Game Art Comp #9: Various - Erwin Rommel plus "tank" and crew

#1

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Check post 7 for the new direction.
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This sounded like a reeeally fun challenge, and a couple ideas hit me as I was drifting off to sleep last night. Assuming this doesn’t prove too insurmountable a challenge for a noob like myself, I’m going for the following:

Erwin Rommel: a fox, what else? :slight_smile:
Tank: elephant (the way I’ve envisioned it, it’ll also double as gunner)
Loader and driver: species undecided

Should be fun. :slight_smile: I’ve already got some ideas I want to roll with. I have a backup idea, though, should this prove to be more than I can handle. :stuck_out_tongue: I’ll see if I have some time during lunch to sketch up a quick overall concept and scan it in.

ps. And before I get slammed by military historians, I’m well aware that Rommel never actually had any practical tank experience. I just thought it would work nicely in the context. :slight_smile:

#2

yay another crew! Keeping an eye on this one…

Note - even though Rommel was called the “Desert Fox”, that was more propaganda than anything else. He knew basically nothing about Algiers or desert combat, especially compared to the native Bedouans (probably slaughtered the spelling there).

#3

Your entry was a big inspiration towards my decision to try this particular idea out, actually. :slight_smile:

Propaganda. About as important a role in war as the actual fighting. I seem to recall reading something about an Allied commander insisting that Allied Command quit placing Rommel on such a high pedestal, as it was starting to negatively affect troop morale. :stuck_out_tongue:

ps. Bedouins. So you didn’t screw up all that badly. :wink:

#4

Decided to take some time to work on a sketch of the Desert Fox, just to get a feel of his attire. Only made it as far as his head and shoulders, though, but I’m getting a nice feel for him. Hopefully tomorrow won’t be such a busy day at work so I can get some more sketching done, concepting the elephant and crew.

#5

Wish I had more time to work on this. Here’s the beginnings of my character sheet for the fox. He’s going to be wearing the headgear from the sketch above. I’ll try to post up a concept of the crew in action sometime tonight.

#6

Quick concept of the “tank” (I’m trying to figure out how to style its armor to look period-authentic). Elysium, could you let me know if this is kosher for the comp? If not I may have to go with one of my alternative character ideas.

There’s no loader or gunner, since the elephant itself takes care of both (for loading, that ammo basket labeled in the sketch is positioned so the elephant can reach its trunk around and grab a shell). Anyways, I just need to figure out if this is acceptable.

#7

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Could a mod change my thread title for me? The updated title isn’t showing up in thread view.
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I went back to the drawing board yesterday, after doing some heavy thinking. I’ve decided to shelve the Desert Fox for the time being, and change my entry to something I feel might be more fun to do.

So instead, I’m doing a wolf, attired as one of Roger’s Rangers (formed during the Revolutionary War, they were one of the first ever Army Ranger units). I’m going to be giving him some props like a hatchet, a musket, and a flintlock pistol. Probably a rucksack or sorts, as well. Anyways, here’s a couple of my uniform/attire references:

Some quick pose sketches to get a feel for the thing:

And about 30 minutes of blocking out the basic form:

I need to find more time in my days to do this. This is too much fun. :slight_smile:

#8

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