The Download Munkey : Download This, Download That :)

I always had the assumption that robots currently used in military service were only used in place of humans in highly hazardous roles such as Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD).

So when I saw the armed robot in the Games Convention 2007 trailer for the game Frontline : Fuel of War set in the near future, I immediately dismissed it as purely a vision of future warfare.

© Kaos Studios

Apparently, armed robots are a thing of reality (although not equipped with a multi-barreled cannon as in the trailer) when I saw Foster-Miller Inc’s listing in Army Technology, a directory of military-related suppliers.

Foster-Miller Inc manufactures TALON robots configured for EOD purposes as well as SWORDS variants for armed reconnaissance, outfitted with either a M16, 40mm grenade launcher, M240/M249 machinegun, Barrett .50 rifle or the M202 rocket launcher. (the product literature states that the M202 is an anti-tank weapon but the M202 apparently only fires M74 incendiary rockets from what I read at Gary’s U.S. Infantry Weapons Reference Guide - maybe new anti-tank rockets have been developed for the M202).

© Foster-Miller Inc

With the different weapon options available, it seems particularly suitable for urban warfare where it’s maximum speed of 6.6 km/h is not a limitation.

A more heavily armed version of TALON known as Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System (MAARS) is already in the works - read the press release.

Right now, these robots are controlled remotely by humans so those stories about robots taking over the world and driving the human race to extinction aren’t going to happen (yet)

Read more or download product brochures from Foster-Miller Inc’s TALON page. Alternatively view some of products created during Foster-Miller Inc’s 50(!) years in the robotics field in this 2.8 MB PDF (other PDFs are available from the Literature section.)

UPDATE 18 Oct 2007: More info on SWORDS at Defense Review and a super high resolution photo over at army.mil.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Vision of future war in Tom Clancy’s EndWar trailer
Possible Influences for Weapons in Frontlines : Fuel of War

On 3rd June 1943, an unidentified object was spotted crossing the Atlantic Ocean by a lone American seaplane (a Vought OS2U Kingfisher to be exact).

© cee-gee.net

Unfortunately, no further reports were received from that seaplane and it was presumed destroyed.

© cee-gee.net

Not long after, the alarm was sounded at Jersey Harbor as a grey giant rampaged thorough the naval base and destroyed all in its path.

© cee-gee.net

Due to the secrecy of the weapons used, this incident was neither reported nor written about by military historians throughout the world until this video was recovered recently.

The 13 min video is actually a fully computer-generated film titled Code Guardian written, produced and directed by Marco Spitoni of www.cee-gee.net. What’s a Code Guardian exactly? You have to watch the film to find out

Additional 3D models and digital content in the film were supplied by Alessandro Baldasseroni (remember the Hellgate London’s Hunter illustration?), Giovanni Bianchin, Iacopo Di Luigi and Alessandro Briglia.

© cee-gee.net

The paint scheme on this beautiful Mustang E2-S appears to be fictional because squadron code E2 belongs to the 361th FG which had blue markings on the tail (see here)

The quality of the models, textures and animation is top-notch and Marco’s skills have definitely improved a lot when compared to his earlier works. The explosions in the video appear quite pixelated probably due to the video encoder but doesn’t really detract from the overall experience.

Download Code Guardian (under Movies - 161 MB) or read about the creation of the Aviator’s Wife photo (below) or the spectacular floating drydock used in the video at Alessandro Baldasseroni’s website here.

© cee-gee.net

Read about Cee-Gee via Alessandro Baldasseroni’s site while looking for the original artist for the Hunter illustration. It’s amazing that there’s so much quality artwork and 3D stuff out there on the .NET that deserves much more publicity outside creative circles

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
miotd.com - Mecha Artwork
Alessandro Baldasseroni - Illustrator (Hellgate London, Marvel Ultimate Alliance)
Marek Okon - Illustrator
Gundam Musou / Dynasty Warriors Gundam Intro Video

The game intro for Gundam Musou or Dynasty Warriors: Gundam by Omega Force/Koei, the creators of Dynasty Warriors series and published for PS3 and Xbox 360 by Namco Bandai Games.

Some screen captures from the intro trailer, including this awesome part where a MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam obliterates an entire group of Zaku IIs behind a building as well as several other unfortunate Zaku IIs idling around several blocks away. Play the video in slow-motion and you can really witness the destruction in detail

Behold the awesome power of the ZZ Gundam

A thousand stars in space

A transforming MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

A definite must-download for fans of the Mobile Suit Gundam universe. Download the Game Intro HD from Gametrailers.com or another one spliced with gameplay footage here. Some captures for the latter trailer.

WD-M01 Turn A Gundam vs a group of PMS-108 Marasai

An dual heat saber-wielding AMX-0004-2 ‘Quebeley II’ hacking up hapless RGM-79 GMs

Dual Buster rifle attack by XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero

Read more about the player-controllable mobile suits at the official Gundam Musou website @ gundam-musou.jp. I would love to pilot Jupitoris PMX-003 ‘O’ or Char’s MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Cute Gundam Papercraft Downloads
Zaku II Papercraft
High Resolution Gundam & Mecha Artwork @ miotd.com
Zaku II Artwork by Tetuya Watanabe

Mecha Image of The Day was a site I found recently while looking for technical lineart. While I didn’t really find what I was looking for at this site, I did find a lot of illustrations of mecha-related stuff like:

A very detailed Transformers artwork (not too sure about the original source of this artwork)

Battletech Mech technical lineart (Madcat shown above but there’s Loki and Vulture too)

High resolution Macross illustrations. Links are here, here, here, here and here.

Gundam illustrations. (RX-78-2 Gundam (above) here and Rick Dias (below) here).

And this classic Evangelion picture. Must have been drawn at least a decade back before the introduction of the M1 Abrams because the tanks in there are M60s (note externally mounted searchlights).

Major Motoko Kusanagi from the Ghost in The Shell series. (Just saw some Motoko Kusanagi wallpapers at Rendered Beauty quite a while back).

The good thing is that most of these pictures are at nearly 4:3 aspect ratio and so are perfect for the desktop.

In short if you love mecha, you gotta visit Mecha Image of The Day.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Classic Transformers Storybooks
Kinetic Singapore : Robots, Ads and More!
Tetuya Watanabe’s Zaku IIs
MechCommander 2 Encyclopedia
Transformers Comic Wallpapers

Michael James’s Papercraft Paradise is another papercraft blog with an excellent collection of links for papercraft plans. Before you dismiss it as Yet-Another-Papercraft blog, check out the extensive collection of papercraft machines (amongst other papercraft) featured at this wonderful blog.

Below is a selection of ones I like (All images taken from Papercraft Paradise)

There are military papercraft like this destroyer above as well as WWII Imperial Japanese Navy submarines, …

WWII tanks like a US M5 Stuart light tank or a PzKpfw IV Ausf D, …

A paper version of a Ingram M11 with laser, sound suppressor & reflex sight, …

As well as machines like a Toyota Corolla that looks exactly like the one in Colin McRae Rally 2.0, …

Super=deformed (SD) stuff like Tiger tanks & aircraft (A Supermarine Spitfire perhaps?) and Gundams here and here, …

Even an iPhone, …

Heck, even a Sakai steamroller.

If you’re a papercraft fan, check out Papercraft Paradise.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Sega’s Tiger I Papercraft Model
Papercraft World
Gundam Papercraft
Zaku II Papercraft
Yamaha Motorcycle Papercraft