u/AutumnTeienVT

Got inspired by this post a while back, and figured I'd get some practice in by making my own set. It's one of my first attempts at proper landscaping, and it's still technically unfinished (I want to get some clear resin into the pond on #3, but I can't do it indoors and the weather isn't cooperating. Also, I've never worked with pourable resin before, so I am anxiety-ball).

I know there's some issues, and I don't think I can fix them at this point (if nothing else, they look fine from a distance, the problems are only noticeable when you zoom in like this)...I'm mostly used to larger vehicles and canvases, so tiny details like the toe beans are my biggest challenge. But I'm still curious to hear what y'all think, or any tips for how to improve. ^^

Designed a car in Automation that was meant to be a mid-80s budget sportscar, to eventually be modded into a Group-B-Rally car (because I have a mild obsession). A hypothetical competitor to the 300ZX or RX7. The thing is, I adore the rear half of the car. Literally everything about it is something I enjoy. But the front half is just...off? Unpleasant? Something about it just isn't clicking, no matter what I do. Every configuration of headlights and intakes that I've tried just feels...disconnected from the style and design of the rear half. Like the taillights are saying "sporty and slick", while the front half is best described as "a goofy little goober".

...or maybe I'm just overthinking it, and the design is actually fine. That's why I'm asking y'all for input, to try and make something that clicks better, before I go further with the design to convert it into a Group B Rally Racer.

Thoughts?

(first post here, still trying to iron out some of the details on this concept stuff. I tried to get a diagram depicting all the different ammo types, but due to technical fuckery, that file has been lost. So enjoy this, and lemme know any thoughts y'all have; any input helps)

R7 Battle Rifle: The primary weapon of the URSA System Defense Forces, firing Caseless Telescoped 10x50mm rounds (8mm projectile), at a rate of 6 rounds per second. It sports a 25-round double-stack magazine (with the ability to top-load loose rounds), fires an enormous variety of high-power ammunition with exceptional accuracy, almost never jams, and even mitigates the exceptional recoil to a minimal level (even using the recoil to recharge the battery). While a significant tactical flaw, and the reason for its nickname of "Chugger", the slow rate of fire is unfortunately necessary and artificially-capped at this value, due to a fundamental flaw of Caseless ammunition. While normally extremely difficult to detonate, Caseless propellant (derived from plastic explosive) can sometimes cook off at high pressures when exposed to gas and burning debris from previous rounds (and only previous rounds). Thus, the chamber must be cleared of these gases as much as possible before loading the next round, necessitating a capped rate of fire and open bolt. An after-market conversion of the R7 to use Cased 8x50mm rounds has a much higher rate of fire of 14 rounds per second, and the uncapped fire rate with caseless rounds is all the way up at 20 rounds per second (though this guarantees the gun will not stop firing until it is empty). But caseless rounds are used in spite of their issues, because they simplify logistics, are less than half the weight of a comparable brass-cased round, and significantly safer to handle in a wider variety of environments.

P44/P38 Sidearm: Designed alongside the R7, the P44 uses the exact same 10x50mm CT-8 rounds. The P-38 is a previous version of the P44, which instead uses the 15x50mm CT13 rounds. This was meant to be a major benefit, as the pistol and rifle share ammunition, which simplifies logistics and allows cross-compatibility. In reality, the P44 and P38 have none of the recoil-mitigation technologies that allow the R7 to be so manageable, making these pistols almost unusable to anyone without enhanced strength. Most notably, this pistol also incorporates the solid-state battery required to detonate Caseless rounds, alongside an integrated red-dot sight that significantly increases mass. While favored by the officers and NCOs in a given Batallion, riflemen and frontline troops absolutely despise its enormous mass and recoil, leading to the title of "Officer's Primary".

G20 / G31 Pistol: Developed by Oceané Armaments, it was meant as a simple PDW that can be easily fabricated by the average consumer, for home defense. Using the more-recent half-length 10x25mm CT-8 rounds (or 15x25mm CT-13, in the case of the G31), it's almost defined by its inability to penetrate armor and often relies on CT-13 HESH rounds to compensate, but its smaller size lends it to be adopted as a sidearm by a majority of Riflemen and military personnel.

R8 Breaching Gun: The R8 is effectively a cut-down version of the R7, removing the buffer tube and bore evacuators to accomplish one thing: maximum ammunition versatility. Fragmenting ammunition like buckshot or buck-and-ball have a tendency to cause severe damage to bore evacuators after only a hundred rounds, so the R8 removes such devices to allow the use of such ammunition. Normally a semiauto mechanism using the recoil of the round, it also sports a manual pump for top-loading or cycling low-power rounds. While normally used for breaching through reinforced doors or walls, and reduced as much as possible to allow easy carry, the CT-13 rounds have such a variety of uses that many choose to use it as a primary weapon instead, bulking the R8 up with after-market components to replace the parts that got removed in the design phase.

R15 Rotary SAW: Given that the cooking-off issue is the last major engineering challenge involved with Caseless ammunition, many MANY attempts have been made to try and solve it. The most reliable method of solving this issue, to date, has simply been to use multiple chambers or barrels and rotate them between firing and degassing positions. One company, Artemis Firearms, has been leaning into this idea as hard as possible. Despite their efforts, the triple-barrel "MG-17 Tristar" (designated by URSA military as the R15) remains their only commercial success, deployed in an LMG/SAW role. Firing 10x50 CT-8 rounds at 15 rounds per second, it is an extremely capable weapon, though the high recoil and spinning barrels cause some gyroscopic effects that "demand manhandling", and make the gun only effective when mounted on its integrated bipod.

R9-L DMR: While some consider the use of a DMR to be redundant in a squadron with Chemlasers, the poor performance of laser weapons against armor gave a niche for DMR-style weapons to fill. Chambered in the devastating 10x75mm CT-8 rounds, this semiautomatic rifle is easily capable of punching 8mm AP-FLAK rounds through 25mm of composite armor (though this performance still pales in comparison to a railgun). Despite this performance, the weapon is so bulky and heavy that it needs to fill a primary role, but situations rarely arise where the R9-L is more suitable than an R10-C or R7 (since URSA mostly fights insurgencies and militia forces). In the situations where a DMR is necessary, though, it serves its role with distinction.

R10-C Chemlaser: Laser weapons come in two types: E-Lasers that require more electricity but do not consume the lasing chemical, and Chemlasers that consume the lasing chemical over a set duration but only need an initial spark. The latter of these was adopted as a secondary option for infantry, as a combination between a DMR and a man-portable anti-drone option. Because there are no mechanical forces involved in laser weaponry, the use of a forward-bolt action became necessary, and a heat sink on the upper portions was needed to absorb the copious amounts of waste heat generated. A dust cover can be mounted over the heat sink in suitable conditions, to prevent the heated air from disrupting the sight line through the integrated thermal optic, though this cover must be removed in vacuum conditions to allow for more efficient radiation. Lasers are at their most effective against critical components of vehicles and lightly-armored targets, which is why only one or two are carried in a given squad (and rarely as a primary). The main challenge of Chemlasers has less to do with their design, and more to do with specialized training to get good accuracy. Once fired, the laser will continuously shine out of the muzzle for one second, and the goal of the shooter is to keep that laser hitting the exact same part of the target for that second. This means tracking the targets movements and holding the arms steady for a long period of time, in a way that ballistic firearms do not require. In addition to that, weather like rain, fog, and smoke can disperse or deflect the beam in ways that must be taken into account, and the beam is only easy to see in foggy conditions or through the integrated thermal optic. As such, while many accuse laser-weapons of "requiring no skill", those same people often eat those words when a Chemlaser is placed into their hands.

AR-52 Twinstar Rifle: When URSA was putting out a bid for a new main battle rifle, Artemis Firearms and Infinity Combat Works were considered the main competitors and rivals. ICW put forward the gun that would eventually become the R7, but Artemis Firearms put forward the AR-52. Using an experimental two-chamber magazine-fed-revolver design, the AR-52 was able to achieve a high rate of fire alongside a high magazine capacity (when using proprietary helical mags), but the revolver design was prone to jamming and jams were a nightmare to clear. Many will claim that the inability to top-load rounds was a factor, but ultimately, the low reliability was the main reason this design was passed up. Still, it remains popular in the civilian market and among some PMC forces, in spite of its many issues.

Longarm Revolver: While archaic in its design and only purchased as a show piece, the nature of caseless ammunition as dispersing completely when fired leads to a slight reimagining of revolvers as front-loaded closed chambers. These "muzzle-loading" revolvers are one of Artemis Firearms' many patents, and is used to the utmost in weapons like the Longarm and the "Puckler" LMG (a failed attempt at an R15 successor).