Plastic knights suitable for a 5-year-old to paint?

[mweaver]

Hi everyone.  My brother has his 5-year-old granddaughter painting dragons, and apparently she (or perhaps he) has decided she should try some knights for the dragons to munch on.  Ideally, one-piece plastic, with lots of armor so she is mostly painting metal and washing.  Biggish, so 32mm would be better than old 25mm.  Not too much in the way of fussy kit.  At the moment I am drawing a blank. Suggestions welcome!

-Michael

[NickNascati]

Michael,
             Take a look at Amazon.

              https://www.amazon.com/s?k=plastic+knights+figures&crid=3QNN1UW1IGPEB&sprefix=Plastic+knight%2Caps%2C65&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_5_14

[pancakeonions]

Reaper Bones plastic figures aren't bad, and there's plenty of chunky knight options.  They're a few bucks a figure, though, so the Amazon plastic knights (though not as nice) will certainly get you more options!

[Dolnikan]

I would probably go with some of the old school plastic 54 mm knights you can get anywhere. But if smaller scales are preferred (and actual minis) I would go for the reaper Bones line like Pancakeonions suggests. It's a soft bendy material, especially for the older ones, And breaking them is almost impossible. At the same time, they tend to paint pretty easily and don't have many parts that can fall off and be swallowed.

There however aren't many or many mounted ones which might be an issue. Most others have some big disadvantages either in terms of the material (like resin, metal, and brittle plastic) or in terms of excessive detail and tiny extra pieces that can easily break off. But the latter does depend on the child of course.

[Iain R]

The old GW plastic Knights of the Realm from the 90s used to be cheap as chips and widely available on ebay. Dunno if they still are, but might be worth considering?

[mweaver]

Thanks for the excellent suggestions, everyone.  I will pass them along.

-Michael

[SotF]

One of the best options for younger kids is to look for the cheap, plastic medieval/fantasy toy sets and get a rattlecan of the primer that bonds to plastic.

I would also grab a cheap thing of the larger, plastic bingo or poker chips to base them on and some rougher sand and stones. I'd suggest something like the 2 part epoxy resin that's relatively cheap. Use it to attach the figs to the bases and smooth them out somewhat to make things easier there.

A long while ago, I'd painted up some toy pirates of the same cheap plastic as most of them, and my nephew got to paint several of the extras from the sets. I'm glad I'd used the stronger epoxy for it and they're large enough that the kiddos have an easier time. You also want a pack or two of cheap brushes and craft paints for them because kids will wreck those brushes on you.

And with the knights, you can normally find ones that are pretty decent for statues for your own use...and several of the big sets of toys have some pretty good terrain sculpts as well for plants, rocks, and similar that are easier to transport.

I'd also done some skeletons from that pirate set more recently though they're based on more standard gaming bases.

I would also suggest taking a look at something like Song of Blades & Heroes for some relatively simple rules if you create the stats for the kiddos

[mweaver]

Thanks, SotF.  I think she is set with brushes - she has painted some dragons.  The poker-chip idea for larger bases is a good one for a kid.

-Michael

[Daeothar]

I do not know where your're located, but I did the very same thing with a copy of the Lionheart boardgame.

About 4 years ago I grabbed a copy on a local (Dutch) auction site for the princely sum of €5,-  and it had a boatload (70+) of miniatures in it; mounted knights, men at arms, archers and some assorted others as well.

My daughter (also 5 at the time) had a lot of fun painting them up for her very own game, and they're still in a box, together with a bunch of other miniatures I gave her to paint...

[Abbner Home]

My experience with a little guy painting is quantity is king. Mine slapped one or two colors on fig after fig and then wanted more at that age. I think the cheap amazon knights will fit that bill well.

[mweaver]

Thanks again.  It looks like he is going with some Reaper Bones figures at the moment.  I am going to check into the Lionheart boardgame.  I am not familiar with it.

-Michael

[NickNascati]

Michael,
             Lionheart is a great buy if you can find it.  I actually got my youngest daughter to play the game with me.  She then played DBA for a couple years.  It’s a good, entry game.  The figures are GW styled medievals.

[mweaver]

Thanks, Nick - I will pass that information on.

-Michael

[Golgotha]

Found these see: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284759258109?var=586425835366

[Hobgoblin]

Those are rip-offs of various Caesar 1/72 knight sets:

http://plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=2299



http://plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1974

The originals are great - and easy to paint (they're in a sort of 'Reaper Bones' grey plastic that takes paint and superglue well), but they are small, being 1/72:



There are some really good 1/32 knights out there, though I suspect they'll be harder to paint unless carefully primed:

https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?scale_id=953&search_direction=asc&search=knights&product_type_id=1878

The Reaper Bones suggestion is a really good one, I think - there's lots of good stuff if you search for 'knight' on Reaper's website. And painting the Bones material is really easy: you don't even need to undercoat (although you should give them a wash in warm water and soap first).

These ones struck me as particularly good (in an over-the-top, faux-medieval way):