Adding a skirt to a Citadel Knights Panther

I felt that the mounted knights which Citadel Miniatures manufactured in the late 1980s looked a little flat after assembly.  After doing some research, I found in the Osprey Elite Series "Knights at Tournament" book that there were instances when the knights wore a surcoat underneath their armor that extended below the torso.  I decided to try to copy the effect to make the knight look better.

The tools you will need are compass or circle template, scribe, safety glasses, a cutting board, a file, old pair of scissors, and modeling knife.  I also used a burnisher but failed to include it in the picture.  The materials you will need are the miniature, some thin metal sheet (I will use thin copper sheet, but heavy aluminum or some other thin metal sheet will suffice), pinning wire, and some adhesive.  Please remember to do this safely.

Using the circular template and scribe, draw a circle in the thin metal sheet.  Cut the disc out of the metal sheet using the old pair of scissors and then cut out a pie-shaped segment out of the disc.  Once the pie-shaped segment is removed, shape the skirt onto the legs of the knight miniature.  You will have to remove the back part of the saddle that is cast on the legs.

 Assemble the horse and put your materials which you will use on the cutting board.  You should have a horse (the "Big Horse", which is no longer produced, is the best horse for this process), the torso and legs of the knight miniature, and the skirt.

Shape the skirt to the legs.  I used a burnisher to thin parts of the skirt.  Remember, the skirt is supposed to represent cloth.  Glue the skirt onto the lets.  File or carve the skirt so that it fits on the legs properly.

Place the legs on the horse and shape it further.  Make sure that the torso still fits well on the legs.  You may need to file the hole in the skirt so that it does not interfere with the torso fit on the legs.

Glue the torso onto the legs.  Make sure that there is no gap between the torso and the skirt.  If there is, fill it in with epoxy putty or something similar.  Continue to work on the look of the skirt by putting the miniature on the horse.

This is the miniature after I started painting it.  This really adds some nice character to your Empire Knightly Orders.