These two morning stars will be in the February 5 Renderosity Newsletter as a free download. They are stand-alone figures and come with the texture shown. A texture template is also included for anybody that wants to do some different looks. I've set them up so they're easy to texture and have a low distortion mapping.

Wow! Thanks Ajax. I'll be looking forward to the newsletter.

Hey, this looks excellent. Very nice to have a preview and actually know what the freebie might look like :) Thanks!! :) Irene

This is a great way to show off what's coming up in the free download and I must say it is a cool head banger. Thank you so much for posting. Catlin

Alright! Can't wait! :) Jay

Thanks so much for supplying the image - I almost gave up with those freebies cause I can never tell what they look like without installing them. I will definitely want this one ;-)

Hi ? Technically are these not footman/horsemans' flails I thorght a mourning star was more like a mace. not being picky just like to know one way or another, the D&D manuals never had pics? interested to know Dave

You're welcome everybody. I found the no picture thing a bit frustrating too, so I thought I'd put up a preview. Dave, I just knew somebody was going to say that sooner or later. Heh heh. I'm not sure where that misnomer started but I think the D&D manuals have had a big hand in spreading it. A flail is a very different looking implement that started out as an agricultural tool. Here's the Cambridge International English Dictionary definition of a flail: "a tool consisting of a rod which swings from a long handle, used esp. in the past for threshing grain" For a morning star definition you have to turn to a more specialised work. I have a bunch of books on medieval arms and armour on my shelf here. Here's the definition from one of them: ...."Morning Star, a spike-studded ball hung by a chain from a short staff, XIV-XV cent." The book is "The armourer and his craft from the XIth to the XVIth Century", Charles Ffoulkes, 1912. And here's what the same book had to say about flails: "Flail, the military flail was like the agricultural implement, but as a weapon of war the thresher was of iron instead of wood".

The confusion might come from the French (as usual, I know, ah, ah, ah) : the mace which had nails to reinforce the impact was called "massue oil", which translates into "Star Mace". Or may be it's just that historical research was never the strong point of D and D's manual... Compiler

Oh, and thanks a lot, Ajax, for these litle dangerous jewels. I know that these will be Easy to Pose. Compiler