The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Two downloadable volumes of reference information on military ammunition for the small arm and ammo enthusiasts. These two PDFs provide cartridge case outline drawings and summaries of service usage for over 150 types of military service ammunition from ranging in size from the dimunitive 6.35×15.5SR / .25 ACP pistol ammo to the 40mm ammunition used in the anti-aircraft guns of WWII and 40mm grenades.

© Defense Intelligence Agency

© Defense Intelligence Agency

On top of all these reference information, there’s also an interesting section on how to identify the country of origin and even the factory of manufacture from the headstamp markings on the cartridge cases. Several language guides are also included in the appendices containing English translations of words likely to be found on ammunition packaging containers.

© Defense Intelligence Agency

Download the two volumes of the Small Caliber Ammunition Identification Guide from Defense Intelligence Agency released under the Freedom Of Information Act.

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David Andro – Military/Police Illustrator (GIGN, GIPN, RAID, etc)
Armed Forces Handbooks (DPRK, PLA)
2008 Military/LE Firearms PDF Catalogs

A new firearm locally designed and manufactured right here in Singapore which I first read about from the excellent site Modern Firearms. It’s ironic that there’s often more detailed information on locally manufactured weapons on overseas websites – or maybe I haven’t been reading the newspapers these days

© ST Kinetics

Known as the Compact Personal Weapon or CPW in short, this ST Kinetics 9×19mm submachinegun can be compared to the likes of the Heckler & Koch MP7 (which it bears more than a passing resemblance – see below) and older machinepistols like the IMI Mini-Uzi and B+T MP9 in terms of size (especially barrel length) and purpose.

H&K MP7 from the Modern Firearms website

As with any recently-designed submachineguns, Picatinny rails are a standard feature on the CPW together with the retractable stock, although the foregrip is an optional accessory unlike the foldable foregrip of the MP7. The pistol grip is partially translucent to provide operators with a visual check on the number of rounds remaining in the magazine.

More information can be found at the Modern Firearms page or in the official brochure available at the ST Kinetics page for the CPW. A more detailed compilation of the specifications for the CPW can also be found The Firearm Blog.

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A collection of over 100+ tiny firearms illustrations from the Vickers machineguns of the early 21st century to the modern firearms like a M16 with attached M203, a Barrett M82A sniper rifle and iconic submachine guns like the FN P90, H&K MP5 and IMI Uzis.

© Java The Fox

Created by Java The Fox (deviantART gallery) where I found this image months ago. It’s no longer in the gallery but you can download the original picture here. (Didn’t manage to contact Java The Fox since there wasn’t any contact info at the time of writing )

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Found this nice screensaver featuring 10 AK-type semi-automatic rifles and light machineguns from Arsenal, Inc. Some of my favourites below:

© Arsenal, Inc

Screensavers aren’t really useful for me since I don’t use them on my desktop and it seems a waste not to be able to use these photos in the screensaver as wallpapers. I fiddled with the screensaver a bit to see if I could somehow extract these photos from the screensaver as standalone images and below is a short summary of my findings. It’s slightly on the technical side, so do feel free to skip it and head for the download link at the bottom if you don’t want to bother with it

Running the screensaver installer under Sandboxie (an short intro here) reveals that four files are extracted into the windows\system32 folder in your sandbox.

Since photos are usually saved as JPG files, I resolved to search for the JPEG header or more specificially the Start of Image (SOI) marker (two bytes – 0xFFD8 – more about the JPEG header) in the SPF file with my trusty HxD hex editor. Each occurrence is followed by JFIF bytes which further confirms that the images are stored in this file as JPEGs and without any compression (ZIP, RAR, etc)

While I could write a parser which could spit out the JPEG images from the SPF images, I’m a bit too lazy for that at the moment and decided to use Marco Pontello’s excellent BitmapRip which extracts images in JPEG, PNG or GIF format from any binary file. Simply drag and drop the SPF file over BitmapRip and you’re all done!

Download the Arsenal Inc AK Screensaver and BitmapRip.

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H&K MP5 Vexel Art by John Norris

A French artist specializing in military and police art (not unlike Dick Kramer), illustrating mainly the police and counter-terror units of his native country such as the famed Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) and Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion (RAID) as well as the special forces of several other European countries (Greek EKAM, Spanish GEI, etc).

© David Andro

Found his website several months back while looking for information on the exotic Matra-Maurhin MR-73 revolver after seeing it being equipped on a Hot Toys 1/6th GIGN figure at a day in the life of a BE@RBRICK. From David Miller’s Illustrated Directory of Special Forces, it appears that only the French counter-terror units are frequently equipped with revolvers (amongst other weapons of course), other contemporary units favouring (usually silenced) semi-automatic pistols for close-range work.

© David Andro

Also apparently for most enthusiasts, the 1/6th figures are the closest you can get to a special forces trooper and his weapons, but David has access to the real thing which also explains the realism and authenticity of his work.

© David Andro

Here’s David with the GIPN – Groupe d’Intervention de la Police Nationale.

© David Andro

Visit David Andro’s gallery.

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