue for Praetorian cavalry.  Orange and green would also work for something different too, and brown would be a sobering color if you didn't want everything to be so bright.  I'm not sure that black would work, as it seems an odd color for a saddle blanket, but it's possible.

Here is what I have done with my mounted troops:  All my auxiliary cavalry horses are brown with brown bridles and reins and mustard yellow blankets.  This provides a nice contrast with their red tunics.  I have two cavalrymen with yellow tunics that I use as messengers.  They also have brown horses with brown bridles and reins, but I've given them red saddle blankets for contrast and differentiation.  I've put my decurions on dark grey horses with red bridles and reins and red saddle blankets.  Colored dyed leather would have been more expensive, so I think this is appropriate for the decurions.  I haven't mounted my centurions, although they would have ridden while on the march.

I haven't thought of cutting down the centurion crest as the books I've seen show cavalry decurions with front to back crests which are usually yellow.
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