Well, Eriance sent the penciled Commando yesterday and it looks really good. He has done a stand-up job thus far and I cannot recommend him highly enough.
Daniel Cherng has stated he is on the job and drawing, but so far I have not seen any of his work for this book. He has talent and a gallery of outstanding drawings, so I know he can do the TRO proud and earn my dollar. The question is, when will he be able to do it? Folks, I don’t commission pikers. Daniel’s art is of the same caliber as the ‘Mech artists we have seen so far – but he is doing vehicles and I am eight pieces of vehicle art in the hole with a deadline approaching. Eric says he will take a swing at it, but his forte is Mecha and people, not armored fighting vehicles.
Yes, telescoping the writing, editing and proofreading while we wait for the art is already in progress. And it is working out. But as you are aware, each of us has a life outside this project and hobby. If I decide to take the evening off from writing to go see a movie or swim with my son, I am sure others are in similar situations and faced with the same choices. Money only commands so much of an artist’s attention. And that is as it should be.
David White is temporarily stymied on the Thunderbolt; no telling when the inspiration will strike. He is an old hand at this, so I ain’t gonna bug ‘im. It arrives when it arrives. But all my commissions are paid up to date (yay!) and the financial decks are being cleared for the next batch.
Right now I am going through the writeups and checking for uniformity of formatting. Everything has to have the same name (Overview, Capabilities, Deployment, Variants and Notables) and it has to be in the same order, so as to smooth the transition to PDF.
Meanwhile, I have also begun to round up proofreaders who will take a look at the work we have done so far – they get their crack at it after Geoff has had his shot; with a few exceptions, he has nearly everything in his hands. I am sending the oversights to him (ie: the Privateer needs a Notables section and is short fifty words) but the end of the creative phase is clearly in view.
Of course, after we exit that tunnel, we will enter another, but that’s the nature of this kind of work. We get to heave a sigh of relief, stand up and stretch, then it’s back to the keyboard for the next phase.
Vlad is back from vacation; I will see if he can complete the other vehicle he promised.
I attended a game on Saturday, one which was bigger than we thought and ran far longer than it should have. Some players cried cheese when confronted with an SRM carrier and its load of Tandem-charge missiles, but they were using artillery to destroy the buildings we were supposed to guard, so it all evens out. I hate guarding property in a Battletech game. However, I fear we did not make the best use of our forces and suffered at least two needless losses due to being distracted by actions occurring all over the table – and in one case (my own), sheer stubbornness. Oh well. Hopefully we will do better next time.
Reaction on the forums to the latest art is encouraging. I hope our designs and writeups are at least as good.
Steve
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