…Including the “unseen” Regulator-I battlesuit of 1980s vintage. You can clearly see the lineage of other nations’ power armor programs in the Regulator-I, however!
I have to admit, by the way, that I didn’t realize everyone was still checking up on the site during my “vacation.” By the way, the rumors were true – my tablet broke while I was travelling last week, but I sucked it up and bought a new one, and aside from taking a little getting used to (technology has advanced a lot as regards tablets in the last five years), it’s generally functioning very well. Or so it seems.
Anyhow, I’m still “on vacation” here, but this was a good chance to finish out the spec card, and get used to my new tablet (which is definitely taking some extra time to program, and practice).
Also, for everyone who was asking, a high-resolution version of the entire spec card (including revisions from last week – thanks for the sharp eye, everyone!) is available simply by clicking here. See? See how I didn’t coerce you into voting on some dumb comic list? I’m with it, man.
All the best, everyone!
Just like in the old Battletech manuals. 🙂
Yup and I suspect I’m not the only one looking forward to the development of foamed steel (currently they only do aluminum blocks) and myomer. I’ll settle for hybrid diesel/electric for now. :\
Ferro-fibrous! Lamellar ferro-carbide! Oh my goodness yes. I was actually playing Battletech with a friend this week so the favorable comparison is deeply appreciated! 🙂
On a different note: I think you need to grant clearance to my account. I changed my e-mail-adress and ebven though I did adjust my gravatar settings, my avatar picture doesn’t work.
Seems to be working okay now.
Yeah, everthing is fine now. 🙂
I like how your suits are ‘realistic’ and reflect real engineering with trade-offs and so forth. Your attention to power supply needs is a nice touch! I especially like how the armor protection DROPS with each generation — as if they started out trying to build SPAEC MAHRINES! and slowly realized that the infantry’s strength is in their flexibility, not as damage sponges. :D! I am a little worried that your myomer muscle suits are still using human bones as their fulcrums… (ouch!). Hurry back!
Glad you like them! And yes, myomer is hazardous stuff because it can wrench your limbs out of their sockets. The armor helps prevent things like hyperextension and dislocation by acting as a rigid shell that holds the muscle suit in place. So it actually serves two purposes, in addition to being armor protection. It’s why non-combat suits have rigid plates as well, even though they wouldn’t strictly speaking require them, for protection.
Hmm. I wonder if there’s such a thing as a civilian (or at least demilitarized) variant of the first-generation armor? Firefighters would probably appreciate it.
There is, and they do. It’s basically a slightly altered version of the utility suits seen in Chapter 3 on the Chemical Corpsmen, Engineers and Technical Troops. The heavy suits also have a demilitarized version favored by police tactical units.
Nice detail and info on the pros and cons for each model of armor.
If this was in hard copy it’ll be a big seller.
Maybe some crowdsourcing in the future to help get it off the ground? (assuming enough interest of course)
Correction – ‘crowdfunding’
I have a secret desire to have these printed as cards with a custom three-ring binder to hold them, in the vein of Yokoyama’s SF3D, from which I’ve borrowed liberally in terms of style and design. But the chances are rather slim, I have to admit. Maybe, though.
If you ever do a Kickstarter to print 6-Commando, you could include that as a “stretch” goal!
That thought had crossed my mind! I may yet consider printing, although I’ve shelved those plans somewhat indefinitely – at the very least until the end of Chapter 6. If I printed it, I’d want to re-drawn Chapters 1 and 2 and substantial parts of other chapters as well. Print demands a lot more care than online, and although I do try my best to draw as well as I can all the time, my style and abilities have drifted from then to now, and the thought of just straight printing as-is makes me feel disappointed and inadequate, especially with so much out there that’s so much better than what I do. It’s intimidating.
Wow, you can definitely see the SF3D “Super Armored Fighting Suit” influence in that first design. I’m tempted to do conversion from a SAFS to a “SPKA”. I need to post some photos of a modification I’m working on now…
Please do! Man I’d LOVE to see that!
Ask, and ye shall receive: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/e5o3loxhmkgil4s/AADliC9meqA2lJDUDvJa5BJXa
And for further edification:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/935vvr6dzb3wyf7/AACIqcx9oIeKo1oD2HTEcKq6a
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/hj3vtlpcbli2gm0/AAAdaDts-xBpxDAzSIBM-fJsa
Those are some pretty slick models, there.
Those Yokoyama kits, man. Whew! They intimidated the heck out of me when I was a kid, but they were just totally fascinating. They were like artifacts from an alternate universe. So COOL!
Thanks. The “Skinhead” is a Kow design, a combination of a PKA chassis with “Mercenary” technology from the SAFS as stop-gap unit.
The one I’m working on now was a Raccoon recon suit, but some of the parts are missing (I bought the kit from somebody a long time ago) so I was thinking of making it either an Engineer or EOD suit (Possum? Badger?).
The newer MAK3D kits by Wave and Hasegawa are pretty nice – the Falke was a Hasegawa kit.
I would like to get a set of those cards.
Well it seems no one innovated for the 2nd generation model.
They were “Innoventing.” A word I just “innovented.”
well that was rude.
I’m sorry, I don’t follow you?
I’m gonna say this but, the third generation armour is still a dead ringer for the Spade Marine power armour from Warhammer 40’000, even if its doesn’t have the baroque, gothic embellishments, but functionally speaking they look very very alike, appart maybe for the reletive size, since a Space Marine in full armour is around nine to ten feet tall.
That said, the handguns used in this comic, I have remarked before are functionally a lot like the Bolt weapons used in 40K as well.
Well, I’ve kind of embraced it. I even refer to them as UNA Marines. I just don’t think, with something as done to death as the 40K universe, that you can get away from it, so I guess their very existence ought to be considered an homage to powered armor done bigtime styley – the pauldrons alone are a giveaway. But they certainly don’t function the same way, are far more “hard” in their sci fi underpinnings, and are not piloted by Nietzchean Übermenschen – just ordinary soldiers with a lot of training. They have their own place, I think.
And by the way, if you mean the UNA sidearms, they’re actually an homage to the pistol carried by Harrison Ford in Blade Runner, and the heavy pistols used by the Colonial Marines in Battlestar Galactica. But if you mean that they function like bolt pistols in that they’re big and can fire a self-propelled bullet, then yes, I see the similarity. But the principle is different – look up “gyrojet” weapons and you’ll get a better idea of how UNA weapons work.
Whooo power armor
Boy howdy. We’re closing in on zero hour for the start of chapter 6 though!