TT Combat Slum Blocks

 At Salute 2021 I bought the TTCombat Slum Blocks building kit.

The kit builds five small buildings, that also stack.

The set comprises three laser cut sheets of MDF.

A set of walls.

Walls and a roof.

Roofs and accessories.

This is the first assembled building.

The white plastic "skirting boards" cover the indentations that are part of the stacking system. The walls are going to be covered with a skin of Milliput for a concrete affect.

William Killian and a Stargrave zombie for scale.

Spiral Arm Studios building accessory sprue provides an AirCon unit and a door.

Plus a ladder and a ventilator.

The roof has a panel of Slaters anti-skid textured plastic.

Stargrave - Alternative figures: The Broken

 So I bought a set of Maelstrom's Edge Broken infantry a while back (sprue photographs here).

That was a while ago.

With the release of Stargrave, I thought I would see how they compare.

The set builds six figures (there are six different torsos) but has twelve sets of legs, offering quite a range of possibilities.

There is one sprue of weapons, and  the arms are separate. This does make choosing the weapon and arms rather complicated. Luckily there is a post about which pair of arms and weapon match up here.

This torso has a rucksack with a bedroll. So I thought it would make a good Pathfinder. he did need a hand Weapon, so another Frostgrave Barbarian axe was pressed into service. he does need some grenades as well.

Comparison shot, Stargrave Mercenary, Maelstrpm's Edge Broken and a Stargrave Crew figure. 

Spiral Arm Studios - Broken infantry

Spiral Arm Studios released their Broken infantry set last year.

The set comprises four sprues building six figures.

There are a lot of options, but the article "Which arms fit what weapons?" will help.

My plan is to use them to build some rabble for Gates of Antares Freeborn.

Spiral Arm Epirian SecDef Troops

At Salute Spiral Arm Studios released two new figure sets for Epirian forces, the Master Bot Handler and the Sec Def troops. They have just officially released the latter and put up the instructions on their site.

The SecDef troops are the Elite of Epirian forces and have eco-skeletons to allow them to carry heavier armour and weapons. The armour is partial plate over material, not fully enclosed like power armour.

I bought two sprues which builds six figures.

Here is the front and back views of the sprues.

Each sprue contains three sets of legs and three torsos. The legs are made from paired parts, they are specifically paired via different sized pegs, though it is possible to (purposely) mix the legs to add to the poses.

There are two assault rifles, one sniper rifle, one machine gun and a heavy cannon. This does mean that you can only build two regular troops per sprue, the other is either a sniper or support. As I do not know how the forces are arranged, I am not sure if that is a problem.

The arms and guns fit nicely, though the heavy weapon pose is a bit odd, there is an optional fitting that goes between the weapon and the figure to support it , "Colonial Marine" style. I have not currently fitted it.

There are only two heads, another plain one would have been nice, I have the machine gunner politely asking who would like "some"! There is a pointing arm and a rifle held to the side arm. The Maelstrom's Edge blog has some alternative poses and ideas.

 A comparison shot with an Empress Universal Soldier in woolly hat.

Overall, a much nicer pose than the Epirian Contractor, and would find some use in many a Science Fiction army. I may well add a few more to my collection.

I was tempted to try one with a Wargames Factory M16 or AK47.

Maelstrom's Edge: Epirian Master Bot Handler

Spiral Arm Studios brought out their Maelstrom's Edge game a couple of years ago. At Salute this year they released two new figure sets. One of the sets (the Master Bot Handler) has just had the instructions released.

The Epirian Foundation use a lot of robots and drones. The limited AIs of their machines are wrangled by Bot Handlers. The most skilled can control vast numbers of machines. they are equipped with exo-skeletons to carry their equipment and heavy weapons.

Here are both sides of the single sprue.

Like a number of Maelstrom's Edge figure sets, there are quite a lot of spare bits left over. This sprue builds one complete Master Bot Handler, but has two sets of torso and legs. There are sufficient weapons for two each of the four arm weapon options.

Following the instructions is important, most of the figure is fairly straight forward but you do need to pay attention to the orientation of the guns (yes, the machine gun on the right arm is the left hand one) and the exo-arm supports are best assembled as mentioned in the instructions.

As I have not played the game, I was inspired by the exo-skeletons in the film "Edge Of Tomorrow" (aka "Saving Private Groundhog") so I decided on twin cluster missiles, the machine gun and the claw.

I have not decided what I am going to use it for yet, so it is just pinned to a 30mm lipped base.

Comparison with a Anvil Industries Martian Fusileer.

The traditional William Killian figure.

 Hasslefree Larren Jax.

Games Workshop Cadian trooper.