So I=92m in the last stages of building my =93Monogram=94 Gold Knight of Nice and I=92ve noticed a few points that I=92d like to share. Firstly, the cost was a very affordable $21.95, from Mega Hobbies
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a far cry from the $250.00 or so that the Aurora version commands on ePay. Also, to help keep some collectables dealers honest, this kit is molded entirely in a light grey plastic, not the original black (horse) and gold (armor) of the original. Now as to the construction, the kit is rather straight-forward, like any of the old Aurora figures, but=85. As far as the horse is concerned, bring your Bondo, because there are more than a few fit issues, with gaps all along the belly and inside of the legs. I built the two halves by mounting legs and spending a couple of days (literally) filling, sanding and priming to smooth out the seams. Next I went online to find a suitable finish for the mount, settling on a red-brown coat with black stockings, mane and tail. The mane was pissing up a rope, it turned out as the armor covers it completely. The eyes took a bit of doing and I=92m not completely happy with the way that they came out. Horses=92 eyes are not quite like human eyes, I guess. Once I got the horse finished (to my satisfaction, but it=92s NOT a contest winner), I started on the armor. The armor fits together better than the pieces of the horse, but not by much. The horse=92s armor is good, for the most part, but I noticed on the chain mail of the horse=92s neck there were two locator pins not mentioned in the instructions that were supposed to fit into two locator pins on the chest armor. I know that I live in New York State, but male into male isn=92t my thing, so I cut the pins on the chain mail off and drilled out the spots with a hand-held pin drill. Later I found that these were supposed to be holes in the first place, the =93pins=94 that I cut off were just sloppy molding, I guess. Also the horse=92s armor is (according to the Internet) about half on what would have originally been there; it would have had heavy quilted cloth hanging down from the bottom of the plate armor to almost the ground, usually with the knight=92s heraldric emblems. Still, I didn=92t mount it myself. The knight figure went together very nicely, with a minimum of gaps. As far as the finishing went, I used this armor as an exercise to practice using my Metalizer paints. I used stainless steel for the horse=92s armor and burnished aluminum for that of the knight. The chain mail on both figures was brush painted titanium for contrast and the knight=92s armor was also highlighted along specific seams with Testors gold, brush painted. He IS the Gold Knight of Nice, you know! The knight=92s face and head are very expressive and painted up nicely as well. His eyes didn=92t give me half the trouble as the horse=92s eyes did. And his hair and beard were painted darker brown. ( was thinking of painting them salt-and-pepper to match my own, but resisted that temptation, thank you). There are no decals with this kit, nor a stand. The horse isn=92t quite as nice as that of the Polar Lights=92 Headless Horseman that I did several years back, but isn=92t too bad. I bought this kit to go with the four standing knights that Aurora did =93back when=94 and as such, I think that it came out looking very nice indeed. Now to put the original Aurora kit onto ePay and hope for the best=85=85