Goonhammer Reviews: Adeptus Mechanicus Hastarii

The forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus saw a big boost with the Eye of Terror campaign, adding three new units to the mix - Thulia Guld and some new heavier Infantry for the faction. In this review we'll be looking at the models for the Hastarii for the Adeptus Mechanicus! I built mine as the Fusiliers, but everything here is applicable to the Exterminators as they are simple weapon swaps.

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with preview copies of these models for review purposes.

Design

Hastarii Fusiliers. Credit: Rockfish

I really like what they did here; Admech is one of those armies where every kit has a very distinct profile and GW kept it up here when delivering the Hastarii! They are skittles that hit the gym, and their beefy stat line is matched by their beefy forms that despite all their gains are still hunched over under the weight of their heavy weapons. They kinda end up with a pose like a software developer that believes in shrimp supremacy and lethal fire power, stooped but menacing.

The weapons themselves are miniaturized versions of weapons seen elsewhere on Breachers and the Dunecrawler, which helps fill in the infantry side of the army with heavier weapons in the otherwise mostly small arm wielding members of the Skitarii.

Building & Painting

Honestly there's not going to be a ton for me to talk about because the kit just works, there's no real flaws to the build and every model has good brush access! My minor suggestion is I found the build a little better if you put the legs in before closing the clam shell of the body, but otherwise the instructions lay everything out very well. It's worth mentioning that it looks to me like parts are interchangeable between models; I mixed up the ‘backpacks’ on a couple for example, but I didn't get a chance to double check this.

An interesting detail to talk about is how the kit is similar to the Dark Reapers when they were refreshed, in that the sprue was clearly intended to allow for ten model units that aren't represented in the game. You can see this in that the leader model can be built with a normal head and weapon even in the instructions provided. This does lead to a mismatch between the current datasheet and the physical load-out, as there's no pieces for having both weapons on the leader. My suggestion would be to build with the sword so that if the load-outs change in the future you will remain with a legal unit.

Final Thoughts

I'd quite happily recommend this kit, to the degree that I'm already considering picking up some more to help fill in my own army! My only worry might be that the lack of customization besides head swaps could become noticeable once you approach three full units of both, but I am not overly concerned given the style of the models already leans towards uniformity.

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Tags: 40k | warhammer | Warhammer 40k | Model Reviews | Hastarii