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Hey all,

So I've been buying up and painting lots of the old metal Knights of Minas Tirith as I prefer the much better detail from the metal models. I really dislike painting standard warriors as the detail just isn't as sharp and its harder picking out tree motifs and other details. This is the precise reason why I paid more to buy old metal Knights instead of the far cheaper plastic ones. I also prefer the look of them aesthetically without the shields. I currently have 18 Knights, 3 Standard Bearers and Faramir mounted to lead them. I wanted to pickup a single box of the plastic ones to add some of the nice lance banners to intersperse with the plain lances however I have a few reservations so I need some help from anyone who owns both the new and old KOMT.

1) What is the detail like? Are they like the plastic WOMT detail-wise in terms of sharpness of moulds? Are the tree motifs easier to paint than the old plastic WOMT or are they pretty much similar? Comparing old metal Knights to plastic Warriors will show you what I mean.
2) Can you use them without the shields or are there big holes missing or unmoulded areas where shields are meant to rest against the model? As mentioned, I don't like the look of shields - a giant square shield doesn't seem particularly easy for a cavalryman to use so I'd want to leave them off but I don't want a big gap showing (like you'd find on the old Men of Numenor or Moria Goblins)

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out. I haven't seen the sprues for the plastic Knights and Google is no help hence the questions.

They are definitely sharper than the Warriors of Minas Tirith - by the time the Knights of Minas Tirith plastic kit went into production, GW had greater control of the plastics as they were doing them in-house instead of outsourcing them.

The shields are completely optional and separate. They even have new horses, so you're not stuck with the same couple of poses from the old single-horse sprues.

Definitely worth getting a box and they are sturdier than the metals (that wrist join point on the metal guys is the worst!)

Thank you very much for the reply! I'll definitely pick up a box of them then. I remember pining for plastic Knights back when I was a kid and got a KOMT Standard Bearer with the head-down horse that meant the moment you glued him on it drooped forward until eventually giving way and snapping! How that got through QA I've no idea. As a result, all my banner bearers are on the horse that's rearing up and the pose seems to be pretty stable. We'll see over time how it goes, but it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem just yet. Even so, I preferred the look of the old ones and without a heavy banner they all seem to be pretty stable on the plastic horses. The wrist connection to the lances is terrible though! I'm glad I can pick these up and add them to my knights to add a bit of variety with poses and the small banners on the lances.

One final thing, all the official GW photos show either plastic or metal Knights but never them mixed together as far as memory serves. Is there any noticeable difference between them size-wise? As I'll wager you know, the standard WOMT are pretty small compared to alot of other Gondorian models and I don't want to suddenly have a batch of six Hobbit-Gondorians in amongst my metals!

Thanks again for the response, I really appreciate it.

Hmm I don't recall ever noticing a real difference between my metal and plastic guys.

This guy's blog has some nice shots of his painted ones to give you an idea of the detail level, though.
http://scottswargaming.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-knights-of-minas-tirith.html

If the knights of dol Amroth are anything to go by, the plastic kit is superb. Surprisingly detailed in comparison to some of the other plastic kits.

The size is pretty much spot on. I'll try and see if I can find mine and do a comparison.

most of my knights are metal and I personally vastly prefer the plastic version.