Necromunda – Ash Waste Nomads Dustbacks and Wy’tari Stormcaller

We're closing the Ash Waste reviews series after the Cargo 8 Ridgehauler last month and Ironhead Prospectors earlier this week (breaking the 300 review barrier by the way! Yay!). And today we're looking at the Ash Waste Nomads, primarely the Wy'tari Stormcaller.

Games Workshop sent the the Stormcaller kit by Forge World and I traded one of the Prospector sprue against one of the Dustback Helamites to add a bit of more content to this review. That's why I'm only showing the sprue and not the box set or instructions, but it should work either way.

The Dustback Helamites are the second plastic kit for the Ash Waste Nomads, after the regular infantry set, and covers four mounted nomads for 37 EUR made from hard plastic. In the box you'll find the same sprue twice.  That's something that is completely normal for the "side games" and how it is done with Necromunda and Blood Bowl as well.

Casting is properly done and you get a few options. Mould lines weren't issue and the space within the sprue well used.

The core of the Helamites is the same, you have a a head, thorax and abdomen. These three parts are more or less identical, with the head just being mirrored. The carapace on the thorax comes in two variants. You have to make sure which body you use, as the legs don't properly fit with the other one.

The front legs are mirrored for two variants, with different designs for the back legs. You'll need the oval bases and surface area for a proper stand. I tried putting them on smaller (40mm) round bases, and that does not work well, if you want to make that work you'll need 50 or 60mm round, and that takes up a lot of ground space. I was surprised that even with the smaller connection to the base, they have a rather sturdy stand. Yet, I wouldn't handle them to roughly as the legs are quite thin and this will provide risk for damage.

The optional horns and variants for the back banner are coming in the next step and last thing you add to the dustbacks themself, after that it is all about the riders.

The core body, upper body and two part legs, is for both (or all four of them) with minor detail differences the same. You have the option between two different sets of arms per rider. The one has either a sniper rifle or pistol, and the other one a back mounted rifle either way, but a lance or binoculars in his hand. I assume you could add some arms from the infantry with a bit of modification, if you like. But I'm happy with the four variants per sprue, so basically you can build the whole box / set of four in different ways.

I do like the different heads in there. Really nice variations of the masks and hoods. I didn't glue the riders in place, for a reason I'll cover further below.

Now let us build the character from the Forge World range. To be honest, when it was announced, I assumed this would be the range of the Cawdor Stig-Shambler (42 EUR) or Orlock Vespa Minx (41 EUR), so I was a bit surprised that the price of the Wy'tari Stormcallers is 55 EUR.

You get a regular clamshell blister, with an oval base and the instructions for assemble in the inlay.

The resin casts are well done, you now airbubbles or similar defects (like impurities), yet the master seems not as sharp as other models and I had the problem of smaller bits being broken.

I began with the main body of the dustback, which is a larger variety compared to the plastic ones. The left hand had it's tip broken and unfortunately that piece was not in the blister, so I couldn't glue that one back on. Fit wasn't the best, but okay. As well as the connection wasn't that clear from the instructions.

Next up the legs. You have a bit of flash on some parts, which is not the worst thing, as it stabilises the pieces while transport. It was a bit difficult to clean some of the mould lines and flash without breaking the finer details.

As for the rider, the Stormcaller, his staff was broken, but I was able to glue it back together. Again here removing the flash in between parts (like the tipp of the staff or the horns on the helmet) was a difficult, to not damage smaller details while doing so. The alignment of the head wasn't that clear as well, there is not a proper flat connection for assembly, neither a ball-joint. The backpack caused the most trouble, as it didn't really fit to the backside of the miniature. Parts of it slide into a cavity and that needed to be widened, to let the parts combine.

And it is important that those are flush, as this will cause problems with the last pieces, the banners on the back. Yet, these have good connections to the whole model, as they are not just connected via the banner stuff but the cloth is connected to the inner sides of the legs as well. And the third picture shows the lot of casting aids that are left over, once you've build the kit.

A brief comparison of the hero, compared to the regular Dustback Helamites. The Wy'tari is clearly bigger / more present.

And now with some further scale comparisons, the Mk VI Space Marine, a Necromunda rarity (The Caller) in the second picture and some various Necromunda miniatures in the third picture.

The build miniatures in front of the backdrop, both the plastic Ash Waste Nomads Dustback Helamites

and the Ash Waste Nomads Wy'tari Stormcaller.

The reason why I didn't glue the riders ontop of the dustbacks, was that I liked the idea of having the Stormcaller with some "pack donkeys" on the table, like travelling merchant in the Ash Waste or similar and use them more like a caravan or moving NPC. Would just needed to add some luggage to the back and maybe some chains between them.

Conclusion

I'm honest - I really like the design of the Ash Waste nomads. The infantry is very impressive and makes a plausible use of their equipment, like repurposing the Van Saar suits, to be able to live and fight in the ash wastes (like the Fremen from Dune). I even have seen amazing conversions (by mp_miniatures), combining their bodies with Skitarii Heads for a very convincing Dark Mechanicum. And these new plastics surely do look more impressive than the old Fanatic sculpts.

As for the Dustback Helamites, interesting addition to the warband. Going for non-mechanic mobile upgrade for the band. 37 EUR for the pack of four is reasonable, especially when you get a few bucks off at your local gaming store. Variants are solid, you get a few options and of course you can use the pieces from the infantry to stretch them even further. Especially as the infantry kit has surplus of weapon / arm options. Could they have added like a third option for some cases and not just mixing A and B, yeah, of course. But it is not as bad and easily expandable with some minor kitbashing.

About the Wy'Tari Stormcaller. Though one. The model is unexpectly high priced, even for Forge World standards and as mentioned further above, about 20% more expensive than comparable models from the same range. The model itself is well casted, but never the less something for at least experienced model builders as the fit is somewhat of a challenge, as is cleaning the flash from this kit without damaging it. I have built worse resin kits, that is for sure, yet this was not a pleasant building experience either. On top, the details are a bit blurry. It lacks the sharpness other kits provided, so things like a edge highlight or dry brushing will take a bit more work than on other models to create a proper result.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.