We’re halfway through September and the nights are starting to get darker earlier. In other words, the perfect time for getting on with hobby projects! Luckily this week’s News Stand is packed full of new items for Ultramodern Wargaming – we have previews from Spectre, updates from Combat Octopus, modified packs from Urban Scatter gaming and more! Read on for more in this edition!
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Spectre Miniatures Previews Gaming Aids and FPVs
First up, Spectre Miniatures is showing off some gaming aids designed to make playing Spectre Operations even easier. The weapon reference cards were something floated a while back but have now received a more recent mockup. The vehicle cards on the other hand are new – although an early mockup, these should give you an idea of what they are going to include, with plenty of details above and beyond the usual weapons and statlines. The vehicle card also includes a few hints as to what’s going to be coming in the update that is arriving as part of the Frontlines expansion – from a quick glance, the different armour values for different facings show a new level of granularity as does some of the new special rules such as Spall Liner and Fire Suppression.
Speaking of the Frontlines expansion, the other preview from this release was this guy, an insurgent drone operator. Balancing the laptop on his knee while preparing to launch the drone, he also has a set of FPV goggles to take control once it’s in the air. FPV drones (as well as an expanded drone ruleset) will be included in the next expansion, so I expect we’ll be seeing other figures with Unmanned payloads. It’s also worth noting that this figure is geared up in a similar way to the Insurgent PMC we saw last week, with a combat helmet and a full set of body armour. No release date on this figure just yet, but stand by for more previews.
Austin Miniatures Shows Off The Devil Dogs
As part of their ongoing Devil Dogs, Grunts and Frogmen campaign, Austin Miniatures has shown off the US Marines over on Instagram. With M27 rifles, M110 DMR, M320 grenade launcher and the Mk46 LMG, this provides a full set of gear you’d need for your own set of raiders. Additionally, all the figures have the USMC helmet and NVGs, making them stand out on the tabletop. If you aren’t following along, the Devil Dogs, Grunts and Frogmen campaign will give you modular STLs for US Marines, US Army and US Navy SEALs with other nations added as stretch goals. The campaign is still ongoing, so we’re getting closer and closer to the final set (North American militia with some more varied gear). The campaign is ongoing until the 1st of October, so still time to join in!
Fire! Modern Combat Shows Off Starter Set
Fire! Modern Combat this week showed off the starter set that will be the focus of their upcoming Kickstarter campaign. This starter box will include the rulebook, 21 white metal figures (split between 9 US Army Rangers and 12 Insurgents), a set of cardboard scenery with buildings and walls and some dice. This sounds like a pretty complete starter pack for getting into a brand new game, setting them up for a one-box solution to get the game on the table. This set is increasingly interesting – I definitely want to give the rules a look (although I may skip on this box due to the unique scaling I want to focus my collection on).
Urban Scatter Gaming Adds Some Low Walls and Gaming Aids for Haywire
Urban Scatter Gaming is 100% back and is hammering through a set of releases. Two weeks ago we got the MENA Walls 1 set, giving you a decorative wall setup to improve your Middle Eastern/North African board. After some feedback, Wedge (the guy behind USG) has gone back and added two new additions to the already-released pack – a lower version of the wall to open up sightlines and an arch to allow some movement and improve the overall feel. As someone looking forward to returning back to some MENA action in the near future, this set is definitely getting me excited. You can find it over on the Gumroad site.
Additionally, USG is giving back to the community with a free token release to support Haywire, the free set of solo rules released by The Solo Wargamer. This pack includes a pile of the tokens you need for the game (such as spawn locations, objectives and statuses) along with the scatter template and a set of dice. The rule set is free over on Drive Thru RPG so getting this set as well will get you all ready to play.
Black Hills Games Announces Upcoming Plans
With the release of the French troops at the end of last month, Black Hills Games has been looking ahead. First up, the September release will be a set of specialists for the French Army, bringing leaders, a marksman, grenadiers and a light mortarman. After that, October will deliver some Specialists for the Bundeswehr Airborne, but beyond that, Black Hills Games is unleashing a poll system to set up a longer-range roadmap. Now, I have my opinions about polls on Patreon but there are some very interesting options. s well as updates to the original PMC figures that BHG released back when they first started, we also have EOD specialists, drone operators and Eastern Criminal elements. The UN Force I think needs more thinking about what it will actually be (as it’s currently very open-ended) but the Tears of the Sun set is definitely the type of thing that is exciting to see. The poll hasn’t kicked off yet, but watch for it arriving soon.
Combat Octopus Shows Off US Army Rangers
Combat Octopus is working on some more Eastern European Deniable Operators for next month’s release but we have a few more previews for the upcoming Gothic Serpent campaign. We’ve got 8 new rangers, with a mixture of M16s and Colt 727s, as well as heads and bodies ideal for the troops in contact in Mogadishu in 1993.
The bad news is that unfortunately, the full campaign has been a little delayed. Although originally planned to be launched at the start of October, it has been shifted to November as sculpts are still in progress. This will allow CO to better prepare for the campaign’s launch, make sure all the Somalis for the core set are sculpted and also finish off the monthly releases AND some of the loyalty rewards that have been promised (operators with Anti-Tank weapons).
We even got some previews of the printed models, courtesy of Desk-Ops who is also print on demand provider for the rest of the extensive Combat Octopus range. We’ll see more as the new release date approaches but safe to say it’s going to be a very handy campaign.
Modern Miniatures Shows Off October’s Release
Modern Miniatures has shown off the first image of the upcoming release – the box truck. On a small four-wheel chassis with an enclosed real cargo area, this vehicle will be handy for a wide variety of locations all over the world. The preview post has also announced that this truck will be designed to print on smaller printers (rather than requiring a Saturn or something similar) and will come with a second rear bed variant (as well a refrigeration unit to sit over the cab. There will also be some other scatter elements, with more details coming soon.
Turnbase Miniatures Previews September Release And Teaser
Finally, Turnbase Miniatures has been dropping previews for what’s coming up in September. As you can probably tell, John Wick will be paying a visit, with three separate figures for three different weapons. It will be interesting to see the full release, as there are plenty of figures that may make sense to join the Baba Yaga.
We also got this preview of another project that Turnbase is working on. I’m definitely seeing some Ultramodern elements but I have a feeling that it’s not going to be strictly real world. More details as they are released.
Desk-Ops Running Back To School Special
Friend of the blog Desk-Ops is running a back-to-school special on his print-on-demand store. For the next two weeks (until the 22nd of September), there is a blanket 15% off everything on the shop (with the discount applied at the checkout). Desk-Ops is POD provider for (among other people) Combat Octopus, Miska Miniatures and BobMack3d. In fact, vehicles from World Revolution are already on the store, such as the T-55 AMV, Shilka and BTR-60, available in a range of scales for 15mm up to Ultra28mm (1:50). So if you want to commiserate your return to school, enjoy 15% off anything from Desk-Ops.
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