I stumbled upon this gem of a dronuary build yesterday and was immediately taken by the aggressive near future military design aesthetic of the humanoid and walker style drones. Squad Sierra is a must-see.

ReD M’s humanoid Pawns and their companion Missile Support Drone - Apollo mk. III

Builder ReD M is a master of high-quality sci-fi digital creations, including many that you might have seen during the height of the Hibernia Flickr community craze a few months ago. So it comes as no surprise that the latest build is another winner.

When asked about the build ReD explained the following:

“I initially started with only Apollo for droneuary but the final result felt like “that’ was it?”, so the Pawns were added at the last day before posting.”

Adding these fantastic “Pawns” to the build elevated it to a well-rounded squad, but it leaves me with the nagging question of who or what controls these drones… and what game of military chess are these Pawns meant to win?!

It’s the realistic attention to detail that first drew me in. There’s a great blend of greebling to suggest motors, servos, actuators, and other mechanical goop underneath the smooth and well-shaped armor. On top of that, the color blocking evokes a utilitarian feel with only a couple of gracefully incorporated accents as befits military hardware. Finally, the decals add another layer of realism and just the right touch to finish off the build.

ReD tells me the coloring process goes as follows:

“I always start building with plain black, then as I go along I temporarily paint everything with other colors just to see which would fit the vibe of the shape, or sometimes based on what theme it would be. Once I’m done with building, I really take a long time with choosing the final color scheme, fortunately some of the color blocking comes naturally with the build. And lastly before the final render, decals are applied to make it more visually alluring.”

There’s no doubt about it, Chappie's no nonsense cousins and their pet rocket-launching walker are a force to be reckoned with. Great work ReD!