The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

- by Iain Wilson

The new, plastic Broken Infantry kit has been out for a few weeks now, and I've been having a ball exploring the modeling options available from these sprues. With build articles now up showing how to put together your Chieftains, Rabble squads (which also serves for the Fire Support unit) and Assault units, it seemed like a good time to look at some easy ways to customise your Broken models a little.



Let's kick things off with guns. Broken have a lot of different weapons, and they're all cobbled together from whatever parts they can scrounge. You can accentuate this a little by swapping grips between the different weapons. Below I have swapped the Chem Pistol grip out in favour or the firing grip from a Beam Blastgun, given a Slug Pistol the pistol grip from a Beam Pistol, and replaced the curved handle on the Chem Launcher with the back half of a Slug Rifle.





With Broken forces being made up of refugees from all walks of life, and equipped with whatever gear they can beg, borrow or steal, the other Maelstrom's Edge plastic kits are a great resource for personalising your forces. A trimmed down Karist Trooper shoulder pad is a great way to single out your unit Bosses from their otherwise equally-scruffy charges.



Karist Trooper and Epirian Contractor arms and heads can also be used to add some extra variety when scattered through with the Broken parts. The necks may be a little tight on some of the Broken torsos, but you can shave them down with a sharp hobby knife or a modeling file to make them fit.



The model on the left below also has Contractor legs. The Broken torsos and legs have multiple belts and straps, but the thicker belt on the Contractor leg pieces can make this look a little strange and results in the model being very tall, so in this case I have removed the belt from the bottom of the torso with a sharp knife before attaching to the legs.



To venture a little out of the box, the below Chieftain model has been given a melee weapon (just for show) made from a cut-down EMP Harpoon with a blade from a knife taken from the Faction Expansion Sprue.



A gunslinger Chieftain can be made using the pistol arms from the Epirian Bot Handler sprue. You can cut the pistols off just above the tops of the hands and attach Broken weapons instead, but in this case I liked the look of the Epirian pistols so left them there, where they will probably sub as Slug Pistols for now. I also added a long coat and lifted the collar with 'green stuff' putty.



Last, but not least, the more speed-happy Broken may want a better way across the battlefield than walking like everyone else, and what better way to travel than a custom-made skyboard?



The board was made from a strip of plasticard, with some leftover turbines from Epirian Firefly Drones added onto the sides. Obviously, there are no rules for these, but the idea was too much fun to not put it together, so I'm planning to put together a unit of these guys and work up some homebrew rules for them. Watch this space!

To get to work on your own Rabble horde, you can find the Broken Infanty kit in single, double or triple packs in the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge plastic model range. As always, feel free to share your creations 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.