Maelstrom's Edge: Broken Infantry Pack

The exact place that I first saw these and the person that recommended them escapes me, but as I'm modelling and painting the expanding range of gangs that I've dreamed up for the Inqisimunda games that I have planned for the God Emperor-forsaken port of Far Corfe, Maelstrom's Edge and their Broken range of plastic components came to my attention.

The Broken - a rousing rabble of rabble rousers

Costing around a tenner and in perfect scale to be mixed in with GW products, the basic order of four sprues comes with enough parts to make six complete miniatures with plenty of left-overs that can be stirred into a kitbash in order to produce something a little bit more exotic and unusual than the common recipe of Neophyte Hybrids + Chaos Cultists + Skitarii = Any Non-Goliath/Escher Necromunda Gang.

Close up of a ginger hipster created using the Broken Infantry Pack

I was probably sold on it by the head used on the model above, with his exceptionally hipster look and in-built earpiece (so much so that I've already had the two heads off of the sprue and used them for a couple of heavies in different gangs, but only realised when I looked at the heads closely that there is even a minor difference between them, one having its mouth open and the other closed - either that or my eyes are seriously screwed), so I hit the order button and waited impatiently.

What a tenner's worth gets you...

The sprue's arrived fairly swiftly, and being a hopeless nerd, I was immediately impressed by the way that they were designed to stack atop one another in a manner that kept the components separated and thus prevented them being bent or snapped by each other.

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes...and indeed, arms, ears mouths and noses

Three of the sprues contain a pair of two-part torsos, four sets of legs, various arms and four mostly human-looking heads, the feel definitely pulling towards the Scavvie end of things when considered against the Necromundan landscape.

Cargo pants for the crew of a cargo freighter, or scavvie slacks for a wasteland wanderer?

The fact that some of the torsos even have backpacks included as part of the sculpt is also a welcome feature if you're thinking of using these in a gang-fight style of game, as the addition of something like that to a model can make a lot of difference when it comes to selling the idea of them being part of a small band that relies upon its own resources and serves as its own team of pack-mules, rather than being a unit in a larger army that would have access to regimental support personnel and a supply train.

These could be weapons, or alien power tools, or even something else that takes batteries and vibrates...

The weapon sprue features the alien heads (which I guess could pass as Tau or even Genestealer Hybrids at a push), which are nice, but it's the weapons themselves that will baffle and delight with their sheer strangeness, featuring almost no familiar configurations whatsoever.

My plan is to use them as either captured xenos tech that's found its way from one unscrupulous hand to another through the underhive until it landed in the possession of a gang, or more exotic and unusual patterns of familiar weapons picked up by interstellar travelers that have been from one side of the Imperium of Man to the other and back.

Crewpersons indentured to Norm's Atomic Dumpster pose for a photo of execrable quality

As previously mentioned, I already threw together a couple of models using heads from this kit, including a heavy-weapons armsman for Norm's Atomic Dumpster, the crew of which are all clad in fetchingly grubby orange coveralls, but I don't have any pictures of him yet - so above a truly godawful photo of some of the miserable wretches he'll be joining instead.

So, in short, I'd heartily recommend this kit as an addition to the pieces being used by anyone making a Necromunda gang or similar project, as it fits well with GW kits in terms of scale and how the models go together, and it'll throw in some elements that make whatever you choose to add them to unique.

Agree or disagree?

As ever - let me know in the comments below.