Hawkwood and the Kings book cover artwork

Well, there I was sitting at work wondering what to do. We were in the lull between the end of AVP III and the start of working on the AVP III downloadable content project when Jason, the big boss, comes up and says

"You do re-enacting dont you?"
"Yes, English Civil War"
"Could you help Pye here with a book cover?"

And so it began...

Well, Pye had already worked out that he wanted a crossed sword and mace and that there would be the kings battle helmet infront. The author liked the idea but thought the helmet was too medieval. A 17th Century helmet was thought more approriate. You can read more about it on Pye Parr's blog.

Since I portray a Royalist musketeer, I don't have such Parliamentarian chattles as a "lobsterpot" helmet sullying my home, so I trawled the internet for a while and came across some lovely artwork by a chap called Chris Collingwood, so I thought I would link to him here.

A lovely image I think you will agree, but a black iron helmet is not exactly "regal", so the search continued...

finally hit on the website of a chap that makes armour for a living called Nigel Carren. He has done a lovely recreation of a Prussian Curassiers helmet. If you want to visit his site it is nigelcarren.co.uk and here is a view of his helmet.

And so I started the 3D modelling process in 3DS Max. To be honest any of the current crop of 3D software would do the job. I especially like Lightwave for its polygon and subdivision surface modeling tools. Its UV editor is easier then Max's too, but Max is what we have at work so that is what I used. Next post I'll start telling you about the nitty gritty of the making the helmet. :)