Firefly VTOL - ALLOY
Special thanks to Marnix Rekkers for giving me feedback throughout this project.
Shout out to Ivan Didenko for his awesome fan rendition of this design: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/elbBa3
This is a design I developed last summer for a vehicle in my sci-fi fantasy universe ALLOY.
Story:
The Firefly VTOL was the flagship VTOL plane of the HIA (Human Interstellar Alliance) in the 23rd century. It was developed by Mecha Ind. to be a large and versatile platform, being equipped to withstand the freezing temperatures of space and the harsh weather conditions of Europa.
What is ALLOY?
ALLOY is my visual sci-fi fantasy IP set in the not-too-distant future of the 23rd century. It depicts the adventures of a lost human soldier and her robot companion, an angry goddess, a young mage who has to protect humanity from the horrors of space, and more. I plan to realize this project in the form of a series of webcomics, concept artworks and illustrations.
Final design. The overall aesthetic is inspired by real-world stealth aircraft.
Painting sketch of the final design
Action shots
Final sketches of the finished design
The sketches are still rough but I'd clean stuff up with more drawing.
I refined the soap box dropship design after I was done with the big VTOL.
With this project, I got to dive into exploring real-world military aircraft.
Thumbnails
Wing and engine placement ideas. The initial design looked a lot more like a soap box than a plane
Different purposes
Engine ideas. The vehicle should be able to vertically take off and land
Real-world helicopter cockpits inspired the cockpit design.
The vehicle has to have points of entry.
I also wanted to make the platform more versatile so I put hard points for weaponry if needed.
I got some feedback and the design direction changed half-way through the process. I decided that I'd rather make a VTOL plane instead of a soap box drop ship so I added larger wings.
I also changed the gun hard points to be closer to the center of gravity.
The 3d block-out I made in Maya for the final model sheet.
