Battle Rifle Challenge

[Kiwi Imperialist]

From the ForgottenWeapons video 'Shooting the M14: Full Auto Really Uncontrollable?'

Welcome to the Battle Rifle Challenge. Your task is to draw a battle rifle in either Gunbucket or Weaponbucket scale. Please read the design requirements and challenge rules before posting a submission. Members of the community who have participated in past challenges will note that the scoring system has been modified. The existing 'Drawing Category' has been retained, while the three other categories have been replaced with a more general 'Design Quality' category.

Design Requirements

1. Your submission must depict a fictional battle rifle, that is, a semi-automatic or select fire service rifle chambered for a full-power cartridge.

Challenge Rules

1. Participants may submit multiple images with one or more views.
2. All images and views should show derivatives or variants of the same battle rifle family.
3. Each submitted image should be a Shipbucket template modified to include the participant’s art. Templates which include a data sheet are allowed.
4. All art must be in either Gunbucket or Weaponbucket scale and conform to the Shipbucket style guidelines.
5. A textual description accompanying each submission is permitted, but not necessary.
6. Non-serious entries, or entries substantially deviate from the challenge requirements, are not allowed.
7. Off-topic posts will be reported to the relevant authorities.

This challenge will run until the 3rd of October, ending at 23:59 UTC-12 (International Date Line West).
A countdown timer can be found at this link.

A poll will be held after this date. This normally occurs within an hour of the deadline. Members of the Shipbucket community will have an opportunity to rate each submission. Please provide honest and meaningful scores for each entry. Responses which grant maximum scores to a select group of entries, and minimum scores to all other entries, will be deleted. Members of the community who manipulate the results in such a fashion may also be subject to a permanent ban. Scores will be allocated in two categories, each with a scale of 1 to 10:

• Drawing Quality - The overall quality of the drawing. One might consider detailing, shading, and accuracy.
• Design Quality -The quality of the design presented, irrespective of drawing quality. One could consider feasibility, practicality, and realism.

[Kiwi Imperialist]

Clarifications
Several questions have been raised on Discord regarding the Battle Rifle Challenge. My responses are as follows:

• If you are considering a weapon along the lines of the original M1918 BAR, not the later models that more firmly fulfilled the role of a light machine gun, your entry will not be disqualified.
• Designs originally intended for an intermediate cartridge, but which now have a variant chambered for a full power cartridge, are permitted.
• There are no restrictions on era or type, except those imposed by the need to draw a battle rifle.
• You may use both scales, Gunbucket and Weaponbucket, in your entry. You are not limited to one or the other.

[sebu]

So, not much happening here? As all the forum of Shipbucket... quite sad.
Anyhow; I'll start this with a curse of kitbashing. No explanations.

[RaspingLeech]

Mk 34 Mod 0:


Designed for the specialized needs of USSOCOM forces in the early 22nd century, the Mk 34 Battle Rifle can be considered a descendant of the earlier OICW program in concept and design. Chambered in 7.62 NATO and featuring an underslung gyrojet launcher firing octanitrocubane-tipped projectiles, this configuration is favored by orbital insertion units due to its considerable firepower and armor-piercing capabilities while its relatively compact form fits easily in most standard Human Entry Vehicles.

The Mk 34 features fully-ambidextrous controls and can easily be configured to eject from the left side in less than a minute. Other launchers designed for the rifle are available and in common use, including breaching shotguns, 30- and 40mm grenade launchers, and defoliant projectors:

[dalamace]

ROMAT

The Rov've Mitta'enn, typically shortened to ROMAT, was ordered by the Yahudi Armed Forces to standardise their infantry armament. It was a modification of the Arel MARS-43, an assault rifle that has been enlarged and rechambered for the Palatino 7.35x51mm Ciano, known for its power yet mild recoil. The usage a full-powered cartridge in favour of an intermediate one was largely because of the insistence of the various commanders of the fledgling Yahudi Armed Forces, which saw its increased range to be more useful in the vast and largely flat arid environment.



The ROMAT was used as an anti-tank weapon due to a severe shortage of anti-tank rockets such as the Hesper Stovepipe or the Vokeit RPzB-43/75. Grenadiers would carry 10 rifle grenades, of which three was the AT-53, an Arelat anti-tank rifle grenade that has been adapted to be fitted with the muzzle of the ROMAT. While its effectiveness was comparable to the Stovepipe or the RPzB-43/75, it was hard to aim and relatively inaccurate. Each AT-53 rifle grenade has a heavy 1-kilogram shaped-charge warhead.



Bought in small number for use with the Tzanhanim, the paratrooper brigade of the Yahudi Armed Forces, the ROMAT Beth was equipped with aging active infrared sights from Hesperia. It was heavy and awkward but prove to be instrumental in allowing soldiers to infiltrate through the Satrapi line.



By the 2000s, the ROMAT has long since been out of use in favour of more modern and more modular assault rifles. A fair many were smuggled out of the stockpiles by corrupt officials, most of which to the Al Shams Liberation Army, a terrorist organisation of ultranationalists, where it was known as the Ro Ro. Below showed a rare modification, where the ROMAT was mounted into a homemade remote-controlled weapons system for use against snipers using cheap electronics, motors, and a camera recovered from a broken suicide drone. Its effectiveness had shown that the idea was poor due to a severe lack of accuracy.

[Psychicumbreon]

A basic semi-automatic battle rifle, chambered in 7.7x55mm Fed and fed by a semi-fixed eight round magazine in the original models. Development would be started in 1937 as a low priority development to eventually replace the bolt action M1919 rifle. Following promising field tests in late 1942, the rifle would be approved for service as the M1943, even if production started in November of 1942. A fairly hefty weapon at 4.1kg, the rifle would go on to be well liked by the soldiers who used it, seeing service as a frontline rifle until 1960 and as a reserve weapon until 1992, when the last variants, modified to fulfill a DMR role, would leave reserve armories as part of the post-Union War reforms.

[Earl_of_Arland]

GZ / M.44



The chaotic jungle warfare against the Japanese Empire during the War on the Pacific showed the need for a flexible combat unit ready to fight effectively within dense foliage and without artillery support. The Dutch army during this time were reliant on static defense tactics and mainly armed with G/95 bolt-action rifles for the infantry, an inadequate slow-firing weapon, and M.18 (Browning Auto) machine gun for suppressive fire, unreliable in these conditions and cumbersome to carry. These small-arms limitations were disastrous during the early phase of the war, where many units were caught off-guard in an ambush by numerically-inferior enemy and unable to return fire due to these issues. Thus in 1942, the army called for a new service rifle to replace both weapons capable of sustained automatic fire yet light enough to be issued for every rifleman. A design was then drawn up by the Royal Arsenal of Lier, and eventually adopted as GZ / M. 44 in 1944.

Mechanically, the rifle is a select-fire short-stroke gas operated rifle with a tilting bolt firing the standard .30 Dutch (7.6x58mm) cartridge feeding from a 20-round detachable box magazine. The suggestion of using a smaller intermediate cartridge was considered, but dropped during the design stage to maintain commonality with existing supplies. The requirement for sustained automatic fire necessitates a heavy barrel and thus mainly contributes to the weight despite its relatively stout size to other automatic rifles. In spite of this, the rifle was never able to sustain automatic fire expected for the machine gun role due to lower-quality steel necessitated for mass production causing extraction issues when fired continuously for 100 or more rounds. In 1953, the design was also adapted to marksman use as M. 53, featuring minor ergonomic changes, fixed bipod and importantly a longer barrel with semi-auto only mode.



In service, the GZ / M.44 proved likeable for soldiers, especially the colonial troops who appreciated its somewhat more reliable nature than the M.18 machine gun, smaller size compared to previous bolt-action rifles, and its ability to lay suppressive fire on-demand. The rifle saw action during the aforementioned War on the Pacific, Cape Crisis, and Formosa Intervention of 1961. Despite being a relatively good design for its time, it was dated in comparison to other rifles by the early 1960s and severely deteriorated in reliability after production ceased in the late 50s. The battle rifle was withdrawn by the army in 1965 before being fully retired from the armed forces in 1972, while the marksman rifle was maintained a bit longer before being discarded in 1980.

[Aiseus]

Lirtava Armory Infantry Rifle Number 3

The Lirtava Infantry Rifle Number 3, known during development as the Lirtava Standard Repeating Rifle, was the first service rifle of the nascent Siadrian Republic (West Siadria) in the years following the fall of the Hymuth Empire. Finalized during the later stages of the Great War, it began life as an experimental semi-automatic rifle intended to up-gun the Royal Siadrian Army and keep them competitive. Using a long-stroke gas-operated action, the final design was approved in 1947, while still technically a Hymuth vassal state, and then began manufacture in 1950, mere months after Siadrian independence. The design was simple, easy to operate, and relatively tough, and featured a 10-round detachable magazine that could be loaded with stripper clips. Generally well-liked, the design would enter service that same year in 1950, being named the Infantry Rifle Number 3 as it was the third and accepted proposal for a Siadrian service rifle, with the first and second being an older Hymuth bolt-action rifle and an Aufzenian semi-automatic battle rifle respectively. The adoption of the Number 3 was pushed by the Siadrian government, as supporting their disproportionately large defense industry (mainly owing to their time as a significant arsenal of the Hymuth government) was considered a top priority to avoid economic collapse in the recession following the destruction of the two largest Batarian economies. However, it became evident in the years following the war that fully automatic service rifles were necessary to stay competitive, and by 1958 a fully automatic replacement was ordered by the Siadrian government, with the Number 3 being phased out of active duty over the following decade. The weapon continued to see service with reservists and as a marksman rifle after being withdrawn as a service rifle in various forms until the present.



The weapon also became popular as a sporting rifle in Siadria in the years following it's withdrawal from front-line service. With large numbers of military surplus available, the weapon's price fell dramatically. As a sporting and hunting rifle, the weapon remains common to the current era.

[Themax]

Beaufrois F-62

Decided to go exclusively with a weaponbucket design since it's the only scale I use for individual weapons. The Beaufrois F-62 is used by Charveil armed forces along with it's smaller (but older) brother, the F-59, while also used by Vietnam and by french special forces, even 9 years after its entry in service, it is already a combat proven design that saw all kind of fighting conditions, from Jungle to Desert, where it withstood elements valiantly.

It's an automatic, 7.62x51mm battle rifle, with a 20 rounds magazine that can easily be recognised but remains compatible with some other NATO battle-rifles such as the Hk-417.

The version depicted is the F-62 "FACL-E" an export variant with iron sight and slots for attachments that has been exported to Vietnam and also bought for use by french special forces.

F-62 "FACL-E" Battle Rifle


With the success of the F-62 also came a DMR variant, the FP-62 DMR was introduced shortly after, exported in Vietnam and Charveil as well, it is also considered by various other countries.

FP-62 "DMR"

[Pantsu]

The Bao-2

Bao-2 is a mash of parts and ideas between Martian and Earthling tribes in my 2090 Space-set AU, created primarly from captured parts from abandoned rifles of the UAC with the Bao-1 (Think Space Gov')
Before being made into the Bao-2 which used the general style and the ideas of the Bao-2 with the biggest difference being that the rifle is now hand manufactured by tribes on both planets, used to deal with threats such as Martian Sand Spiders or the bigger creatures of post-collapse Earth.