Coolest-looking Mage Knight figs

[leegwonfu]

OK - I'm interested in getting some Mage Knight figs, and I know very little about them, as I've never followed the game. However, I have seen some really cool looking figs from them, and wanted to get some starting points as to which ones I should check out. I'm looking for solid sculpts that I can re-paint (and re-base). I don't care about stats or anything other than if it looks really cool.

I'm into anything that looks cool, as I just want to paint the sh*t! So give me a few really cool figs that I can have some fun painting!

Thanks,
JP

[FramFramson]

OK - I'm interested in getting some Mage Knight figs, and I know very little about them, as I've never followed the game. However, I have seen some really cool looking figs from them, and wanted to get some starting points as to which ones I should check out. I'm looking for solid sculpts that I can re-paint (and re-base). I don't care about stats or anything other than if it looks really cool.

I'm into anything that looks cool, as I just want to paint the sh*t! So give me a few really cool figs that I can have some fun painting!

Thanks,
JP

Well, you'll have some difficulty finding figures since the game has been out of print for what's getting close to 10 years now. Most of them only come up on ebay and the rarer ones only from time to time.

I collect Mage Knight figures and I'm curious as to what you've seen to make you pick Mage Knight figures in particular? Mage Knight figures were all sold prepainted, often with cheap paint very heavily glopped on. This obscured the sculpt, which was in some cases good, but could also be pretty bad too. You can clean the old paint off figures by carefully applying a solvent like acetone, but this is messy, not 100% effective and a little dangerous to boot. Usually it's just not worth it.

I have actually been working slowly on a project to replace a lot of the worst figures with nice metal or resin figures sourced from a variety of minis makers. I pop off the old crummy figure off the stat dial base, then I replace it with the non-Mage Knight replacement figure that I've painted (you can see my efforts in this thread).

Not that I'm trying entirely to discourage you, but if you just want to paint some nice looking miniatures, it seems to me that there are way less painful ways to do so. If you're interested in the game for it's own sake, then perhaps you could take a look at the game rules and info on the main remaining Mage Knight community and see which of the various factions or figures interests you?

[leegwonfu]

Well, I like some of the more esoteric figs that I've seen, like the dragon-men (Draconums, I think?). They also have some neat-looking assorted elementals and monsters. So, things that I don't normally see in most miniature lines. I realize that it's a royal pain to re-paint them, but I've done it with other plastic figs ( and sometimes just paint over the existing paint, if it's not been laid on too thick ).

I'm not on this endless quest for more things to paint, just looking for some interesting, semi-out-of-the-ordinary figs.


And I didn't realize that they've been OOP for so long. I remember when I used to work at a game store (many moons ago) and we sold a lot of those things. I never really paid much attention to them, as I had plenty of other figs to paint, and never got into the game itself (although I've heard some good things about it).

[FramFramson]

Hm, okay the Draconum (dragon men) and the like I can understand! Those are certainly among the figures I repaint rather than replace entirely. There have been a handful of similar minis elsewhere, but those were among the more unique models the game produced. Another similar bunch are the "Solonavi" a faction of energy creatures modelled in tinted transparent plastic, which I have found no replacement for anywhere.

You'll have a bit of trouble with either faction, as they both tended towards smaller numbers of powerful figures, who were usually rarer. As far as the Draconum go, the earlier ones were bigger, bulkier figures and the later ones (from the second edition expansions of the game, known as Mage Knight 2.0) were more sinuous and a bit snake like.

If you look at Troll & Toad, they are out of stock on most figures, but they DO keep the shop open and have a gallery of almost all the minis from all the sets. The price will also give you an idea of how difficult that figure is to find and how often it comes up for sale (ebay is really the only even half-way reliable option these days). You can browse their catalogue for ideas.

Another option is to download the BattlePlanner utility, the Battle Planner Mage Knight Module v 5.77 as well as the Image Files for Battle Planner.

Battle Planner will run fine without the images, but If you want to browse images, you'll need that file. To use these images, make a folder called 'mkpics' in your Battle Planner folder, then extract all the zipped images to the mkpics folder. Now when you open Battle Planner, each figure (except for a couple of ultra-rare promos and variants with re-used sculpts) will have the appropriate image. I guess you can just look at the images without battleplanner, but they won't have names and you won't really be able to search for them online to see if any are for sale.

As far as suggestions on what sets to look at, you'll find a few Draconum in every set (one to a half-dozen or so), the same for the Solonavi (but only from the fifth expansion onwards) and you'll find a lot more fantastic creatures and beasts in the Dungeons, Pyramids, Dragon's Gate, and Omens sets, but there are a few of those in every set as well.

Alternatively, Reaper and a few other minis makers do have a small smattering of Dragon-men and the like that may interest you. Good luck!

[leegwonfu]

Thanks for all the info! It is greatly appreciated.

[2ndhandwizard]

Hi. Mage Knight also did a small run of limited edition metal miniatures. I have had a few in my ebay shop over the last year. I may even have a few sitting around here somewhere.

[ink the troll]

Ral Partha has 58 metal Mage Knight minis, including two of the Draconum minis: http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/mage-knight-c-56.html

[eilif]

It's got a touch of steampunk/post-apoc to it, but I really like the Khamsin faction.  A sort of desert nomad people with very primitive firearms.

I repainted a batch some years ago (and modified some of their poses and weapons) as my first experiment with the dip. Not my best work, but it will show you what you're looking at.  A few of them are available in the metal range.





There's at least 2 or more sculpts in the Khamsin faction that I don't have.