I've already reviewed the Knight + Holy Knight combo kit, so this is an editorial retrospective of the Liber Knight by itself and the model line in hindsight.
The Knight is the first 30MF kit to be released and has the Silhouette 1 body, shared by the Assassin, Archer, Lancer, Priest and Swordman, particularly sharing the exact same colors (light grey, blue-purple and lighter grey on armor) as the Priest.
It uses the transparent blue "Water" Core, likewise eyes, which have that Liber 'mecha eyes' shape.
Aesthetics:
The Liber Knight, especially compared to its Rosan counterpart, is nearly uniformly colored, with the sparing use of blue-purple being limited to its ring parts and its lighter grey armor complementing the light grey Silhouette for a monotone look.
The design of the armor is best described as generic fantasy platemail with overlapping designs, albeit with a left bare midriff that looks armored by virtue of the Silhouette's mechanical design. Besides the midsection, the armor covers most of the body's natural 3mm hard points with the exception of the calves and shins, making it one of the better covered models. A few added armor hard points are still obvious and visible, promising options for expansion parts, but without being as obvious as they are on the base Priest.
The mouth guard cleverly extends up the side of the head, giving it forward facing 'elf ears', while the main mask extends down over the face with a large grill.
The model wields a large slab of a kite shield and a classic long sword with a 3mm hard point at the cross guard and the hilt being detachable from the blade.
While it's fair to say that it looks generic, monotone and plain fantasy, there is also a charm to the Knight's armor that mimics that of a Dark Souls character, the 'white male fighter/knight' archetype, which remains the classic and most selected choice across fantasy games and is the "default" for good reason.
He may be a bit slimmer and even somewhat elfin compared to a regular male Knight, but then you have the more heavyset Fighter option, for a heftier representation.
Compatibility:
It goes without saying that the Knight and Priest are visual companions and therefore match each other perfectly, so you can easily transfer armor pieces between them and have it look mostly consistent. You can either transfer the Knight's leg and arm armor onto the Priest for a heavy cleric look, or you can use the Cleric's shin guards or even its cloth skirt for some visual interest, or mix and match as you want, for a Knight variant.
It is also entirely interchangeable with its Rosan counterpart, which uses a more menacing set of face options, though there is an obvious color clash.
Silhouette 1 armor is not inherently compatible with Silhouette 2 and 3 or vice versa, but you can share some parts without issue, while weapons are completely interchangeable.
From the Knight's base you have the option to upgrade to a Holy Knight or Paladin, however both require the use of some of the Knight options. I personally prefer the Paladin's visuals, as the metal injection gold used in the Holy Knight Class Up kit looks cheap and makes the model look very high fantasy, missing the point of the charm of its base design.
Conclusion:
I'm a lot more familiar with the base form, despite having originally bought the Holy Knight combo, so I basically kept it as a basic Knight for the longest time. Still, building this again and using its parts as spares for my Priest gave me a renewed appreciation of its armor design, which is streamlined and looks largely functional, despite being 'stick-on' pieces that leave a good portion of the body exposed.
You also have alternative armor parts in the Item Shop 1 "Knight Option" kit with better looking chest pieces, albeit all in much darker grey plastic. Or you can use the Rosan Knight instead.
In hindsight, now that we are up to 30MF character kit #18, the Necrosknight, does the first Knight still hold up? I have to give an emphatic 'Hell yeah' to that. He's all of the main fantasy and medieval guys rolled into one, the most picked default and he still looks great, with a solid main body that is still used for new releases as *the* standard.
