Every Airship Dock Needs a Dirigible

Written 22 November, 2010

Every Airship Dock Needs a Dirigible

It only makes sense that since we have a dock for lighter-than-air craft, at least one airship should be moored to it.

I would have loved to have rezzed Carrah Rossini's wonderful Selene craft, but at 166 prims I thought it best to save it for special occasions. Carrah's Nereide flying submarine weighs in at 104 prims, but I thought that was a bit heavy, too, for basic decor.

For thirty-five Lindens, I bought a dirigible on SL Exchange. Made by ikaros Kappler, it's a physical vehicle that seats six avatars. It had no gondola, however, so I put it aside with an idea of perhaps modifying it later.

Then I thought of Cubey Terra's airship. I've had it forever, since 2006 or possibly very early 2007. It seats four, can be flown, and is modifiable. Unfortunately, out of the box it looks like this:

Technically speaking, Cubey's airship is a blimp instead of a dirigible because it has no hard frame, but I ran with the title because dirigible sounds so much more sophisticated than blimp. Don't you think?

Cubey's ship allows for a custom side panel and tail decals via script, but fortunately the vehicle is modifiable. I tried several textures on the surface, and finally selected a circus tent fabric I bought somewhere.I applied it to the applicable prims, added a side panel Sweetie made when we first got Whimsy, and spent some time adjusting everything. Here's the result. I'm happy with it.

It looks good above the store, and uses only 27 prims.