Steampunk airship model

This is a steampunk airship I made, which I ended up adding to a scene for school later on. It was a personal project to improve with PBR texturing. The goal was to create a detailed and realistic airship that could fit in a steampunk world. I used reference images of blimps, ships, boats and some steampunk airships to guide me. The main difficulty I faced was achieving a nice silhouette and finding a color palette which worked well for the airship's worn and weathered look.

While making this model I tried aiming for a piece that could be used in a first person game. So I tried to really keep the proportions and scale in mind while also keeping the polycount low.

I started with gathering as much reference as I could. I looked at real life blimps and airships, as well as steampunk airships from games and movies. After that, I made the hull and engines of the airship in Blender. At this point I had to leave the project for a while due to the high workload at school.

When I came back to the project I started working on the cabin and details of the airship.

• Finding a good silhouette
• Balancing realism and stylization
• Getting the proportions right

The biggest problem I faced at the start was finding a good silhouette for the airship. I tried to find a good balance between a realistic/useable airship and a steampunk airship. I first focused on the engines and exhausts, trying to find a good shape and size for them. After that, I worked on the main body of the airship, trying to find a good shape and size for it as well.

Once I got to the cabin of the ship, I got stuck for multiple days trying to find a good design for it. I couldn't find a lot of reference for a cabin that would fit on this ship. I tried a cabin with a crane, but that felt too heavy for the airship. I tried without a cabin and just a steering panel, but that felt too empty. Eventually I did find a few good reference images that worked well and I based my cabin on those.