Wallpapers Wednesday : Afro Samurai

Wallpaper from the anime Afro Samurai starring Samuel L. Jackson as the voice talent for the main character of the same name. 30 wallpapers in total with my favourite 8 below.

© Funimation / Gonzo

It seems rather concidental that Afro Samurai’s nemesis Justice (top) looks rather similiar to Hellsing’s vampiric Alucard (bottom) – the same aquiline nose, bulging eyes, pointed chin and a set of extremely white (and clenched) teeth.


© Gonzo

Image from baike.baidu.com.

Found Afro Samurai by chance while googling for “Afro” after listening to an absolutely catchy remix or bootleg of the 1978 number one disco single Boogie Oogie Oogie in one of DJ Bone’s brilliant mixes (Attack #30 – around 56 mins to be exact). Here’s a 30 second sample of the remixed version, please drop a comment if you know the exact remix. The closest I got was this white label by A Taste o Money but it’s only remotely similar. :(

Download Afro Samurai wallpapers (Look under Fanfare).

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Samurai Shodown V UFS Wallpapers
Samurai Wallpapers from Age of Empires III : The Asian Dynasties
Sengoku Basara Wallpapers
The Story of Hero Yoshitsune Shura Desktop Wallpaper
Official SNK Samurai Shodown Wallpapers
Official Tenjho Tenge Anime Wallpapers
Quality Anime Wallpapers @ Madman Entertainment

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Military Tuesday : 25% Off All Osprey Publishing Military Books

Received an email a few days back from one of my favourite military history publishers, Osprey Publishing, about a 25% (!) discount code for purchases made at their online store. Since Osprey Publishing have already announceed it on their official blog, I think it should be OK to spread the good news here :D

Some of the general military titles are really value for money even without discount as they combine material from several previously published books and with the current discount code which lasts until 8 Feb 2008, it just serves to make new purchases much sweeter. If you haven’t read an Osprey Publishing book before, you can browse the selection available at Borders, Page One (Vivocity) and especially Kinokuniya (Ngee Ann City).

I’ve finally narrowed my shortlist to the following books from the 10+ books that I was orginally interested in. I mainly opt for the paperback editions over the hardback versions where available in order to purchase as many books within an approx £50 budget but that’s just my personal preference :)


© Osprey Publishing

1. Warriors of Medieval Japan by Stephen Turnbull – Paperback, 288 pages, £12.99 before discount.

A book on samurai, ninja, Buddhist warrior monks and ashigaru (common spearmen/arquebusiers/archers). Being a avid enthusiast of samurai and ninjas, picking this book was a no-brainer. Comprises content from previously pubblished books – Warrior 29: Ashigaru, Warrior 64: Ninja and Warrior 70: Japanese Warrior Monks which retail around 34-38 SGD individually so it’s pretty value for money.


© Osprey Publishing

2. Out of Nowhere – A History of the Military Sniper by Martin Pegler – Paperback, 352 pages, £12.99 before discount.

Tracing the origins of the military marksman from medieval times to the present day snipers, this should be a good read for anyone interested in the field of sniping as well as the personnel, weaponry and tactics involved.

As an example of the savings involved as opposed to purchasing these books from local (in this case, Singaporean) bookstores which are selling Out of Nowhere at ~41 SGD (~£14), buying this book from the online store after discount costs less than £10. Do note that shipping to Singapore is a flat rate of £5 so you do need to purchase several paperbacks or at least a hardback before the savings are substantial enough to warrant an online purchase.


© Osprey Publishing

3. Airborne – World War II Paratroopers in Combat by Julie Guard – Hardback, 304 pages, £20.00 before discount.

A book on the German, US and British paratroopers of WWII as well as the tactics and airborne campaigns of WWII (Crete, Operation Market Garden (Arnhem) and Utah Beach).


© Osprey Publishing

4. War on the Western Front – In the Trenches of World War I by Gary Sheffield – Hardback, 272 pages, £20.00 before discount.

Describes the troops of WWI as well as the tactics formulated for trench warfare of that war.

Other interesting titles include Rome and her Enemies (only hardback available, waiting for the paperback edition :) ), Aztecs and Conquistadores and God’s Warriors (The Crusades)

Buy Osprey books at the official Osprey Publishing site. (remember to enter your discount code 8JAN before checkout)

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Osprey Publishing’s Military Art “Advent Calendar
Armada International’s Complete Guides
Free Military History Books @ Focal Point Publications

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Wallpapers Wednesday : Age of Empires III : The Asian Dynasties

Three beautifully illustrated wallpapers in 800×600, 1024×768 and 1600×1200 resolutions from the new Asian Dynasties expansion pack to Age of Empires III.


© Microsoft

The Japanese civilization is one of the most familiar Asian civilizations depicted in games due to the enduring images of heavily armored samurai on horseback (usually from the mid-1500s to 1600s – Sengoku Jidai – like these men) . This piece also happens to be the boxart for the game.


© Microsoft

The Chinese wallpaper is an illustration of troops from the late Qing dynasty. Troops of the Qing dynasty have been portrayed in films for a long time but it’s probably the first time I’ve seen them in any non-Chinese game. It’s a refershing change from the Three Kingdoms era which often comes to mind when one thinks of Chinese military history.


© Microsoft

The Indian wallpaper features war elephants and infantry. Not too clear about Indian military history to identify which era these troops belonged to. The Indian civilization has several interesting mercenary units which you can read about here.

First learnt about the expansion pack and these stunning wallpapers from GameWallpapers.ru, which happens to be one of the best resources for game wallpapers (watch out for annoying ad pop-overs though).

Download wallpapers, fansite kit or demo version from the official Age of Empires III : The Asian Dynasties site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Kai (Ukitakumuki) – SG Illustrator
The Story of Hero Yoshitsune Shura Wallpapers
Justice Xwar 2 Official Wallpapers
Kal Online Wallpapers

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Military Tuesday : 2nd Amendment Fonts (Firearm Silhouettes) & Other Cool Dingbat Fonts

Saw this nifty 2nd Amendment font over at Steve’s The Firearm Blog last week. Created by Daniel Zadorozny of Iconian Fonts, the font set contains silhouettes of 46 (or is it 47?) different firearms.


© Iconian Fonts

All the usual suspects are in there like the AK-47 (P), Luger (N), H&K MP5N (K), FN P90 (B), Colt M16A2 (O) (above) with some rare ones like Calico M950 (G), Sako TRG41 (X), Enfield EM-2 (2) (below)


© Iconian Fonts

The 2nd Amendment font is an example of a Dingbat font which has symbols in place of the usual alphanumeric characters inside a font. More info about Dingbat fonts @ Wikipedia.

The selection of Dingbat fonts over at Iconian Fonts is pretty interesting. Here’s two sets that I like.


© Iconian Fonts

God of War – Symbols of warfare through the ages from the Greek Corinthian helmet to the infamous IMI Uzi.


© Iconian Fonts

Time Warriors – Silhouettes of warriors both past and present … mmm Samurai (second row, third from left):)

There’re also Dingbat fonts of US Army and Air Force insignia on the same page, togehter with many other non military-related fonts like Halls of Heroes and Illuminati.


© Iconian Fonts

Download the 2nd Amendment font via The Firearm Blog or view the entire collection at Iconian Fonts.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY
Thompson Encore .45 Single Shot Pistol
M4 Carbine Accessories
Rogue Status Firearms Wallpaper
Hornady’s Ammo Poster
Dark Horse Comic’s 300 Wallpapers

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Art Friday : Kai (Ukitakumuki) – Concept Art for Nuclear Dawn and More!

Back in February, I wrote about the cool concept art I found at the official site for Nuclear Dawn, an anime-influenced sci-fi mod for Half-Life 2. I finally found the illustrator for some of those artworks and he happens to be a local artist from Singapore :D

Known as ukitakumuki on deviantArt, Kai was one of the artists (together with Daniel “Arcipello” Conway) who did the concept art for Nuclear Dawn. Unfortunately the concepts are no longer available on the Nuclear Dawn site, but you can still see some of them in his deviantArt gallery. Below are Twin Moons (top) and Twin Suns (bottom).


© Kai

There’s more concept art done for Nuclear Dawn such as Hell Divers, To Be Free and Wonderful Days among others.

Other than the fantastic Nuclear Dawn pieces, there’s a lot of great artwork in his deviantArt gallery too, of mecha like the amazing 100 Years of Force (top) and Air in Kyoto (bottom), which was done for Half-Life 2 mod Hull Breach


© Kai

And of warriors both past For My Pride (top) and future Black Trinary (bottom).


© Kai

Some of the other subjects that he illustrates happen to be things that I like a lot, such as the Death Guard Legion of Chaos Space Marines in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. See We Are Legion below …


© Kai

Gundam, like the lone Zaku II in the Zaku Heat of The Night below …


© Kai

Transformers (mainly Starscream) in Like Nothing on Earth (same as the tagline for the RSAF recruitment ad, only that it’s for the Royal Decepticon Air Force this time round :)


© Kai

And grim fantasy stuff like Nation of Sol – Urchin Down (below).


© Kai

Check out Kai’s deviantArt Gallery for even more awesome eye candy.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Zaku II Artwork by Tetuya Watanabe
Warren Louw – Illustrator
Keith Thompson – Illustrator
Adrian Smith – Warhammer 40,000 Illustrator
Andrea Uderzo – Warhammer 40,000 Illustrator
StartDrawing.org – Asia’s Drawing Portal

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