Rifle Infantry

(WIP) Rope Bridge

A new Santagrine splash (and a homage to Friedkin's Sorcerer). Won't be able to return to this one for a few days owing to a mob hit I have to help cover up this week.

(Firelock Fantasy) Chieftain's Chosen

The clan chieftain's own.

A chieftain's fighting court of professional warriors, like the levied men beneath them, supplied their own equipment. They were wealthy enough to, as a rule, wear armor from head to toe: either a skin of mail, or a foreign-made set of plate armor. Unlike the upper classes in more foreign countries, though, they habitually fought on foot. The broken terrain of the Ebon Forest both better befitted dismounted combat, and the cost of outfitting a man with head-to-...

(WIP) Man-at-Arms

The Santagrine heavy horse. A good deal of the final assembly will be in Krita: heraldry, wing hardpoints, and some direct editing (e.g. extending the landing gear to cover the new belly turret). The Man-at-Arms' variants (the Don, Conquistador and Lancer) also feature some specific physical differences, mostly to do with the cockpit.

The basic hull shape throughout is a modified Hind with Kamov-style coaxial rotors. Troop carriage is sacrificed for increased performance: a redundant se...

(198X) Miscellaneous sketches

Three small pieces off my sketchbook in the past few days, as well as some commentary.

1. (WIP) Full Color Fed

Work-in-progress piece. This States-Grenadier will go into the Federal painting guide appendix: thus, when he's done, he'll be fully colored. I may try my hand at some rendering with him. The other factions will each receive an example full-color infantryman in their pai...

(WIP) Whirlwind

Santagrine armor. Equal parts Cromwell, Crusader and Centurion: the exact mix is based off a kitbash by Briggs on Discord. (Like the Bantam, the final ink design ended up taking notes from his work, itself based on the initial MS Paint placeholders for each vehicle.)

Still working on proper decoration for this one. I hit on the dragon windsock fairly quickly. The lone shield carries the tank commander's heraldry.

(WIP) New splash art

Another splash piece; this one, for the Federal book. Splashes are fun detours from doing vehicle after vehicle for the Rygo & Santi books; I plan on doing a great many more of them.

(Firelock Fantasy) Skirmisher

Another dogface. This fellow is a gunman: either a levied warrior bringing his hunting arquebus, or a mercenary hireling operating as a semi-professional scout and skirmisher in advance of his chieftain's army. Moving, shooting, and loading on his own time and initiative, his role is to pin down and fragment the enemy's ranks before the chieftain's host begins their baying, teeth-gnashing charge.

The arquebus is fired with what is known in real life as a "Baltic" lock. This is a ...

(WIP) Rygolic gun & missile carriers

Standoff vehicles. Haven't yet figured out what they'll be called under the new naming scheme. While lightly armored, these weapons carriers boast excellent firepower and mobility.

The 105mm gun carrier is equal parts Grizzly AVGP and Stryker MGS. (Technically that's a 00s design--but its remote gun turret heritage dates back to the 80s.) I had considered Rooikat and Cougar as well, but the Grizzly looked the best and kitbash donors for it in 15mm scale are most readily available of the...

(WIP) Steam tractor

The first vehicle in the Santagrine roster, and a 5-point one at that. It might be massive, slow, ungainly, and uncomfortable to operate--but enough earth-moving torque to shift 60 tons remains as useful today as it did many decades ago.

Steam tractors are extremely robust pieces of equipment: mechanically simple, long-lived, and operable with just water and anything that burns. While long outmoded by various more modern prime movers by the time of the atomic war, they saw a resurgence ...

(Firelock Fantasy) Lupar retainer helmet study

Late-night (early-morning) doodling based on the plate-armored clan retainer I drew a little while ago.

To wear a set of full plate armor a retainer has to sacrifice a lot of cultural capital in his appearance. He shaves his pelt short and cuts the braids that display his social rank and achievements, rendering him equal in appearance to a mere thrall; his cropped ears, however, ensure he is never mistaken for such a lowly person by anyone but a short-lived fool.

Over this ...

(Firelock Fantasy) Lupar sketches & lore

Here are some old-fashioned dogfaces for this week and some writing to accompany them.

(A few points of order:

"Fantasy" Firelock is the original black powder, horse-and-musket version of my setting. It and 198X are simply different points on the same world's timeline- for those not already in the know.

Seahawk Publishing is a name I use now and again when I'm writing fantasy-era lore from the perspective of a 198X publication; it's a riff on Osprey Publishing, a real-life c...

(WIP) Laser Team & smart gun thumbnailing

Rygo antimateriel unit. Wanted to convey both a sense of prototype crudeness in the weapon- XM, not M- while retaining the usual slick Rygo weapon design. Lots of exposed cables and more heft than is usual for Rygolic arms. The long tank and hose is inspired by a laser carbine from Twilight 2000- although I wanted to avoid having it look so much like a water gun:



The weapon lacks sights; tho...

(WIP) New Rygolic Host army book cover

Still figuring out what'll go in the meatball.

Santagrine concept art - Yeoman Para & Black Fang

Some relatively low-detail noodling on a couple Santagrine units.

Yeoman Paras are a remnant of the Santagria that was: before the nuclear war and the rise of the atom barons. They once swore fealty to no lord, but a Commonwealth; and, though their uniforms now sport heraldic recognition flashes, their tactics and attitudes closely match those of the old national army.

While Santagria takes principally after medieval Iberia in its cultural inspiration, a lot of their toys in 198X ...

AT noodling

Have been in Minnesota on National Guard obligations. Not a lot of time to draw this week or the next- when I get back to my home state I'll be getting into the swing of the Santi army book.

Here's some dirty pen sketching in my notebook for the time being.

(WIP) Lupar standees

Most of the remaining standees for the Army of the Ebon Forest- inked, but not yet cleaned, scanned, and colorized. All that remains is the Backbone and their fixed-wing aircraft apart from these.

Some of these are upside down- it was easier to draw that way.

Space Warfare - a road not taken

Early in development, I wanted Firelock 198X to have more than just ground and helicopter warfare. Fixed-wing air support and space warfare were two attempts at creating support elements that would aid your army on the tabletop even if they were not permanently situated on it.

Some of the earliest design work on the game- predating the colorized MS Paint tokens that have been the Tabletop Simulator v...

(WIP) Federal aircraft

Turboprops of the year 198X: outmoded, but defiant.

These boxes are the same size as those used for infantry. I wanted a way to depict fixed-wing aircraft that would keep to the semi-diegetic nature of the army books- that is, something that felt like a page out of a recognition manual. In the middle is an abortive attempt at a more dynamic shot, like what I do with infantry. I quickly dropped it- it felt pretty unfitting and the aircraft didn't fit very well in the box to begin with. 2024-05-31 03:21:14 +0000 UTC View Post

(WIP) Ox & Veldjen-M

Last-gen assets.

Each faction's Veldjen variant will have a random arrangement of the three roadwheel types. The Veldjen was a little hard to simplify: a sharp eye will note that the turret and hull gun are technically mirrored relative to what one might kitbash with a model Lee hull. This is necessary to ensure the hull gun is clearly visible and not obscured by the viewing angle.

Ancient 198X

Short one for tonight. Might expound on this all when Uncle Sam isn't carting me around.

Here are a few development shots from the early days of Firelock 198X. It was, then, essentially a tabletop port of Zachtronics' Mobius Front '83 (a game that continues to live rent-free in my head). That is, it was a game about hexes, HP, and completely deterministic, non-random combat with a defender's advantage. The whole thing fit into four pages (army lists notwithstanding).

2024-05-16 03:53:41 +0000 UTC View Post

(WIP) Tusker-K and GM standees

Heavy cavalry on the assembly line.

Design Progression: Black Fangs

It's been a damnably long couple of weeks since last I posted- to say they've been rather difficult is an understatement. I apologize for the radio silence; this week I'll be catching up with a very, very long post.

The Order of Saint Roisin, or the "Black Fangs", are one of my personal favorite designs in Firelock. If you follow me on Twitter you've doubtlessly seen them before:

A lot of peopl...

Standee process

Last time I touched on standees, you saw the weapon swaps for the Runner & Wave in my sketchbook. Here's the second half of that process.

(If you're not familiar: a standee is a simple folding miniature that you can print on printer paper or cardstock. Every unit in Firelock 198X will have both its rulebook art and an associated standee, so that you can try new units or assemble a beginne...

Strategos

It was not the practice of the man-machines to encamp at night. They did not need to sleep. But we were breathing men, who had to rest, and so they would leave us to maneuver in the dark. The strategos was to stay with us for its safety. It was new. The old strategos had been destroyed. It had been beheaded by roundshot and it was still standing where it had died. The new engine wanted to meet its subordinates, and it summoned me first.

It was drinking. A little hole opened...