It began months ago when I was roughing out a design for a Famas Daimyo - working out the lines, colour areas and angles, when the the sci-fi competition was announced -- the terms mentioned ‘only new designs not previously submitted’, so I put the Daimyo on hold and had a punt at a new variant that I initially thought up whilst working on a new idea for the SCAR-20. The underlying theme would be ‘sci-fi heraldry’ with the main heraldric element appearing on the cheek pad. It would also be based on Medieval Jousting - hence the chevrons, and the name Magna (latin for 'Great') + Lance.

The cheek pad centerpiece didn't work for the Scar 20 due to resolution issues, so I put the project on the backburner behind the modular design and scar-20 thunder dragon, and instead opted for the Famas.

When considering which animal, a traditional lion felt unrelatable to the weapon, so I thought about mythical animals that feature 3 elements due to the 3 round burst fire mode. The cerberus has already been done, so I went with the Chimera - a hybrid between a lion, goat and snake.

The carry handle is another prime area for detail - especially as the model gets closer whilst running ingame, so I also applied the animal heads there.

I’ve reused the pseudo normal effect I applied in the ‘modular’ submissions - which I don't really like but it helps get the plating idea across. I also experimented with various archimedean tessellation patterns to add to the techy vibe.

I've made two colour variations. To be completely honest - I wasn't sure about submitting it, as I worked up the Daimyo versions at the same time which I felt were the better out of the two designs, but I thought some people might find it interesting to see how one idea can be adapted in a different way.

Let me know what you think!

-