I am pleased to announce the third release of the new Gunslinger range from Flytrap Digital is available now, for those backing the Patron at the appropriate levels. This release ties up this quarter, bringing an end to the Black Sector Global Interdiction Group releases with a rather unusual set while also providing some OPFOR to go up against them.
This month also marks the end of what we internally have been referring to as our prototype period – we’ve worked through the initial teasing troubles, set up the processes we’ll use in the months going forward and are in the process of preparing to kick in the door of a whole new range. There are lots of exciting things planned and we wouldn’t have got here without the support of all the Patrons and those excited for all things Gunslinger.
Disclosure time! This post is part of my work with Gunslinger. As one of the the four people who run that project, I’ve played a pretty major part in the creation of these figures, doing the initial spec and pack layouts through to delivering the Gunslinger social media posts over on Facebook and Instagram.
In the last two months, the focus has been on giving you a set of figures ideal for the action on moments of all the wargames we play, letting you build a reasonable force with plenty of options. However, this final month is going to do two things – provide your force with alternative figures for a common situation in wargaming and introduce a whole new faction through a unique Character team.
Security Team
Ultramodern gaming is full of covert actions – nighttime raids, attacks on unaware positions in the rear or maybe even some undercover work in a non-permissible environment. Many of these actions require you to have a set of goons or guards ready to be avoided by your stealthy operatives or viciously stabbed in the back if you prefer my version of stealth. However, not many ranges provide you with figures to set up your board for these escapades. A Security pack will be included in each Gunslinger range, this should give you options to support these scenarios with a mixture of poses from being on patrol to taking a tactical pause for a smoko. The pack is also ideal for those interested in painting or assembling dioramas, giving you some more interesting poses to play around with. All six figures are equipped with all the gear you would expect from the Black Sector figures with the latest in plate carriers, tactical equipment and modified weapon systems to give you a high-tier enemy for your hero characters to attempt to evade.
In addition to the poses, the Security pack includes a new set of heads. The latest HYDRA Pack (as the head releases have been rebranded) includes 5 new heads to add to your collection, expanding out the basic Black Sector heads to include new variants (goggles, glasses and more) as well as a more characterful head to lead your team.
Of course, to go up against a team of sentries, you need the covert operatives themselves. That’s where our first Character Team comes in.
Blockade Burya-156 Team
Burya-156 is a team of four operatives belonging to a new faction in the Gunslinger setting. Blockade functions as a private military contractor with a focus on maritime security all over the world. However, this is a ruse. Instead, Blockade is an arm of the failed Russian Federation, performing covert operations all over the world. This pack models a team on a mission, having just dumped their bulky scuba equipment and collected their weapons to infiltrate a facility. The details show them to be highly trained and well equipped, with the AMB-17 integrally suppressed rifle as the weapon of choice for most of the team.
Each of the four operators (Valentina, Igor, Ilya and Sascha) have their own backgrounds in the lore. They are also unique figures, with their own head sculpts, and equipment to suit their role and poses that all tie together. Due to the design, they do not have separate heads so we could maximise the details and posing with the limitations a ball and socket joint adds.
In general, we’ll be including Character teams with each release. Sometimes, like this, they will be an opposition force, setting up a game for you to play with the figures we have released. Other times, Character teams will supplement the rest of the range they are included in, either helping to show their links to other factions in the world of Gunslinger or to expand their capabilities.
I’m also pleased to announce that Gunslinger has added an additional member to the team. Dan, the guy behind Desk-Ops.de and one-half of TTE has come on board to provide assistance with supporting the models produced. As you can see on one of the Burya guys printed at 54mm, there has been an improvement in the quality of the supports as well as the ease of removal. In fact, he has recorded a video of him removing them from some of the prints and you can see all it takes is the right resin and a careful hand with a knife.
Adding a third member to the team has provided us with a far better ability to both get the models supported and run through the QA process to make sure they are all ready to go on time. It also means that Anton gets to spend more time focused on sculpting up fantastic figures like the ones above.
If you want to get these figures yourself, they are available now at https://www.patreon.com/flytrapfactory Patrons at the “‘Supporter Tier’ GUNSLINGER” or higher will get 10 figures in total (as well as 5 separate heads). The items are delivered both supported and unsupported to help you get printing. To assist with basing, the figures have a peg in their foot to provide support either by drilling through the base or sanding the peg down to make a large contact area without requiring too much additional material.
After some delay as we sorted the process on our end, the first two releases for Black Sector will be up on My Mini Factory on the 4th of October. Additionally, if you miss out on backing the Patreon this month, the Black Sector Security Team and Burya-156 will join them just before we release the next set of figures on Patreon in mid-October.
If you don’t have access to a 3D printer, no worries! As mentioned above we have a new partnership with Desk-Ops.de – as well as joining the Gunslinger team to provide us with new and improved supported files (see above), Desk-Ops is our exclusive Print on Demand provider for the EU. From October 4th, all Gunslinger releases so far will be available via POD on his website, with further releases coming once they are available to the public.
But that’s not all – we are investigating a method to support patrons who do not have their printers but want to support the Patreon. Details will be coming soon, so standby.
Finally, this month we set up some social media platforms for Gunslinger. We now have a presence on Facebook and Instagram in addition to Flytrap Digital’s page on Facebook. These new social media pages are focused on Gunslinger and will be the place where we’ll get to post lore snippets, sneak previews and more. You can find them all at the link above, as well as getting a chance to take a look at some of the things we’ve released so far to give more background to the world of Gunslinger.
And with that, we have reached the end of the first Quarter of Gunslinger. With these three releases, we’ve brought the Black Sector Global Interdiction Group to the tabletop, giving you 32 high-quality body sculpts and 15 heads to build your force with. These figures have proven to be ideal for a wide selection of hobbyists, including some mad enough to scale them up 250% for display on the shelf. This is something that all of us involved in the project have been super happy to see and we can’t wait to see what happens when we introduce a whole new full range and the possibilities that will allow.
As well as the usual Deep Dive coming on the 25th, we also have a special video coming out at the end of the month. To celebrate us reaching the end of the first range, we’re going to release a special video as part of a new series called “Signals”. This is where Anton, Dan and myself will answer Patron questions and talk about how Gunslinger is doing and where we are going next. There might even be a little surprise for those who have been around for a while. If you’re interested in adding some questions to the pile, keep your eye on the Patreon for where to post them.