Stargrave – Crew
As Stargrave was supported right away with three different plastic kits, there is no real "first" one - but we have to start somewhere, so we grab the Crew kit as it has the product number 001.
We have a 28mm scaled science-fiction kit, covering a total of 20 multi-part hard plastic miniatures for a RRP of 20 GBP. That goes for all of the three initial kits, the crew, the mercenaries and the troopers. The crew is the "core" of most warbands, not just armed up troops, but actually people who make up the crew of spaceship - thus the name.
The Crew box covers 4 sprues of 5 miniatures each, along with two stripes of 20 flat 25mm diameter round bases. Casting is properly done and on the same high level that you get from the Renedra, Plastic Soldier Miniatures or Warlord Games kits. Proper use of the available space, so you have a lot of options for the five bodies to add to, lots of heads, different arms and gear.
Warhammer 40,000 – Battlezone: Fronteris – Vox-Antenna and Auspex Shrine
Next individual review from the Nachmund bundle is the Vox-Antenna and Auspex Shrine.
Like the Fronteris Landing Pad, this is a 28mm scale terrain set has a RRP of 55 EUR or 42,50 GBP (~51 EUR). It covers two large sprues, each covering one of the items shown on the packaging. The assembly instructions don't cover a data sheet for the Vox-Antenna or Auspex Shrine, those rules (suggested terrain traits and additional narrative play abilities) are part of the War Zone Nachmund: Vigilus Alone campaign supplement that is available separately for 42,50 EUR.
Warhammer 40,000 – Battlezone: Fronteris – Landing Pad
As announced on Saturday with the Battlezone Fronteris Nachmund bundle for Warhammer 40k, we'll be covering its contents one by one, starting with the Landing Pad.
The boxed set with terrain in 28mm scale and has a RRP of 55 EUR or 42,50 GBP (~51 EUR). It consists of a large sprue and single casted piece for the topper. The instructions don't cover a data sheet for the terrain piece itself, those rules are part of the War Zone Nachmund: Vigilus Alone campaign supplement that is available separately for 42,50 EUR.
Warhammer 40,000 – Battlezone: Fronteris – Nachmund
Today is the release day of the latest terrain box for Warhammer 40,000 - the Battlezone Fronteris Nachmund. It was originally announced in January as part of War Zone Vigilus and now is finally here.
It went on pre-order last Saturday for 175 EUR and Games Workshop was kind enough to send me a copy for a review. The Nachmund boxed set is a bundle of the individual kits, shown below.
Stargrave – sci-fi wargames in the ravaged galaxy
From the gifted mind of Joseph A. McCullough comes another skirmish ruleset at Osprey Games - Stargrave. The sci-fi variant of the very successful Frostgrave was launched mid-2021 and gathered more than 115.000 GBP with its initial campaign.
The very broad pledges of the crowdfunding campaign supplied the new game right away with a hardcover rulebook of 176 pages (25 GBP RRP) with a lovely layout and a whooping three different plastic kits (which we will cover in the coming days) supported by a variety of metal miniatures (we'll cover parts of these as well) to build your own crew of space-faring adventurers.
Bolt Action – Italian Army and Blackshirts
Warlord Games released a new plastic boxed set, Italian Army & Blackshirts, to accompany the latest campaign supplement Soft Underbelly (review on its way - book stuck in transit ... somewhere). And it is not just multi-part plastic but gives you the option to build Italian forces for early and mid-war in Europe and North Africa, along with Black Shirts.
Great Escape Games – Dead Man’s Hand Plastic Gunfighters
Great Escape Games, the company behind Dead Man's Hand, released a plastic set of Gunfighters earlier this year. They sent over a sprue of these and we're going to cover it today.
Dead Man's Hand is not the only game they carry, beyond the Western skirmish, Great Escape Games has a broad variety of rulesets, like the world war 2 platoon sized Rules of Engagement, 1920's gang fights in The Chicago Way or Clash of Empires, a mass-combat rule sets that covers the Ancient to Medieval era. Most of these games are not only supported with rules and supplements, but miniatures as well and in the case of Dead Man's Hand they released this new set of plastic gunfighters. Two sprues per box at 15 GBP.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Realmscape Nexus Syphon
Among the Realmscape terrain kits released along with the new Age of Sigmar edition, is the Nexus Syphon. It is either part of the Extremis boxed set or available individually.
The overall design of the new Age of Sigmar 3.0 terrain was moved from ruins of battle, towards new towns and outposts under construction, rebuilding and forging new settlements. The Nexus Syphon, a magical construct to channel the energy from the realms to power and protect these newly founded colonies of the Dawnbringer Crusades.
Oathmark – Skeleton Infantry
I managed to get my hands on two sprues of the Skeleton Infantry for Oathmark in trade, and as I like the design of them, I thought I'd cover them in a review. So this is not going to cover a whole box, but only the sprue.
These add to an already extended range of Oathmark plastic kits, covering Elves, Dwarfs, Greenskins and Humans. And are out there on the market, along with a few other undeads made from plastic in 28mm:
- Wargames Factory / Warlord Games Skeletons
- Wargames Atlantic Skeleton Warriors
- Mantic Games Skeleton Regiment
- Deathrattle Skeletons (who recently took over from the pretty decent Skeleton Warriors from 7th edition)
Bolt Action – Jagdtiger
After covering multiple King Tigers on here, in resin and plastic, it is time to go for the heaviest beasts of the Tiger-Class tanks, the German tank destroyer Sd.Kfz. 186 Jagdpanzer VI - also known as Jagdtiger.
This beast is available in 28mm by multiple companies as a resin kit, but now comes for the first time in plastic, by the joint production of Warlord Games and Italeri. The kit I got, was a pre-release provided by the Dutch wargaming shop Tabletopper.nl. As such it didn't come in a cardboard box, it was simply the sprues in a plastic bag. The final product of course comes with instructions, decals and so on.
The Jagdpanzer VI was another tank destroyer, based upon the chassis of a regular tank. The Germans did this multiple times, as we've seen with the Jagdpanther, the Sturmgeschütz III, Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer or Marder III (both based upon the Panzer 38(t)). But in this case, building upon the already pretty heavy Tiger II tank, the Jagdtiger became with around 70t the heaviest tank produced in series in history.