When Games Workshop released Tribes of the Wastelands, they also released two new kits. The first, Sha’dar Hunters and Arthromite Spinewyrms, allows you to expands your tribe with the newest models and also provides some welcome diversity to the original box. The second, Ash Wastes Nomads: Weapons and Upgrades, complements every other kit with a variety of weapons.
Thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with the kits for review.
First Impressions
As always the quality of kits is excellent, with densely packed sprues that generally do a good job of either hiding mold lines and gates or putting them in a position that’s easily removed with a knife or mold line remover (which is actually a really good bit of kit and great for modeling while traveling). The kits feature a high level of interchangeability, with common arm joints and backpacks which are easily swapped out with the Ash Wastes Nomads War Party kit. I would say that you could make a very diverse and unique gang, with lots of variation between heads and poses and little repetition.
Sha’dar Hunters and Arthromite Spinewyrms
The Sha’dar Hunter box contains enough plastic for a total of 10 models; 6 Sha’dar Hunters and 4 Arthormite Spinewyrms. The kit consists of two identical sprues, 6 28.5 mm bases, and 4 25 mm bases. Note that this is different from the Ash Wastes Nomads War Party box which only has 25 mm bases, which can present some challenges depending on how much kitbashing you want to do. The models with the “widest stance” are the ones located on a hero rock that could be shaved down to fit on top of a 25 mm base.
The box contains the following. Note that “left/right” is from the perspective of the model.
- 6 Sha’dar Hunters (3 poses)
- 12 heads (6 styles)
- 4 Arthromite Spinewyrms (2 poses)
- 2 tridents (right)
- 4 insective knives (2 each)
- 2 chitin gauntlets (right)
- 2 bone talons (left)
- 4 venom staves (2 each)
- 6 chitin daggers (4 left, 2 right)
- 4 venom whips (2 each)
- 2 venom sacks
There are just enough core pieces for each model along with 6 extra heads, and with a total of 24 weapons for 12 arms you will have plenty of extra toys. Especially if you add on the weapons sprue.
Ash Wastes Nomads: Weapons and Upgrades
Like with most upgrade kits this box doesn’t contain any core torsos or anything; just spare heads, arms, weapons, and other bits. The box consists of two identical sprues that together contain the following:
- 10 heads (5 styles)
- 6 shoulder pads (3 styles but they can fit on either shoulder)
- 4 sky mantles (2 styles, they’re the little banner things on top of the model)
- 4 blast carbines (2 styles)
- 2 scavenged autoguns (1 style)
- 2 web guns (1 style)
- 2 venom casters (1 style)
- 2 heavy blasters (1 style)
- 2 mono hooks (right)
- 2 long blades (right)
- 2 scavenged stub guns (left)
- 2 web pistols (left)
All of the two-handed weapons are for right-handed shooters, which means that the left hands can easily be turned into pistol arms.
Assembly and Customizing
Assembling the Hunter models is very easy, with no fiddly bits (here’s looking at you Van Saar) and intuitive assembly steps. There are some challenges if you want the weapon arms to fit into a pose that’s different from what the designers intended, with some gaps that can be filled with a bit of shaving with a sharp hobby knife and the appropriate application of solvent glue. One thing I would highly recommend is waiting until after the backpack is painted before assembling it. As an assembly it’s fairly isolated from the rest of the model (with the exception of the occasional tube) and having access to the back will make life easier.
The number of arm and head combinations make it very easy to have several unique poses and there’s nothing particularly unique about the Hunter models which would make it impossible to swap poses with the models from the Nomad kit. Hunters are primarily defined by having a large chunk of chitin on their back and the backpacks are fairly easy to swap. Nomads also have a distinct advantage when it comes to modeling; nobody knows what the hell their weapons actually are. If you have a mono hook and want to say it’s a bone claw, go for it. Maybe take a venom sack and connect it to a spare arm in the weapon upgrade sprue and call it a venom scourge; it’s basically whip adjacent. I also wouldn’t be surprised if you could take all of the bits, add a Dustback Helamites kit, and make some really awesome Stormcallers.
Painting
I will be honest; I really struggled to paint these models. Although technically they aren’t terribly challenging, as weathered cloth is fairly forgiving, the construction of these models makes coming up with a cohesive style fairly challenging. Nomads have a very patchwork look to them, and if you want to create a color scheme which matches the notion of a heavily camouflaged gang that rises from the ashes then your color schemes are generally going to be muted. I ended up going through three or four iterations before I settled on something that I liked, and I’m still trying to finalize it.
The other thing that makes the patchwork look challenging is that different arms can have different layers of cloth. For example the trident arm has four layers; a carapace shoulder pad, an overcoat layer, an undershirt layer, and then the wrapping and gloves. The venom staves do the same thing. You can likely get away with just keeping things simple, or maybe having distinct colors for the pants and undershirt, but I would say that from a thematic standpoint Ash Wastes Nomads can be surprisingly difficult. It’s also entirely possible that I’m incompetent and the editors are just too nice to say it. (Editor’s Note: No, we’re not.)
One thing that did work out well was the Arthromite Spirewyrm, which painted up very quickly. I wanted to do something a bit different so I focused on the idea of a species of bug where the carapace was hardened steel that had rusted in the corrosive environment of the Ash Wastes. Because the Nomads are so heavily connected to the wildlife of Necromunda it seemed appropriate to paint a bug first to get a sense of how things would work out.
Wrapping Up
In the same way that Tribes of the Wastelands has done a great job of fleshing out the lore and composition of the Nomads, these new kits provide a lot of flexibility and potential to a Nomad painter or modeler. Even if you don’t intend to use them, the Spirewyrms are a great opportunity to try out a rough concept that can be refined into the inspiration for the larger theme of your gang. Just be aware of the potential challenges associated with all of that cloth, and don’t be surprised if you have to start over a couple times.
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