Steampunk Airship Dock and Erecting Shed

What is placed

A riveted dock deck about 40 by 36 metres, edged with railing and cast bollards. A rigid steampunk airship rides the mooring mast on the west run: envelope, nose cone and mooring cup, keel truss, cruciform tail, a crew gondola and two engine cars, with a wheeled boarding stair at each side.

On the east run her sister is under assembly, laid out as the uncovered envelope frame with the keel truss dropped in, ring frames standing on trestles waiting to be fitted, a spare tail unit, fin panels on trestles, a gondola and engine cars still on the deck, all of it flanked by railed catwalk runs, caged ladders, a second gantry and a slewing jib crane.

The erecting shed runs along the west edge in two bays. The north bay is sheeted over and holds the fitting out work: a ring frame, a fin panel and flying kit on a stand. The machine bay and the new south bay are left as open trusses so both can be seen and lit from the deck: a belt driven screw cutting lathe, a pillar drill press, a pedestal grinder, an anvil on a timber block, benches with vices and drawers, tool chests, parts racks, crates and a beam mounted chain hoist. The south apron carries the gas plant: a riveted vertical boiler, a horizontal pressure vessel, pipe runs, valve standpipes, lifting gas cylinder racks and a pump trolley. A brass control console, an engine room telegraph and a pressure gauge board stand against the shed wall where the deck crew would use them.

What moves

Both engine car airscrews spin and the mooring mast head slews. The cruciform tail steers and tilts. The gondola doors open and close, and so do the tool chest, the toolbox, the crate lids, the bench drawer and the chart table drawer. The gantry runs its trolley along the beam and lowers its hoist, the jib crane slews and raises, the beam chain hoist lifts, and the sliding shed door opens as you reach it. The boiler and the lathe, the drill press, the grinder, the pump trolley, the cog stand and every valve hand wheel turn. The console levers and the telegraph handles rock.

What does not move, and why

Chains, cables, hoses, drive belts, pipework and the envelope fabric are static. A flexible run needs a joint per link, and these models animate with one rigid node transform per moving part, which cannot bend a rope or a hose without faking it badly. There are no people anywhere: the pack has no skinned meshes.

Every piece here is a published model from the pack, placed by hand. Walk with the keys or touch, and approach a piece to see it move if it has animation. Colliders, navigation and gameplay are yours to add.