Experienced 3D Artist Needed: 40+ Sci-Fi Factory Machine Assets (Unity, Hard-Surface Style)

Overview: I'm building a sci-fi factory/crafting game in Unity where players construct and connect industrial machines on a factory floor. Each machine receives and outputs "packets" (beakers of material) through a routing system handled by game code. The machines currently have simple placeholder visuals. I need an experienced hard-surface 3D artist to replace all of them with professional, detailed, animated sci-fi assets that have a cohesive style that reasonably compliments the visual style of Vattalus's ship interior assets (which I'll share directly as reference). Style reference: The game's ship is a legendary craft built in the 26th century that had magical properties. The machines have metal industrial looks with occasional gold accents, cables, wires, emissive lights to indicate operational status (on/off/jammed), panels where magic circles (generated by software) will be displayed and animated, and the occasional pentagram and astrological symbols in load bearing structures. Items that make sense to have moving components (mixers, centrifuges, furnaces, etc.) will need additional animation. Scope: There are 40 distinct machine types organized into families (e.g. several conveyor variants, several mixer types, several furnace types, etc.). The family structure means many machines share a common base form and silhouette — the artist should approach this as a modular kit build: establish the family base mesh first, then variant each member of the family from it, rather than modeling every machine from scratch. This is the correct approach both creatively and economically. Machine types include (but are not limited to): conveyors, mixers, furnaces, quench tanks, and other factory-floor processing units. Full list provided on hire. Each machine asset requires: Game-ready 3D model (FBX), appropriately scaled for a factory floor environment PBR textures (albedo, normal, metallic/roughness) — please recommend resolution appropriate for a PC Unity game; shared texture atlases across a family are encouraged Clean UV unwrap Basic looping animation(s) in FBX (e.g. conveyor belt scrolling, mixer drum rotating, furnace door cycling, indicator lights pulsing) — machine idle/operating states. Packet movement through machines is handled by game code and does not need to be animated Source files in your native format (Blender, Maya, etc.) What I'll provide: Full access to Vattalus ship asset files for style matching. Screenshots and dimensions of each current placeholder machine Full list of all machine types, organized by family Quick turnaround on feedback at each milestone Payment structure — fixed price, batched milestones: This is a large engagement and I want to structure it to protect both parties. Payment is fixed total, released in batches of roughly 10 machines per milestone: Milestone 0 — Style lock (paid separately, ~$300): Artist models ONE machine (one full family member, e.g. a standard conveyor) to establish the visual language, modular kit approach, polycount, and texture resolution for all subsequent work. This gets approved before anything else proceeds. If we can't reach agreement at this stage, the engagement ends here with only Milestone 0 paid. Milestones 1–N — Batches of related machines each, paid on delivery and approval of each batch. Batches are organized by family so the modular kit approach pays off within each batch. Final milestone — Polish + consistency pass, reviewing the full set for visual coherence, fixing any outliers, delivering all source files. Total budget: $5,000 USD fixed. This breaks down to roughly $100–125 per machine including animation, which is fair for family/kit-based work at this style level. Artists who try to quote this as 40+ individual from-scratch models will come in over budget — the modular kit approach is how this scope fits this budget, and I expect applicants to propose how they'd organize the families. I am looking for: An experienced hard-surface sci-fi artist who has shipped game-ready asset sets before — not one-off hero props, but sets of thematically consistent assets. Experience with modular kit design is strongly preferred. This is a long engagement (estimated 2–4 months) and I want someone who can commit to it, not pick it up between other jobs. To apply, please include: Portfolio of hard-surface sci-fi work — sets or kits strongly preferred over individual hero assets At least one example of matching/extending an established visual style (not pure original design work) Your proposed approach to the family/kit structure — how would you organize 40+ machines into a modular system? Estimated timeline for the project based on your availability. Any questions about the machine types, animation requirements, or style brief.