With the Chevrolet Silverado K35 design pretty much finalized (still have a lot left to do), I started work on the smaller Silverado 7/8 pickup truck, which I now renamed to "Colorado", and the smaller truck below that will not be called Colorado anymore. It will be known as "Desperado". So, the Colorado was next for the project, but I ended up hitting a wall with the design. I am rethinking my decision on a few things right now, such as the target audience and the risks involved with the design direction I had planned. Also, during that time, a thought had occurred to me. I was planning on a GMC variant of the Silverado K35, which meant another one-ton dually truck for the project. Though the GMC version would be much more gussied up than the Chevrolet model, I felt that there really was no need to design two of the same type of trucks, so I came up with a quick but exciting solution...
Here is the first of four marker sketches, for now. It is the GMC Mjolnir 3/4-ton pickup truck. With all the talk online about GMC being a potential spiritual successor to the now dead Hummer brand, I thought about how I could approach the idea. The Hummer H2, arguably the most famous, or infamous, vehicle from Hummer's lineup before its death, was a 3/4-ton sports-utility-vehicle with unmatched off-road capabilities in its size class. I cannot quite understand why General Motors decided on a heavy-duty platform for the H2 from the beginning, but the H2 did have some great uses outside of off-roading thanks to its heavy frame. It could tow and haul a good amount of weight and survive some tough conditions rather well. I wanted to take that idea and give it a much more usable form, in the form of a pickup truck. Of course, General Motors was ridiculed for making one "mistake" with the H2's off-road ready suspension; it had an independent front suspension with very limited spring travel... My remedy is an expensive one, but a fun one: portal axles! The front is a solid portal axle with geared hubs like the military HUMVEE of the Mercedes-Benz Unimog. Concerning the sketch shown above, I was thinking of a rather tough, somewhat brutalist design (though "brutalist" is more of an architecture term, I think). Even the front windshield is just a tad sleeker than the Hummer H2, which means it is rather boxy compared to a current GMC Sierra pickup truck.
This sketch shows a slightly different style, but overall it is pretty much the same. The grille tapers towards the top. However, I feel that a more streamlined look will be better, considering the body panel design I have been planning is rather sleek yet tough, and the front end of the above two sketches are leaning too much to the tough side.
I had actually created a sleek front end design for the Mjolnir back when I was still considering a dually body style. I felt that the design could be converted into a proper off-road utility style front end by swapping out the bumper for an armored type. This sketch also shows my idea for a black center body panel array. The hood is actually vented, and that black panel is slightly recessed. The black would be a matte surface, too.
This sketch is a more detailed idea for the front end. The bumper needs some working out, so I decided to leave that out for now. The grille is needing some adjustments; the insert pieces ought to have a more dynamic and consistent look to it. As it is, it is too chunky, especially the side ends. The headlight inserts are a quick experiment, but it could work very well as an identifying feature for this truck, especially because of that small gap on the yellow LED strand. The bumper does jut out quite a bit, but it is still taped on the bottom to allow for class-leading approach angle. Because of that protrusion, there may be enough room for a heavy-duty 12,000 lbs winch. The grille color is going to be either matte black or a nice "old iron" texture, or perhaps some type of color or texture in relation to the Mjolnir hammer wielded by Thor...
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