The Gold Knight by Aurora 1957

The Gold Knight was the fifth knight in the series and the only one which was mounted.  It is a very impressive kit at 1/8 scale.  It was first issued in 1957, a second box in 1965 and later issued as King Arthur the "Shining" Knight in 1967.  The Blue Knight was also issued as a "Shining" Knight and called Sir Kay.  The "Shining" part of the title was all the armor being chrome, like some parts of a model car.  For this process, plastic is plated with chrome in an electrolytic process after being pre-treated in an electroless process.  In another process, vacuum metalizing, plating is achieved when metal bonds with plastic in a vacuum chamber.   The Gold Knight is the rarest of the five production knights.  Infinitely more rare is the Green Knight, which was not produced commercially.  There is quite a bit of information regarding this knight on the net.  Just do a Google search for Aurora Green Knight model kit and you should find images and the history of the figure.

Below are photos of my Gold Knight kit, followed by images of the first box, second box and the set of Shining boxes with the models being chromed versions of the Gold, Blue, Silver and Red Knights, in that order.
I will also mention that in 1959-60 there was a 3 Pack of knights which included the Blue, Black and Silver Knights and included paint, a brush and glue for the princely sum of $3.49.

Diorama Diary

Aside from the guard shack, oops, sentry box, I have pretty much finished the two regular guards which come in the checkpoint set.  Didn't realize it until I was looking at the parts closely, but I have to fabricate the strap going from the fist to the bottom of the rifle as well as the cigarette and the leash for the one with the rifle and the strap going from the left shoulder to the top of the sub machine gun on the other.  Making these will not be a major issue, just did not originally realize I would have to.  Also you will notice the bottles the figures are currently attached to.  I use these when painting figures of 120 mm or less.  Just attach the figure to it and I can manipulate it to paint it without ever touching the figure itself.  Highly recommended practice.