Necromunda – Cargo 8 Ridgehauler and Trailer

Last weekend the Ash Waste novelties went online for pre-order. And beside the new supplement Book of the Outlands and the Squat Miners, the Cargo 8 Ridgehauler and its trailer were introduced as well. We will look into these kits today.

In the new supplement you'll find the rules for these in Necromunda, along with some further mechanics of using other vehicles and even a small vehicle construction kit. But for this review the most interesting are the assembled and painted pictures, along with some samples of how the different houses us the Cargo 8 Ridgehauler.

Let's begin this review with the trailer itself. It shares the majority of parts and all the sprues with the Ridgehauler, to this is a good starting point. As you can see, on the picture itself, it re-purposes the armoured containers from the Kill Zones or Battlezone sets, like the Conservators.

The Cargo 8 Ridgehauler Trailer has a RRP of 47,50 EUR and covers two large and two medium sized sprues, along with a decal sheet and black-and-white instructions.

The sprues cover two identical frames for the wheels and suspension. The munitorum sprue (that not only covers the container but some small scatter terrain as well) and the trailer incl. flat bed option. The gunner sprue is not part of this kit, only of the truck and is set at 21 EUR (!) as a mail order only item.

The truck itself is set at 75 EUR RRP and comes with all the parts the trailer does, but covers additional content, like the driver's cab.

This kit covers three large sprues (trailer, container and driver's cab), two identical medium sized sprues for the wheels and a small one for the two gunners added to the container. And of course the decal sheet and a black-and-white instruction leaflet. Suggestions for painting etc. are not part of the instructions but part of the Book of the Outlands.

Here are only the additional new sprues shown, as the Cargo 8 Ridgehauler comes with all the sprues shown above with the trailer. Casting is well done on all of them, yet you notice that there was some time between these and the container. The details are finer on the newer sprues and less bulky.

As for the content, I don't think that adding 27,50 EUR to the Trailer price for the two sprues is too much, I just think the trailer starting at 45 EUR is a bit steep. And not having the gunners in the trailer at the price is a slap in the face, with another slap coming for charging 21 EUR for this MOO quarter-sized vehicle accessory sprue. But let us start building these kits.

The wheels are the first thing to assemble, and you need quite a lot of them. Depending on the variant you're going for, you need either 6 or 8 of them. They are identical on both sides, so there's no inside or outside / rotating direction. You'll build with four of these and additional parts two axles, as that's the basic pieces you need to begin with.

The suspension on these are different, so please pay attention to the instructions. Depending on the variant you extend them either or add a second build group to create a double axle. These steps were incredibly time consuming, as you had to remove all the mould lines and connection pieces to the sprue. And I expected some variation in here (like having a lifted or turned wheel), but from the stock nothing like that is possible and you'll probably need some steady hands to convert it.

The double and single axels can then be connected to a middle structure. Please do this before you add further parts the structure, as you won't be able to add the axles afterwards without additional work.

Technical, if you have both trailer and truck, you could build a trailer or vehicle with only four wheels (as you need two sets of the prolonging elements and each kit comes with only two), but I wanted to show you the variant - just in case - and for inspirational purposes. The trailer / truck is meant to be build with either 6 or 8 wheels, as shown in picture #2 and #3.

Then the exhausts are added, a big pipe on each side along with a topper for the middle structure. This further stabilizes the chassis.

Now for the frame, there are two walk ways / wheel covers on both sides, and they are quite wide covering the whole tread of a wheel (TÜV sagt ja!). A side by side comparison of the build with 3 and 4 axles.

There are further detail parts for the under side, the cables are pure aesthetics, the support beams give the under carriage more stiffness. Until here trailer and truck are build in the same way.

From here the Trailer is different than the Ridgehauler Truck are different. So these steps for the trailer are a bit alterated. For example the support beams are added to the front of the trailer as well and create further sturdyness to the kit.

And then we move to the first actual option of this kit (beside 6 and 8 wheels), flat bead or container carrier. I only put the flat bead ontop and didn't glue it in space (which would provide a cleaner finish for the surface / connecting areas of the different pieces).

The other option is to build it with an u-shaped mount for the armoured containers. I skipped covering the process of assembling the container here, you can read it up on the Conservators review.

Now we head over to the Cargo 8 Ridgehauler truck itself. The first piece is the quite detailed driver's cab. It does not only cover the driver's seat, but two further crew members, one more sitting and another one manning the cab gun. The cab is open topped, with just a metal frame but no closed armour panels on top.

Along these steps are no options or variants. You could maybe leave the hedgerow cutter off, but that's it. I didn't glue the cabin topper, just put it there, as I wanted to be able to paint the interior (for the same reason I left off the crew - along with using something that works better for my with the 90s Necromunda).

This cab is extended to the flad bed / cargo area with two strong support beams on each side, holding the drivers cab stable. I have to be honest, I expected these to move to the side or something, to give gunners or boarding actions some options (similar to the Playmates Ninja Turtles van for example).

The truck has the options to use the flad bed as well, but this time it is simply placed midst the sides that hold the armoured container in place. Once again not glued in place, so I can swap them with the container, if I need to.

To connect truck and trailer you have this bit, it stays in place and enables them to angle. If you want to close the hook for example on the last trailer, there is an optional cap cover for that included in the sprue as well.

Then there are a couple of smaller bits and pieces, mostly the drums and cargo containers from the armoured container sprue, along with some smaller tool boxes from the Cargo 8 set, that can be added to the truck. As you can see, the truck fits the retro-90s Necromunda miniatures as well.

Interesting to see is that the crew and the Genestealer Cultists share some similarities in their clothing. The former miners wear similar work outfits. So in case you want to add this truck and trailers to your cultist forces (as an more expensive APC stand-in), this fits as well. And along with bits and pieces from the GSC range, you could move it much closer to a mining vehicle - but more on that further below.

As for scale comparison. The Ridgehauler is quite wide, as it needs to be, to fit the container on the cargo bed as well.

The idea of vehicles in the Underhive is nothing new, and there were rules - especially for the ash wastes back in the very late 90s / early 00s in the Citadel Journal and Fanatic magazines. For that reason, I gave the Goliath Rockgrinder a proper look a while back, along with converting an Ork Battlewaggon for the Underhive (Starting in 3 ... 2 ... 1) and Stompa Stompz! providing similar purposes for a cargo transporter or land train.

I have build multiple containers from various sets, and with this one I wanted to try something else. So I modified the containers. I cut the top off. Not as much as the lorries in the White Dwarf, but to be used as open topped bulk good containers. If you have a proper metal ruler and sharp knife, easy conversion. Even easier if you have a hobby saw. I used the upper angled parts for direction and cut the areas highlited in red in the pictures.

I have to properly sand it down and add a nice frame from plastic card to a proper finish, but you get the idea. And in the last picture, I just added the containers to the flat beds.

Conclusion

To be honest. Very mixed feelings about this kit. When it was announced, I thought, well the truck is going to be 65 EUR and the trailer 35 EUR, 100 bucks RRP for a land train. Get it at your local dealer, easy 10% off and that's still not cheap but somewhere reasonable. Yeah, then the official prices came. 75 EUR for the truck and 47,50 EUR for the trailer. Especially the last one is really a blood slide. And they didn't even include the tiny gunner sprue but charge 21 EUR on top.

But why is the price point such an issue? Because the kit itself is lacking love. You see the spreads from the Book of the Outlands? Almost none of those variants can be build from the kit, you need additional sprues. They didn't give you a variation for the bullbar, there are no non-guild pieces in here, no alternate heads, no rear gunner or alterations for the drivers cabin. They move you through a rather time consuming process of building the suspension to hide it after you assembled all of them under the covers. Why not go for something simpler, as Games Workshop did with the Ork Trukk? Completely sufficient, takes up far less space on the frame and provides the same result. And the Ork vehicles are creating another "problem" for this kit by comparison. You get options on them, and not only a few. I build a lot of those and the Cargo 8 Ridgehauler, in direct comparison - simply jumps as high as it needs to provide transport for a container. Quite frankly, at a price of more than 120 EUR RRP for a truck with trailer, that's not enough to just do the bare minimum.

One option would have been to spend more time on the gunner sprue. If you compare that to the new Horus Heresy vehicle accessory sprue we shown in the Spartan Review, that is a sprue worth 15+ EUR. So if you're going to charge 21 EUR for the gunner sprue, give the people a reason to pay that. Add gang house heads in there, add some captured vehicle bits in it and spend it an at least medium sized frame with options (for example those cool tusks, that were shown in the artwork).

I don't want to make this all about the money. But if you charge premium prices, deliver premium content. I know you can, you've shown multiple times. I want to be amazed, simply steam rolled by the amount of options. Simply take a look at what amount of vehicle options and bits Games Workshop released back in 1998 (!) for Gorkamorka (turn the pages as well) .

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.