COOMODEL 1/6 Empire Series - (New Lightweight Metal) Milanese Knight

Stryker2011 wrote:I would have loved these as a kid. Now, there's just too many other things out there to collect everything. I'll get Joan, and that will probably have to do for "armored historical figures" for me.

Almost every day there's some new 1/6 temptation.

My interests are all over the place, but I'm currently trying to prioritise the things that mean the most, or will have the most impact on display.

A while back I jumped on a cheap CooModel Gothic Knight on Ebay, but was informed by the seller that the price had been listed wrongly so my buy-it-now was cancelled and refunded.  

A week ago another seller listed him even cheaper, and it coincided with an Ebay 10-hour 10% off code. So I jumped on it again, fully expecting to be informed he was listed wrongly. However, the knight was in the post almost immediately, though the seller did raise the price afterwards on the two others they had listed.

It's a fantastic looking figure, and pretty accurate visually with examples of later 15th Century Gothic armour.


Though not without its frustrations.  

While this was undoubtedly a brand new, never been opened figure, out of the box the eyelet on the leather strap of the left pauldron was split open. Therefore it was useless in its function of securing the pauldron to the stud on the top of the breastplate.

And those two studs were annoying as well. I don't know if they were originally glued in the factory, but they were both loose, making it impossible to fasten the leather to them as they would sink down into the chain mail every time you pressed down on them. Gluing them in place to the under side of the breastplate was my first job.

Since I never intend to have this figure displayed other than fully armoured, I glued the leather pauldron straps to the studs and the top of the breastplate/rear armour. I couldn't think of any other secure method of overcoming the split leather strap.

The only other modification I had to make was with the head. With the stock sculpt I was having trouble getting the combination of salet, visor and bevor to sit correctly. Either the head was too big at the crown or his nose stuck out too far. So I resorted to one of the most useful and cheapest bunch of figures I've ever bought: Disney's Krennic!

The long neck on the Krennic head plugs directly into the the ball joint on the body without need of the extra connection you usually use with necked heads. And because the Krennic head is soft and hollow it's easy to slice up with a craft knife. I cut off his nose and removed part of the top of his head. Stuffing the head with cloth, and leaving the end of the cloth on the top of his head meant I could adjust the height the helmet sat at, and without a nose it was much easier to position the visor over the bevor. (Doing this also freed up the decent CooModel sculpt for some other project).


Lastly, I didn't trust the crotch grabber to support this heavy figure. The metal wire suffers the issue shared with Hot Toys': it's too loose within the upright rod to stay at the height you put it. I would only feel safe if he were secured at the waist, but waist grabbers are often ugly and I didn't fancy using a metal one. So Hot Toys' Doctor Strange to the rescue...

Asta wrote:It's a fantastic looking figure, and pretty accurate visually with examples of later 15th Century Gothic armour. Though not without its frustrations.  

Funny coincidence, I was just putting mine back into his box. I got it a while back, but never got around to showcasing it (I still might later, with a horse from a different line). I am sorry to hear about your issues with the figure (or rather your figure's issues), and appreciate you sharing your experience, which may well be very helpful for others who have or will end up getting one. In my case, I had none of these issues -- the leather straps are ok, the studs work, the helmet and neck piece fit, etc. To be honest, I have never been a fan of the use of cast metal (except maybe for the occasional blade or spear point), as it makes figures heavy and unbalanced -- and this figure is no exception, what with the metal helmet, shoulder armor, and breast- and back-plates (the armored footwear is so far down on the body that it probably helps rather than exacerbates the problem). But one thing is for sure -- he does look great.

GubernatorFan wrote:Funny coincidence, I was just putting mine back into his box. I got it a while back, but never got around to showcasing it (I still might later, with a horse from a different line). I am sorry to hear about your issues with the figure (or rather your figure's issues), and appreciate you sharing your experience, which may well be very helpful for others who have or will end up getting one. In my case, I had none of these issues -- the leather straps are ok, the studs work, the helmet and neck piece fit, etc. To be honest, I have never been a fan of the use of cast metal (except maybe for the occasional blade or spear point), as it makes figures heavy and unbalanced -- and this figure is no exception, what with the metal helmet, shoulder armor, and breast- and back-plates (the armored footwear is so far down on the body that it probably helps rather than exacerbates the problem). But one thing is for sure -- he does look great.

The weight is really why I wanted to make sure he was going to be secure on the stand.

I wasn't expecting him to be straightforward or without some kind of problem, because of the complexity and the way the armour is constructed. For the price I ended up paying I was also willing to cut the figure some slack.

The torn leather strap stumped me at first, but I knew there had to be a workable solution. Using the Krennic sculpt saved having to hide a decent (usable) sculpt under the helmet, and that was something I was even considering before he arrived.

As you say, he does look great. This is my first sixth scale representing this period, and hope CooModel eventually releases the Milanese armour.

I've ordered all of PopToys' Jeanne d'Arc sets, and they'll end up displayed with the Gothic Knight, though she's probably around forty years earlier historically.

Asta wrote:As you say, he does look great. This is my first sixth scale representing this period, and hope CooModel eventually releases the Milanese armour.

I've ordered all of PopToys' Jeanne d'Arc sets, and they'll end up displayed with the Gothic Knight, though she's probably around forty years earlier historically.

I agree. Looking forward to those, too, but not comfortable with preordering anything so far in advance, especially with a move coming up.

Asta wrote:Their Templar types had knee high boots instead of mailed legs and feet

They never wore surcoats until a few decades before they were disbanded. They wore boots but not like that - those are a few centuries too late. That helmet only started to be used just before they were disbanded and nobody wore separate coifs during that period. The cross is too big; the best research suggests that the cross was likely smaller and displayed over the left breast. Most Templars had black crosses, not red ones. Red crosses usually denoted adherents to St. George or St. Demetrius. What is most notable is that nothing on that figure would have been worn during the 1st-4th Crusades. The surcoat, the cross, the helmet, the coif, the sword were all 13th-14th century developments.

Asta wrote:I read through the Gothic Knight' thread on OSW.

Tony Barton was pointing out what he saw as inaccuracies, such as shoulders too big, skirt and tassets too small.

The Gothic Knight was disappointing but this Milan Knight looks good.

I regard the Gothic Knight as CooModel's first serious attempt at replicating historical record.

I think I wrote in this thread that they've been improving with every release. The Gothic armour is a big leap forward, and the Milanese so far looks an even bigger step.

It was the Milanese tease that made me go back and have another look at their Gothic Knight. I was waiting to get him for a good price because he would likely be less impressive than the upcoming Italian armour, because the Gothic armour does have inaccuracies:

The sallet misses the rivets that would've secured a liner on the real thing; the half visor sits lower than the bottom edge of the sallet itself. But those are things that aren't noticeable when viewed from the front or as you move towards three quarter view.

Another inconsistency is the addition of a silver heel to the sabatons, where a leather shoe should instead be visible.

The pauldrons tend towards the larger scale of Italian armour, though it was an aspect on some Gothic armour:





(1480 Leeds, UK, Royal Armouries, south German, made for Waldemar VI of Anhalt-Zerbst )


Or the Italo-German composite style but with symmetrical Gothic pauldrons






(1470 - 1480 Nuremberg, Germany, Germanisches National Museum, Landshut, composite)






(1470 Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany,Museum im Prediger, from church in Heiligenkreuz, Milanese armour with certain German stylistic elements)


The individual pieces of armour do, however, correspond to the style and function of armour seen in the historical record, though the way they attach has maybe been simplified in certain respects to accommodate a sixth scale movable figure.

If there was one thing about armour, it appeared in seemingly endless variety, with design choices made by the purchaser in the case of a full harness which would've been made to measure.

As I wrote earlier, I think it looks pretty accurate visually with examples of later 15th Century Gothic armour.

The thing I find with buying figures purporting to represent a historical period is that it encourages me to research deeper into the subject.

I love these guys and have all three. They are the knights in armor I dreamed of as a kid.

Sounds like yours is well-bought. Attaboy. I preordered all three, which is something I detest, but did not want to run the risk of missing any of them.

Are they inaccurate? Why hell yeah, but they're still deeply cool...to me.


I shared your sorry experience with those damn studs on the shoulder pieces. One side was fine, but the  other side was not. The stud had come loose from it's housing. My strap was OK, but that stud whipped my ass. Finally, I stuck it in there with a touch of hot glue and all was well.

I really wish they'd stuck with the solution they used for the first two. There were magnets in the shoulder pieces that stuck to the appropriate sides of the chest armor. And, because they were placed with proper polarity, you cannot get them on backward. If you try, the magnets will repel and not stick. Pretty smart.

Still, I understand wanting to be more historically accurate albeit more of a PITA.

I might never get my hands on one of those knights, but I am happy for everyone who owns one.

Stryker2011 wrote:I would have loved these as a kid. Now, there's just too many other things out there to collect everything. I'll get Joan, and that will probably have to do for "armored historical figures" for me.

By Joan, do you mean this figure: http://www.monkeydepot.com/Boxed_Figure_POP_Toys_Saint_Knight_Triumph_Versio_p/pt0073.htm ? Pretty cool.

dadrab wrote:I love these guys and have all three. They are the knights in armor I dreamed of as a kid.

Sounds like yours is well-bought. Attaboy. I preordered all three, which is something I detest, but did not want to run the risk of missing any of them.

Are they inaccurate? Why hell yeah, but they're still deeply cool...to me.


I shared your sorry experience with those damn studs on the shoulder pieces. One side was fine, but the  other side was not. The stud had come loose from it's housing. My strap was OK, but that stud whipped my ass. Finally, I stuck it in there with a touch of hot glue and all was well.

I really wish they'd stuck with the solution they used for the first two. There were magnets in the shoulder pieces that stuck to the appropriate sides of the chest armor. And, because they were placed with proper polarity, you cannot get them on backward. If you try, the magnets will repel and not stick. Pretty smart.

Still, I understand wanting to be more historically accurate albeit more of a PITA.

I have a very wide ranging collection in one sixth, with figures from Star Wars; Star Trek; comic book TV series and films; horror movies; western movies; Ghostbusters; Indiana Jones; military-themed female figures; post-apocalyptic survivors and so on...and on!

I buy the odd historical/real world figure, such as DAM's IDF CICC (which fit in with the military girls), and their Blackbird and U-2 pilots because they are just stunning to look at; plus a few 1930s Japanese and Chinese soldiers because it's a period and location that captured my fascination after watching Temple of Doom.

Apart from that I had one main historical period of interest: the Roman world. This has encompassed the Roman army, gladiators and Celts. I wanted all of these to be as historically accurate as possible, which entailed a lot of research and the swapping of parts. I loved the Spartacus TV series, but as with most television featuring gladiators (including so-called documentaries) it was almost complete fantasy which ignored the rules of gladiatorial combat. So making the figures look as correct as I could was an enjoyable exercise in research as well as a challenge.

I wasn't going to move into the fifteenth century... until PopToys showed their Jeanne d'Arc. I've been a fan of Milla Jovovich since I saw The Fifth Element.

That lead me to her 1999 film, The Messenger, which left a lasting impression. Hence the PopToys figure is a perfect storm in terms of collecting! Then CooModel teased their Milanese armour. So now I find myself expanding into this period, but trying to do it the way I've approached the Roman era. Jeanne herself, however, is a special case historically. Neither a knight nor a soldier, and recorded that she could not bear the weight of a full harness. So I'll cut her some slack with the figure representing her wearing an incomplete suit of armour.

Ovy wrote:By Joan, do you mean this figure: http://www.monkeydepot.com/Boxed_Figure_POP_Toys_Saint_Knight_Triumph_Versio_p/pt0073.htm ? Pretty cool.

There's a thread for her here.

This post shows the two variant figures plus the horse:

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t208-teaser-poptoys-16-jeanne-d-arc#5231

damn it, my dark souls senses are tingling again...

Ok guys...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this figure hasn't been previewed yet, right?

Still in the R&D phase, as I understand it.

Just don't want to miss it.

No, just that one teaser photo so far.

Here he is:







SE036 is his code.

I don't like the helmet on SE037:



...so won't be needing the SE038 double pack...




Lots of photos on BBICN:

http://bbs.bbicn.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=344143&extra=page%3D1

Hold the phone now...

Am I to understand there are two new ones coming down the pike?

dadrab wrote:Hold the phone now...

Am I to understand there are two new ones coming down the pike?

I think this is still the same one from the photo in the first post, these are just the official promotional materials. The other photos in various subsequent posts of other Coomodel knights, including the Gothic Knight, which was a relatively recent release.

SE036 is the one they teased as the "Milan Knight".

SE037 looks identical apart from the helmet.


The gold and black versions revealed the other day are based on this pair.

Asta wrote:SE036 is the one they teased as the "Milan Knight".
SE037 looks identical apart from the helmet.
The gold and black versions revealed the other day are based on this pair.

Oh, I see. I thought the question was just about the Milanese knight, but didn't even realize the two variations. Personally, I prefer SE036, although I am sure late medieval armor probably also included something close enough to SE037 too.

GubernatorFan wrote:Oh, I see. I thought the question was just about the Milanese knight, but didn't even realize the two variations. Personally, I prefer SE036, although I am sure late medieval armor probably also included something close enough to SE037 too.

What I don't like about SE037's helmet are the ridges running over it. SE036 seems more typical of Milanese design with the single crest in the centre.

Apart from the sabatons being all metallic again (with no sign of a leather shoe underneath), the armour looks very good to me.

SE036 looks pretty good. They screwed up the helmet on 037

Hmmmmmm. I see the point about the helmet on 037 and would assert that without some more modern metal working equipment, it would be a pretty difficult construction process, BUT I really like it.

So if I buy the box set 038, it comes with shields and a long sword as the bonus pieces? Does this also come with extra shoulder armor, 2 standing and 2 plain? That way they could both have standing shoulder armor or is it the one set?

I missed out on every single coo model knight so I have to get this.

MerylAkiba wrote:So if I buy the box set 038, it comes with shields and a long sword as the bonus pieces? Does this also come with extra shoulder armor, 2 standing and 2 plain? That way they could both have standing shoulder armor or is it the one set?

I missed out on every single coo model knight so I have to get this.

I can't be certain, but judging by the two Vikings set, if you get the two-figure set, you would get everything that comes with each individual figure, plus the exclusive piece(s).

The SE036 'Knight of the Realm - Famiglia Ducale' was delivered this afternoon.

This was the one of their many variations that I chose to represent a late fifteenth century Milanese harness.

It's not perfect, but it is very striking.

I must a have spent an hour or so this morning scanning the net and going through numerous Osprey books covering the period, mainly looking at one particular aspect: tassets!

In about 1500 a style of flexible armour that became known as 'Almain rivet' was created in Germany. Overlapping metal lames were connected by rivets, and were able to slide on the rivets to afford flexibility to the tassets.

It was only when I got the figure in hand that I could discern that the tassets looked less flexible than Almain rivet. There are two rows of slightly off-set rivets, and they're moulded with an outward curve giving the impression of forming a single, more rigid piece of armour. Neither are they body forming as Almain rivet tassets tend to be.

Tassets made from lames were in use during the second half of the fifteenth century, though apparently not that common. There were a couple of examples among the Osprey books: a mid-fifteenth century German crossbowman, and a late fifteenth century Italian crossbowman.

In the Karsten Klingbeil collection, Berlin, was this c.1480 south German and Austrian composite:




So, depending how you view the tassets the armour can represent either the late fifteenth century, or well into the sixteenth.

Before putting on the larger pauldrons, I think he looks quite good with the just the spaulders on the upper arms:





A pair of tassets as culet armour:




Italian armour often had asymmetrical pauldrons, smaller on the dominant arm to assist movement for combat. It's not always the case, as there are examples where both left and right are identical.

At first glance the CooModel pauldrons appeared identical, but it became apparent that the right pauldron is wider from front to back. It's likely an accidental casting variation, because there's a magnet underneath it that's too far away from the breastplate to make contact. So it's held on only by the magnet that meets the spaulder.

If it was unintentional then it's a lucky accident, because it creates an asymmetry providing the sword arm with a little more range of motion.  






On the negative side, all the straps and belts are made of stiff plastic. No doubt it was done for longevity, but it's a strange choice reminiscent of a Marx knight from the 1960s.

Because the plastic is so stiff it's harder to tighter the belts as it would be with leather or pleather. He comes wearing a narrow belt, and there are two other wider belts packed in a bag that need to be put on. These have loops  to hold the scabbard and warhammer. The scabbard would slide out of the loop if you're not careful. When scabbarded the crossguard of the sword secures the scabbard.

Because the belts are less flexible than pleather there they get bulky when all three are worn together. So I removed the narrower one.

It would be pretty simply to remake the belts in leather. All you'd have to do is remove the buckles; cut a couple of strips of leather; shape the ends and glue the buckles to the leather belts. It's something I'll probably do when I get the inclination. But for now the black plastic is passable.

Another negative is that the camera flash highlights the openness of the mail. It isn't that apparent on display.

Thank you for sharing the photos and your impressions and findings, Asta. Whatever the minor details (and this is too modern for me to spot any glaring issues, so I appreciate your research), the overall look appears both stunning and appropriate. As for real leather straps and belt, before you go cutting them yourself, you may want to look at the leather cords of different widths and thicknesses and sizes available in hobby stores -- that can probably save you a lot of grief and give you a nicely made and fairly durable option.

GubernatorFan wrote:Thank you for sharing the photos and your impressions and findings, Asta. Whatever the minor details (and this is too modern for me to spot any glaring issues, so I appreciate your research), the overall look appears both stunning and appropriate. As for real leather straps and belt, before you go cutting them yourself, you may want to look at the leather cords of different widths and thicknesses and sizes available in hobby stores -- that can probably save you a lot of grief and give you a nicely made and fairly durable option.

I hadn't thought of that, as I have a stack of leather in various thicknesses that was bought years ago in a car boot sale with the intention of using for 1/6. But the need never arose.

I wouldn't change the straps as that would be too much work, and since they're small they don't stand out like the belts.

The plastic belts are simple lengths with a tapered end. The other end is looped round the buckle and glued.

This should be something straightforward that gets me started on working with the leather.  


A shot from the side that I forgot to post:




And a group photo:

Interesting history, and great figure. When I was a kid my brother and I had two knights (and their horses) that my mom got at a garage sale. I had the Silver, and my brother had the Gold one; I think those were made by Marx, but I can’t be sure, they disappeared about 40 years ago.