The Download Munkey : Download This, Download That :)

A stunning vexel illustration of a Heckler & Koch MP5 and definitely one of the best firearm illustrations that I’ve ever seen out there on the Net. According to Scottsdale Gun Club, it should be a MP5A3 with the “Navy” trigger group with full-auto and semi-auto firing modes only (the MP5A5 has an additional 3 round burst mode).

© John Norris

This beautiful illustration is also conveniently sized for use as a wallpaper on a 1280×960 screen

Illustrated by John Norris aka donbenni who also does a mean vexel Mitsubishi Eclipse (below) among the various car illustrations in his deviantART gallery.

© John Norris

Check out John Norris’ MP5, Mitsubishi Eclipse and his other artworks at deviantART.

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Tracking Your Favourite Deviants via RSS
Masada ACWS Technical Drawing
Heckler & Koch Catalogue 2007
Russ Schwenkler (dangeruss) - Vexel & 3D Cars and Motorcycle Art
Wallpapers from JDM Option : Japanese Car Tuning and Modification Magazine

Don’t want to deceive anyone hunting for the actual Call of Duty 4 Limited Edition artbook that the PDF that I’m recommending today is the real deal - at least I hope it is isn’t because a 30 page book is an awfully thin artbook

© Activision / Infinity Ward

Anyway, I grabbed this PDF from the eclipse e-sports clanpages - it’s a fifteen page PDF formatted in double spread (which translates to 28 pages) and contains concept art and their transformation into onscreen graphics. The text is in German though - I doubt anyone would seriously bother about the text in an artbook

Screenshots of some of the pages in this mini-artbook.

© Activision / Infinity Ward

I would much prefer that Activision or Infinity Ward released the actual artbook as a free download like what 2K Games did for the Bioshock artbook for some extra publicity and fan love but hey, Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare is probably far too popular to need that extra boost of hype and publicity.

Download the Art of Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare Mini-Artbook and check out more concept art and renders at the ConceptArt.org Forums.

BTW, does anyone have the Limited Edition artbook? I would really to like to know how thick it is and whether it’s worth forking out the extra money for the Limited Edition.

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Free BioShock Artbook
Alliance of Valiant Arms Wallpapers & Concept Art
Next-Gen Infantry Concepts from Tom Clancy’s EndWar
Weapons in Ghost Recon : Advanced Warfighter 2
Possible Influences for Weapons in Frontlines : Fuel of War

Oleg Volk, an art director and photographer from Nashville, Tennessee has an impressive online photo gallery of over 5000 photos with a substantial number comprising high resolution photos of firearms. I especially like those photos with the actual firearms captured against a clean white background since I’m an avid collector of high resolution firearm photos.

My favourite firearm gallery is definitely the one featuring Advanced Armament Corp’s (AAC) sound suppressors. This gallery is the first time I’ve seen suppressors attached to light machineguns like M249 SAWs and M60s and medium machineguns such as M240s. Wonder how a light machinegun fitted with a sound suppressor would sound like when fired on full auto … UPDATE (23 Apr 2008) : Oleg has very kindly sent me a email saying that a suppressed LMG sounds like a small diesel when firing in full auto. Thanks Oleg!

© Oleg Volk

The AR10/AR15/M16 gallery is another firm favourite

© Oleg Volk

There’s quite a few interesting photos in the main Weapons photo gallery if you take the time to browse throught the 11 pages of photos in there

Of course Oleg Volk’s photos aren’t all about weapons - there’s several much smaller galleries on creepy crawlies, reptiles and amphibians and other assorted themes.

© Oleg Volk

Visit Oleg Volk’s photo gallery or view specific galleries like the Weapons gallery, the AAC gallery (also check out AAC’s catalog) or the AR10/AR15/M16 gallery.

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High Resolution Photos of FN Herstal’s Firearms (P90, SCAR, M249, etc)
Dick Kramer - FN Herstal Military Art
2008 Military/LE Firearm PDF Catalogs
Bushmaster AR15/M16 Internals & Operation Flash Animation
Accesorized vz 61 ‘Skorpion’ SMG, CZ Pistols & Rifles Cutaway Diagrams

A HD trailer for Sergei Bodrov’s film on the infamous Temüjin who rose from a impoverished tribesman to become leader of the united Mongol tribes and later founder of the vast Mongol empire which stretched from central Asia to modern-day cities of Kiev in the borthwest and Baghdad in the southwest at its peak under his son Ögedei Khan.

© Picturehouse

Interestingly, the English version of the official Russian site names the film as Mongol : Part One which means that there might be a sequel to this film which received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2007 Academy Awards.

From the trailer released at Apple Trailers, it appears that Mongol covers mainly Temüjin’s early years as the son of a Mongolian chieftain to his capture by raiders of another Mongolian tribe and later, his marriage with Borte at the age of 16. The abduction and subsequent rescue of his wife from Merkit tribesmen (below) is also portrayed in this film.

© Picturehouse

Some captures from the HD trailer.

© Picturehouse

Heavy cavalry with dual sabres - not too sure if these cavalry were Mongolian since I have never read about them being armed or armoured in this way.

© Picturehouse

Wonder which nation did this banner represent?

© Picturehouse

The Mongol hordes

While Genghis Khan was definitely a great and brillant leader, the extremely brutal result of some of the Mongol campaigns must have left a massive stain on his legacy - I read over at War and Game that an estimated 80,000 to 1,000,000 citzens were massacred after the successful siege of Baghdad in 1258.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this film will be shown in Singapore when it’s released later this year

Download the HD trailer for Mongol or visit the official site / official Russian site (English version).

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War and Game - Military History Blog
Osprey Publishing’s Military Art “Advent Calendar”
Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer vs Adrian Smith’s Karrig Sturn

One of my favourite armour reference sites, Fabio Prado’s The Armor Site, has released a PDF version of the Tigerfibel, which provides instructions on the operation of the Sdkfz 181 Pzkpfw VI better known as the German Tiger I tank. The mechanical operation of the tank is covered in substantial detail together with complete driving, radio and gunnery instructions.

The entire manual is written in German of course, but is extensively illustrated throughout to illustrate important points about the Tiger I. To cite an example, I’m positive that this irrelevant picture of a showering woman on page 18 indicates that the Maybach V12 HL230 engine (on bottom left of page) powering the Tiger I was a water-cooled engine

Other illustrations are much more serious like these diagrams on leading the massive 88mm KwK 36 cannon for moving targets (with a Russian T-34 to illustrate the point) on the bottom of page 78.

There’s some range charts at the back of the manual about the common enemy tanks likely to be encountered by a Tiger tank crew accompanied with the profile and armour thickness on the side, back and front hulls respectively. Not too sure what the numbers on the chart mean - perhaps effective firing ranges?

Rnage chart for the Russian KV I heavy tank - the Krasnogvardeysk encounter is a good read

Can’t really figure out the rest of the information written in the Tigerfibel until I brush up on my limited German though

If you are interested in examining individual pages more closely, there’s another version comprising scanned JPGs over at tiger1.info.

Download the Tigerfibel (scroll to the bottom) at The Armor Site.

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Motofumi Kobayashi - Japanese Military Artist
Tiger I Papercraft Model from Sega
Renault Char B1 bis ‘Eure’
P.1000 Ratte Super-Heavy Tank
War and Game - Military History Blog
800mm Dora Railgun