WIP: Dwarven BattleBarge

I've been running a D&D campaign for the last 14 months or so that's taken a party of six players from 3rd level to 8th as they battle for survival on the remote island of Rhedrise. While I won't try to recount the months and moths of plot that have been developed, I will say that we've finally reached the last chapter of the campaign - which is both a relief and a curse as I look forward to being a player again, but still need to figure out how to wrap it up with an epic conclusion.

The last chapter is set in a volcano that has been colonized by dwarves. While not specifically evil, the dwarves are very much driven by wealth and power, and have fallen to the influence of the nemesis in the campaign. Their volcano kingdom is extensive, and filled with all sorts of mining wonders, including magical boats they can sail across the magma filled crater to different parts of the volcano.

Since I've run my entire campaign using dungeon alchemist, this has led me to developing some new 3D assets to help make both mines and the dwarven realms look more lived in and dwarf-ish. I find the current assets to be somewhat constraining.

Enter the Battlebarge

To navigate across the magma filled crater, the dwarves have built a Battlebarge designed to withstand the blistering heat of molten rock while providing a great platform of firepower to repel attacks of hostile fire elementals.

I have to admit, like any artist, I take inspiration where I can find it, and having stumbled on the thunderbarge from Warhammer, I thought it might be fun to model something similar, but for lava. Enter the Battlebarge, now available on the Dungeon Alchemist Workshop, along with a variety of propeller designs - including one which is animated, and one which is damanged and rusting.

The Balloon

The BattleBarge is cool and all, and will likely be a ton of fun for our party, but I have one more trick up my sleeve that I'd like to finish - the flying version. The plan will be to model a balloon/blimp top that can be overlayed on top of the battle barge model to create a "floating" version in dungeon alchemist. Since DA enables you to freely move models on the Z-axis, it should be cake to get this puppy off the ground and hovering above landscapes.

I've started playing with the balloon texture, and have been working to develop an entirely procedural texture mimicking canvas panels. It's looking pretty good so far, but I think I can do better. I just started playing with rigging too...

I like where it's headed - but it'll take a bit more work to really get it to the point where I'm super happy with it. I think the final results will be well worth it. I'm also noodling on whether to create a transparent version of the balloon model so people can still place characters on the barge underneath when it's used in the context of a Battle Map.

This isn't the most original work, but it's been fun playing with procedural texturing and working on a large model for importing into DA. It's good to get experience where you can find it!

More to come.