5 November, 2014
Looks like Neill Blomkamp may have pulled it out of the fire for his next one. The Hollywood experience gave us the middling but pretty Elysium, with its overly preachy enviro and class-warfare messages. Here he goes after the artificial intelligence in a fearful human world theme, and it looks pretty good. It’s nice to see Hugh Jackman in something over that Wolverine garb, playing the heavy here.
I particularly like the Shirow-esque look of the robot.
19 October, 2014
6 October, 2014
Okay steam- and diesel-punk fans…you may now “squee…”
6 October, 2014
6 September, 2014
Wired has a nice article of the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) by Boeing being developed for the Army. The system will eventually run a 50-60kW energy weapon, rather than the 10kW here. And controlled with an XBox controller…soon your fat game kid might be able to join the military and shoot stuff from your basement.
19 August, 2014
I noticed that one of the big search terms that was bringing folks here had to do with the Colonial Warrior pistol vs. the M6C personal defense weapon from the Halo franchise. I will admit to never having played Halo, but the design work is lovely. So here you are, people who were looking for the M6C:
Misriah Armory M6C PDW
This handgun is the standard sidearm for the UNSC Marine Corps. It is a semi-automatic, striker fired 12.7x40mm, recoil-operated handgun. The ammunition used is the M229 semi-armor piercing hollow-point.
Cortex stats: Damage: d8W Range: 20 yards Ammo: 13 Cost: 2000
Editor Comments: This is a nice design, but there are a few issues that pop up immediately. 1) It’s not going to be recoil-operated — the .50 round described (more powerful than the .50 Action Express at 12.7x33mm) would be far too powerful for blowback or rotating operation. It would be gas-action, like the Desert Eagle with heavy rifle springs for the recoil. It would be much larger than it appears to be portrayed. The muzzle blast on this with the 4-5″ barrel would be enormous.
10 August, 2014
27 May, 2014
Here’s an excellent 12 minute film by Ferand Peek about a combat mission gone bad. It’s most interesting for the focus on the face of the soldier throughout the piece.
9 May, 2014
Lage Manufacturing builds custom accessories for submachine guns, and here they make the dreams of millions of geeks come true with a function replica of the Colonial Marine’s M4A1 Pulse Rifle called the MAX-41A:
Submachinegun component is a NFA registered SWD M-11/9 with an Anthony Smith style Suomi upper receiver. Magazine used is a Suomi “Coffin” magazine that holds 50 rounds of 9mm. No modifications or alteration of the M-11/9 lower receiver is required. Shotgun component is a NFA registered Remington 870 short barreled shotgun. BATFE letter was obtained confirming this is a legal configuration, prior to manufacturing.
The original Pulse Rifle was built off of a Thompson .45 submachinegun and SPAS-12 shotgun. In the film it was a 10mm caseless rifle with a 100 round magazine, and with a 30mm 4-shot grenade launcher. Considering there is the FRAG12 round out there, you could get darned close to the actual weapon…
17 April, 2014
The Black Campbell 