Redrew the snake onto the UV in actual colours to remove pixel artefacts from multiple adjustment layers. Minor tweaks to illustration. Reduced serial number size. Added subtle blurred highlights to illustration. Selectively added very Faint texture overlays.


Lets just get this out the way: I’m aware the M249 is pants. It never used to be, in fact in old 1.6 there wasn’t even a sniff of a Negev, and the ‘Para’ (as it was then called) used to function like an AK with a ruddy massive clip. Buying the Para and spamming it right out of spawn was an ostentatious display of of wealth and power designed to put the fear of god into the enemy team. And it did.

Back to present day, no one buys the M249. Well actually no sane person buys the M249, because it’s been nerfed into a UMP with an oversized clip; I wouldn’t buy it for $4k let alone $5k, and if you had the money you’d buy an AWP or a Negev anyway. The current weapon characteristics are to slowly spit out bits of potato with massive inaccuracy. But that doesn’t mean it will stay like this forever. Changing the weapon properties is something that Valve has turned into a bit of a fashion from season to season. One quarter the CZ is the trend, next it’s discount rack, likewise for the AUG & Tec-9; and I’d wager that the M249 is due a Gok Wan makeover.

As the M249 seems to spit bullets out, my idea was to emblazon it with a venomous snake. Originally I designed it green but then recollected that there is already a green scaly gun called gator mesh, so I did a bit of research and found some orangey-yellow snakes.

Rather than have the snake coil around the ammo box, I instead designed it as a concealed nest with eggs that the snake hunches over like it's protecting it. For a touch of humour I added a curious mouse peering over the top with an egg cracking below to hint at trouble! In placing it like this it kind of reminds me of a Pocket Purrer from TF2, a little comrade of war on your journeys through the map.

Up to the last day the snake appeared clipped out directly on the gun metal like the AK fire serpent, but in this case I felt it lacked detail, and so covered up the main panels with a burgundy colour with a faint scale pattern.

The sight above the barrel mimicks the snake eye - a circle of yellow with a dark pupil for the center. Another touch of detail was the front of the ammo box, which when viewed from a front side angle looks like a continuation of the snake.

I’ve spent some time fixing wear problems such as underneath the reload lid - I would have liked to have a mouse peering out at the hinge end of the lid whilst reloading - but the game renders all texture flat black on the inside like some sort of baked AO texture map.

I’m pretty happy with the current form - and so have finally submitted it! Let me know what you think, and please don’t hate just because it's an M249 - all guns require skins whether they are popular or not!