Project: Codename: Sothoth

When I was fourteen - o, lo! many years ago - and was first getting into wargaming, one of the local chaps showed me this cool spaceship game. This was before Battlefleet Gothic, and there was nothing like it in the local scene. It featured three different species of aliens, each more horrible and weird than the last. Humans hadn't unified, like in Star Trek, instead clumped into a handful of superpowers... which included the United States back under the rule of the British Crown.

The game was called Full Thrust and is completely awesome.

More Thrust, the first supplement book

A few years ago, I decided I wanted to get back into wargaming (or at least painting miniatures, as I didn't have any opponents and it turns out that being in your thirties doesn't prevent you from being awkward about introducing yourself to gaming groups). Ground Zero Games has always had very reasonable prices and shipping, so I decided to plump for some of those cool spaceships I'd wanted as a teenager.

I purchased two intro sets: the Oceanic Union, a federation of Australasian-Pacific states and the Sa'Vasku, an advanced alien species who use living bioships which consume their own bio-matter to power their systems and generate drones. 

Elder strike ship and strike ship See below.

I wanted the Sa'Vasku to have an organic sense, but still retain their essential alien-ness, so I looked to Terran arthropods for colour scheme inspiration. I'm hardly unique among the folks with Sa'Vasku ships for doing this, but I also wanted to avoid the drab browns and ochres that 'organic' often means in this context. Luckily, arthropods are super weird:

Blue swimmer crab. Photo from WA Fisheries.

Electric blues for the spikey bits, and white patterns for the core bodies. I went with a solid stellar black for the torso themselves. They're artificially engineered bioships, sure, but this lets me pretend that they have a natural kind of space camouflage. (Yes, I know that doesn't make sense). The underbellies are purple, as some swimmer crabs get a purple tinge. The overall effect generates a striking, science fiction colour pattern, while still showing a sort of organic realness.

Plus, I'd never worked with a bright blue, and I try to pretend to push my limited painting skills.

Drone fighters - finished 02 Aug 2019!

I've really enjoyed this project, and the folks on the Full Thrust Facebook group have been very kind each time I posted an update. During the unfortunate recent business, I managed to finish everything I had planned for this project, so I can reveal the results below. As you will see, in the past two years, the tablet I was using to background the photos perished mysteriously, so not everything looks as cool as it could.

2 x Fo'Sath'Aan-class attack ships (frigates).
2 x Fo'Vur'Ath-class elder attack ships (heavy destroyers).
2 x Var'Arr'Sha-class younger strike ships (light cruisers).

Var’Tuur’Sha-class strike ship (attack cruiser).
Shyy’Tha’Var-class elder strike ship (battlecruiser).

 More shots of the Var’Tuur’Sha-class strike ship.

my partner bought me this after I finished my masters!

A cabinet photo of the fleet at this point, 14 Mar 2018.

2 x Thy'Sa'Teth-class (cruiserweight fighter motherships).

2 x Fo'Vann'Ath-class elder attack ships (destroyers).

3 x Fo'Kiir'Tha-class battle scouts (corvettes).

Drone fighters.

atmospheric!
Biofreighters are from the Phalon range, but they look okay as Sa'Vasku transports.

Sa'Vasku podship escorting three biofreighters. Sensor scan, New Pacifica sector, no date [c.2200].

Vas'Sa'Rosh-class elder leader ship (superdreadnought flagship) with associated fighter drones.

I finished the last model on 03 Aug 2019! That's nearly three years since I started it, but - hear me out - I finished the project. We don't get to say that often in this hobby. I have no plans to add to this fleet at this point, as it should be a good number to game around.

Codename: Sothoth consists of the following:

3 x Fo'Kiir'Tha-class battle scouts (corvettes).
2 x Fo'Sath'Aan-class attack ships (frigates).
2 x Fo'Vann'Ath-class elder attack ships (destroyers).
2 x Fo'Vur'Ath-class elder attack ships (heavy destroyers).
2 x Var'Arr'Sha-class younger strike ships (light cruisers).
1 x Var’Tuur’Sha-class strike ship (attack cruiser).
1 x Shyy’Tha’Var-class elder strike ship (battlecruiser).
2 x Thy'Sa'Teth-class (cruiserweight fighter motherships).
1 x Vas'Sa'Rosh-class elder leader ship (superdreadnought flagship)

2 x light freighters
1 x freighter

There is also a handful of drone squadrons to cover any bred by the Thy'Sa'Teth and Vas'Sa'Rosh ships.

In human terms, this roughly comes to:

5 x light ships
4 x destroyers
3 x cruisers
1 x battlecruiser
2 x light carriers
1 x superdreadnought

3 x support ships

I will update this post with a good quality all-fleet image sometime soon, I hope. Until then, scourge those bad, revolting stars!

Comet 67P. Image taken by Rosetta, taken from here.