of I received a set of two figures, the same champion mounted and on foot. The set has three heads and two weapon options for each figure.
Cleaning/Assembly
Cleaning the figures up was easy and assembly, straightforward. The figures are each modeled with an open right hand. I cut the weapons from the sprues, then, with a dab of Zap-a-Gap, fitted them into the hands. Then I sealed the fist a little tighter using tweezers and my fingernails.
The figures are modeled with deep sockets for the heads to fit in. The heads have long necks which taper into sprue. I recommend cutting the heads with the necks a little too long, then slicing down the neck as you test the fit in the neck socket. When the fit is good, you can glue in the neck with a bit of glue. (If you're a bit fanatical like I am, you can pin the head, but it's unnecessary.)
When gluing the head of the mounted figure, I placed the figure on the horse first, so that I could wiggle the neck to the right angle so that his gaze lines up with his anticipated spear throw.
One minor detail I added was a pommel for the sword. The way the sword is attached to the sprue, the handle of the sword simply merges into sprue. No pommel. I made a pommel by searching out the finest plastic rod I had (sorry, not sure the thickness, thinner than you might think) and slicing off a disc with a razor blade. Slicing rod evenly takes some practice.
I glued the thin edge (not the "face") of the disc to the end of the sword. Then I added an almost microscopic bit of greenstuff in the center of the disc (now the pommel matches the two brooches that hold his cape to his shoulders).
Basing
The figures have integral oval bases, but I wanted something perfectly round. The obvious choice would be to mount them on plastic slottabases. However, I felt a thinner base would look more elegant with these figures. Since they were display figures, I didn't have to worry about them matching up with an existing game standard. So I chose to mount them on washers. With a little cutting and grinding (Dremel), I fit the foot champion on a ~20mm washer and the mounted champ on a ~35mm washer.
In the third of these articles, these figures will be incorporated into a scenic display base. Since I didn't have the display base made at the time of writing these first two articles, I've left the bases unfinished, and simply painted them black.
Priming
I primed using GW White. Now, this may sound a little overcautious, but I was a tiny bit worried that spray primer might fill in some of the details on the eyes and chainmail. I asked around on some forums, and some credible painters set my fears to rest. The priming went smoothly, and the figures looked great afterwards.
One note of caution, though, is that I would definitely stick to the thinner primers. My favorite is Dupli-Color Sandable. The Krylon primers I've tried in the past have been thick and rough, and something like that may spoil these finely-wrought Elves.
The priming went smoothly, but in hindsight I made the wrong decision choosing white. For the figures, at least, I could have saved myself some time by going black, as my basecoats on the figures were all very dark. However, for the horse, the dappled gray scheme I chose would have been a lot harder with black.