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 count...

(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...

(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,...

(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 ...

(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...

(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 date...

(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-...

(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 h...

(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.

Seah...

(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 ha...

(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 attit...

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.

2024-06-05 14:38:52 +0000 UTC View Post

(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 atte...

(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 hul...

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 hex...

(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 ...

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...

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 a...