Coming to you a day early because tomorrow I’ll be driving down the motorways of the UK to go see AEW at Wembley, it’s this week’s News Stand! And man, when I asked the industry to cool it for a week, they turned to me and gently whispered “no”. So lets cover it!
Gunslinger
First up, earlier today we dropped the Deep Dive on this month’s Gunslinger release, giving you more details on the Command and Support teams.
You may notice they are all missing their heads, well it because the new headless models are kind of a pain in the ass to layout in Chitubox with the heads looking as they should. I’m going to investigate some alternative solutions so I can show the models off in the best form.
Speaking of showing off models, Anton dropped off a little preview of some other places where Gunslinger can go. To put it mildly, Anton loves making figures for Vietnam and is really excited to take some of the ideals of Gunslinger and develop some figures to take a step into the light green. These will not be an addition to the core Gunslinger range, so stand by for further details of how you’ll be able to get your hands on these guys.
Spectre Previews New TFO and Operations Goes On Pre-Order!
So err, bit of a big week for Spectre huh?
Start of the week we got first eyes on the new updated Task Force Operators range, with some partially painted examples appearing later in the week. With Spectre moving to retire the original sculpts and move to 3D designed figures, they are also taking a chance to upgrade the gear they are using for the modern day. With the originals coming from way back in 2015, little things have changed in the kit that Spectre is able to show off, such as the Daniel Defence M4 and the adjustment to the helmet layout. I’m interested to see the rest of the range, especially as they have teased having a XM7 rifle model.
The Big News from Spectre this week is the pre-order for the new rules. Keeping the Spectre Operations name, the new book is an entirely new rule set, unconnected with the previous system. To get the hard stuff out of the way, the book is up for pre-order now at £36.00. It includes a physical rulebook, force cards, quick reference guide and a PDF version (that will be delivered to customers slightly early). Pre-orders run until the 21st of September, with physical copies aiming to be dispatched four weeks later (roughly mid-October).
Boring stuff out the way, lets talk about the book. As you can see from the preview screenshots, it’s a very nice looking thing, produced in partnership with Black Side Studios who have nailed the visual aspect of their rule books. You can tell Spectre is going to take full advantage of all the wonderful miniatures photography they have done over the years, so I’m not worried about the book itself being anything less than a lovely object to flick through and enjoy.
To accompany the pre-order, Spectre have also put out some videos to introduce you to the new mechanics, covering things such as the new concepts of Momentum and Stress, as well as how the core game itself is going to work. Obviously these are only intro videos, but it defintiely sounds like there are some major changes between the new book and previous rulesets formerly of the same name. I’m going to hold off on my ocmments until I’ve actually had a chance to get figures to table with the beta PDF.
Of course, what would a new release be without a limited edition model? And man, this guy knocks it out of the park. Taking cues from the old Nomad range but updated with the beneftis of 3d sculpting and more reccent kit, he is rocking a MCX Lite chambered in 7.62×39 (the SR47 lives again) complete with the older model ACOG and an under barrel M320. I really like the pose and overall design, he should look great among your militia fighters or running a solo op. And even better for the fans, he doesn’t require you to buy the book. Although only avaliable during the pre-order window, you can buy him seperately or add him to the cart with the rulebook and get a small discount.
Enemy Spotted Studios Prepares for NOVA
ESS are going to Nova next weekend in Washington DC! However, afterwards they will be bringing out physical copies of the new INX: Recon book. Spiral bound with a rather nice looking design style to them, it seems a great place to get your hands on the rules if you want more than the free PDF.
That’s not all though. It seems as though ESS will also be releasing a modern operator dressing up as George Washington, complete with wig. I have some questions but frankly it’s an event model so go nuts. It will be available at Nova or via their online Pack members store.
Bobmack3d Launches Its Latest Kickstarter – Soviet First Echelon
It’s about that time, when Bobmack3d appears with a brand new Kickstarter when the savings are too good to ignore. This time, it’s the Soviet First Echelon – T72s, BMP-2s, 2S1 artillery pieces and the Zil-131 truck. Oh and the Mi-24, which look like they are going to be a monster to get printed (while also looking cool as hell).
As always, the Kickstarter will provide the models in the three main scales (15mm, 20mm and 28mm) with the option to pick either the cheaper base level or the higher version with the Stowed version. There are also a lot of stretch goals, adding variants of the base models such as the modernised (for 1989) T-72B M1989 and various upgrade parts for the Hind. There is also an Object 781 Proto-terminator STL if you push to the Turbo Backer level.
If this interests you, you can find the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bm3d/soviet-cold-war-first-echelon-3d-stl-files
Design For Battle Announces Business Change
Bit of an interesting one here. Design for Battle, a company that has been making a very cool range of Virtus equipped British Army figures, posted up this news piece about their plans for ranges moving forward. It’s interesting to see them deciding to go to a not for profit route but what might be more interesting is the mention that all ranges will be avaliable as STLs, resin prints or even metals. This choice is great, opening them up to a wider audance and letting people collect how they want. I’ll be keeping an eye on these guys.
The Solo Wargamer Shows Off Haywire
After last week’s announcement, The Solo Wargamer wasted exactly 0 time and got to showing off Haywire, his new rulset. The video above shows off the core of the game, letting you see just what he has planned with this easy to learn and fun to play games designed for the solo player.
Part 2 covers off some more of the mechanics, including the class cards. If you’ve seen any of The Solo Wargamer’s other projects, you can see the familar level of visual design at play here, using combining art assets from other places to make a nice set of gaming aids to get you playing quickly. Part 3 is coming soon, and then it won’t be long until a full release for free so that everyone can give it a go.
Fire! Modern Combat Starts It’s Previews
After I sent out last week’s news stand, I was reached out to by the team behind Fire! Modern Combat. This is a game I’ve seen mentioned a few times both on Facebook and Instagram but hadn’t really had a chance to do a deeper dive into it. Lukcily for me, they have been making a set of videos that they are slowly rolling out over the next few weeks, all in preparation for an upcoming Kickstarter project. This is definitely a project that has been in the works for a while, so it’s going to be cool to see how it all works out.
Modern Miniatures Summer Sale is On!
Finally, Modern Minaitures is running a Summer sale on their MMF store. If you use the code “SUMMER23“, you can get 30% off anything on the store. I can heartilty reccomend the Humvees in all their various forms, while my desk can attest to the pile of Russian Cars I’ve been printing for cover.
If you want to support my work on gathering the news together, my Patreon is the best way to keep things going. With a minimal cost of £1 a month, every little helps to keep the news spigot flowing and to let me cover more of the suppliers out there.
