The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

Within the Epirian Foundation, many Contractor militia units make use of specialised bots for some extra firepower or to fill battlefield support roles. We introduced the resin weapon drones to boost your Contractor teams on the table a while back, and this week we're adding to your options with a new support drone kit!



This resin kit is comprised of a Support Drone chassis, and optional parts to equip it to join any of three different Contractor unit types. The Recon Package is the standard gear for support drones utilised by Contractor Scout units. Contractor Engineers make use of tool-equipped drones to effect repairs on other damaged bots, while medical drones in Contractor Medic units patch up the force's less hardy human elements.


A recon drone surveys the battlefield for ongoing threats

The support drone is available now from the Maelstrom's Edge Webstore!

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Also, don't forget to check out our upcoming StackaRack paint rack Kickstarter - You can find the details here.

Time for something new and different - Introducing the StackaRack!

We are currently working on a Kickstarter for a customisable plastic paint rack designed to hold any of the major miniature paint ranges - from the dropper bottles used by Vallejo and Army Painter, to the tall pots from the likes of Privateer and Reaper (and GW's old range), and the current stubby Citadel pots.


3D rendered serving suggestion

Paint collections have a way of growing organically, and most of the current paint rack solutions out there are fixed to specific configurations, and made for a specific type of paint pot. If you're like me, and collect multiple brands of paint, that can make organising them a little frustrating, and so we thought we would try to fix that.


Rendered for your convenience

The StackaRack was designed to hold any of the above mentioned pots comfortably, and allows for dropper bottles to slot in either way up, to suit your preference. Made from injection moulded plastic, it will fit together with locking clips, allowing you to build it how you like, and disassemble and reconfigure it as needed.


3D printed prototypes

The Kickstarter is scheduled to go live on the 20th of April. You can find the prelaunch page here. Click the 'Notify me on launch' button for a reminder when the project goes live.

You can also find the StackaRack on Facebook here. Like the page for news and updates as they happen!

- by Iain Wilson

When pursuing conflicts outside of its zone of control, the Epirian Foundation makes use of portable uplink drones that link to orbital satelites and airborne recon to provide battlefield intelligence and allow Bot Handlers to remotely interface with Epirian assets on the ground. The Battle for Zycanthus box includes a cardboard marker for the Automated Uplink Relay, but for those wanting a more 'solid' version, I shared a kitbash idea some time ago using parts from various Epirian plastic kits and metal tracks from a Bombshell Miniatures model. The arrival of the PDC Gun Carriage gave me an idea for an alternative, all-plastic version!




I made a few changes to the drone design this time around, with the most obvious one being the tracks. I built the track unit from the gun carriage as normal, although I trimmed off the lugs on the front that hold the dozer blade.



As with the original version, I used the body of an Epirian Hunter war mech, cutting apart at the waist with a razor saw.



I gave the waist a rotating cuff by gluing on the round grill piece from the gun carriage, and added vanes on the head trimmed from a piece of thin plasticard.



For the arms, I used the shoulders from the Hunter, with the upper arms trimmed off. I needed to glue a new piece for the weapon assembly onto the outer surface of the shoulder, so I sanded this down flat.



To make rotating cylinders for the tri-barreled Flakk Defense Battery, I used a couple of turbines leftover from the Epirian Spider/Firefly Drone kit. Because the kit makes either drone variant, if you have built any spiders, you'll have some of these laying around. I trimmed off the attachment peg and the wing.



I used the Hunter's weapon casing forearms for the bulk of the flakk weapon casing, drilling out the attachment hole a little larger to accommodate the central hub on the drone turbine.



From there, I glued the weapon casings onto the outside of the shoulders, and the turbines onto the front of the casings. The barrells of the flakk weapon came from the drone kit, with the rear surface trimmed down flat and glued to the front of the turbine.



The last thing the Uplink Relay needed was the communications array. I used the 'spare' piece from the drone kit as a fixed arial, glued onto the top of the weapon casing on the left arm. I also assembled a signal dish using a trimmed Hunter foot and the back chassis piece from the drone kit. For the dish itself, I used the leg piece from the drone kit, with the legs themselves removed at the 'hip' pivot.



The assembled Automated Uplink Relay, ready for paint:



And the finished Relay, ready for the table:





Put together your own Automated Relay of Uplinky doom by picking up the plastic Hunter, Drone and Gun Carriage kits, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the webstore here.

Then pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group to show us what you're working on!

For a host of building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

With the past year's challenges wreaking havoc with our schedule, it's been a while between releases. We're getting the ball rolling again with something a little different!



This fantastic gun carriage model was made by PDC Gaming for a Kickstarter campaign some years ago. It's a multipart plastic kit, that comes with options for a turreted or fixed-mount weapon, and a range of different weapons that slot into place on either variant.



Although not being sold as a part of the core Maelstrom's Edge range, this kit is useful for those looking for a plastic track unit for conversions, or wanting to add some heavier firepower to their games. For the latter, you can find an unofficial rules card for the Epirian 'Thunderbolt' sentry drone in our Force Lists section here, or included in the PDF download in the Rules section here.



The gun carriage is available from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now!

And stay tuned for an upcoming conversion article from Iain, using one of these carriages and parts from the Epirian Hunter war mech to build an all-plastic Epirian Automated Uplink Relay.

Stay tuned!

- by Iain Wilson

Time for some more hobby basics! Last time around, we ran through how to apply a basic sand texture to your bases. Now it's time to finish them off, with an article covering how to apply static grass. Find it here!




Stay tuned for more!

Stay tuned!

- by Iain Wilson

Time for some more hobby basics! In this latest addition to the article library, we're running through how to add and paint basic sand texture to your miniature bases. You can find the article here!




Stay tuned for more!

- by Iain Wilson

In games of Maelstrom's Edge, along with whatever objectives apply to the mission being played, each faction has an additional themed objective of their own. For the factions in the Battle for Zycanthus box, there are cardboard counters to use as faction objective markers, but it's always nice to have physical models to represent them instead. I shared a conversion some time ago for a kitbash of the Epirian's Automated Uplink Relay Drone (with a new, all-plastic version of this build coming up in a future article very soon!), and this seemed like a good time to balance things out with a Secret Cache marker for the Karist Enclave!




I was looking at the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue for a completely different project when it occurred to me that the iris hatch was a nearly perfect size for the Karist objective. The Secret Cache is a small objective, which means a model to represent it goes on a 25mm base, and as it happens, the iris is 25mm in diameter. So as an incredibly quick and easy option, you could just use the iris portal as-is. To keep things accurate, you can measure to the iris, ignoring the surround, or if your opponent agrees you could just measure to the outer edge of the portal, making it a 30mm objective marker instead of 25.



For a slightly more elaborate version, I took a portal and used a 16mm spade bit to drill out the middle of the iris.



Wrapping a small piece of sandpaper around my index finger, I flipped the portal over and sanded around the underside to make it concave.



To make the base of the cache piece, I cut a small square of 6mm foamed PVC, and then drilled most of the way through the middle of it with a 25mm spade bit, before giving it a light sand.



To fill the cache, I took a bunch of assorted Karist weapons from the Faction Expansion Sprue. I trimmed the bottom of the rifles down flat, sanding the bottom so that they fit neatly inside the cache cavity. If you don't have the expansion sprue handy, you could also just use spare weapons from the Karist Trooper sprue, cutting the hands off the bottom - either way, the bottoms of the weapons won't be visible once the cache is sealed up, so either way works just fine.



I glued the rifles in place, and then filled the space around them with grenades and a couple of ammo drums cut from grenade launchers. I also glued a small circle of plasticard into the drill bit guide hole in the bottom of the cache.



The final step before painted was to check that the portal fit neatly on top. At this point, I also used a hobby knife to cut some vertical lines into the inside of the hole in the iris, to delineate the tips of each petal. I left the portal separate for painting, gluing it in place at the end.



And speaking of painting, with some colour on the portal wound up looking like this:





Put together your own secret cache of pre-prepared doom by picking up the plastic terrain sprue, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the webstore here.

Then pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group to show us what you're working on!

For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

- by Iain Wilson

Over the Christmas break, I found myself in a local hardware store picking up some supplies for a few jobs around the house, and as so often happens I got a little distracted by random pieces of plastic. As a result, this week's modeling article is a sci fi barracks building made from components from the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues and a piece of plastic air conditioner ducting!




I have plundered the aircon ducting display before, resulting in a battlement-roofed bunker (which you can see here). This time around, I had picked up a longer piece that is usually used to cover over the spot where cables or drain hoses turn to go through a wall.



Because the shape was so perfect as is, there was very little that needed doing here, but it did need a front wall. For this, I used a piece of 3mm foamed PVC. Sitting the ducting end-on on top of the PVC, I traced around the inside with a pencil to get an accurate cutting pattern for the wall.



In the middle of the wall piece, I cut a rectangle to fit the garage door from Terrain Sprue #1.



Before gluing everything in place, I gave the ducting a light sand all over. This breaks up the shiny outer surface of the plastic, allowing glue and paint to stick better. With that done, I glued the front wall in place inside the ducting, and added some iris windows and exhaust fans from Terrain Sprue #2 for some extra detail.



I decided against adding a base, as it didn't really seem necessary. The flange around the ducting makes it nice and stable on the tabletop, and this way it will fit in with whatever style of battlefield I choose to plonk it onto.

So, with some paint on, the barracks looks like this:











Put together your own sci fi barracks (of doom?) by picking up the plastic terrain sprues, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the webstore here.

Then pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group to show us what you're working on!

For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

It's fair to say that this year hasn't gone quite the way any of us would have planned. With the pandemic affecting our production partners, mail services, and our own team members, most of the things that we had planned for this past year wound up on hold. We've been working away behind the scenes to get things moving forward again, and have a nice backlog of releases lining up for the coming year, but in the meantime, here's a look back at what we've been up to.




For the past several years, we've been sharing regular modeling articles on the blog, and this year was no exception. These have showcased different conversion ideas, kitbashes with other ranges, terrain projects, painting tips, and a new, ongoing series of hobby basics articles intended to help out beginners to the hobby. You can find all of our various modeling articles compiled in the hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.



With our usual monthly release schedule disrupted, we did still release a new model for the Artarian Remnant, inthe form of the Nimbus Battlesuit. We have plenty more in the pipeline, however, inluding the next round of reinforcements for each of the existing factions, and the first couple of units are underway for another new faction!



To give people some new modeling and tactical options to explore, Iain shared some homebrew rules for an Imperial Marine faction, introducing power-armoured super soldiers to the Edge, with downloadable rules cards in the Card Downloads section here, and a Summary of their weapons and special rules here.



This year has also seen some great models shared by the community on the Comm Guild Facebook Group. The Group is a handy place to share your models, ask for hobby advice, or talk about the Maelstrom's Edge game. We would love to see more, so be sure to pop along and show us what you are working on!



So... what's next? The new year seems like as good a time as any to get things moving again. We have a whole host of new models in the pipeline, including new releases for all of the existing factions, and a brand new faction joining the chaos on the Edge!



Stay tuned!



For the full range of Maelstrom's Edge products, including the Battle for Zycanthus starter set, the plastic and resin model range, the ever-useful Maelstrom's Edge Terrain Sprues, novels and audiobooks, check out the webstore here.

For building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, have a look at the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

- by Iain Wilson

Christmas is fast approaching, and around this time each year I like to grab some bits and put together a tree decoration, just for the fun of building something different.




This year's decoration uses half of a plastic DIY bauble, an iris hatch from Terrain Sprue #2, and a Karist Minnow.



To get the minnow to fit inside the bauble half, I needed to remove a chunk of the body and wings. After trimming down the claws a little, I sat the front of the minnow inside the bauble and used a black paint pen to mark around the outside edge. Then I cut through the minnow along that line using a razor saw.



After a light sand to smooth down the cut, I glued the minnow onto the back of the iris.



For painting, I went with a suitably Christmassy red and gold, rather than the usual black and purple for the minnow. The whole thing (less the bauble half) was sprayed with Army Painter Dragon Red, and then the Minnow given several generous coats of Dark Tone. The back of the iris piece was painted black, and the isis petals with Plate Mail Metal and washed with Dark Tone. The red parts of the iris were sponge weathered using Vallejo Heavy Charcoal, and the gold painted with Coat D'Arms Bright Gold and washed with Army Painter Mid Brown. Once everything was painted, I glued the bauble half in place, and the decoration was ready to go.







Put together your own Christmas Bauble of Doom by picking up any of our plastic or resin kits from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here.

Then pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group to show us what you're working on!

For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

You can also find the previous Christmas kitbashes here, here, and here.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and health and happiness for whichever holidays you observe at this time of year!