The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

- by Iain Wilson

Pa'ku are generally regarded as slow, deliberate creatures, rarely rushing into action and often waiting on the sidelines of a battle pondering the best course of action before deigning to lend their (once they get going) formidable skills to the fray. While playing with the resin model, though, I happened upon a conversion idea that was just too much fun to not do it - and so the Jet Pa'ku was born!

I originally put this guy together for a spotlight article on the Pa'ku model when it was released (which you can see here), and in his unpainted state he looked like this:



The conversion used most of one Pa'ku model, the main part of the gun from a second, two auto sluggers taken from the Broken Infantry sprue, and the bottom of an energy fence piece from the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue.



I had to make some changes to his pose, so repositioned his arms by soaking them for a minute in boiling water, bending them into the shape I wanted, and then dropping them in some ice water to 'set' them in that shape. To fit the hands onto the guns, I trimmed away some of the webbing between the fingers, widened the trigger space by cutting away a small piece at the back of the gun, and gently bent the fingers around the grips. I also cut a wedge out of the front of his neck with a razor saw, and bent the head forwards using the same hot/cold water treatment. The minor gap that was left behind was filled in with a little 'green stuff' putty.



The Pa'ku's feet are very flat on the bottoms, to attach to the base. That just wouldn't do here, so I used the above hot/cold water treatment to add a bit of a curl to the toes, and then sculpted some detail onto the bottom of the feet with more green stuff.



For the jetpack, I used the main sections of two quad mortars. I trimmed the fittings up so that they would attach sideways to the Pa'ku's backpack, added a turbine from the Epirian Firefly Drone on the front where the weapon barrels normally go, and filled in the gap in between the two new jets with the energy fence base, some green stuff, and a small piece of plasticard over the top to neaten it up.



With everything else assembled, the final detail was to add the smoke trails from the jetpack. For rigidity, I cut a couple of pieces of plastic sprue to the right length and glued them bases for ease of working. Then I covered these in a mix of shredded cardboard (made from small pieces of cardboard box run through a spice grinder) and PVA glue. This was a bit experimental, but looked the part once done, so I crossed my fingers and just hoped it would work out right when it was painted.



Speaking of which, painting started out with a basecoat of Army Painter Army Green spray.



I drybrushed over the skin with Coat D'Arms Putrid Green, and went over all of the metal and leather parts with Vallejo Beasty Brown. The leather straps then got a coat of Vallejo Heavy Brown.



I drybrushed the metal areas with P3 Pig Iron, and then washed the metal and leather parts with Army Painter Strong Tone. I also went over the skin with a generous coat of Army Painter Military Shader wash, and when this was dry, picked out the fur around the backpack, the weapons, claws, targeter and the smoke trail with Vallejo Heavy Charcoal.



Since making the smoke trail clearly wasn't getting experimental enough, I had also decided to try painting a flame effect into the smoke. I did this by picking out sunken areas near the jet nozzles with white, then painting in some yellow and red, leaving the brighter yellow deeper in and fading out to red closer to the surface. Then I drybrushed over the top with more Heavy Charcoal, and highlighted with Vallejo Light Grey and some white.



The weapons, claws, fur and targeter were given a light drybrush with Vallejo Neutral Grey and then a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone. I also added some Dark Tone patches on the jetpack to break up the metal tone a little, and painted the bumps on his back with some old Citadel Tentacle Pink, washed with a couple of coats of Army Painter Red Tone.



This just left some finishing touches - I gave the weapons a highlight with a very light drybrush of Pig Iron, picked up the cloth bindings with the old Citadel Liche Purple with a Tentacle Pink highlight, added some highlights and scratches to the metal bits with Army Painter Shining Silver, painted in the eyes with Citadel Iyanden Darksun, and finally popped some Army Painter Pure Red onto the targeter lens with a white highlight spot.











And there he is! There are no game rules for this monstrosity; it was purely an exercise in conversion for the sake of it. Sometimes it's fun to take a break from assembling game-ready forces to just build something cool!

To add a Pa'ku (or a Jet Pa'ku!) to your own Broken force, you can pick him up along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range from the webstore here.

As always, feel free to pop along and share your work, or ask any Maelstrom's Edge- or hobby-related questions on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.

- by Iain Wilson

Hakoyu Grand Masters are masters of close quarters fighting, lending the experience of decades of training in combat skills and their exquisitely-crafted energy weapons to the Broken Federation's cause. This week, I'm taking a closer look at the model for this fearsome melee veteran.

The Hakoyu Grand Master is a multi-part resin model, with the body cast in one piece and all four arms joining at the elbows. Two of the forearms are equipped with the Hakoyu's shields, while the other two hold the Phase Weapons - a sword and an axe.





The elbow joint is a ball-and-socket affair, which allows for a decent range of posing, and also allows you to choose where to put each forearm.



Of course, that also means that you can mix and match arms between models - for the below model, I swapped out the shields in favour of doubling up the weapons. The second axe and sword were switched to the opposite side simply by slicking them off just above the hand and switching them, gluing each weapon onto the hand the other had been removed from.



Phase weapons take many forms, at the preference of the individual Grand Master. For this model, I replaced the sword and axe with a double-ended polearm - presumably this Grand Master would be skilled enough with this weapon for it to have the same effect as fighting with two separate blades! The hands were swapped out with plastic hands from the Broken Infantry sprue - as the Hakoyu only has three fingers, I resculpted the fingers on the left hand with a little 'green stuff' putty. The right hand is bionic, so I left it as is - ill-fitting bionics would be just one of the difficulties faced by alien races amongst the often poorly-equipped Broken.



Life on the Edge is hard, and emergency surgery and appropriate bionics are not always available when needed. It would be expected that this might take a toll on veteran Grand Masters, who spend so much of their time in the thick of the fighting. This Grand Master has at some point lost two of his hands, and rather than replacing them with bionics has had his Phase blades strapped directly to his wrists. I also put this model into a slightly more crouched pose, but cutting through the lower knee joint, bending the legs and then filling in the remaining gap with some putty.



Finally, while known primarily for their fearsome skills in melee, I would expect some Grand Masters to take pride in mastering all aspect of warfare. This Grand Master has eschewed the usual Phase weapons (aside from the one still strapped to his back - you can't turn away completely from tradition, after all!) in favour of a long rifle converted from two slug rifles from the Broken Infantry sprue. The forearm (another bionic) is also taken from the Infantry sprue. I also doubled up the larger of the two shields, but cutting the small shield off the right forearm, and the arm off the large shield, and then gluing them together.



What have you done with your Grand Master? Feel free to pop along and share your work, or ask any Maelstrom's Edge- or hobby-related questions on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

You can pick up the Hakoyu Grand Master along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range from the webstore here.

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.

- by Iain Wilson

This past month saw the release of the Pa'ku for the Broken faction, taking to the field with their gigantic Quad EMP Cannon strapped to their rather large backs. This is another brilliant model in a slowly growing collection of characterful alien creatures for the faction, and so in my usual style, I figured it would be fun to take a hobby knife to it and see what happened!

The fantastic studio model below shows the Pa'ku in all his warty glory. He's big, he's ugly, but nobody's going to tell him that so long as he has that gigantic quad cannon pointed in their general direction!



The Pa'ku is a resin model, and comes in 6 pieces, along with a 45mm base. The arms are on ball joints that allow for a bit of posing movement, and the cannon barrels have a round locator piece, so can be swivelled around to whatever orientation you prefer.





The immediate, obvious conversion opportunity is to replace the quad cannon with a larger-bore, single cannon. On the below model, I added a ring of plastic tube over the rear tube assembly, and replaced the barrel section with a new, larger, single barrel made from layered plastic tubing, with some plastic rod struts on the sides to give it a little extra detail.



As an extra bonus, you can also put him on the table with the unofficial rules card in the Force List section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. You could easily leave off the side detailing and just use a single piece of 10mm tubing for a less detailed but much easier conversion, or use a different gun entirely for other heavy weapon variants.

Venturing a little further outside the box, the slow moving, steady Pa'ku seemed like an ideal candidate for ferrying around notable Broken characters who prefer not to dirty their own boots any more than necessary. With that in mind, I took a Pa'ku and assembled it without the gun, and then added a platform onto the back with a little plasticard, and added a rider built from the Broken Infantry sprue. The handrail is cut from a ladder from the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue, and the sheath of extra harpoons is a piece of plastic tube filled with offcuts of 1mm rod, attached with a rivet piece from the previously-hacked-up ladder.



Of course, it's possible that not all Pa'ku are as slow and deliberate in their actions as the species is renowned for. What happens to those more headstrong, battle-hungry Pa'ku? I'd like to think they turn out something like this:



The jetpack was made from the main section of two quad guns, with help from a little putty, Epirian drone parts and plasticard. The head was repositioned by cutting and bending the neck, and the forearms twisted in hot water and guns added from the Broken Infantry sprue. I'll be sharing a more detailed build of this one in an upcoming article, once I get some paint on him!

To add some giant-cannon-goodness to your own Broken force, you can pick up the Pa'ku along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range from the webstore here.

As always, feel free to pop along and share your work, or ask any Maelstrom's Edge- or hobby-related questions on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.

- by Iain Wilson

Big, burly, slow to anger but nigh on unstoppable when they get rolling, the Gnolti is an impressive sight on the table, and is one of my favourite models. A while back, I got to thinking about the different ways that the ongoing battles around the Maelstrom's Edge would affect these massive, generally peaceful aliens, and started exploring this with my 'Longhorn' conversion. At the other end of the scale from the implacable veteran, I thought it would be an interesting contrast to have a much younger Gnolti who handles the constant call to arms in a much more direct fashion - and so the Gnolti Berserker was born:

As with my previous Gnolti conversions, this was built from the standard Gnolti model.



I wanted to give him a charging pose, as this guy was definitely not the 'sit back and take a breather' type of fighter! So I started by cutting the left leg off with a razor saw, and then reattaching it with the leg pivoted to the rear.





In place of the Gnolti's normal field generating bucklers, I thought it would be fun to give the berserker an array of scavenged blades to fight with. Using a sharp exacto knife, I cut off the existing detail from the shields, added some cracks and dents, and glued on some blades cut from the resin casting tab that the parts came on. (Waste not, want not!) As the left hand's fingers are slightly flattened on the bottom where they normally sit on the base, I also reshaped these by carefully rounding them off with the knife and adding in some knuckle lines.



For my Longhorn, I had gone with the idea that the Gnolti's horns would grow as they age. Running that idea backwards, a younger Gnolti would therefore need shorter horns. I figured that reducing his beard would also be fitting, and so I cut away the back couple of sections of the horns, removed all of his beard, and also sliced open the mouth with a razor saw and, holding it under some hot water, carefully bent it open.



I used 'Green Stuff' putty to replace the missing detail around his neck where the horns and beard were originally, resculpted a smaller beard and added a layer over the lower lip to reshape it.



Similarly, I filled in the gap created by re-posing the leg, and also removed the blanket roll from the Gnolti's back just to create a little visual difference from the others, and sculpted in new draped cloth in its place.



Finally, I glued on the arms and did a little final gap-filling where the reposing of the arms caused them to not fit flush at the elbow joints.





Painting was largely the same as my original Gnolti conversion, although I used a very slightly darker grey on the scales and made his beard a brighter orange.









Conversions are only part of the fun, of course - What about getting the models on the table? You can find unofficial rules cards for the Gnolti Longhorn and Gnolti Berserker in the Force List section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here, or download a printable version in the 'Unofficial Cards' PDF compilation here.

If you want to give them a try but aren't as confident in your converting, you can very easily use the standard Gnolti model as a fill-in - for the Berserker, paint him without the light on the shields and maybe make him a bit dirtier, and for the Longhorn just glue on an appropriate gun in the right hand, and you're good to go!


Family Shot!

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To put together your own mountain of xenos rage, you can pick up the Gnolti kit along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range from the webstore here.

As always, feel free to pop along and share your work, or ask any Maelstrom's Edge- or hobby-related questions on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.

This month sees the release of a new support unit for the Broken: Pa'ku Artillery, available now from the webstore here!

Behind the implacable visage of the Pa'ku resides a powerful, if often misunderstood intellect. Extremely logical creatures, when the Pa'ku are convinced a certain course of action will do more good than wrong, they will take lives without scruples if that is what it takes. Pa'ku artillery has been known to mercilessly bombard hospitals or civilian refugee groups when they have concluded that this was the most logical course of action. They do not make any decision lightly nor do they act carelessly. In fact, the Pa'ku sometimes drive their commanders crazy as they sit pondering the pros and cons of a proposed course of action and all the alternatives, and where the situation is particularly complex have been known to gather for private war councils with their own kind before they will consider responding to a call to arms. Despite their reputation for ruthlessness, when Pa'ku take lives it is because they believe there is no viable alternative. This does not however mean they are saints - all of a Pa'ku's deliberations are still ultimately guided by self-interest and a desire to survive the chaos of the Edge.



Despite their peculiarities, Pa'ku are especially desirable to the Broken. Their solid physiques make them extremely suited to carrying heavy loads, including the biggest artillery the Broken manage to cobble together. At close range, the Pa'ku can extend their very long tongue with enough force to cave in a man's skull. Pa'ku only speak to other species when necessary, and their language is difficult for most races to translate or speak. Combined with their large size, this generally results in them being overlooked by evacuation efforts, and so as with the even larger Gnolti, joining the Broken is often the only reasonable chance for a Pa'ku to escape the edge and find a new home.



Pa'ku are often found in the support lines of Broken forces with giant cannon and other esoteric weapons strapped to their broad shoulders. Linked with electronic targeting systems, these weapons can be slaved together to unleash devastating barrages of firepower onto enemy lines. Their favoured weapon is a multi-barrelled EMP mortar, which carpets the battlefield with explosive energy packets that can fry electronic systems and incinerate softer targets. You can find the rules for the Pa'ku Artillery unit in the Force Builder section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.



This high detail, multi-part resin kit contains one Pa'ku armed with a Quad EMP Mortar, and is available now from the webstore here!

When the Battle For Zycanthus boxed set was released, we published some sample force rosters for the Karist and Epirian factions based on the models in the set, to help give new players an idea of what a Maelstrom's Edge force could look like. Since then, we have released a stack of new models and introduced a third faction, the Broken, to the game, so it seemed like a good idea to add some new force rosters to the sample collection. Below, you'll find three different sample force rosters for the Broken, and a breakdown of which models you would need to put them together.

LIST #1 - ALL-PLASTIC 120 POINTS

(a standard 'small' game, using just the plastic Broken Infantry Pack models)


Detachment #1 (of 2)

TYPE	UNIT	UPGRADE	POINTS
[Command]	Forsaken Chieftain (8)	x2 Beam Pistols (+0)	8 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x1 extra Broken Rabble (+1)
		x1 Chem Launcher (+1)
		x1 EMP Harpoon (+1)	8 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x1 Chem Launcher (+1)
		x1 Glue Rifle (+1)	9 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+1)
		x1 Auto Slugger (+1)
		x1 Longbeam Rifle (+1)	9 pts
[Hammer]	Rabble Assault (8)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+4)
		x3 EMP Harpoon (+0)	12 pts
[Hammer]	Rabble Assault (8)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+4)
		x3 Massive Torch (+3)
		x2 replace Beam Blastgun with Chem Pistol & Slug Pistol (-2)
		Boss replaces Beam Blastgun with Chem Pistol & Grenade Harness (-1)	12 pts
[Anvil]	Rabble Fire Support (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x3 Longbeam Rifle (+6)	13 pts
[Anvil]	Rabble Fire Support (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x3 Longbeam Rifle (+6)	13 pts
		DETACHMENT #1 TOTAL	84 pts

Detachment #2 (of 2)

TYPE	UNIT	UPGRADE	POINTS
[Command]	Forsaken Chieftain (8)	replace Slug Rifle with Beam Blastgun (+1)	9 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x1 extra Broken Rabble (+1)
		x1 Chem Launcher (+1)
		x1 EMP Harpoon (+1)
		Boss replaces Slug Rifle with Chem Pistol & Grenade Harness (+0)	8 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x1 Emp Harpoon (+1)
		x1 Glue Rifle (+1)
		Boss replaces Slug Rifle with Grenade Harness & Slug Pistol (+0)	9 pts
[Anvil]	Rabble Fire Support (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x3 Auto Slugger (+3)	10 pts
		DETACHMENT #2 TOTAL	36 pts
		GRAND TOTAL	120 pts

Models needed:

• Broken Infantry Pack x10.

The two Chieftains for this list are built from the plastic set, which is why there are two Rabble units that only have 5 in the unit.

LIST #2 - 120 POINTS

(a standard 'small' game, using a mix of plastic and resin Broken models)


Detachment #1 (of 2)

TYPE	UNIT	UPGRADE	POINTS
[Command]	Forsaken Chieftain (8)	x1 Beam Pistol (+0)
		x1 Trophy Melee Weapon (+1)
		Xeno Spotter (+1)
		Customized Weapons (+2)	12 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x1 Chem Launcher (+1)
		x1 Glue Rifle (+1)	9 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x1 Auto Slugger (+1)
		x1 Longbeam Rifle (+1)	9 pts
[Hammer]	Rabble Assault (8)	x1 Marsayan Hypnotist (+2)
		x3 Massive Torch (+3)	13 pts
[Hammer]	Rabble Assault (8)	x1 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x1 Hakoyu Grand Master (+4)
		x3 EMP Harpoon (+0)	14 pts
[Vanguard]	x2 Sig Jammer (12)		12 pts
[Anvil]	Gnolti (10)		10 pts
[Anvil]	Rabble Fire Support (5)	x1 extra Broken Rabble (+1)
		x3 Longbeam Rifle (+6)	12 pts
		DETACHMENT #1 TOTAL	91 pts

Detachment #2 (of 2)

TYPE	UNIT	UPGRADE	POINTS
[Command]	Forsaken Chieftain (8)	Customized Weapons (+2)
		Extensive Cybernetics (+2)	12 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x1 Chem Launcher (+1)
		x1 EMP Harpoon (+1)
		Boss replaces Slug Rifle with Chem Pistol & Grenade Harness (+0)	9 pts
[Anvil]	Rabble Fire Support (5)	x3 Auto Slugger (+3)	8 pts
		DETACHMENT #2 TOTAL	29 pts
		GRAND TOTAL	120 pts

Models needed:

• Broken Infantry Pack x6
• Forsaken Chieftain x1
• Forsaken Tech Chieftain x1
• Sig Jammer x2
• Marsayan Hypnotist x1
• Hakoyu Grand Master x1
• Gnolti x1

LIST #3 - 120 POINTS, SINGLE DETACHMENT

(a mix of plastic and resin models, optimized to fit into a single detachment)

TYPE	UNIT	UPGRADE	POINTS
[Command]	Forsaken Chieftain (8)	x1 Trophy Melee Weapon (+1)
		Xeno Spotter (+1)
		Customized Weapons (+2)
		Extensive Cybernetics (+2)	15 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x1 Auto Slugger (+1)
		x1 Longbeam Rifle (+1)	9 pts
[Core]	Broken Rabble (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x1 Chem Launcher (+1)
		x1 EMP Harpoon (+1)	9 pts
[Hammer]	Rabble Assault (8)	x2 Hakoyu Grand Master (+8)
		x3 Torch (+0)	16 pts
[Hammer]	Rabble Assault (8)	x2 Hakoyu Grand Master (+8)
		x3 Massive Torch (+3)	19 pts
[Vanguard]	x2 Sig Jammer (12)		12 pts
[Anvil]	x2 Gnolti (10)		20 pts
[Anvil]	Rabble Fire Support (5)	x2 extra Broken Rabble (+2)
		x3 Longbeam Rifle (+6)	13 pts
		TOTAL	112 pts

Models needed:

• Broken Infantry Pack x5 (you'll have a couple of models spare)
• Forsaken Chieftain x1
• Sig Jammer x2
• Hakoyu Grand Master x4
• Gnolti x2

Note that for the above list, you could get to 119 points by dropping the Rabble Fire Support and including another two Gnolti instead!

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Hopefully the above force rosters will give you some idea of how to plan your force. If you're looking for the force rosters for the Karist and Epirian factions, you can find them on the Maelstrom's Edge website here.



To assemble your own force, you can pick up the above models, and the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range, from the webstore here.


Happy Gaming!

The Broken receive a bit of a boost to their melee capabilities this month, with the release of the resin Hakoyu Grand Master - available now from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore!.



The Hakoyu Grand Master is an optional add-on for Broken Assault units. Equipped with powerful close combat weapons and defensive shields, he can help to defend the unit from incoming close quarter attacks while also possessing the fighting prowess to stand toe-to-toe with a Karist Shadow Walker!



With four arms and a horn-like protrusion from their foreheads, Hakoyu can seem menacing at first glance, especially as most have trained for decades in various martial arts and tend to carry at least one large melee weapon with them at all times, despite the fact that they are quite passive by nature. When a Hakoyu does feel forced to fight, their lightning quick reflexes and zealous training means they can usually end the contest before their opponent even knows what has happened.

The Hakoyu hail from the remote Yedo system. Their society is governed by a strict code of honour that can be difficult for non-Hakoyu to decipher. They believe the needs of the group are paramount, with the desires and wants of any individual considered trivial. This means Hakoyu prefer to live their lives in their home system, which makes them one of the more rare alien species in the Spiral Arm, with most humans never encountering a Hakoyu in their lifetime. All is not perfect on Yedo however, as the Hakoyu have been locked in a centuries-old war with their neighboring species, the Cera, over territorial rites and a perceived slight to the Hakoyu peoples' honor that cannot forgive. The war has steadily sapped the resources of Yedo, with the Cera using their technological advantages to blockade Yedo from receiving much needed relief supplies for its civilians. This dire situation has forced increasing numbers of Hakoyu to flee Yedo in an attempt to earn a living selling their services throughout the spiral arm, usually as a bodyguard or enforcer, even though such work is in direct conflict with their morale code and likely means they would not be welcomed back to Yedo should they ever wish to return.



When the Maelstrom threatens a world, misplaced distrust in Hakoyu sell-swords means they're often discarded at the last second by their former employers and denied a place on escape craft, leaving them ripe to join the ranks of the Broken. The Broken offer the Hakoyu a way out and a collective where most everyone is an outcast to some extent, in which many Hakoyu have found a second home even as they long to someday find their way back to Yedo. The Broken, on their part, value the Hakoyu's fighting skills and their unselfish character. The most sought after Hakoyu are their pinnacle warriors: a Grand Master, as they tend to give any squad the upper hand in any close quarter fighting. The calm demeanor of a Grand Master under fire is enough to convince their Broken squad mates to charge into the teeth of enemy fire rather than to run away. Grand Masters wield deadly Hakoyu phase weaponry, a technology first seen on Yedo and whose methods of construction are a closely guarded secret. These weapons pass effortlessly through energy fields and can cause electronic circuitry to explode upon contact, both highly sought after abilities in the Hakoyu's fight against the Cera. Hakoyu are also renown for their exquisite skill with forearm deflectors, and Grand Masters in particular are able to use these to prevent an opponent from ever striking them, no matter what type of deadly melee weapon they might face.


The Hakoyu Grand Master is available now - You can find it in the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here!

The unit card will be up in the Force Builder section of the Maelstrom's Edge website in the next couple of days - but here's a sneak peek!

- by Iain Wilson

Back when the plastic Broken Infantry kit was released, I cobbled together a conversion of a broken warrior riding a hovering skateboard-type affair, which featured in my 'Easy Broken Rabble Conversions' article. At the time, it was just something made for a little fun, but I found myself thinking that this would make for a cool unit option for the Broken, and so decided to sit down and write up some rules for them. Below you''ll find some ideas for building your own skyboarders using asorted components and some plasticard, and a link to the (unofficial) rules card to use them in your own Maelstrom's Edge games!

The primary consideration when putting together any sort of vehicles for the Broken is that they rely on scavenging and trading for whatever they can get, for the most part. As a result, there is very little uniformity in clothing and equipment, and I really wanted to carry this across to the skyboard unit. This meant coming up with three different designs for the three models in the unit, although you could just as easily stick with a single design and custimise them with additional bits and pieces stuck on, or simply with individualised paint schemes on the boards.



The first board is the one I build for the original article. I didn't take any in-progress pics of this at the time, but it's a fairly basic constructions - I glued two rectangles of textured plasticard together for the board itself, and then took four turbines (two left and two right) from Epirian Firefly drones, cut away the mounting pins and glued them onto the sides of the board. The rider was assembled from standard broken parts, posed to look like he is balancing on the board, which didn't actually require any converting.



My second board was also based on Firefly turbines, but this time I used two of them with the mounting pegs and trailing wings removed with a sharp hobby knife, as below:



I measured out the board on a piece of 2mm plasticard, allowing space for the turbines at either end with room for the rider to stand in between them. Then I drilled out holes the size of the turbines using a spade bit - a 10mm bit was very slightly too small, but was all I had. A little sanding after drilling the hole pushed it out to the right size.



I cut the board shape out, sanded down the edges, and glued the turbines in place in the holes. I also added a 'motor' piece using the heat shield cut from a torch (flamethrower) and a trimmed down overcharged powercell, but found on the Broken Infantry sprue.



For the final board, I made use of a part of a pipe fitting piece I had left over from the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue, from a building project a while back. I had cut through the pipe fitting to make it shorter, which left a nice circular piece that looked just perfect for a turbine surround. I cut a matching hole in a piece of 2mm plasticard using a 12mm spade bit, and then cut the plasticard to the shape I wanted.



I made the turbine fan itself out of a circle of 1mm plasticard, and added a circle of mesh to go over the top side of the hole, and a strut to hold the fan, using an injection point cut from an old model sprue. With all of this glued in place, I finished up with another overcharged powercell added for some sort of nod towards functionality.



After building riders for the two new boards, again just using components from the Broken Infantry sprue with minimal modification, I drilled holes in the bottoms of the boards to attach flight stems at suitably jaunty angles. With some paint thrown on, the skyboarder unit wound up looking like this:



Obviously, this is only a starting point - you can let your imagination out for a run and come up with different skyboard designs using whatever components you have on hand. The sky's the limit! (Sorry...)

As promised back at the start, I write up a rules card to include these guys as a Vanguard option in your Broken force. You can find this in the Force Builder section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

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To build your own Skyboarders, you can pick up the Broken Infantry kit along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range from the webstore here.

As always, feel free to pop along and share your work, or ask any Maelstrom's Edge- or hobby-related questions on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.

- by Iain Wilson

This week we released the second of our resin Forsaken Chieftain models for the Broken faction. These two models allow Chieftains to take a few extra options that weren't available from the plastic kit, and are a wonderfully characterful pair of models. However, since I find it physically painful* to assemble models the way they were intended to be built, I thought I would take this opportunity to slice a few of them into pieces and see what interesting conversion possibilities they opened up.

*May not be an actual medical condition, but why take the chance?

Built straight out of the package, the two models each come with a pair of weapon options. The 'regular' chieftain has a xeno spotter perched on his/her (it's deliberately ambiguous) raised right hand, and also has a two separate left forearms, one with a poisoned blade and the other with a trophy melee weapon. The 'tech' chieftain has two separate right arms, with a custom beam blastgun and a custom slug rifle.



You can easily double-up your command options by using the leftover weapons on plastic Broken Rabble bodies. On the below models, I equipped one with the leftover slug rifle by slicing off the locator peg and gluing it on in place of a regular plastic arm. The other has the leftover trophy weapon in place of the plastic forearm, which just requires cutting the lower arm off just below the elbow and gluing the weapon arm piece in its place.



Parts can also be mix-and-matched onto the resin Chieftain models to switch around the available options a little. On the below tech Chieftain model, I left off the resin right arm and equipped him with a plastic arm and beam pistol from the Rabble sprue, and cut off his left arm at the elbow and attached a trophy weapon from the other Chieftain model.



On the regular Chieftain below, I replaced the right forearm with a plastic one, and added a regular blastgun from the Rabble weapon sprue. I also cut off a plastic left forearm and added a grenade.



For a more action-posed Chieftain, I cut the legs off this one at the waist, using a razor saw. Then I glued on a pair of running legs from the Rabble sprue, added a slightly modified slug pistol hanging off the belt, and glued the xeno spotter on tilted just a little bit forwards.



Since I now had a pair of leftover Chieftain legs, I did the obvious thing and glued them to a Karist heavy weapon trooper torso I had left over from a previous conversion. This Chieftain has the right arm with custom beam blastgun from the tech Chieftain, and a left arm and alien head from the Rabble sprue.



Mixing things up a little more, I added a xeno spotter and trophy weapon to a Broken Sig Jammer body, to create a less ostentatious Chieftain model. A head and left hand from the Rabble sprue finished the conversion off nicely.



And finally, a Chieftain equipped with a trophy weapon from a more civilised age, which is apparently less clumsy and random than a blaster. The laser sword is made from an overcharged powercell from the Rabble sprue, with a cut-down blade stolen from a Star Wars figurine. I also cut the left arm off, carefully cutting around the cape so that a plastic arm would fit in neatly underneath it. This Chieftain will no doubt take to the battlefield and display his displeasure at the lack of faith shown by his underlings...





Hopefully, that's inspired you to have some fun with your own Chieftains. You can pick up the resin Chieftain models, the plastic Broken Rabble sprues, or any of the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range, from the webstore here.

As always, feel free to pop along and share your work, or ask any Maelstrom's Edge- or hobby-related questions on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.

The Forsaken are commonly dismissed as simple, degenerate pirates, but the truth is that they usually attack only out of necessity. Piracy is many times the only way their community can survive a hostile galaxy: stealing food, fuel, ammunition and anything else of value they can get their hands on. The Forsaken rarely send out their forces en masse, knowing that a single crushing defeat could mean the end of their entire tribe's existence. Instead, they strike in small patrols, typically led by a Chieftain.

Though a Chieftain is granted his or her position of authority by The Assembly, they must first earn the respect of their fellow Forsaken to even be nominated. A Chieftain must be equal parts fighter, diplomat and cunning tactician. Knowing that their forces can never win a stand-up fight against a prepared opponent, a Chieftain leads his warriors to strike unseen from the shadows, quickly fading away before the enemy can root them out and respond in kind. Many an opposing force has underestimated the ingenuity of a Broken force led by a Chieftain, only realizing too late their folly, as improvised booby traps decimate their defensive positions and Broken secretly approach from their rear.

The appearance of a Chieftain can vary wildly both based upon the culture of their original homeworld, but also from that of the Broken Freeport they are now a part of. Chieftains tend to have slightly nicer clothing and equipment than standard Broken rabble, and many see it as almost their duty to show that even amongst the ranks of the Broken, an individual can still rise up and carry themselves with dignity and class. When the Broken do manage to defeat an enemy officer with particularly fancy clothing or an heirloom weapon, a Chieftain will confiscate these valuable items. A Chieftain wears these purloined treasures into battle, as both a reminder of their past victory, and to display their status as an iconic Broken leader.



This high detail monopose resin model comes with two different weapon options for the right hand - a customised slug rifle or a customised beam blastgun, and is available now from the webstore here! You can also find the updated rules for this model in the Force Builder section here.

With the release of our second Broken Chieftain model, we've also updated its unit card in our online Force Builder rules here, finally unveiling the full suite of equipment options that Broken Chieftains have available to them. This article will look to update your Chieftain knowledge, focusing on their two new upgrade options: Customized Weapons and Enhanced Cybernetics.

CUSTOMIZED WEAPONS

Though Broken Weaponsmiths work tirelessly to keep the weapons of their fighting force repaired and functioning properly, they are also constantly prodded by their Chieftain to find new avenues for how Broken weaponry can be made ever more deadly. In other words, Weaponsmiths, and Broken society in general, are obsessed with making their guns as powerful as possible, regardless of how dangerous this makes them to the wielder. While Broken weapons can never match the accuracy or reliability of the more sophisticated enemy factions they face, the Broken instead rely on a near endless supply of desperate bodies clamoring to get their hands on a customized weapon, even when it is prone to lethal malfunctions.

Anytime Broken forces manage to steal, capture or purchase weapons off the black market, a portion of these are tithed to their Chieftain, who turns them over to their Weaponsmith in the name of 'weapons development'. The disassembling, tinkering, and soldering in a Weaponsmith's shop often continues days at a time. No method used to improve a weapon is off the table: overcharged powerpacks, larger caliber ammunition, oversized magazines, fusing multiple weapons together, etc. If it can be dreamed of, a Weaponsmith has attempted it. The more powerful the conversion, the more rare and coveted the weapon is amongst the Broken, and the more likely it will find its way into the hands of a high-ranking individual like a Chieftain, who views it both as a potent weapon and also as a way of reinforcing their status over those they command.

Rules-wise, customized weapons are an upgrade for a Chieftain that cost 2 points, and gives them the following benefits:

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Customized Weapons
All weapons this model is equipped with permanently gain +1 PEN, +1 DAM and the Unstable ability (if they don’t already have it). Grenades & CQ Explosives are excluded.

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As this upgrade affects any weapon a Chieftain takes (excluding grenades & CQ Explosives, of course), it gives you tremendous versatility towards deciding how you want to improve your Chieftain's shooting. For example, with weapons that provide a lot of shots but are only DAM 1, like a Slug Rifle or Chem Pistol, the Customized Weapon upgrade suddenly turns them into DAM 2 weapons. This means that every successful penetration is going to kill a standard MAS 2 infantry model outright, making these weapons now capable of mowing down enemy rank and file models. On the other hand, weapons that are already DAM 2, like a Beam Pistol or Beam Blastgun, now become DAM 3, allowing the Chieftain to become a big game hunter and seriously wound large models like Hunter Warmechs or Mature Angels. This upgrade also benefits any melee weapons the Chieftain may take, such as a Trophy Melee Weapon, Poisoned Blade and even the melee profile of the Beam Blastgun, turning the Chieftain into a formidable foe at close quarters.

Of course, the negative aspect of using customized weapons is that the weapon also gains the Unstable ability, which means that any '1's the Chieftain rolls to hit end up putting suppression tokens onto his unit equal to the DAM of the attack. While this can certainly be annoying when it happens, it is generally a small price to pay to seriously upgrade the offensive capabilities of your Chieftain.



EXTENSIVE CYBERNETICS

While many Broken soldiers eventually have some part of their anatomy replaced with cyerbnetics (usually due to injuries they've suffered on the battlefield), some Chieftains choose to go a step beyond and command their Weaponsmith to give them extensive cybernetic limb and/or organ replacements as a means to improve their strength and durability. This is represented by the Extensive Cybernetics upgrade, which cost 2 points:

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Extensive Cybernetics
This model permanently improves its MAS characteristic by +1.

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Boosting a model's MAS by +1 provides both defensive and offensive benefits. The most obvious improvement is that a MAS 3 model requires doesn't suffer an injury until at least 3 points of damage are allocated to it. For example, when a Chieftain leads a Broken Rabble squad, whenever there are only two DAM 1 penetrations remaining to be allocated (a frequent occurrence), you can now elect to put them onto the MAS 3 Chieftain, which means instead of losing a Rabble model, the unit will suffer no permanent damage! In other words, having a MAS 3 Chieftain not only means that model is more durable, but any unit the Chieftain joins effectively becomes more durable as well.

On the offensive side, a model's MAS characteristic is utilized in close quarters fighting with a melee weapon, both to determine how many shots the melee weapon makes, but also to figure out the PEN characteristic of that weapon. A MAS 3 Chieftain gets to make 5 attacks with a melee weapon (instead of the 4 it makes when it is MAS 2) and all those attacks are made with +1 PEN. For example, a Chieftain with Extensive Cybernetics and a Trophy Melee Weapon gets to attack 5 times in close quarters fighting, with each of those shots being a quite powerful PEN 5 and DAM 2. Even crazier, if the model also has taken the Customized Weapons upgrade, they combo together and those five shots are instead PEN 6 & DAM 3! That's enough potential damage to make any foe quake at the thought of facing a Chieftain in CQ fighting.

With these new upgrade options available, a Chieftain is easily the most customizable command model currently in the game. You can go with a super-cheap 7 point Chieftain that just has a couple of pistols, which allows you to fit more Broken units into your force, or alternatively you can take every upgrade and have a 13 point beast that has all kinds of tactical capabilities...the choice is ultimately yours!

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Ready to try out your own cybernetic Chieftain? You can pick up the new resin Chieftain models along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range, from the webstore here.

If you have any rules queries, tactics suggestions, or modeling progress to share, you can join in on the Comm Guild Facebook Group page here.

- by Iain Wilson

Slow to anger, but difficult to put down once roused, Gnolti form an implacable, craggy backbone of the Broken forces. As awesome as a regular Gnotli is, I thought it might be interesting to explore the different ways that being forced into warfare might affect different Gnolti. I thought it might be likely that younger, more headstrong Gnolti would be more ready to turn to anger, while older, experienced veterans would be more prone to careful consideration and strategy. With the seeds planted, I grabbed some putty and a few extra bits and pieces, and the Gnolti Longhorn was born!



Obviously, the core of this model is the fantastic, resin Gnolti model.



To make him stand out a little, I wanted some suitably scavenged-looking armour, although this would be more for decoration than anything, given the Gnolti's craggy hide. So I grabbed the front half of an Epirian Hunter Mech torso and removed the lower section.



With some battle damage and careful trimming added with a hobby knife, the torso front fit nicely on over the right shoulder.

To create the eponymous 'longhorns', I drilled into the ends of the horns, and glued in some curled lengths of steel wire.



I reshaped the locator pin on the bottom of the torso a little so that I could twist the torso slightly to the side. Then I heated the right leg in hot water and bent back slightly, allowing the legs to be posed on a low piece of rubble.



The Longhorn was going to lack the shield generators worn by regular Gnolti, but removing the forearm shields completely would have required considerable resculpting of the arms, so instead I removed all of the tech details and added a bunch of battle damage, turning them into ordinary, garden variety bracers.



To allow the left arm to be angled closer in to the torso to rest it on the left knee, I hollowed out the elbow joint with a hobby knife, and slightly reshaped the elbow end of the upper arm.



At this point, it was time to break out the putty. The horns received an initial bulking-out layer.



Once this was set, I added additional putty and smoothed it into the horn shape, and then added striations to match the existing horn sections using a silicon clay shaper.



Rather than worrying too much about getting the horns identical lengths, I made one shorter and squared off the end, to make it look like it had been broken off.



The right hand needed repositioning to hold the gun properly, so I sliced through the wrist with a razor saw, and reattached it at a better angle. The gun itself was borrowed from a Mantic Veer-min Nightmare, with some grips added from plastic tube. I'm picturing this as a Chem Cannon, but haven't fully settled on rules yet.





After final assembly and some minor gap-filling here and there, the Longhorn looked something like this:





Painting was very similar to my previous Gnolti conversion, although I went for a slightly more stark highlight on the scales and a white/grey beard to help convey his veteran status.



The skin is Citadel Liche Purple, drybrushed with P3 Jack Bone and then washed with Army Painter Purple Tone. Scales were painted with Vallejo Neutral Grey, washed with Army Painter Dark Tone and then given a careful drybrush of white.



The harness, cloth and leather armour plates were painted with various shades of brown and washed with Army Painter Strong Tone, and the metal armour was painted with Vallejo Beasty Brown, drybrushed with P3 Pig Iron, washed with Strong Tone and then given a drybrush of Army Painter silver. The darker tone on the weapon was from a black basecoat, a heavy drybrush of Pig Iron and then two coats of Dark Tone.



With basing in my standard Urban theme, Grampa Gnolti was ready for the table.



The other end of the spectrum is, of course, the young, impetuous (relatively speaking) Gnolti. Stay tuned!

What have you done with your Gnolti? We would love to see your creations on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

To pick up the Gnolti kit, or any of the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range, visit the webstore here.

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.

The Forsaken are commonly dismissed as simple, degenerate pirates, but the truth is that they usually attack only out of necessity. Piracy is many times the only way their community can survive a hostile galaxy: stealing food, fuel, ammunition and anything else of value they can get their hands on. The Forsaken rarely send out their forces en masse, knowing that a single crushing defeat could mean the end of their entire tribe's existence. Instead, they strike in small patrols, typically led by a Chieftain.

Though a Chieftain is granted his or her position of authority by The Assembly, they must first earn the respect of their fellow Forsaken to even be nominated. A Chieftain must be equal parts fighter, diplomat and cunning tactician. Knowing that their forces can never win a stand-up fight against a prepared opponent, a Chieftain leads his warriors to strike unseen from the shadows, quickly fading away before the enemy can root them out and respond in kind. Many an opposing force has underestimated the ingenuity of a Broken force led by a Chieftain, only realizing too late their folly, as improvised booby traps decimate their defensive positions and Broken secretly approach from their rear.

The appearance of a Chieftain can vary wildly both based upon the culture of their original homeworld, but also from that of the Broken Freeport they are now a part of. Chieftains tend to have slightly nicer clothing and equipment than standard Broken rabble, and many see it as almost their duty to show that even amongst the ranks of the Broken, an individual can still rise up and carry themselves with dignity and class. When the Broken do manage to defeat an enemy officer with particularly fancy clothing or an heirloom weapon, a Chieftain will confiscate these valuable items. A Chieftain wears these purloined treasures into battle, as both a reminder of their past victory, and to display their status as an iconic Broken leader.



This high detail resin model contains two alternate weapons for the left hand and a xeno spotter in the right hand, and is available now from the webstore here! You can also find the rules for this model in the Force Builder section here.

Originally posted on Dakkadakka by Sgt.Oddball.

Hi all,

The Broken Infantry sprues have a total of 13 different weapons (not counting grenades) and 36 different pairs of arms. I thought it would be convenient to know which arms fit which weapons. Scientific testing was set up:



Egg crates full of arms.



Weapons to be tested (from top to bottom, name/part: slug rifle/w0, beam blastgun/w1, longbeam rifle/w3, massive torch/w4, torch/w5, EMP Harpoon/w6, Glue Rifle/w7, Slug Pistol/w13, Chem Pistol/w14, Chem Launcher/w16, Glue Carbine/w17, Beam Pistol/w18, Auto Slugger/w29.

Before relaying the results, a disclaimer:

- I only used the one torso/leg combination (legs 3 and torso 3). I think the pairings will work for most torso/leg combinations, but see a little addendum at the end on torso number 6 which is definitely different. I also stuck to the arms as paired on the sprue (didn't mix and match left and right).

- I stuck the arms to the torso with tacky glue and dry-fitted the weapons. Hence, stuff will fit a little nicer when you actually glue it properly. Also, I couldn't take pictures of some combos for lacking three hands.

- It's a rough guide: not all the fits shown are ideal, I might have missed one that kinda fits as well, and of course if you're a little creative and/or do a tiny bit of converting, more fits are possible.

Then, finally, with the Broken sprues it's useful to know that all the '1' arms create a similar hold, all the '2' arms create a similar hold, etc. The numbers for the arms in no way match specifically with the torsos that are on the same sprue, that's totally unrelated. Generally the 1 arms are good for the Slug Rifle, Beam Blastgun, Longbeam Rifle (but 5 is better), Massive Torch and EMP Harpoon. The 2 arms are good for pistols. The 3 arms are good for having your gun resting on the ground. 3E will do a dual pistol. The 4 arms are good for the Torch and Glue Carbine. The 5 arms are good for the Auto Slugger and Longbeam Rifle. The 6 arms are good for the Glue Rifle, Slug Rifle, Beam Blastgun and EMP Harpoon.

So, results:

Slug Rifle works with: 1A, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 2D, 3C, 3D, 3F, 4D, 5A, 5E, 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F.


Beam Blastgun works with: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 3C, 3D, 3F, 5A, 5C, 5D, 5E, 5F, 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F.


Longbeam Rifle works with: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 3C, 3D, 3F, 5A, 5B, 5E, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F.


Massive Torch works with: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 5E, 6A.


Torch works with: 2AS, 2D, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E, 4F, 5D, 5F.


EMP Harpoon works with: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 3A, 3C, 3D, 3F, 5A, 5C, 5D, 5E, 5F, 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F.


Glue Rifle is a bit odd as there's several ways one might hold it. I have my preference but just showed them all. Note that the gun is upside down in one of the pics. I think this might be because I dropped it and then redid the photo without noticing I held the gun wrong, which would mean this combo should work the right way up, but I'm not sure ;). Works with: 1D, 1E, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3F, 5C, 5E, 5F, 6A, 6B, 6D, 6E, 6F.


Slug Pistol works with: 2A, 2B, 2C, 2E, 2F, 5C, 5D, 5E, 5F.


Chem Pistol works with: 2A, 2B, 2E, 2F, 3E.


Chem Launcher works with: 1D, 1E, 2F, 5A, 5D, 5E.


Glue Carbine works with: 2A, 2C, 2E, 2F, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E, 4F, 5D, 5F.


Beam Pistol works with: 1A, 1E, 2A, 2C, 2D, 3E.


Auto Slugger works with: 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5E, 5F, 6C, 6E.


Small addendum regarding torso number 6, which I think is the only one that makes a serious difference for the arms:

In general, torso 6 points the hands closer together. This makes arms 3 and 4 almost useless, but gives a lot of options for the torch and glue carbine as those shorter guns now take advantage of the many arms that usually accommodate longer guns. It's surprisingly hard to find any arm combination to actually fit the basic Slug Rifle, so beware of that. I did slightly less extensive research on this torso (no pics of every combo), but here's my results:

Slug Rifle: 6C, 6F.
Beam Blastgun: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1F, 5D, 5E, 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F.
Longbeam Rifle: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 6A, 6C, 6D, 6F.
Massive Torch: 1A, 1B, 1D, 1E, 6A.
Torch: 1A, 1B, 1D, 1E, 1B, 2D, 2E, 2F, 5B, 5D, 5E.
EMP Harpoon: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 6A, 6B, 6D, 6E, 6F.
Glue Rifle: 5E, 6A, 6C, 6D, 6F.
Slug Pistol: 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F.
Chem Pistol: 1A, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 3E.
Chem Launcher: 2B, 2D, 2E, 5E, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F.
Glue Carbine: 1C, 1D, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 5A, 5B, 5D, 5E, 5F.
Beam Pistol: 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 3E.
Auto Slugger: 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 6C, 6F.


General pose of the 1 arms:


General pose of the 2 arms:


3 arms are basically useless with this torso (unless you do a little bit of converting), but you can still do double pistols:


4 arms aren't much use for weapons, but might work if you want to model somebody gesturing whilst talking ;)


General pose of the 5 arms:


General pose of the 6 arms:

- by Iain Wilson

This month sees the release of a new type of unit to Maelstrom's Edge, with the addition of the Marsayan Hypnotist to the Broken faction. Rather than a unit in his own right, the Hypnotist is fielded as an upgrade to other units - an idea that will be carried across to other factions later to help mix things up a little. While he doesn't have any weapons or ability to directly hurt enemy units, the Hypnotist uses his inate abilities to interfere with enemy attacks directed towards his unit. Here, we have a look at some modeling options for this great resin model.



The Marsayan Hypnotist is a two-piece resin model, and comes with a 25mm base. If you haven't worked with resin models before, you might want to check out the handy guide here.



Assembly is simple - cut the model from the frame, glue his feet to the base with superglue or a fast-setting epoxy (I use superglue with an all-plastic primer, for some extra grip without messing about with plastic.



The assembled model is a little taller than a human, but slightly more slender.





Due to the nature of the Broken as scavengers and refugees, it can be fun to mix up the models a bit by using components from other kits. Here, I replaced the Hypnotist's legs with the legs from a Karist Kaddar Nova.



For something slightly more ambitious, on this one I carefully cut through the resin where the fingertips touch the model's head, and then cut through the neck. The neck was trimmed away and replaced with a new one sculpted from 'Green Stuff' sculpting putty, and the head reattached facing to the right instead of the left. I also cut the left hand off at the wrist and reattached it at a slightly different angle, so that the fingertips still touch the head.



Some worlds are less comfortable for some species than others. On this model, I cut through teh left arm at the shoulder and rotated it downwards to cross the model's chest. I also removed the head and repositioned it slightly, flattened off the top of the shoulders, and added a domed helmet from Bombshell Miniatures.



Finally, bionic limbs are a common feature amongst the Broken. While these have no specific in-game effect, they're a great way to add some character to your models. Here, I have replaced the Hypnotist's lower leg and left arm with parts taken from an Epirian Scarecrow bot.



What have you done with your Hypnotists? We would love to see your creations on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

To pick up the Marsayan Hypnotist, or any of the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range, visit the webstore here.

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.