Guess I should speak up now...
Crusaders are my favourite. This guy was inspired by the
giant BF fig. I also have a horse partially built but that will take a few more months to complete, assuming I don't run out of black bricks.
I can't take credit for much in this MOC, actually.
The fig itself is based on 3723, obviously, with a bit of modifications done to the hip area to give him a belt.
The shield was actually designed by
Brickshelf user mahjqa, who described his method of using Photoshop to create mosaics on LUGNET a few months ago (but LUGNET appears to be down). Basically, to get the most "resolution", the shield is built with plates, placed both horizontally and vertically. The plan is
here, but you'll need to get creative to fit everything together (lots of 1x1 technic bricks and 1x1 tiles).
The top of the helmet is based heavily on the green cap from 3723. The open "grille" part was done entirely through trial & error (with a regular minifig helm to stare at) and put a serious dent in my small 1xn dark grey plate supply.
The plume is based on
this, some display LEGO did way back when. It's only connected by 2 studs so it falls off easily.
About the only thing that's really original is the armor - the front is a bunch of wing plates with 4 of those 10deg slope/ramp pieces, and the back is brick & wing plates, plus tiles all over.
And I must confess, my original intention
was to have the ability to remove all accessories. Unfortunately, I made mods to the torso to attach the armor (so if you peel it off you'd see some studs poking out). In an effort to save weight, the back part of his torso even has holes!
The helmet however, does come off but you need to pluck his eyes out first (ouch that sounds painful). Unfortunately, there are a few DG bricks attached directly to his chin to give the helmet a more "closed off" look.
The arms connect to the torso by technic friction pins, one for each side, and hang naturally. Given the weight of the sword & shield, it's much too weak and they fall off if you stare at him too long, so I'll need to redesign that. I considered fixing the arms at certain angles (such as pointing straight out), but the guy just tips over if you put accessories in his hands so I abandoned that idea. He looks more natural this way anyhow.
I'll post more pics in the next couple weeks and update this posting.
Thanks for the comments guys! Feel free to ask any questions.