introduction

Wee Friends from Scotland, owned by Ian Harranty is the figure producing branch of Friendship Models (formerly Jakrei Miniatures) with a wide range of 1/35 scale mainly World War II and some modern figures, 54 mm historical figures and a few 120 mm figures of different periods.

WF-54003 represents a Norman Knight c.1066 posing with his kite shield and helmet.

box

The figure comes in a clear plastic box along with a label showing a photo of the assembled but unpainted figure. The photo is important because there is no assembly guide which leaves the box photo as the main construction reference . Inside the box, the figure parts are contained in a plastic zip-lock bag.

parts

The figure is sculpted by John Tassell and comes in 7 resin parts in light cream color. The casting is clean. There are only a few slightly visible seamlines on the figure. There will be not much need for an extra cleaning process other than removing the parts from small casting blocks. Note that you will need some care to remove the casting block on the shield.

The main part is the Body with legs, head and half arms. The face shows nice facial details. He has the classical Norman haircut on circa 1066 with the shaved face and back of the head and the rest of the hair is short. Please take a look on the photo.

He wears knee-length mail hauberk with elbow-length sleeves and mail coif over his tunic. The mail hauberk is split at front and rear for ease when riding and tied with leather straps on the back. There is an extra part in the front of the chainmail supported with leather straps and it is supposed to be a pocket to carry a breast armor plate to provide extra cover on the chest. He carries his sword on the left side under his hauberk and sword is carried attached on the thin cloth or leather belt knotted in front. Chainmail texture, straps on the rear, belt are well represented. He has tight trousers and ankle- length leather shoes.

Other parts are ;

Right lower arm : Posed to hold the helmet from the nose guard. The hole between the fingers looks a little big to grab the nose guard.

Left lower arm : Posed to carry the shield. Cloth folds are quite well defined on both arms.

Helmet : He wears a one-piece conical helmet with a nasal (nose guard).

Hilt of the sword : The sword is sculpted under the hauberk and the upper part of the of the scabbard and the crossguards of sword are shown on the left side of the figure. Note that when removing the hilt from the casting block, pay attention not to damage the small pin on the hilt so it will make a fit to the hole on the crossguard.

Lower part of scabbard : Leather scabbard with a metal tip will be assembled on the left side.

Shield : He carries a long kite-shaped shield . Norman kite-shields are often decorated with swirling shapes and historical references show no evidence that these decorations were associated with specific knights or families in the heraldic sense. There will be a need to make a handle for the shield because no part is sculpted for this on the rear of the shield or on the hand.

references

The following books can be used as references when painting this figure.

Osprey Publishing - Warrior Series – 001 – Norman Knight AD 950-1204 by Christopher Gravett & Christa Hook

Osprey Publishing - Elite Series – 009 – The Normans by David Nicolle & Angus McBride

Osprey Publishing - Men at Arms Series – 85 – Saxon,Viking and Norman by terence Wise & Gary Embleton

conclusion

Quite nice sculpt with a good accuracy to the Norman Knight of the period and a good casting figure.