The Tanks (Thoughts on Design)

Reference Shot, Page 9 - Burcke's K10 Faces Off With An Imperial PP22

One of the things I wanted to do from the outset was craft a series of vehicles and equipment that was not necessarily realistic (as the Rule of Cool dictates so much of what goes on in the comic), but at least believable within its own universe.

To that end I did a fair amount of reading and research on the internet as to how tanks work, fight, and die. There's an incredible wealth of information out there in the form of images, discussion, technical manuals, milsims, videogames, movies, youtube videos, etc etc...I basically devoured everything I could get my hands on, deriving inspiration from everything from authentic WW2 battle reports to dicking around in Battlefield 3.

The Face of A Killer: Sgt. Stone's Republican K45

One of the things I knew early on was that I had to make the tanks very distinct in silhouette and function in order to keep things A) recognizable, and B) interesting. No sense in having a bunch of samey-same armored vehicles roaming around, even if that's usually how it works in reality!

There were two basic divides in terms of design that I was confronted with initially: Cultural/technological splits, and design/function of the individual vehicles. Real armored vehicles, like pretty much every other manufactured item, reflect the inherent culture and available technology of their designers.

Top: American M1 Abrams 

Bottom: Russian T-72

In the real world, these divides are quite recognizable when it comes to armored vehicles from competing nations, especially ones that come from places as different, doctrine-wise, as America and Russia. Whereas the M1 was designed largely as a state of the art, unkillable tank-hunter, the T-72 and related vehicles were intended to be cheaper to produce and work in concert with infantry to overwhelm and defeat enemy armor through numerical and tactical superiority. These design considerations produced very different vehicles that have only superficial similarities which bely their specialized roles.

Imperial ON89

And so I went about designing both an individual aesthetic for each tank (and each nation), as well as the underlying technology and the design considerations that went into them, both to further inform my design choices and to give the whole thing a little more verisimilitude.

Each of my kitbashed tank designs boast a couple hundred "design thoughts" that place them more firmly in the world that I created for them, and is echoed everywhere from their visual appearance to how they perform inside of the story.

Just one example of this is the identical guns of the Imperial IL29 and ON89 tanks; just as in the real world, where time and money can be saved by implementing already-developed systems for a newly-developed chassis, the two Imperial tanks share a common weapon system.

Imperial IL29 Kitbash In Fabrication Phase

I also developed a whole thought process regarding how the two factions use and outfit their tanks; the tactics, ammunition loads, crew positions, common mechanical pitfalls, engineering flaws, etc. Just as the German WW2-era Tiger tank is mostly remembered for being both a fearsome weapon and an unreliable piece of crap, my tanks needed a host of flaws and inconsistencies to make them more "real". 

To this end, some of the stuff tacked onto my tanks is just silly; dig that 30mm turret on the top of the IL29. Who thought THAT was a good idea? I mean, it's cool, but...damn. Talk about a shell magnet.

Counter-Clockwise From Top: Imperial ON89, Republican K10, Imperial PP22

One of the real luxuries with creating a world from scratch, though, is that you have total freedom with inventing the conditions that cause your decisions to "make sense" within that world. Yeah, the PP2 has kind of a high center of gravity and...wheels? Well, some idiot in the Imperial design bureau really needed a promotion, and when the Arms Procurement Tzar says "We need a hojillion APC's double-quick", you get what you get...hey, at least it's amphibious too, so it's not all bad!

IL29 Doodle

There's a lot more I could say, but the takeaway I've learned from all this is: Spend some time thinking about your world! Not only does it inject a healthy dose of believability into what's going on, but it's a lot of fun to stretch your imagination out and assemble something from nothing. 

Creatio Ex Nihilo!