Prototype v1.3... ready for your review!

'Running the Blockade'
by Chris 'Colourbrand' Sumner

Greetings.

We’ve made some progress – as you might have guessed.

- Stephen Huda is currently working on a new Capellan vehicle, the Feng-niao (Hummingbird). This is a hovercraft which carries a TAG on a turret and moves at extremely high speeds. The second draft is below:

Capellan Combat Spotter 'Feng-niao' (Hummingbird)
Second Draft
by Stephen Huda

Unfortunately, the advent of this little beauty means curtains for another design – in this case, I pulled the completed Halberd out of the Federated Commonwealth. It is a redundant design, given the AA capability of the Werefox line.

- The BARS (Bulldog Autocannon Remote System) is still in progress. It is hotter than hell in Texas right now, but Lee is still working on it.

- Chris Sumner (‘Colourbrand’ over at DeviantArt) has completed work on the piece entitled ‘Running the Blockade’. You can see it at the top of this post – click on it for a better look!

- Karl Olsen is still pounding away at the Diomedes and the Hammerhead II. There were some issues with email bouncing repeatedly off his account for nearly ten days, but I finally got the suggestions I made through to him. Meanwhile, he has done a very good job on the background work for the Sabra XIII artillery vehicle.

Sabra XIII background (rough)
by Karl Olson

Bill and I were scheduled to get to work on the layout again today, but early this morning he called in sick. Nevertheless, he has been working on the beast at home.

- Bill found that the Lyran section did not have the symbol in the background. Corrected.

- He also went through and got rid of that annoying screen artifact at the bottom of every page (the thin line).

- He has corrected the goofs we made with factual stuff, as well as the misspelled ‘Vehicles’ and ‘Assault’. Or at least I hope so :)

- He added the ‘Mech section to the Lyran Alliance.

Now, keep in mind that we have not gone through and installed bold, italics or anything else of that nature. Nor have we changed fonts (though I have been giving it some thought). But the Third Prototype should be ready for your viewing pleasure as of this posting.

Note please, it is at the same address as the previous version: we left it that way for convenience.

http://www.wartairsoft.com/TRO3063WEB.pdf

- I have been spending more money (!) provided in part by our generous donors (via the PayPal button). Several of our color pieces are lacking in sharpness and professional look. I commissioned ten new ones – colorized versions of work done by David White, Matthew Plog, Alex Iglesias and Eric Ou, among others. Jim Lafferty and Anthony Scroggins have been working on making them come to life!

Capellan Culverin OmniMech
Art by Eric Ou, color by Jim Lafferty

If you want to chip in via the PayPal button, even $5 would be to the good. The delay on this project is not the actual work – we are on schedule – but paying the artists before using their art. We have about $350 to go.

We even have a special section planned! A bonus that will be at the end of the TRO... er, never mind. You didn't read that. Nope. Bill would kill me if you did.

As always, comments and suggestions are encouraged. For those of you who contributed, the Credits section has not been updated on the prototype, but I have updated it here on my computer. We will drop the finished Credits in when everything settles in for the final draft.

Enjoy the prototype and thanks for stopping by.

Steve

[Bonus section: Playtest of the Feng-niao by Dorian Sherrat and Helen Troy]
[Coming SOON!]

Another TRO Prototype...

DCMS Tomahawk Battle Tank
Art by Eric Ou - Colors by Anthony Scroggins

Hi there!

Hard at work, that’s us!

- Stephen Huda has put the finishing touches on the Leopard helicopter gunship. Bill was transported when he saw it – no, he wasn’t shipped to Australia in chains; I mean he really liked it. I think that means the Leopard is a wrap.

Leopard Helicopter Gunship

Art by Stephen Huda

- The BARS (Bulldog Autocannon Remote System) is going through a revision. I have not heard from Lee when he will have it ready – he said he wasn’t happy with the first take, so he’s having another go-around. I hope he doesn’t disappear again. He really does good work.

- (Chris) is still working on an interior plate featuring the Sounder and Machete aerospace fighters. Here is the third draft, all that we have so far. He is currently about 50% complete.


- Karl Olson has been busy with the Diomedes and the Hammerhead II. They are in a rough stage, rougher than is practical to show you, but they are under construction. In addition I saddled him today with background work for the Sabra XIII artillery vehicle.

That wonderful gift my brother Jay gave me – a dual core laptop – will, sadly, NOT run CS3. So Bill paid me a visit, carrying his home computer with him – monitor and all. We got down to work on building the TRO in PDF format. It is not easy work – took us a while to get the Draconis Combine together. But the installations are coming faster and faster.

Here we are at work, two overweight white guys with tobacco and caffeine as our only allies.


Here is what we have come up with. Click on the image for a bigger version! Type the address into your browser and download it.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

One More Time - if your name is misspelled in the Credits, don't worry. We put it in this time because we needed to check font sizes and so forth. There is a lot more coming and we are going to make sure everyone's name is spelled correctly.

No, we did not finish the Credits section, but if you are not listed there as either a playtester or fact checker and you think you should be, mention it. I will get you in.

Happy reading and thanks for stopping by.

Steve