# Gold Knight of Nice, sort of...



## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

The Aurora Gold Knight of Nice kit tends to sell for a high price, so I thought the way round it would be to get hold of the Knights In Shining Armour kit King Arthur, which is a chrome-plated version of the Gold Knight. So this is the chrome-plated King Arthur of 1973 painted to look like the earlier Gold Knight.
When I first painted his armour in Humbrol Gold it looked far too pale and nothing like gold, so I redid it in Humbrol Brass and Bronze colours, and this gave the armour the deep gold shade of the original Gold Knight's plastic.


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## xsavoie (Jun 29, 1999)

Excellent choice of paint colors.I wonder what would have happened if transparent yellow would have been sprayed on chrome.Maybe too light gold,who knows.Placing this kit in front of a castle picture background:thumbsup: or castle wall diorama would be interesting.


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

Looks GREAT! This is one kit Ive never built. It was one of the first few Aroura kits I got as a kid, but I had my older brother build it for me!. I bought one years ago to build from Gordy Dutt MIB, but couldnt bring myself to build it. LOL. I finally got a complete built up, and repainted it, but its just not quite the same as starting from scratch. I sold my MIB kit a couple of weeks ago due to financial difficulties. Looking back on it I should have probably sold a few kits out of my last set of monster reissues as they would have brought more $$$. The Gold knight only brought 200, kind of surprised me for such a rare kit.Ahh well, live and learn. I'd really love to see it reissued, maybe I can score a chrome version in the future without spending an arm and a leg. I'll keep a sharp eye out.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

The Gold Knight comes up on ebay quite frequently, Otto, trouble is it's always expensive. The chrome-plate kit comes up less often, but sells cheaper!??! Most of the Aurora 'on horseback' kits are very expensive - Zorro, Lone Ranger, Apache, Gold Knight, Confederate, but their sheer size explains it- these 1/8 kits on horseback are massive.


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## Tim Nolan (Jul 9, 2008)

I have a fetish for these Knight kits. Awesome work! Great thinkin' on the coloring too! Worked out awesome! :thumbsup:


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

xsavoie said:


> Excellent choice of paint colors.I wonder what would have happened if transparent yellow would have been sprayed on chrome.Maybe too light gold,who knows.Placing this kit in front of a castle picture background:thumbsup: or castle wall diorama would be interesting.


A nice way to vary your gold colour on a chrome kit is to spray it with Tamiya clear yellow, then go over it where it's warranted with Tamiya clear orange. If you want to kill the gloss a little, Tamiya clear with various amounts of their flat base added can produce some nice results. A restrained wash of Tamiya smoke can add a touch of detail and realism too.
Nice work Cro Magnon Man! This is one kit I'd like to have one day. The Knights are one of my favourite series.

Chris.


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

Tim Nolan said:


> I have a fetish for these Knight kits. Awesome work! Great thinkin' on the coloring too! Worked out awesome! :thumbsup:


Hey Tim, I'd love to see you have a crack at this kit. I admire your twisted imagination, but how would you finkify (?)the horse?!? 
The horses armour would be a great canvas for some of Sonnys murals....

Chris.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Tim and 'nut, I'm a big fan of the Aurora knights too, in all their different issues, though I haven't had much luck obtaining the three Camelot knights with the added shields and rocky bases. 
Interestingly, even early Aurora catalogues show their built-up examples of the knights with intricate paint jobs, with the blue knight painted lots of different shades of blue, and so on. Normally the catalogues showed built-up kits with only a quick paint job, but the knights were painted way beyond what you'd expect. So those of us, me included(!) who leave the knight's armour unpainted and leave it as bare plastic, are getting it wrong!


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## falcon49xxxx (Aug 4, 2008)

Great work,wish I had kept mine.alexander


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

Cro-Magnon Man said:


> Tim and 'nut, I'm a big fan of the Aurora knights too, in all their different issues, though I haven't had much luck obtaining the three Camelot knights with the added shields and rocky bases.
> Interestingly, even early Aurora catalogues show their built-up examples of the knights with intricate paint jobs, with the blue knight painted lots of different shades of blue, and so on. Normally the catalogues showed built-up kits with only a quick paint job, but the knights were painted way beyond what you'd expect. So those of us, me included(!) who leave the knight's armour unpainted and leave it as bare plastic, are getting it wrong!


I did leave the black and blue unpainted, except I rubbed gold paint in the etched areas, painted all the rest to look like steel. These are pretty sweet kits, maybe...just maybe we will see them again someday. The only reason the foot knights are fairly cheap on ebay is because the were in constant production through the life of the company, and beyond! The Tower of London had the Silver , Black and blue reissued by Revell- Monogram in the Late seventys-early eighties. To sell in the gift shop. I picked up a set of the three at the Tower of London Exibition in Cincinatti in 1983 They must have been great sellers.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

That's what I did with the Black and Gold knights - rubbed gold into the engravings in their armour. I didn't put the red panels on the Black knight's chest, though, like the earlier box art showed. I had the 1960's box with the more plain armour, and went with that design.


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

otto said:


> The Tower of London had the Silver , Black and blue reissued by Revell- Monogram in the Late seventys-early eighties. To sell in the gift shop. I picked up a set of the three at the Tower of London Exibition in Cincinatti in 1983 They must have been great sellers.


R/M actually released them?!? Any chance of a pic??? Where would I find a set???

Chris.:freak:


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## MadCap Romanian (Oct 29, 2005)

That looks REALLY good! 

On my Warhammer model kits, I've been using Testor's Gold. I think the # is 1140 or something. I don't have one on hand to say for sure.

Anyway, I like the colour scheme you chose. Very Original!


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

Auroranut said:


> R/M actually released them?!? Any chance of a pic??? Where would I find a set???
> 
> Chris.:freak:


 Well I'm pretty sure it was a re release, the celo was soft and fresh, boxes wernt crushed, they were just like the 60's issure with aurora on the box. Boxes were very thin cardboard. with a sticker on the side that said "made in England". I guess they " Could " have been old kits from the 70's, but it seems the boxes would have been crushed from the cello after that much time. They had several hundred on Palets. The price was 10$ each.


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

Otto, I think what you have might be part of a run that were ordered by Polks Hobbies in New York. They were done in the early '70's. They came into your country from England and were minus the feathers. They were added in the US because they attracted a higher import tax!! The kits were then sealed.
They had the softer folded boxes rather than the glued wraps. They were still long boxes. 
They must have been sitting around for a hell of a long time!! Sort of like the original Robin kits that were found in a warehouse. It explains why the Blue and Black knights are so common!!

Chris.


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

I dont think it was part of the Polks order out of NY. I guess they may have sat for years without shrink wrap, I guess they could have been old stock from The Tower of London Gift shop. I didnt see them in hobby shops though, just at the museum giftshop, and was told they were shipped over from the Tower of London with the arms and armour Exibit that was touring the US. They had the strong Auroraroma though when freshly opened, making me think they were freshly molded. On a side note I remember seeing them at Woolworths for $1.00 including the Red Knight up until 1976.


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

Maybe they're new old stock sent directly from England. It makes me wonder how many cartons of old Auroras are out there just waiting to be found........
I'd love to find the Red and Silver knights!! If I'd have been more financial I'd have bid on your Gold Knight! The knights are one of my favourite series!

Chris.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

You hear all sorts of things about differences between US and European issues of the Knights kits; that there have been warehouse finds of the last, thin-cardboard issue longboxes; that the feather was never included if the kits were shipped overseas because as a 'poultry product' the tax would be higher; that European kits often can be found with a price sticker stuck to the side of the lid over the printed US price, showing that the kit was never originally sealed; and that the Knights in particular were not sealed even in the US, as they were sold in a lot of craft shops, and in craft shops it is usual for a customer to ask to see inside the box before buying any kit. :drunk:


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

I checked mine, I kept a set, sure enough the boxes had the stickers "Made in england" stuck right to the box, and a piece of tape on each side to seal them under the cello. They do have the feathers included, I'm thinking they may well have been a warehouse find, sealed in shrink wrap by the Tower, and shipped here to try and sell with the traveling exibit. It was just a small prt of the collection that toured the Cincinnati Art museum, and the Royal Ontario Museum.They only had the Silver, Blue and Black knights though which was a bit odd, as every run I knew about had equal numbers of Red knights mixed in. On a side note, the Armour collection that was in the Tower was moved to the Royal Armouries in Leeds England, quite a few years ago.


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

If someone did do a run of these, I'm sure a few museums would like to have them in the gift shops. hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge..


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

Very true!! My Blue Knight has a "Made in England" sticker and is in a thin cardboard longbox. It wasn't shrinkwrapped but had been sealed with very thin tape (the brown residue's still on the box- although I have no way of knowing if this was done at the factory or not. The plain feather in the box had disintegrated.
About 10 years ago there were heaps of Black and Blue knights floating around in Oz, but the others were still hard to find. 

Chris.


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

I bet those were from the same "stash" as the Tower of London kits Chris. I bet it was a warehouse find, probably in England, with some ending up in Canada and Australia. The plot thickens. I did see a few black knights in the mid 80's at a hobby shop in Louisville, I quized the owner of the shop, and he said he got them when he went to the Tower exibit in Cinci. LOL..


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

These warehouse finds and surplus stocks of Aurora kits are always about ten years ago, aren't they?!! In the 1990's I was once on the phone to an Aurora collector who had seen a classified ad of mine asking for Aurora kits, and he revealed that 'about ten years ago' a well-known model and hobby shop about 35 miles away had had a shelf full of surplus Dr. Deadly kits. I burned rubber on the road all the way down there, only to arrive and find that the shop had been closed down for ages!


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

I can sympathise Cro Magnon Man!! I've been sent off on mindless quests before! These days I'm more careful about info from guys I don't know. 
I'd only ever heard about the Robin find 'till now so I'm a little out of the loop in Oz. I can tell you that anything Aurora costs a fortune out here!! How about CS Tonto for $200?!? Tarzan too. I picked up both by swapping some crappy kits that didn't sell on ebay, but there's no way I'd have paid in cash!!
I can remember a chemist (drugstore?) in Sydneys outer suburbs that carried heaps of Auroras when I was a teenager. When he closed down, he still had those kits. I sometimes fantasise about tracking him down and finding he keptall his stock in his garage. He remembers me and gives me all his kits!! Pretty dumb, huh?

Chris.


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

Not 'dumb' at all...I have sort of the same dream...Except the chemist is Hugh Hefner, and the drugstore is the Playboy Mansion...and instead of Aurora kits...oh, never mind...
Mcdee


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## Roy Kirchoff (Jan 1, 1970)

Nice work cro-mag man. Those colors really stand out. :thumbsup: 
RK


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Thanks, Roy; did you see my Confederate Raider and Green Beret built-ups as well? They didn't stick around long!

As for the chemist with heaps of Auroras when he closed down, it's tragic, isn't it, because probably noone wanted to buy them off him, not even for a few $, and since Aurora was defunct by then, his wholesaler probably wouldn't want them back, either. So he probably felt he was left with no choice but to get rid of them in a skip or something like that.


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## scooke123 (Apr 11, 2008)

I read somewhere that Monogram has the molds for the Knights still from their purchase of the inventory from Aurora. I'm guessing the market isnt there for them to release them. I do remember getting the Made in England issues when they came out years ago- I think I paid aound $10 apiece for them back then. I have a full set of b/ups of the 4 to restore plus all 4 in the box, still need the Gold Knight if I can ever find an affordable one!
Steve


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Yep, according to the Aurora History and price Guide by Bill Bruegman, which I think was the first book to deal with the Aurora story, Monogram still had the molds for all five knights, along with the molds for Alfred E. Neuman, Robin, and some others that did get reissued.
Then, in about year 2001, one of the boards here on Hobbytalk mentioned an announcement from Monogram that they intended to issue the knights, but obviously nothing came of it.


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

Forgot to say, GREAT JOB Cro mag! I really think monogram should give it a go. They must have been great sellers for Aurora, I think they were the next best sellers after the monster kits! They were the only kits as far as I know, besides the monsters, that were in constant production.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Thanks, Otto, I'm glad the paint job looks ok, though you can see where I was always holding the horse by its legs as the matt finish turned shiny, which was unintended! One day I'll have to go over the legs with matt finish again, when I get round to it after all the other corrections and adjustments I'm always having to make.


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## Roland (Feb 4, 1999)

I got a Gold Knight for about $150 off of Ebay about 10 years ago when the economy was doing better.


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