Before Airfix there was Timpo
Well preparations are well underway for the club Christmas tournament with all participants eagerly scouring the internet for sources of knights. To allow everyone the option of using their favourite figures we've gone for a generic medieval theme rather than tie things down to a specific period. It does go against the grain as we are normally strictly historical but as it's for Christmas we can, to mix metaphors, let our hair down a bit (or at least those of us who still have any). Throwing some dice and having a laugh is the order of the day.
For my own campaign I had intended to use my late 14th / early 15th century Lion Rampant collection.
As I already have figures, that would be sensible. What's more they fit the descriptions in the book quite well, with such items as plate armour and poleaxes. That said, when are gamers ever sensible?
Now, much as I like my current figures, I have always had a hankering for that earlier look of knights in great helms riding caparisoned horses. I suspect this goes back to my early days of wargaming. For a long time I held to the belief that, like many gamers of a certain age, my first forays into the hobby involved rolling marbles at unpainted Airfix figures. Wrong! I've only just realised that before I indulged in such sophisticated conflict simulations I already had a small collection of model soldiers. In the days before pocket money, occasionally my Dad would instead buy me a toy soldier from a shop in the local high street. These beauties were Timpo multi part figures and I still remember drooling over them in the shop's display case.
Most of what I collected were knights of various descriptions and I distinctly remember the figure below (one of my favourites despite the unlikely pose).
It is exactly this look that I wished to replicate with my tourney knights. The first challenge was to find a source that did knights in both mounted and foot versions. I finally settled on Gripping Beast figures from their Late Crusade range.
These are nice figures but I was a bit disappointed that the mounted figures were weaponless. These days it is not unusual to have to provide your own spears but in this case a proper lance would have been nice. The foot figures came with 3 swords and a falchion. To add variety I pinched an axe and a morning star from my unopened box of Fireforge sergeants.
My own character would be resplendent in yellow as a homage to my long lost Timpo warrior and as the Gripping Beast figures come in packs of four I decided to paint the figures in the colours of the four houses of my school - yellow, red, blue and green.
For my own campaign I had intended to use my late 14th / early 15th century Lion Rampant collection.
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| Heavy Metal |
As I already have figures, that would be sensible. What's more they fit the descriptions in the book quite well, with such items as plate armour and poleaxes. That said, when are gamers ever sensible?
Now, much as I like my current figures, I have always had a hankering for that earlier look of knights in great helms riding caparisoned horses. I suspect this goes back to my early days of wargaming. For a long time I held to the belief that, like many gamers of a certain age, my first forays into the hobby involved rolling marbles at unpainted Airfix figures. Wrong! I've only just realised that before I indulged in such sophisticated conflict simulations I already had a small collection of model soldiers. In the days before pocket money, occasionally my Dad would instead buy me a toy soldier from a shop in the local high street. These beauties were Timpo multi part figures and I still remember drooling over them in the shop's display case.
Most of what I collected were knights of various descriptions and I distinctly remember the figure below (one of my favourites despite the unlikely pose).
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| Classic Timpo |
It is exactly this look that I wished to replicate with my tourney knights. The first challenge was to find a source that did knights in both mounted and foot versions. I finally settled on Gripping Beast figures from their Late Crusade range.
These are nice figures but I was a bit disappointed that the mounted figures were weaponless. These days it is not unusual to have to provide your own spears but in this case a proper lance would have been nice. The foot figures came with 3 swords and a falchion. To add variety I pinched an axe and a morning star from my unopened box of Fireforge sergeants.
My own character would be resplendent in yellow as a homage to my long lost Timpo warrior and as the Gripping Beast figures come in packs of four I decided to paint the figures in the colours of the four houses of my school - yellow, red, blue and green.
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| Ready for the Joust |
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| Melee mayhem |
Loving that shiny red plastic head on the Timpo dude. Some nice looking figures there!
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