Hi All,

Introduction

Knights have a universal representation in all cultures and civilizations often romanticized with great tales of valor, honor and sacrifice. For me the whole concept of knights have always been fascinating from King Arthur to Samurais our very own Hang Tuah and it’s this interest that has motivated me to present Pegaso’s St. John Order Knight, XIV Century.

Belonging to one of 3 major monastic orders at the turn of the 12th century, the St. John order actually began with the treating of the injured and sick pilgrims to the Holy Land but they welcomed anyone that entered their hospital in peace. Their military brothers came later to protect traveling pilgrims and together with the more well known Knights Templars became one of the most powerful orders in the area. After being ousted from the holy lands after the fall of Acre in 1291 they continued their fight but this time against the Barbary pirates in Cyprus and then Rhoades Island. Today the order of St. John remains as a charitable group better known as St. John Ambulance here in Malaysia. St. John Ambulance still carries the heraldry of St. John knights marked by a white cross over a black background.

Their tale is a fascinating one but unfortunately in the interest of space I’ve to move on but if anyone is interested in reading more I’ve compiled a history of this order and would be glad to share it with anybody.

The Kit

The kit is a 54 mm. white metal figure. The box was a pleasant surprise for me especially after being disappointed with Verlinden’s thin and unexciting box for otherwise almost as expensive but resin kits. Sturdy with a nice gloss finish the boxart is functional as well providing a visual for posing and painting as can be seen below:



Well protected by being sandwiched between 2 thick foam pieces are 11 parts with the scabbard, helmet visor and riding spurs attached to sprues while all other parts came loose. There is also a very well sculpted base with a castle stonework finish and in white metal too. Flash was very minimal.

The figure itself was well proportioned thanks to the excellent hands of its sculptor, Gianni La Rocca. I will definitely be adding his name next to Andrea Jula, the sculptor of the Templar Sergeant I put up earlier. I especially liked the pose as I plan to use it in a vignette later. The arms came with short studs for better positioning. As for the details I leave it to you as you view my poor photography below which does not do the details justice. As for me, I’m still amazed at the level of detail packed into a 54 mm. figure.




The kit comes with a small 1 page writeup (actually 2 pages in several languages) giving a very brief history of the St. John knights. What was critical was they included a color as well as a material description of the various armor/leather/cloth parts of the figure. While the boxart was adequate the brief but detail description would prevent even a beginner from painting a leather part of the armor as a metallic part.

Comments/Recommendations

Pegaso deserves its reputation as being among the top manufacturer of figure kits in the world today. While Pegaso may have many sculptors with some better than others I can only say that it was no exaggeration that Pegaso is very well known for its Medieval line. As for this figure the pose, the sculpting, the proportion of the figure and the quality of production definitely makes this reviewer feel he got his money’s worth and more. Now I only wish my painting skills will be able to do justice to this excellent figure.

Thank you.

CK, I need a tetanus jap.

Thanks for OOB review. Looks like our Figure reviews is becoming high class.

:D My friend before Koowilliams say we lari topic as usual let me say you'll also not only need a tetanus jab but also a lot of tissues to wipe your saliva when you see your Teutonic knight up close and very personal.

:ph43r: EARK..!!

Ah... beachbum,

I thought the st john's knights have black cross on white background or white cross on black background? Normal templars uses red? right?

Relax Koowilliams. Enjoy your life or what's left of it before Hitman comes knocking at your door. :ph43r:

Okay this is not the best place to put this but as a teaser for the next review and to torture one of the Administrators here I give you a sneak look of another fantastic figure owned by a certain armor moderator. :rolleyes:

Gentlemen and 1 Lady, I give you a sneak look at Pegaso's Teutonic Grandmaster coming soon to a Figure Section In-box review near you.

Kenny (f100supersabre) your right on the Templars but its the Teutonic knights as you can see from my thread before this that have the black crosses usually over a white background. The St John knights have white crosses over black and sometimes over red. I see your quite well versed with the Crusade knights. Thinking of getting one?

beachbum,

weii..so many salivas are melting the keyboard la....
but not mine...

okay, first is this yours?? if yes then u're so kaya and good luck with the metal figure

i still didnt like it simply because it's hard to glue....what i mean is the parts can be glue with super glue but extra reinforcement is needed to support the joint such as the arm-shoulder join....expecially when the dude is holding a weapon...
the long sword is heavy too and i try with my hornet's figure, after a few load test, the arm fall .... i think i need to use epoxy glue which is messy though! but as the tips shown in that andrea CD, they support the join with metal wire inside the joint...
but dont get me wrong once again...i never discourage u and the others on the white metal stuff..
i still like it...once i try to gosok my figure with penggosok periuk (the metal one-forgot the name..) the result is shinny looking figure....great if display unpainted....

again, my 2 sen aje

I appreciate your advice and experience. Being my first white metal kit I will remember what you said as I'm sure other members here as well. But for me its going to be really difficult looking at resin or plastic again. Details on white metal if sculpted well are just in a different class. As the owner of the Teutonic Grandmaster said, modeling will never be the same after Pegaso.

Sadly its true. As for affording it I'm going to be eating sand and the owner of the Teutonic Grandmaster kit (shown above) will be eating grass after this. But more seriously just to let you know its actually only slightly more costly than your Alpine figure without the postage. Around RM 20 more if I remember what you told me you paid for your Alpine.

Beachbum,

The knights have always been a fascination for me since i was a kid..

Are you tempting me :huh: ? Ya, i would like one(or some) but the price just set me off at the moment as i just got an airfix TSR2.. I never built any metal figures that scale except for 2 imperial guards from warhammer 40K at dunno what scale, more like super deformed..

Btw, is there any greek hoplite or roman legionarie in that scale?

come to talk about position the arms... what is the best glue/cement for metal figure MrBum...?

i play PE parts also pening already...

sadly its true??? why be so sad..you're now the proud owner of one of the best figure ever made.....but i'm sad learning to know one of my modelling kakis is eating sand and grass (shrubs too)... i'm worried his fate will be the same as imran's shrubs eating cat... :)

are you sure the price is only differ in rm20?? that;s mean it;s below the rm100 line... in that case this pegasos are not expensive afterall...but so far i never saw any of their range below rm100...now i wanna ask, where did u get this?? i hope the answer wont be " i drove my U-boat to buy pegasos..."

btw this is in 54mm right?? i knew that the 54mm they said were the pure 1/35 scale?? and they said it's bigger than typical 1/35 figure?? is that true..some say it's 1/32.. never pegang any 54mm figure before...

can u bawak and show off this guy at IKANO??

Yes Kenny if you're talking about Roman/Greek era kits under Pegaso they are even more fantastic than the Medieval section in my humble opinion. I'm very lucky I'm not a Roman/Greek era fan otherwise sand also cannot eat, must fast to buy the figures. No....seriously the 54mm range is not too bad for their value.

Just don't get it from Pegaso, Italy as they cost a bomb in postage. We got ours from Miniatures Park, Japan at more reasonable postage prices. Should be cheaper to Kuching from Japan :P .Stormdormain down in Singapore also carries Pegaso and Andrea.

Here's Pegaso webpage if you wish to check out their Greek/Roman line. Its under the 'Ancient' category. BTW I'm not trying to influence you ;) .... okay maybe just a little bit. :lol:

Pegaso Homepage

Enjoy yourself.

I afraid you have asked a question that will lead you to the grass fields very soon, Kenny. CK should be hunting now for some pictures to torture tonight.

Yes! There are some greek hoplite or roman legionarie in 54mm.

BTW Arg I'm having my sand with Thai Chili sauce today, should I save some for your grass lunch.

Slight miscalculation Sil, we got the 54 mm. kits around RM 117 without postage. The 54 mm. kits are basically 1/32 scale. They may look 1/35 but as soon as you park both next to each other the differences are very obvious, at least to me they are.

Nice site there beachbum...I'm quite tempted already.. but gotto hold back first. My wallet is in the danger of deflating every time i log on to this forum... :lol: I don't want to eat grass....

Kuching is further than kl and any post have to go kl first... it won't be cheaper. Maybe, just maybe.... i may get 1 for try-outs... hehehe..

beachbum is good at racun ppl..so beware.......

I favourite... figure in suit of armor Roman, Viking, Medieval Knights, ...etc. But they're hard (or impossible) to get in Malaysia lar... Beachbum, I presume U mail order these figures? From the internet or Singapore?

CP as I mentioned earlier to F100supersabre we got these from Japan from Miniature Park and Stormdormain in Singapore carries Pegaso as well but they go very fast.

This thread is contagious, CK. You must be having that evil smile right now.

What evil smile? Just look at how serious my Avatar is.

How can....we figure modelers (and that includes you as well) are a very tiny minority here at SMM. How to influence anybody? After all why would anyone throw away their hard earned money to eat grass for a month to buy a tiny metal figure for RM 117 when they could effectively pay RM 250+++++ for a Frenchie tank. Obviously a tank is more worth it. More plastic anyways.

No my grass eating friend, we are the miniority just sharing some pictures with some curious armor/plane/sci-fi modelers only...... ;) that's all. (almost angelic smile)

Me I'm just trying to keep the figure forum going (most pitiful look).

sarcastic again....

relax la bro....i will always sokong you la...like i said, you good at manipulating people..it's u that made me spend my hard earn money on that alpine figs and venture into vallejo bussiness...how can i sell all my kits just to buy enough vallejo paints to paints Fallschimjager, waffen-ss, heer armies....
maybe i still didnt venture into the knights era yet...but who know many of us will end up eating grass and shrubs one day..only time will tell and i will have the last laugh!!! muahahahahaha

Aarrgh yes! Wait till next batch of reviews come-in. Then you guys will understand how contagious this section is. Could be radioactive!

Couldn't wait for the build review.