The Download Munkey : Finder of Things …

Drawspace.com was founded by Brenda Hoddinott, author of Drawing for Dummies and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Drawing People Illustrated and hosts free drawing lessons covering basic to advanced topics, jointly developed by Brenda herself and a team of Drawspace.com instructors.

© Drawspace.com

Lesson F10 – Serene Scene under Hatching category

By registering for a free account, visitors get to view all available lessons online and learn how to draw by following the clearly illustrated (pun intended) instructions. Just don’t expect these lessons to be a miracle for obtaining impressive drawing skills Drawing, like any other skill, requires lots of constant practice to develop and perfect, but these online lessons from Drawspace.com (and plenty of time for practice) should significantly ease the journey

© Drawspace.com

Lesson I8 – Tuttle Turtle under the Cartoons and Critters category

If you crave the convenience of viewing these lessons offline or printing them out for handy reference, you can opt for quarterly or lifetime subscriptions for Drawspace.com at 25 or 125 USD which allows you to download high resolution PDF versions of each lesson as well as any future additions to the regularly updated collection of lessons during your subscription period.

Start drawing at Drawspace.com today

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Fun Drawing Tools For The Masses
Artzmania – Free Arts E-Mag
Discovering More Art With 2DArtist Magazine
Create Your Own Graffiti Masterpiece with Graffiti Studio 2.0

desider, the monthly corporate magazine for DE & S or Defence Equipment and Support of UK’s Ministry of Defense, offers an interesting insight into the varied and increasingly high-tech support required for any modern armed forces, from the high-profile weapon and munitions research and development to more mundane but equally important services – logistics, medical and even clothing and catering.

Some of the more interesting articles from the past issues.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The Future Carrier Class in the June 2008 issue. Two ships of this class, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, each displacing 65,000 tons, will enter service in 2014 and 2016 and remain in service for half a century thereafter.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

Bulldogs, uparmoured versions of the FV430 series of vehicles which entered service in the 1960s. See June 2008 issue.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The Banshee unmanned aerial target for live gunnery training for air defence units of the Royal Marines and Royal Artillery as featured in the July 2008 issue.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The October 2008 issue shows the Royal Logistic Corps using Virtual Battlespace 2 developed by the same guys who created Armed Assault to train military vehicle commanders, drivers and gunners on convoy operations.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The procurement of the “Golden Hour” container as seen in the Nov 2008 issue, designed to transport blood products and other temperature-sensitive medical supplies

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The December 2008 issue contains an article on the Commando Logistics Regiment of the Royal Marines who organize Combat Logistical Patrols of up to 150 heavy vehicles each to provide vital supplies of food, fuel, ammunition and equipment to 3rd Commando Brigade troops in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.

In the first two months the regiment commpleted:
• 11 Combat Logistical Patrols – through some of the toughest terrain in the world.
• Transported more than 2,000 tonnes of stock and supplies
• Covered more than 3,000 miles – mainly through desert and mountains.
• Delivered 680,000 litres of vital military fuel

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

Also in the same issue, >Gordon Ramsay of Hell’s Kitchen fame gives the new Defence Food Services recipe book a thumbs up

Download desider magazine.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
MINDEF Commemorative Books – Apaches, Crewcuts & Detention Barracks
Steve Mumford’s Baghdad Journal
PEO Soldier Portfolio 2009
Armada International’s Complete Guides

These booklets commissioned by Great Britain’s Ministry of Defence to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2005, are the perfect introductory material for Company of Heroes players (me included ) looking to learn more about the contributions and sacrifices of the Western Allies in defeating Axis militarism across the globe.

© Ministry of Defence UK

A total of nine books are available in this freely downloadable series chronicling the events and important facts of selected World War II operations in which British or Commonwealth (Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, etc) units participated in.

1. The Battle of Kohima, North East India (4 April – 22 June 1944)
2. The Battles For Monte Cassino, Central Italy (12 January – 5 June 1944)
3. The D-Day Landings, Northern France (6 June 1944)
4. The Drive on Caen, Northern France (7 June – 9 July 1944)
5. The Final Battle for Normandy, Northern France (9 July – 30 August 1944)
6. The Advance from the Seine to Antwerp (25 August – 30 September 1944)
7. Operation Market Garden, Netherlands (17–25 September 1944)
8. The Clearing of the Scheldt Estuary and the Liberation of Walcheren (2 October – 7 November 1944)
9. The Liberation of the Death and Concentration Camps, Europe (June 1944 – May 1945)

© Ministry of Defence UK

As seen above, seven of the books detail battles fought during and after the amphibious landings at Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944) – the other two being the battle of Kohima which halted Imperial Japanese plans to invade India and the costly fighting for Monte Cassino around the histroic monastery of St. Benedict in Italy.

As for Company of Heroes players, a suggested reading list would be booklets 3 and 5 for the American campaign (Invasion of Normandy), booklets 4 and 5 for the British campaign (Liberation of Caen) and finally booklet 7 for the Panzer Elite campaign (Operation Market Garden).

© Ministry of Defence UK

Maps and photographs are liberally sprinkled throughout each booklet for illustrative purposes. Above shows British infantry and a Churchill tank advancing through Normandy’s distinctive bocage.

© Ministry of Defence UK

At the end of each booklet, accounts detailing the actions of recipents of the Victoria Cross (the British Commenwealth’s highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy) highlight the valour, tenacity and often self-sacrifice of these heroes who fought against all odds. The ninth booklet about the liberation of the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen includes an corresponding section for the Special Operations Executive recipients of the George Cross.

Download these British Commemorative Booklets for World War II.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Pobediteli : Soldiers of the Great War
MINDEF Commemorative Books – Apaches, Crewcuts & Detention Barracks
US Army Center of Military History Prints
German WWII Atlantic Wall Bunker Photobook PDF
Conquer Monte la Difensa in Devil’s Brigade Lux
Military History Books @ Focal Point Publications

© Cranberry Publishing

Even if you’re not a fan of flightsim lites like Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X, you shouldn’t miss this special Gamerzines supplement for this upcoming game because on top of the preview and interview with the developers, there’s also a chance to win a flight on a real Fouga Magister which served as the first jet trainer for the French Armee de l’Air and several other European air forces in the 1950s and were only replaced by the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets in the Armee de l’Air from 1994.

© Cranberry Publishing

If contests aren’t your cup of tea, there’s also a free preview chapter of Air Combat Manoeuvres from Ian Allan Publishing. Six double page spreads lavishly accompanied by photos and aircraft profiles explain the evolution of modern air warfare through the introduction of technology like jet engines, air-to-air missiles like Sidewinder AIMs to Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs). Other spreads illustrate the operational histories of famous planes like the A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka “Warthog”) or the combat tactics and techniques adopted to counter the various technological advances in air warfare.

© Cranberry Publishing

More sample spreads can be found at the official Air Combat Manoeuvres site. Believe it or not, this 256 page book is actually written for both serious flight simmers and entry-level gamers as a quick primer to military aviation histrory and tactics past and present.

© Cranberry Publishing

Grab the Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X Special Supplement at the Gamerzines site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
John Wallin Liberto’s WWII Military Aviation Art
Fighting High – WWII Allied Aviation E-Magazine
War and Game – Military History Blog
Armada International’s Complete Guides

Official wallpapers featuring two of my favourite movie extraterrestrials, the Gigersque Alien, The Predator (aka Jah Dreadlocks From Outer Space) and apparently She-Predator Machiko too!

© Dark Horse Comics

Five wallpapers in all from Dark Horse Comics where they publish comics set in the Aliens vs Predator universe. Totally missed out these wallpapers since my last visit to the Dark Horse site was more than a year ago while looking for wallpapers for Frank Miller’s 300 graphic novel.

If you’re an avid collector of AVP fan-art like me, do check out Dan LuVisi’s work or Wulfsbane’s awesome Predator fan-art – I guarantee you’ll like them

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a page which collects all the Alien vs Predator wallpapers together – you’ll just have to browse through the desktop wallpapers gallery page by page. The link below should take you to the page where most of the Aliens vs Predator wallpapers are found though.

Download these wallpapers at Dark Horse Comics. As a reminder, don’t forget to subscribe to Dark Horse Comics’ RSS feed so that you won’t ever miss a single wallpaper from them again .

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Dan LuVisi’s Black Series : Alien, Predator and Colonial Marine
Aliens – The Board Game (Flash Version)
Official Predator Movie Wallpapers
Dark Horse Comics Goodies (I) – 300 Wallpapers
Dark Horse Comics Goodies (II) – Star Wars Desktop Wallpapers