I was underwhelmed by the chaps-wearing contractors but I really think you might have something here with the broken.

A HIPS kit suitable for generic rag-tag sci-fi troops could be widely popular all over the place, so there's a lot of potential sales outside actual MEdge customers. I don't like the look of the weapons but who doesn't have a million spare guns laying around anyway?

 Barzam wrote:
Are those female and alien heads I'm seeing among the Broken figs?

Yup. The female heads are relatively androgynous, so can pass for either, really (which is appropriate given the bodies they go on...) and there are a whole slew of different alien heads.


I can't wait to get my hands on some of these and have a play.

Ragtag aliens in plastic! This will be a really useful kit!

I'm actually very interested in the sci fi alien people sprue!

Any information, such as better sprue shots, potential release date, potential MSRP, etc?

Yeah, everything Doug said (I have a feeling the Spiral Arm folks haven't come up for air post-Salute yet, though)

I would really like to see some better pictures, close-up with good lighting. And sprue pics. I can't really tell what I'm looking at in the current pics.

Remember these aren't production sprues, but pre-production so may have bits that are rough/not casting right,

so we may well have to wait until they've got some final prodiction versions to get detailed photos from them (as opposed to con goers versions)

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Remember these aren't production sprues, but pre-production so may have bits that are rough/not casting right,

so we may well have to wait until they've got some final prodiction versions to get detailed photos from them (as opposed to con goers versions)

That's right - we will be releasing some more detailed photos once the final production versions have been signed off. We also we have some other models in the works that we're very excited about - expect more from the Spiral Arm Studios team over the coming months, we have lots of exciting plans that we've been working hard on!

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who visited us at Salute - it was really great to see so many of you.

We promised during our Kickstarter that we would bring you a collection of short stories set in the Maelstrom's Edge universe featuring a host of bestselling and award-winning authors, including Alastair Reynolds, Aliette de Bodard and Jeff Carlson.



Today Tales from the Edge: Escalation is available on the Kindle store! Inside you'll join ship captains taking clients to doomed worlds, Remnant Fleet Champions on impossible missions and Karist Enclave priests learning to control the mighty Angels, all told by some of the best voices in science fiction today. It's also free to read if you belong to the Kindle Unlimited scheme.

As well as Alastair, Aliette and Jeff, we have great contributions from incredible writers like Jaine Fenn, Liz Williams, Jon Cooper, Karin Lowachee and Rob Ziegler, as well as a story each from the lead writers on the Maelstrom's Edge project, Stephen Gaskell and Tomas L. Martin.

In appreciation for the launch of Tales from the Edge: Escalation, the first novel in the Battles of Zycanthus sequence, Faith, will be free on Amazon from Thursday 13th July to Monday 17th July. Just as a reminder you can also find on Amazon the second book in the Battles for Zycanthus, Sacrifice, as well as our first short story collection, Tales from the Edge: Emergence.

If you would prefer a hard copy of our books, all four of them are available to purchase from the Maelstrom's Edge store. In celebration of our professional anthology, we've made the audiobook 'Fracture' available for free to all VIP members of the webstore for the next month - go download it if you haven't already!

As a final note, if you've enjoyed any of our fiction, please do leave a review on Amazon - it boosts our work a great deal and helps us to bring in more great authors to our collections in the future!

Got both new books now. Hope to be able to read them next week. Then, when it's dark, the reviews will follow...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Amazing cover art, BTw.

I'll admit to being slightly biased here, but Escalation was a damn good read. Some really cool and unexpected stories in there.

I haven't had a chance to read Emergence yet... That's next in the queue.

We just broke through the 2000 like barrier on our Facebook page so to celebrate, here's another teaser of the Broken.



This model is our first shared, painted Broken figure, made with our all plastic, multipart kit which was teased at Salute this year. The kit makes 6 models, with 11 different alien head options and 12 human head options. Like us on facebook to make sure you dont miss the release announcement if you like the look of rag-tag sci-fi troops with shared alien and human parts

That photo looks familiar...

More seriously these make for a great rag tag force, so many possible combos of parts / pose.

Looks like it might make a cool generic pulpy sci-if skirmish force for stuff like Rogue Stars, Rogue Planet etc, especially with the mix of races! Sort of what the Frostgrave kits do for fantasy skirmish.

That guy looks very cool and the concept sounds very useful. I hope to see them hit retail soon!

If the rest look as good as this guy, this should be a great kit. The proportions look to have been improved since the previous infantry kits. Great job! Question, are any of the heads on the sprue eearing headgear of any sort, like hats or helmets?

 Barzam wrote:
If the rest look as good as this guy, this should be a great kit. The proportions look to have been improved since the previous infantry kits. Great job! Question, are any of the heads on the sprue eearing headgear of any sort, like hats or helmets?

About 7 or 8 of the human heads are wearing headgear (mainly hats or 'budget' targetting devices). Masks are quite common on the humans too.

Death blossom, a weapon of last resort!

As just shared over at the comm guild, here are two more previews of the Broken plastic infantry kit:





it will be available for immediate purchase next month.

Digging those weapons. They look very jury-rigged and scrappy.

Wow, could Kid_Kyoto finally have his dream of a sci-fi civilian kit?

I'm loving everything about that alien!! He's badass, but still ragtag looking. Awesome

Really looks like it will be a useful kit for all sorts of sci-fi.

 bbb wrote:
Wow, could Kid_Kyoto finally have his dream of a sci-fi civilian kit?

I just might, thank you for thinking of me.

Hopefully there will be some hands without guns (tools, computers, gesturing) to make true civilians.

No hands have guns, all 36 arm/hands are empty, with weapons attached after.

Interesting. I usually hate that aesthetic, but it hasn't jumped out at me in the preview images so far.

 legoburner wrote:
No hands have guns, all 36 arm/hands are empty, with weapons attached after.

Nice Lego thanks!

Sci Fi Cantina coming up!

Just noticed out next month? September? Noice!

And hey are those females heads I see in there?

The spiky hair guy makes me think of the Prometheus cave mapper actor

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
And hey are those females heads I see in there?

Yes there are a few female heads, and a bunch of gender ambiguous heads as well - seemed a bit crazy to make men and aliens and not include women as an option too!

Still not liking those shoulders and proportions. But everything else looks good, a definitely improvement over time.

They look fantastic.
Will they come with unit cards or are we printing them ourselves?

Cards will be online initially (in a new form) so that the meta can be easily tweaked as the balance is revealed from real world gaming. We need to finish a few more units to justify a fresh print run.

Another Broken model revealed:



Featuring one of the standard broken weapons and yet another one of our alien heads (the concepts for which were designed by a biologist.)

The plastic kit which made this model, and every other one shown so far for this faction, will be available for purchase on Sep 29th.

Looks great! Reminds me of the good old days of practical effects for some reason. There's something scroungy about him.


Man, now I want to watch some GoodBadFlicks.

Because nothing says late 70's - early 80's scifi like incongruous heavy fur clothing in a desert. :-) And all equipment being rusted to heck but strangely still perfectly functional.

winterdyne wrote:
Because nothing says late 70's - early 80's scifi like incongruous heavy fur clothing in a desert. :-) And all equipment being rusted to heck but strangely still perfectly functional.

Maybe he is an alien from a volcanic planet and to him, that desertic planet is like the north pole to us!

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
Another Broken model revealed:

That guy is perfect as a 3rd World Alien Tourist - even has a sweet camera around his neck.

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
Another Broken model revealed:



Featuring one of the standard broken weapons and yet another one of our alien heads (the concepts for which were designed by a biologist.)

The plastic kit which made this model, and every other one shown so far for this faction, will be available for purchase on Sep 29th.

Green Drazzi wear green scarf and follow green leader .

Do those heads come on separate sprues, you thought about selling them as just the heads ? More importantly when do we get remnants ?

That is very impressive!! I'm actually a fan of everything But the head on this one personally, but it looks like we're spoiled for choice on heads

I especially like the pose, and the variety it looks like will be possible with the separate weapons - you've pulled that off better than I would have thought possible!

Really looking forward to the release of this kit - do you have a date?

 RiTides wrote:
That is very impressive!! I'm actually a fan of everything But the head on this one personally, but it looks like we're spoiled for choice on heads

I especially like the pose, and the variety it looks like will be possible with the separate weapons - you've pulled that off better than I would have thought possible!

Really looking forward to the release of this kit - do you have a date?

The plastic kit which made this model, and every other one shown so far for this faction, will be available for purchase on Sep 29th.

Now the big question is, do you have a US distributor?

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
Another Broken model revealed:



Featuring one of the standard broken weapons and yet another one of our alien heads (the concepts for which were designed by a biologist.)

The plastic kit which made this model, and every other one shown so far for this faction, will be available for purchase on Sep 29th.

By far my favourite of the models teased so far.

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
We just broke through the 2000 like barrier on our Facebook page so to celebrate, here's another teaser of the Broken.



This model is our first shared, painted Broken figure, made with our all plastic, multipart kit which was teased at Salute this year. The kit makes 6 models, with 11 different alien head options and 12 human head options. Like us on facebook to make sure you dont miss the release announcement if you like the look of rag-tag sci-fi troops with shared alien and human parts

Liking these! Reminds me of Land of the Lost! Sleestaks!

KK, there is no US distributor for these yet - we are building up the range a bit more before hitting the distributors stateside. Direct shipping will be available from the UK as always though which takes as little as 3 days, and is good for India too.

 Theophony wrote:

Green Drazzi wear green scarf and follow green leader .

PURPLE!!!







He actually reminds me of the guy from Worf's holocombat program though...

Great figure! Gonna need me some of these plastics for projects even if I never manage to get into the game.

I haven't tuned into miniatures in general in a good while, and I'd moralized myself out of buying any more until I use or get rid of my current stash -

But I'll be buying the Broken when they're released. They're much too useful for far too many things.

I'm very glad to see that Maelstrom's Edge is alive and evolving. It's good to see the developers proceeding wisely with releases that are easy to use across multiple ranges. First drones, now alien rabble.

Any chance of any sneaky hints as to how many SKUs the Broken release will make up?

There will be four different units with the initial release built from the same kit. Beyond that, a whole bunch of additional individual models will be coming (and are in active production).

 legoburner wrote:
There will be four different units with the initial release built from the same kit. Beyond that, a whole bunch of additional individual models will be coming (and are in active production).

Interesting so far IIRC Maelstrom has only done multipart plastics. Will this be metal/resin or plastic?

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
Another Broken model revealed:

Spoiler:

Featuring one of the standard broken weapons and yet another one of our alien heads (the concepts for which were designed by a biologist.)

The plastic kit which made this model, and every other one shown so far for this faction, will be available for purchase on Sep 29th.

Love that mini!
I so much wish I had the time to paint up all of the ME stuff.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Interesting so far IIRC Maelstrom has only done multipart plastics. Will this be metal/resin or plastic?

Spiral Arm previewed some resin models at Salute this year, and will be putting out a decent number of resin models alongside plastics simply to ensure a good flow of releases moving forwards as plastic takes as much as 18 months from concept to finished model!

I am really excited about the resin models and thus also getting to see more frequent releases!

 legoburner wrote:
There will be four different units with the initial release built from the same kit. Beyond that, a whole bunch of additional individual models will be coming (and are in active production).

Thank you . Looking forward to them.

As the clock ticks down towards their Sep 29th release, here is another model from The Broken made from our plastic multipart infantry kit:

I like the head and the bionic looking hand.

I know there are shots of the sprue a few pages back but is there any chance of clean shots of the sprues?

And is there a recommended price yet?

That is a really well painted face! The sculpt looks good too.

Good timing with these, particularly if they fit well with Star Wars minis from their upcoming game. Perfect rebels.

 Elbows wrote:
Good timing with these, particularly if they fit well with Star Wars minis from their upcoming game. Perfect rebels.

Legion is too big in scale, won't work unfortunately. You'll have to buy all new stuff for that one.

Gotta say, it's kind of cool to watch a game be born and grow in real time. To watch as it stretches and expands to be something more than another game.

More useful parts! Is there a reason for the notch on the base?

 kestral wrote:
More useful parts! Is there a reason for the notch on the base?

The two notches (one on either side) indicate the direction the model is facing, as you get bonuses in Maelstrom's Edge for attacking a unit from the back.

The Broken guys look quite nice. Leaps and bounds past the initial offerings. I'm not sure how "heads were designed by a biologist!" really makes any difference to races that are essentially Star Trek rubber masks on human dudes. Luckily, as I said, they look good so far.

Having said all that, 6 models per box is positively anaemic unless the box is really aggressively priced and is the aspect that would be most likely to make me skip them.

 Azazelx wrote:

Having said all that, 6 models per box is positively anaemic unless the box is really aggressively priced and is the aspect that would be most likely to make me skip them.

The game revolves largely around units of 3-5 models... And you can probably get a reasonable idea of pricing from the existing kits.

Wasn't a big fan of the previous plastic kits but these look very interesting indeed. Afraid I'll have to be TFG though and ask for size comparison pics with modern kits from "other companies", if possible.

 insaniak wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:

Having said all that, 6 models per box is positively anaemic unless the box is really aggressively priced and is the aspect that would be most likely to make me skip them.

The game revolves largely around units of 3-5 models... And you can probably get a reasonable idea of pricing from the existing kits.

The only place I could find that "stocks" the smaller kits is the ME webstore and the prices there are okay, I guess. I have no idea who stocks the game beyond the core box in order to actually purchase anything. My usual go-to places don't.

I thought their store was the only place that stocked MEdge. Who else carries their starter set?

Wayland in the UK, and War and Peace in Aust.

Yeah, Spiral Arm were waiting until they had actual boxes for the individual kits before they started offering them out to stores, but they'll probably start appearing here and there now. If you have a regular store and they don't have them, they should be able to get them.

Sorry if I missed it but is there a price out yet?

Price and detailed sprue pics will be coming soon. They will be priced in line with our existing plastic range.

More broken models and sprue pics at last...













A common question we've had so far is just how many sprues are needed for each unit to be built? Additionally, how many sprues will be needed for a full force of Broken?

As you can see above, six models can be made with a huge array of options from each set of sprues. Units will be made up of 4-6 models each, with 1 Command model as well, so a single set of sprues can make up a full squad of 6, with most options. Three sets of sprues will be enough to make full squads of all three unit types. Going with two 6 man squads and one 5 man squad will also allow a Command model to be built, giving a full complement. The Broken are made up of inexperienced and easily available forces so have a very low points cost compared to some of our factions, so while 3 squads will cover all basic options, if you want to build a full force (100-150 points), you'll be doing some careful list building first!

Oh man, I love that human trooper with the bandana over his mouth so much!

That is an impressive set of sprues, too - my mind is actually kind of blown by it

I see 12 sets of legs, but are the torsos halves, requiring 2 each? I'll totally be picking this up, the options are intense!

 RiTides wrote:
Oh man, I love that human trooper with the bandana over his mouth so much!

That is an impressive set of sprues, too - my mind is actually kind of blown by it

I see 12 sets of legs, but are the torsos halves, requiring 2 each? I'll totally be picking this up, the options are intense!

Yes, its 2 models per sprue, as there are only 2 complete torsos per sprue.

Wow guys, the sprues look great. Congrats! I look forward to getting my hands on some.

Is that 4 heads per trooper sprue and another 11 on the weapon sprue ? If so thats just . I'll probably pick one up box just for GP but I really want to see what you guys do with the remnants.

Yeah, this is definetly a very good multi component pack, and generic enough for all kind of games and settings!

Jerram wrote:
Is that 4 heads per trooper sprue and another 11 on the weapon sprue ? If so thats just . I'll probably pick one up box just for GP but I really want to see what you guys do with the remnants.

Yep!

The heads on the body sprues are the human heads, and the ones on the weapon sprue are the crazy xeno heads. Although some of the human heads are pretty crazy too (in a good way)!

 yakface wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
Oh man, I love that human trooper with the bandana over his mouth so much!

That is an impressive set of sprues, too - my mind is actually kind of blown by it

I see 12 sets of legs, but are the torsos halves, requiring 2 each? I'll totally be picking this up, the options are intense!

Yes, its 2 models per sprue, as there are only 2 complete torsos per sprue.

So there's a bunch of spare legs?

 Zywus wrote:

So there's a bunch of spare legs?

Best to think of it as tons of different leg options and even more arm options (but to answer your question: yes).

I'm in. How soon can we buy them?

 kestral wrote:
I'm in. How soon can we buy them?

The 29th, just a few days away!

They could be used in a variety of systems, we are allowed to do that right? :p

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
They could be used in a variety of systems, we are allowed to do that right? :p

I dare them to try and stop us.




Will the heads-and-guns sprue be available separately? While I'll want to sample all of the leg and torso combos, that accessory sprue is going to pull some serious weight for converters.

I hadn't even thought of that as I'll want the whole kit, but you're right, with the guns not having hands on them, they'll make fantastic conversion fodder (along with the heads, of course). Really looking forward to playing around with these!

Gonna be an expensive month!

Today we have an image of the Heavy Torch - one of the heavy weapons which The Broken can use...

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
Today we have an image of the Heavy Torch - one of the heavy weapons which The Broken can use...

Perfect for clearing out invasive species. Like the skittering face spiders of Alturan IV or the burrowing crab-wasps of Ig-Horan.

Man, that's even better than the human in the previous pic! I see they both have that sweet masked head, are there two of those in the kit? I was searching but couldn't find a second in the sprue pics.

Actually theres three of those heads that I can see.

One here in the right:

Two here in the right:

I love what I see here. Now I just need to find a bunch of spare torsos somewhere...

I know you're not a fan of resin, Bob, but Anvil Industry and Mad Robot should have you covered for spare torsos.

 Galas wrote:
Actually theres three of those heads that I can see.

One here in the right:

Spoiler:

Two here in the right:

Spoiler:

You're totally right, I missed them on the second sprue! Excellent

And Barzam, that's a sweet idea - I bet some of Anvil Industries "Regiments" bits would work perfectly with these

Pretty much any human sized torso will work. Mixing and matching is going to be a part of the fun with the Broken.

They look great, you guys did a great job with the concept and execution. Nice!

Just one day left until The Broken are available for purchase!

Between that guy and the one below from last page... man, I am so ready to field a rag-tag group of survivors!

I'm not personally as into humanoid aliens, so I'm happy to see they work awesomely as "rebels" . And maybe even as fodder for a Necromunda gang?

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
Today we have an image of the Heavy Torch - one of the heavy weapons which The Broken can use...

This is a kit I could totally see doing well in stores, as the possibilities are crazy! On that note, hopefully it attracts some attention for FLGS who might get it into wider distribution (that is, if you've got the box art ready!)

 Barzam wrote:
I know you're not a fan of resin, Bob, but Anvil Industry and Mad Robot should have you covered for spare torsos.

Hmmm. I see some that would really open the door for an Orville-style crew or some An'La'Shok. Dangerous territory to wander through.

They look really cool, well done!

The designs look like they were pulled from the bestworst no-budget 80's post-apocalypse movies. I love them.

The Broken are now available - we've started a new thread here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/740844.page

to show and discuss the release.