Toy Soldier Art

Knightly Art

The above knights were designed in the 1940s as toys. They are from the Castings Inc three-cavity mold. They were copied from a Timpo figure. The pose is very basic, yet very good. The details make this fellow a charm. He has armor similar to the "maximillian" type. The ridges give it extra strength. Our knight has to be given a weapon, and I have provided him with a variety of axes and maces. Knights in fighting poses are popular for obvious reasons.

This trio is copied from the Britains "Deetail" line of knights, Castings Inc sells the molds to make these in metal. They look good, but they have their errors. Britains made them as a sort of fantasy Crusader army to fight an equally fantastic set of armored Turks. In the mix, historical reality was thrown out. The original poses were good, but a little work made them better. I replaced all three knights' shields and weapons with various two-handed pole arms. Two knights have glaives and one has a pole axe.

Anyone familiar with knights can see that the white knight is anachronistic. His white tabard and flat helmet are from the age of chainmail, circa 1200. Be that as it may, he looks pretty good when painted and armed properly.

This peculiar trio is amusing .The knights on the ends came from a mold by a company called Dunkens. I do not know the origin of the figure. His is about 60mm scale with decent detail. The rightmost knight is how he looks without changes. The left knight was simple "head swap" with the head of the white in the previous trio. It looks good and is appropriate to the rest of the figure. The middle knight in another Castings Inc copy of the Deetail figures. He is usually armed with a sword, but the morningstar mace looked better. I do not know why he is fighting with his visor open. Any warrior would have shut that visor tight!

Here we have that Deetail knight again. He is one of the few in that set that is close to historical authenticity. A little paint and a weapons swap yields a nice variety of figures. A very serious group of knightly collectors insist that the heraldry and colors of their knight be true to real individuals. Medieval heralds kept such good records that heraldric miniature knights can be produced. My knights are not heraldric. I know a few basic rules of heraldry and I paint accordingly.