Necromunda – Ironhead Squat Prospectors

Following up on the Ridgehauler we'll do a nice double pack, covering the Ironhead Squat Prospectors and the Ash Waste Nomads later this week. But let's start with the Squats!

Oh, what nostalgy came back to the more recent releases. Squats, unmentioned for decades in the editions from the third until recent, were a part of the Warhammer 40,000 since the very beginning of Rogue Trader. Back then even called Space Dwarfs and more of an army of ZZ-Top biker army, yet with lots of classic norse themed dwarven iconography.

Years and years went by. With rumours of a return of the shortish warriors coming and going, in 2018 it was official - as a mercenary for Necromunda with Grendl Grendlsen, followed up shortly after with another one in 2019, Ragnir Gunnstein. And now in 2022 the Squats are re-vamped into a whole new playable race coming for Warhammer 40,000, the leagues of Votann.

Alongside the Book of the Outlands as part of the latest Ash Waste release waves, the Squats have returned as a full playable gang for the underhive - the Ironhead Prospectors. It is a plastic kit with 8 miniatures, spread across two frames with 28,5 mm round bases. I've only put one of the frames on the content picture, there are two identical ones in this box, as usual with Necromunda gang boxes.

The sprue itself is pretty filled and well casted. Minor mould lines. One of the things that is a bit irritating, there are these raised areas in the sprue, that I didn't have seen before.

Let's get started building the prospectors. Their bodies are 4 pieces, front and back of the upper torso and one piece for each leg. There's a pair of legs with a cloak over the thighs, with one leg raised on a stone.

There's a variety of weapons. Yet, not as much as you'd expect. The charter master has access to a large two handed hammer, there are a couple of pistols and quite a lot dual wielded weapons in each sprue (heavy stubber, autogun and boltgun), yet a lot of options from their weapon list are missing and for prospectors they lack the mining gear. No mining laser, no arc welder, no gem extractor, stone saw or power pick on that sprue. A bit weak to be honest. I'm aware that it is very likely that these will be added via an upgrade kit, but yet these are called prospectors and by direct comparison the Genestealer Cultists Neophite Hybrids have a lot more themed options for that, than these guys. I wouldn't expect all of those right away, but a bit more mining gear would have been appropiate.

Next up backpacks and small gear. Those are little pouches and packs of items added to the belts, as well as a single stone burner on the shoulder of the champion.

The last step are the heads and these are two pieces. You have very wide, almost rugby ball sized heads, that have an additional shield pieces added to the front. Unfortunately there is only one full face shield per sprue (why not more?) and the shields are only intended to be added lowered. I glued the one half risen with a bit of scrapping on the back of the plastic piece.

As I'm not the biggest fan of the head design, and I found some inspiration on these online, I got myself some ball bearings to tinker around. The 9mm diameter fit the slot and give you a proper, shiny, closed helmet. An option would be the Sicarian Infiltrators head as well, as you can see on the fourth miniature.

Scale comparison inbetween one of the original Squats and the new Mk VI Space Marines from Age of Darkness. As well as some classic Necromunda miniatures in the second picture.

And the half of the boxed set assembled, with the backpacks and small gear attached.

It is a bit sad, that the Book of the Outlands only shows one paint job / Mining Clan and not variants. Beyond that we see a preview of the upcoming Vartijan Exo-Driller, who will boost the gang as a brute / big guy.

Conclusion

Due to the price increase on the Necromunda boxed sets, were are currently at 37 EUR for these boxes and the Ironhead Squats Prospectors come with only 8 instead of the regular 10 models, giving you a price tag of almost 5 EUR per plastic miniature. That's not cheap, but not the main problem of this kit. The design itself is a bit lazy or at least the combination of the bits. Bodies and legs are okay, but the options for the arms are lacking. You don't have that many options for off-hands, only the large hammer as the Power Hammer for the Charter Master. What about giving them some shovels, picks or other tools / gears, to bring along the look of the miners / prospectors. Similar with the two handed guns, the could have been made modular, because the way they are designed they take up a lot of space and are not that distinguished from the heavy or special weapons. I expected at least some kind of saw or mininq equipment in here, that I wouldn't need to convert / kitbash from the GSC Neophite Hybrids. Next are the heads, only one spare per sprue and only one full mask for per sprue as well. Would love the option to have them all full face mask.

Compared with the other gang boxes this doesn't really cut it. The poses are too limited, as are the options. If I need to buy the upgrade kit and the Exo-Driller to bring in some variety to this gang, I'll surely be around 80 to 100 EURs and that's a lot for a single skirmish warband. If they combined autogun and bolter, or made the heavy stubber an upgrade for them, they could have saved valueable space in the sprue for other items and / or bits and pieces, like an alternate head for the power hammer, mining equipment or some of the options from the gang entry in the Book of the Outlands.

You can make something cool out them, that is for sure, just not limited to the content of this box. So ideally get in touch with a Genestealer Cultist player from your club for some bits.

Warhammer 40,000 and Necromunda are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.