After much thought, I decided my love of Crusader figures warranted spending the money on this figure, and thought my fellow Planeteers would like to see what comes in the box with this kit.
(Feel free to offer your thoughts, as this is my first review.)
It is a superbly sculpted figure by Gianni La Rocca. I especially liked all the different photo views in the box art, very helpful reference!

First, it is a large kit, comes in a big box and packed with Pegaso's usual thick foam. It is heavy and solid, as one would expect from a figure this large.
The horse is detailed; there are two body halves, the head, tail and genitals. Ears are separate. I've included photos with and without the equine 'clothing'. Stirrups and reins are not flimsy, you have some substance to work with.
It is not as clean a casting as I would have expected; that may be the particular figure I received and not the 'norm'. The parts fit together but there are some gaps that will definitely call for putty. What surprises me is the horse's rear legs are just over an inch apart and do not fit into the holes in the base; there is a difference of about 1/2 inch. That will require my drilling a new hole so the legs will fit. Not a big deal, but I was not expecting that from a model of this quality and price. If I am incorrect in this observation, I would appreciate correction.

The knight is beautifully done; a great expression on his face, but there are some tricks to assembly. The head does not fit onto the neck until the cloak is attached, so I see there will be some careful painting required. As well, the arms will require some planning before attachment. There is also a helmet included.
The clothing, too, has superb detail.
In closing, while there seems to be considerable prep work to be done on this particular casting, and some tricky parts in assembly, I think this figure will be a joy to paint and will be terrific if I do it justice. I recommend it to any Crusader fan looking to add a spectacular figure to their collection.
Mary

Wow, that's quite an impressive piece and marvel of engineering. Congrats on landing a great figure and thank you for taking the time to photo and review Mary.

Excellent review Mary. Thanks

Pegaso has its "engineering" moments. I've had issues with some of their "big kits" and there will be swearing, crying and blood.
Check the space on the legs Mary. You may have to open them up a bit and this can be done by wrapping them with leather or cloth and using a pair of pliers to open them up a bit. Go easy and move them a fraction at a time. There may have been some distortion in the mold and the legs are closer (narrower) than they should be. Seems to be common with both Andrea and Pegaso kits I've gotten. Hold the two halves together and check your alignment. Putty, and patience will be your mantra. Use epoxy resin for assembly. With these heavier kits the sheer strength of super glue is not going to be enough.
Good luck on this. It looks like a good kit and a great subject.

Great kit. Great revieuw.

marc

Hi Mary

Lovely figure. I've recently completed the Brother Knight of St John which is a similar, rearing up position, for a customer, but to my dismay, after a few days it 'dropped' at the front a visible few centimetres due to the back lags not supporting the full weight of the figure. This may not happen to you but do bear this in mind because it is a real 'gutter' when it does happen after all the hard work.

Cheers Mary.

John.

www.themodelsoldier.co.uk

Hi Mariner
I have purchased the same kit and it is a beautiful peace of work but like yourself I had to drill out the base to make
the horse fit which was a bit disappointing considering the price.

Thanks for the advice, Mike; I actually thought I might be able to do just that. But it really is such a significant spread I'm afraid of breaking it.. It's so bad I thought Pegaso sent the wrong base! We shouldn't have such 'engineering moments' on kits this expensive.

Totally unacceptable for the price were paying for these figures.I personally don't put up with faults in casting but us figure painters seem to except faults.I realise that they're usually easily fixed but on a point of principle why should we.
Brian

I'm with Brian on this one. Usually if it's a casting fault on a part, manufactures are by and large very good at replacing items.
Cheers
Derek

I agree with Brian and Derek on this. These mounted kits cost a fortune. We in Britain pay at least £50 now for a simple Andrea 54mm mounted kit. When a lot of money is paid out then quality should follow, and Pegaso, being one of the leading lights in the miniature business have had years to get this right. On the other hand most companies will replace faulty parts and I for one have never had a problem with this.
I know that this is a birthday present for you Mary and must put a bit of a dampener on your special day, but I am sure that with your determination and willingness to learn you will soon make a masterpiece out of this metal. Please, please be careful when bending the horse legs. They have a tendancy to break in the thinnest place and are a real pain in the *** to get right again. Congratulations also on branching out into writing reviews. You have written a good first one.

That's precisely why I made the point. I am in no way skilled enough to bend the legs.
Horses are my specialty, I rode, drew and painted them for years, so I know if I bend the legs to fit those holes, even if they don't break, no real horse could stand like that without wrenching his haunch muscles. It's possible it could be accomplished if I could spread them out from just under the bum, but the metal is far too thick. Then the putty job to fill the resulting gap would throw the whole body out of whack, from what I see.
So I'll play it safe and drill another hole in the base.
What ticked me off was this is also a heavy model and I didn't want to fork out the postage to send it back. I can live with a human error, stuff happens. But I was shocked to see others have found the same type of problem, which means Pegaso needs to take a closer look at quality control.
I had the same problem with the Hospitaller Knight (in my avatar). The left arm simply would not fit into the cloak as it should and I really had to work to fix it. At the time, I thought it was me because I'm new at this, but it wasn't. So if nothing else, my skill is improving

They do indeed need to look at quality control and not just on there metal figures ,especially at the price they charge too.

Ron

There has been an issue of rearing horses slowly collapsing since the 1970's you would think they would have sorted it out by now.
Pete

This is an ongoing problem with all horses rearing up on their hind legs.I have had this problem with poste Militaire and the old Almond Sculpture 90mm horses.The Seil Models 75mm Wolf scout I posted on this site a couple of years ago literally snapped at the shins.The steel pins in the legs were only about 15mm deep.
The only one I have done that didn't have this problem was the Pegaso Roaming Knight as it is supported on it's tail as well and the Poste Militaire Ugrian Warrior as the horse is supported on one leg but is resin and therefore much lighter.
Good luck with this one Mary.Maybe you can disguise a support for the front legs into your groundwork as it's pretty frustrating to find your all your hard work collapsed in a heap in your display cabinet.
Martin

That's a great tip, Martin, thank you. I'll see how it all balances when I get that far

Mary good luck with this one.

I agree with Abbo in that the tail needs to attached to the horse in such a way as to act as a counter lever to prevent the rear legs from bending. Six years ago I painted Pegaso's Italian Condotieri. No major problems but I did not have a clue about the positioning of the tail and it's use. Of course I attached it wrongly and the horse looks like its cowtowing now.

I would have expected some heavy still pins cast into the rear legs for the amount of money paid but still this is an awesome figure and engineering issues aside I am sure you will have a great time painting this.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I've got the same model and it is my next project. i've got the same problems as Mariner but it is not serious(fixable)
very impresive figure though and very laborious!

A friend of mine bought the Andrea kit "The Trophy" when we opened the kit the pins in the horses legs were nowhere near the holes on the base. Not a difficult problem to solve but as everyone says at the price it shouldn't be necessary and where is the quality control? I think it is essential Mary that you support the front legs of the horse with some groundwork (Stump in long grass?) to avoid disappointment in a year or two. A bit of thought now and it should last forever!
Keith