Though now, I have some “proper” ships. Just before Christmas, I ordered Ground Zero Games two-player starter deal and picked out a Sa’Vasku and ScanFed fleet. I liked the general look that the ScanFeds have, and I’ve always been a big fan of bio-ships so the Sa’Vasku were a natural choice as well.
There are 16 ships total, split into two fleets of 8 with matching ship types. Included in the box was also a version of the Full Thrust Light rules so you could give it a whirl and see if you want to try out the (free!) full rules. This can be obtained on the Ground Zero Games website, if you are interested: http://www.groundzerogames.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=9&Itemid=50
First up, the Scandinavian Federation fleet. I went with a nice dark grey and blue color scheme, and made highlights and paneling using light grey and sky blue, the final touch was red for the engines and a white dry-brushing all over. Not bad for my first attempt at a full fleet.
The flash on these models were minimal, with most of it being just a small amount of mold lines. Although, there were two catches to the ScanFed fleet which makes them a bit tricky. First and foremost is how the engines are. On the ship classes larger then destroyers, the engines are separate pieces that need a lot of shaving and filing to get to fit just right with the ship. As well, they like to seem to fill up a little during the molding process, so you need to have a pin vise and hobby knife ready to shape them out a bit. Secondly, for everything destroyer class and up, the forward hull and the rear hull of the ship all fit together in the middle. Meaning it can be a bit tricky to get it level, without it dipping up or down, or leaning to one side
The largest ship in my current ScanFed fleet, the Battlecruiser. Don’t have a catchy name for it just yet.
A frigate next to a destroyer.
The Heavy Cruiser: The second largest ship in the fleet. It’s currently in drydock due to losing its flight stand in a transport mishap
More random images!:
The Sa’Vasku: This were a joy to paint! Being organic I was able to mottle in a lot of different colors without having to worry about consistent. I started with three primary colors, a dark green for the body, ivory for the spikes/appendages, and a dark red for random fleshy spots. For the body, after the first coat or two, I started dabbing highly watered down paint in random places. This added a vary mottled look with different tones of green. I later drybrushed some more green colors with very good results; they sort of added to the organic look while wrangling in the various dabbed colors to make it look somewhat consistent. The ivory spots were then drybrushed with some light brown to add some interest, while I hit all the high points of the red areas with progressively lighter reds and crimsons. I really like the overall look to them.
Counterpart to the ScanFed Battlecruiser. It has more mass, and has IMHO a rather interesting design.
Frigate (Left) with a Light Cruise (right)
The new style Heavy Cruiser, my favorite ship in the fleet and the one I think has the most character. I was able to ask and GZG swapped the old style out with the new one. I can’t wait till more of the newstyle Sa’Vasku come out!
More images:
Closing Thoughts: I really do love both fleets for their own reasons, and hope to grow both when I get the chance. I’m working on a number of space terrain projects that I’m hoping to complete sometime in the near future. For the models themselves, I plan to get some rare earth magnets to put into the bases because I’ve been having a lot of issues with flight stands breaking! It would also make transport much easier as well.
