"War is the wrong place for good men"
- Amos Burton, The Expanse Book 5, James S.A Corey
THE INSPIRATIONS FOR WW2044
I did not invent this genre, so full credit up front. The whole "what would WW2 kit look like if the battles were fought in the 2040s" idea was pioneered by a couple of Chinese concept artists, Venerst and Stella Shu. The first time I saw Venerst's AVT-40 'Zenitco' and that SIG Sauer XM-17 riff on a BAR, something clicked, and after that I could not stop thinking about vehicles, infantry, factions, the works. Their work is incredible, so make sure to check out their portfolios at artstation.com/venerst and artstation.com/zshd11
Those modernized MG42 lineage guns nail the exact feeling I am chasing for this project: althistory meets hard sci fi, with just a dash of dieselpunk. I like to think Venerst and Stella set the bar, and most of what I do is trying to clear it with a full worldbuilding array.
ABOUT GROUNDED VS DIESELPUNK
Every gun starts from a real World War 2 firearm and gets dragged forward eighty years. That is the whole trick. The silhouette has to stay readable, so when you glance at the StG44 (2044) you still go "oh, that is a Sturmgewehr," even with a red dot, a Blitzstrahl laser-lamp unit and a polymer handguard bolted on. Same deal with the Bren. The 2043 version has a canted hybrid sight (Dunno how to aim this thing otherwise) and a .303 British polymer mag feeding from the top, but I like to think it still reads as a Bren from across the room.
The other rule is faction identity. Each side needs to look like its own thing at a glance, so I am thinking tan and brown (MOE) colors for the Allies and green and dark greys for the Axis. I also like dropping small serial numbers and flags on there. Shameless plug of my day job here (A man's gotta pay rent) but check out Flagmaker & Print if you ever want your own historical flags on the wall.
A FEW OF THE GUNS
The G43 (2043) is a good example of how deep the rabbit hole goes. I started from darthpandanl's lovely Gunbucket render of the original Gewehr 43, then modernized it into a DMR with a chunky 7.62 adjacent cartridge. The Haenel model stock is a wink at the firm that actually built the real Sturmgewehr in 1944.
And yes, before anyone asks: the G43 got side rails because I was playing Incursion: Red River and it looked kinda neat. Tacticool definitely plays a role when I am designing these, naturally 😀.
LETTING THE COMMENTS COOK
Keen eyes will spot community feedback baked straight into some of these. When I posted an earlier G43 pass, a commenter went in with a proper breakdown: fold the stock instead of running a buffer tube, the LPVO is mounted too far forward so the eye relief will not line up, drop a picatinny bridge mount like on an M14 EBR, and nobody in 2043 is running full picatinny handguards when M-LOK exists. Fair points, all of them. So I moved the scope back to the eye, put it on a side rail mount, and shifted the Cobra to a more ergonomic spot. I kept the Picatinnys though, because maybe I am on the military industrial complex payroll, maybe I am not.
I love this part of the process. I am not a firearms engineer, I am a guy who draws, so when someone who actually knows their stuff takes the time to comment, the whole world gets more believable. Thanks to everyone who does it!
WHERE THIS IS HEADING
If you want the full deep dives, my Dev Diaries series ties all the reference and study material in with my usual messy sketch process. The latest one follows a Sd.Kfz.341 IFV variant rolling outside Vielsalm (incidentally my favorite hiking area), Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge 2044, which you can read here: German half-track IFVs during the Battle of the Ardennes, 2044. If you like my style of content, I suggest always signing up to the Kaiser Cat Collective newsletter too - I send out a monthly digest of all our worldbuilding, concepts and more.
More is always cooking: fresh art drops, dev diaries, and the newsletter. Everything lands on the project site first, so check out https://kaisercatcinema.com/ww2044 for more
Vincent De Nil is a concept artist and the founder of Kaiser Cat Cinema. WW2044 is his ongoing alt-history project reimagining the Second World War fought with 2040s technology. New art drops, dev diaries, and the occasional overthought design breakdown show up on the project site first. Links in bio.