Had the same issue before the patch came out. After Steam patched it, I had to restart my computer for a windows update. Relaunched the game and the models were showing up. I was also missing the intro movie and publisher logos until the patch was in. Very weird.
Still can't log in within the game of course, but at least I can play and see what is talking/shooting at me.
I have the same issue, but unlike winterblink, I use EA digital downloader. After patch 1, I still encounter the same missing modals problem. It's really outraged, can anybody in Crytek look into this problem??