Monogram (ex-Aurora) Black Knight of Nurnberg

Just a quick diversion with this a 1/8th scale re-issue of an old Aurora plastic kit of "The Black Knight of Nurnberg). I had the kit back in the early-70's - of course, it long since disappeared. So it was nice to see it has been re-issued and available at a fairly low price. The original set was released in the late-1950's.

Don't know why his left eye looks so white and crazy - might be the flash, but in normal view doesn't appear so wide-eyed.

The style of this type of late 16th C. armor is known as "Black and White," and associated with Northern Germany. It is made by either painting or bluing selected areas of the metal. It's simple, yet quite elegant looking.

I painted it by spraying it with an old can of Krylon Brilliant Silver. I picked up a new can but it had a different type of spray nozzle which made the paint come out too runny. It also might be that the paint mixture is flawed.

Black was then painted over the select areas. Another error I made was using Krylon Clear Satin - which left the black areas splotchy looking. I went over it with some Krylon Gloss which helped a little. If I were to do it over I would've went with a gloss finish.

The kit is made up of minimal amount of parts which fit together very well. The only part that I needed to fill a little was the seam at the base of the gorget. Below is an image of what the armor is based upon. Although the actual armor's non-painted areas aren't engraved as it appears on this model.

Finally, here's a shot of the Black Knight along another ebay purchase from a few years ago. It is the "Red Knight of Vienna." This is the original kit that was molded in red plastic. I bought it painted and soaked it in DOT3 brake fluid to remove the original paint job and repainted it. There is a 28mm BTD knight between them for size comparison.

I hope to get started on the "Gold Knight of Nice" next.