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Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

For those who don't follow the MEdge Facebook page of the Comm Guild blog, here's an article that I put together looking at modeling options using the new Expansion Sprue.


From http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/spotlight-epirian-suppression-team
The Comm Guild wrote:

- by Iain Wilson



The new Faction Expansion Sprue saw the addition of new units to the game for both the Karist and Epirian factions, with additional components to add to the original plastic kits. This seemed like a great opportunity to expore the versatility of these kits, by looking at different ways to build the new units.



So to kick things off, we'll be looking at the Epirian Suppression Team. These doughty warriors take the field armed with the standard Epirian Maglock weapons, but also have the option to replace either pistol or rifle with a Shock Baton or Shock Maul.







The studio models shown above were assembled with the Shock weapons slung on the models' backs, which is the easiest and quickest way to assemble them, particularly if you want to arm them with their rifles. This is simply a matter of gluing the Baton or Maul straight to the Contractors' back plates. We would assume that they're held there with a magnetic latch system, or some similar thing.







An easy alternative is to use one of the Contractor rifle arms to hold the Shock weapon. Several of the rifle arms have the trigger finger fairly close to the other fingers, and so they don't look too out of place holding the Shock weapon handle. You can also gently bend the trigger finger in to reduce the gap even further (The Shock Baton does have a chunkier grip than the Maul, so if you're having trouble getting it to fit, you can shave down the sides of the grip a little).







You can slice the arms at the wrist and/or just under the rolled sleeves on the upper arm and reposition to give some more interesting poses. On the Maul-equipped model below, the right arm has been swivelled just under the rolled sleeve to move the hand outwards from the body, and on the other model one of the rifle support arms has been used with the hand rolled at the wrist to give him an 'at-rest' pose with the baton resting on the ground.







You can also use the open Karist hand on the Expansion sprue to replace one of the rifle hands. On the model below, I've used that hand for the Shock Baton, and swapped the pointing hand off the Karist arm on the sprue onto one of the Epirian rifle arms. The end result is a model wearing Karist gloves, but with the Epirian arms they still look quite distinct from the Karist models.







The team members' ranged weapons can be dealt with several different ways. For models equipped with pistols, you can use the pistols and weapon arms from the Contractor sprue, of course. However, if you've used the right arm for the Shock weapon, an easy alternative is to glue the pistol onto the model's belt, or to use the legs from the Bot Handler sprue and hang the pistol off the strapped pouch on the thigh. For either of these, it's a good idea to cut off the revolver drum on the side of the pistol that will attach to the model, to allow it to sit more flush against the leg.







For rifle-equipped models, you can reverse the idea from the studio models, and mag-lock the rifle to the model's back. Or you can use the rifle support arms to balance the rifle against the model's hip, as below.







With the rifle safely stowed on the model's back, you can use the rifle arms to create a two-handed grip on the Shock weapons, as below. Depending on the specific arm pairing you go for, a little wrist-repositioning can be necessary to get these sitting just right.







For a slightly more out-of-the-box alternative, the below model was assembled using the arms from the Bot Handler sprue, instead of Contractor arms. For the Shock Baton, I cut off the Handler's underslung grenade launcher, chopped the heatsink part off the back of the Baton, and glued it in place running along the forearm. This can be positioned pointing forwards for an 'Active' pose, or reversed for a 'Standby' or 'At-Rest' pose.







You can pick up the Faction Expansion Sprue in the Maelstrom's Edge Online Store here.



You'll also need the Epirian Contractor Sprue (here) or for the arm-mounted conversion, the Bot Handler Sprue (here)



As you can see, there are a lot of possibilities with these models, thanks to the ease of assembly and conversion with the plastic models. I've only just scratched the surface with the builds shown here. Feel free to share what you come up with on the Comm Guild Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/MaelstromsEdge) - it's always great to see how others put their own spin on the model range!



Next up, I'll be taking a look at the Cybel Glaive-equipped Karist Praetorians. Stay tuned!


This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/09/26 19:33:18


 
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

And here's part two, looking at the Karist Praetorians:

The Comm Guild wrote:
- by Iain Wilson



The new Faction Expansion Sprue saw the addition of new units to the game for both the Karist and Epirian factions, with extra components to add to the original plastic kits. This seemed like a great chance to expore the versatility of these kits, by looking at different ways to build the new units.





We've already had a look at the Epirian Suppression Team, so this time around I'm having a play with the Karist Praetorians. These veteran warriors are immediately recognisable with their massive Cybel Glaives, or the smaller but deadly Cybel Blade.







The sprue comes with an open hand for holding the Cybel Glaive in a single-handed grip. For the other arm, you can use the arm with clenched fist from the Karist trooper sprue, or the pointing arm from the Expansion sprue, as in the studio images above and below.







With a little cutting and gluing, though, you can use the rifle support hand from the Epirian Contractor sprue on one of the Karist left arms to create a two-handed grip like this:







The left hand will look slightly different to the right, as the Karists have a flat plate on the backs of their gloves which the Epirian hand will lack, but painted up like the other glove it won't be particularly noticable.



Both the Cybel Glaive and the Cyble Blade can be glued to the models' backs, to leave hands free for ranged weapons.







For Cybel Blade-equipped models, you can use the clenched fists which can be found on the Karist Trooper sprue or the Expansion Sprue to hold the sword, by cutting the hand grip off the sword and gluing to the top of the fist, and gluing the bottom of the hand grip to the bottom of the fist. You need to trim off a little of the grip to correspond to the part that would be in the model's hand, otherwise you wind up with a very long handle. You may find it sits better if you sand or file down the top of the fist a little to make sure you have a flat surface to glue the sword onto.







You can achieve some slightly more dynamic posing and make your Praetorians stand out a little more from regular Troopers by using Shadow Walker legs, as below:







It's possible to equip a Praetorian with both a rifle (including a Ripper Grenade Launcher or Radwave Emitter) and a Cybel Blade. If you would like to avoid having to sling one of the weapons on the model's back, you can always combine them both into a single pole-arm:







This was made by cutting away part of the fore-grip on the grenade launcher, trimming the handle off a Cybel Blade and gluing it in place. I then sliced off the back of the grenade launcher directly behind the drum magazine, and attached the shaft of a Cybel Glaive.



For an alternate take on the iconic Cybel Glaive, I tried going the other way and removing the shaft. The blades were attached to the model's forearms, and the power unit glued onto the model's back:







There are plenty of other possibilities for personalising your units from this sprue, or for creating new unit options for your own home-brew rules, like this model armed with a Cybel Halberd, made by flipping the Glaive's blade upside down, and Energy Shield taken from a Kaddar Nova's backpack:







...or this Angel Keeper, built from Kaddar Nova legs, a Shadow Walker torso, Karist Trooper arms and the shaft of a Cybel Glaive, with a mask made by trimming down a Kaddar Nova's crown.







(We'll be looking at Angel Keepers in a little more depth, and sharing a tutorial for building your own, in an upcoming article very soon...)



And finally, if overkill is your thing, here's a Kaddar Nova who clearly favours getting in close and personal with his enemies:












Why not have a try and see what you can come up with yourself? You can pick up the Faction Expansion Sprue in a handy 3-pack in the Maelstrom's Edge Online Store here.



You'll also need the Karist Trooper Sprue (here) for the standard Praetorian builds, or the Shadow Walker (here) or Kaddar Nova (here) sprues for the more adventurous conversions.



Feel free to share your creations on the Comm Guild Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/MaelstromsEdge) - We would love to see what you do with your Praetorian units!



From the Comm Guild blog: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/spotlight-karist-praetorians

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/09/26 19:21:06


 
   
 
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