I often get my strangest ideas in matchmaking when I should be concentrating on the task at hand.

What if the P90 fired bees instead of bullets? It fires in a scattered swarm-like fashion, and the firing sound has a buzz to it. After losing (probably) I made a quick scamp and then set about making a skin that featured bees.

Only not bees... They are fuzzy and poorly defined. Wasps are more angular and irritable. Hornets are fearsome and have the right level of savagery -- I read that the Asian Hornet can kill a man with a single sting within a few short hours. I aimed for somewhere between the latter two insects as I didn’t like the yellow hornet heads when placed on the gun but preferred the body shape. I settled for a looser illustration style so it wasn’t overly important, only that you get the idea; I didn’t go full Ralph Steadman but I added enough splodges and drips for it not to to matter.

I spent extra time repositioning the bodies on the weapon so there wasn’t any distorted in POV view when placed over contours. I placed a dead one under the magazine to give the allusion that it had been squished, and rightly so - they are hideous things.

I made a few icons: on the reload button and pull tab there’s an icon that reminded me of a curled up bee with a sting in the tail - also forming a lowercase ‘r’ in the negative space. I also made a hornet head that features on the stock base pattern, and a few other places.

One thing I couldn’t settle on was whether to release a Custom or Gunsmith finish.



The Custom version isn’t too saturated and has better wear between the stages; but the gunsmith looks super lush, and I love the quality - problem is the Gunsmith wear is a bit weird in places and doesn’t transition as well, I made it shift from light lilac too mid blue but it's very subtly applied.

In the end I decided to submit both versions and see how the votes go. Let me know any feedback, and also which you which you prefer out of the two.