I had several strong bird-based ideas for this weapon mainly focusing on the grips, but they weren’t very strong in practice as you barely see the grips during gameplay and the proprietary ambient occlusion map impedes the area with a ‘framing outline’. However when I noticed the hammers were set in a different position ingame than on the default .obj model I discovered the opportunity to make the rear face as an open beak; it would need to be a reasonably large beak, and its position gave the appearance of ‘screaming’ -- I automatically thought of the eagle. Once I sketched the face on the rear of the weapon all the other ideas I had went out the window!

Artwork with an outline lends itself to comedy due to the culture of cartoons, so I went with a style not too dissimilar to the weasel -- decorative illustration bound by creative licence rather than referencing historical ornamentation. I pimped up the browns with some magentas just to look purdy from the sides.

Different species of Eagle are national symbols for a dozen different countries, including the US, Poland, Russia and Germany (who coincidentally have CSGO teams). My thinking is if its unique to many, its unique to none.

It's been a long time since I’ve been really happy with final results of a finish: often there's a discrepancy between what I visualise in my minds eye and what I produce, but this submission brings a grin to my face… I find that idea based design always has more of an impact - but especially when conveyed through comedy. Sink or swim, I’m happy!

‘Screaming Eagles’, ‘Airborne’, ‘Airforce’, ‘Warbirds’, ‘Patriots’, ‘Freedom Fighter’, ‘Thunderbirds’

‘Screaming eagles’ is probably more universal, but I went with ‘Birds of war’ in reference to this skit from ‘It’s always sunny in Philadelphia’

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