Project: Strike Force Wollondilly

Remember one of my first posts, when I talked about Full Thrust? I mentioned that I had two fleets. The alien Sa'Vasku with their bioships, and the Oceanic Union - Space Australia (and friends).

Oceanic Union Strike Force Wollondilly

Here they are! I finally got around to getting some photos taken.

The Oceanic Union are a federation consisting of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and a host of Pacific nations - Tuvalu, Vanuatu, &c. Given the balkanisation of the former United States in the setting, I like to think that Hawai'i was a late joiner. This also handily explains why the New Anglian Confederation and the Oceanic Union aren't as close as the modern UK-USA-AU alliance. As we'll see, I've also included Timor-Leste as a member, although the former Portuguese Timor had yet to succesfully leave Indonesia when Jon wrote his timeline.

Jon never really detailed the minor factions, but the Full Thrust community has agglutinated a kind of quasi-canon. One such detail is that Oceanic Union Defence Force ships (OUDFS; 'oddfuss') are usually painted in designs indigenous to the regions of the Federation. When combined with the flat, panelled surfaces of OUDFS ships, this gives a great deal of freedom for striking freehand designs.

This project was actually finished in May 2018; you can see the project unfold in real-time on the old Tumblr.

Below the cut for more individual photos!

Oceanic Union frigates

Top Left: OUDFS Djirrabidi, Snake-class frigate.
Top Middle: OUDFS Hydrophis, Snake-class frigate.
Top Right: OUDFS Peacock, Spider-class torpedo boat.

Bottom Left: OUDFS Bird-Eater, Spider-class torpedo boat.
Bottom Middle: OUDFS Katipō, Spider-class torpedo boat.
Bottom Right: OUDFS Funnel Web, Spider-class torpedo boat.

Oceanic Union frigates come in two varieties; the Snake-class frigate and the Spider-class torpedo ship. The former is heavily armed, but results in cramped conditions for the crew, while the Spider-class requires a pack to operate at full effectiveness.

The Snake-class frigates are named for the Eora word for red-bellied black snake and a species of sea snake, respectively, and have vaguely Indigenous Australian designs. The Spider-class ships are named for various Australian spiders except the OUDFS Katipō, a New Zealand spider related to the black widow.

Oceanic Union River-class destroyers

Left: OUDFS Indooroopilly, River-class destroyer.
Right: OUDFS Wainui, River-class destroyer.

The River-class destroyer is a "maid of all work" for the Union, capable of acting as light cruiser, escort cruiser, destroyer, or attack transport with equal facility. When outfitted with lighter modules, they can become the popular police/paramilitary Freemantle-class patrol vessel.

OUDFS Indooroopilly is named for a suburb of Brisbane; the word is supposed to mean something like 'place where two rivers meet', although it probably doesn't. OUDFS Wainui is the name of at least four rivers in New Zealand! You can see some of my design sketches here on the old blog.

Oceanic Union Numbat-class light cruisers

Left: OUDFS Walpurti, Numbat-class light cruiser.
Right: OUDFS Kombilol, Numbat-class light cruiser.

A numbat is a marsupial insectivore, so I wanted my two Numbat-class light cruisers to reflect this in their designs. Walpurti is just the Pitjantjatjara word for the little guy, so that one was easy. Kombilol is the word for ‘quoll’ - a marsupial carnivore - in the language of the Wola people of the New Guinean highlands. The design for these two gave me a bit of trouble, which you can read about here.

Oceanic Union Tuvalu-class heavy cruiser

OUDFS Funafuti, Tuvalu-class heavy cruiser.

The Tuvalu-class heavy cruisers have an interesting history, with the cost of the original designs blowing out substantially. The Oceanic Union is a featherweight power in the Full Thrust setting, so an expensive space navy isn't an option. The OUDFS Funafuti (named for the capital of Tuvalu) is most likely a Tuvalu II design.

Oceanic Union Waikato-class escort carriers with Boomerang-class fighters

Left: OUDFS Waikiki, Waikato-class escort carrier
Right: OUDFS Wollondilly, Waikato-class escort carrier

Both ships are shown with their complements of Boomerang-class fighters.

OUDFS Wollondilly is actually named in the Star Ranger in-universe description, where she's described as usually operating as a light battleship instead of a carrier. I'm ignoring that, because I love spaceship carriers. I may have watched my cousin play Wing Commander at a formative age or something. Design notes.

The OUDFS Waikiki is one of the more striking designs in the fleet, based on Hawai'ian feather cloaks.

The Boomerang-class fighters are kept very simple, as they're extremely bloody small.

Oceanic Union Dunedin-class battlecruiser

OUDFS Dare, Dunedin-class battlecruiser.

Named for the city in Timor-Leste, you can see that this is from when I was still less confident with freehand. The effect is still striking though.

Oceanic Union Cooma-class battleship

OUDFS Canberra, Cooma-class battleship.

I'm not actually very happy with this design, but she sat on my desk for months, and any finished miniature is a good miniature, so we're keeping it. As far as I'm concerned, the flagship is actually the OUDFS Wollondilly anyway.

Japanese Katana-class fighters, mecha mode

Left: Deathscythe squadron, Japanese Katana-class fighters [mecha mode only]
Right: Seeker squadron, Japanese Katana-class fighters [mecha mode only]

Not part of Strike Force Wollondilly proper, these were painted because they're fleet-scale mecha. I am only human!

In-universe, these were purchased from the Japanese by the Oceanic Union. I can substitute them for Boomerang-class squadrons, or they make good defensive fighters for space stations, or asteroid miner militia or what-have for scenario-based gaming . Mostly, they're just cool.

Each squadron is reduced in strength to represent the fact that mecha are a bit tougher in combat than regular spaceship fighters, but this wouldn't be reflected in the game. It's just a bit of fun.

part of Strike Force Wollondilly

That's it! This is one of those rare things - a completed project. Gosh. That said, if Jon ever releases an Auckland-class carrier or a Jervis Bay-class fleet auxiliary, we might revisit the fleet...

Strike Force Wollondilly consists of the following:

4 x Spider-class torpedo boats
2 x Snake-class frigates
2 x River-class destroyers
2 x Numbat-class light cruisers
1 x Tuvalu-class heavy cruiser
2 x Waikato-class escort carriers
1 x Dunedin-class battlecruiser
1 x Cooma-class battleship

So that's about:

6 x light ships
2 x destroyers
3 x cruisers
1 x battlecruiser
2 x light carriers
1 x battleship

This is very similar in strength to Codename: Sothoth, although the alien bioships probably pip the humans in terms of ship efficiency. It's a tough fight out there! Maybe the humans should impress some merchant ships...