Sunday, February 27, 2011

... in which I dicuss a rare eBay treasure.

Ok, so I may be exaggerating. I only spent $15 on it, so it may not exactly be a "treasure" but I am thrilled with it. I found a listing on eBay for "Old Bretonnian Questing Knights x4" and it was going for $6 at the time. I figured, why not? I can always use more nights.

The package arrived after about 4 days, and enclosed was a strange box. It was a hard plastic shell, the type you would see on collectible cases.




At first I was concerned I got ripped off with some bootleg mini's, since the horses looked like they were made out of white plastic resin. Upon closer inspection of the package, sure enough, this was made by Citadel Miniatures, and the GW logo was at the bottom of the card.

About this time was when just how "old" these knights were. The foam padding inside the box had long since deteriorated, leaving some stuff behind on the minis. Upon inspection, it was no big deal, scraped right off. Inside was 2 different knights, with 2 different weapons, so a combination of 4 knights could be made. When I removed the spears (They didn't actually come with lances), the metal immediately felt different. I can't be sure, but I am pretty confident these guys are actually lead. The metal is extremely pliable, and the horses are a sturdy plastic.

The horses aren't the barded warhorses either. They look like regular horses, similar to the ones the damsels ride.
The coolest part about this set, in my opinion, is the shields. They have 4 sheilds, each with a different shape. The shields have a hole in the center, so that they can fit over a peg on the knights arm. I'll have to use some green stuff to even out the shield, so I can have a smooth surface to paint the heraldry on.






The torsos look really good. Two have crests like knights of the realm, and the other two have the flat tops like the knights errant. I figure I'll put one with a sword, and one with a spear, so all four knights are as different as possible.

The crest on top of the helmet is the lady holding a sword. Very unique look to them.





Overall, I'm really excited about these minis. They may be old, but unlike the other "old" Bretonnians I've seen, these look like they would fit into the modern army, and the crests aren't too flamboyant. I'll post pics as I paint them up.

7 comments:

  1. My very first minis I ever bought came in a case just like that. Oh...Memories.

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  2. I used to have a huge box of those sheilds..

    The idea was that the "peg" became the sheild boss.

    oh and you'll probarbly find that these miniatures predate the idea of a brettonian army :)

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  3. A breif Dig here..

    http://www.solegends.com/citadel/index.htm

    wont reveal to me the year for these minis (I can't find them), but shows me that the card "Fighters" was in use in 1989.

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  4. Cool find! I congratulate you. The metal isn't all lead, but it does contain a small amount of it. I remember converting metal minis was much easier back then :-)

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Thank you so much for such detail post, this gonna help so many for sure!!
    New Year eve Wishes

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