Necromunda: Hive Secundus Review for Miniature Painters
Last Updated on July 20, 2024 by FauxHammer
Welcome back Hive Scum, This week we are taking a look at the new Necromunda Game, Hive Secundus, This box features some of Necomunda’s most detailed sculpts yet. if you are an avid Necromunda player, you already know you want this box. but for anyone looking to delve in some of 40k’s underworlds, it’s rather thematic that you may feel a bit robbed from the off.. Lets take a look at Necromunda: Hive Secundus, the latest big and heavy box from Games Workshop.
This Product was Provided by Games Workshop for Review
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Necromunda: Hive Secundus Review – Summary
Honestly guys, I did not enjoy this one. I’m a miniature painter first and foremost, and I am consistently looking for the best value models which give me more to paint. I couldn’t care less about the game and the rules. Models to paint is what I want. and this features some of the best most detailed models I;lve ever built. And that’s a double edged sword here.
But the most painful pill to swallow for me, is what you get in this box versus what you pay for it. I once Joked that GW have 2 ways to increase profits. 1 Increase the price of the box. 2 Reduce the amount of plastic in the box. and here it feels like they have done both.
If you are after a valuable Necromunda Box, maybe you actually want to play the game. and want to get started. Let me remind you that Hive War is still available. Maybe that is the intended start point and this is an expansion . again, like I said, don’t care, and I don’t feel like I need to to judge value for someone who wnat to paint stuff. because when you compare what you get here to what you get in Hive War, just as a box on it’s own, I do feel a short changed.
let’s blast through it. most people just look at the pictures anyway
Necromunda: Hive Secundus Review – Unboxing
Front of the box
Back of the box
Look at all that cool open space!
Now I do like that your paperwork comes in the sealed paper baggies
Complete with wax seal (in the form of a sticker) on the back
And there is a lot of paper and card contributing to the weight of the box
Here’s one side of the Quick reference sheet
And a sheet of pop our markers
As usual you get a poster dividing the paperwork from the minis
and this time the back is not empty, it actually quite usefully shows you a basic breakdown of the Necromunda range, well the main gangs at least.
And the dice are pretty
there’s a ton of cards
and a paper fold out terrain board, no idea if this is normal, but i got two of these in my set
Necromunda: Hive Secundus Review – Sprues
Once again I’ve done some colouring in, This should give you and idea of where the parts are, anything left greay is purely optional, or is not mentioned as an option in the instruction booklet Like the Chainsword and pistol combo on the sprue below.
Anything with 2 colours means you can use that part with multiple bodies, like the knife and revolver in the bottom right corner, thius can fit either the blue or pink body so you have “some2 variety. basically each model has 2 build options.
This is a bit of a mess of a sprue, and to turn these generic gangers into gene stealer cultists, you basically build them as you may have done before, but some new heads come on our gene stealer sprue below. you get 2 of these in the box
Another sprue you get 2 of is the Malstrain Genestealers, these are rather large and corrupt models compared to their traditional counterparts, ther are 4 on each sprue along with the new Ganger Brood Scum heads
The next Sprue, of which there is only one, Is the Sprue for teh Orrus Spyre Hunters and Caratyd Prime
Honestly this is quite a sensibly laid out sprue with a few weapon optins of each Spyre Hunter
And finally, the best models in the box, are the Van Saar Tek-Hunters, incredibly well laid out Sprue
And for scenery you get this….
5 walls and 2 doors….
oh and to finish off, some range markers…
Instructions wise, everything is laid out ok, though, and this is a petty gripe. I much prefer a plain white background in my manuals a-la 40 k, the thin separation lines and the thematic framing had my eyes dancing all over the page just to remember what step I’m on, but I am getting older now
Throughout the whole manual, i noticed only 1 error when building the brood scum, Brood Scum 7 with Laspistol and Flail, the Flail itself is listed as part 21. it;s actually 19. Now I know GW often make errors in these manuals and once printed it’s too late to correct them… perhaps things changed as sculptors sculpt and book makers book… But this is the Gangers Sprue… how old is this now? it would have taken one person to validate this numbering. and the sprue wasn;t going to change….
Necromunda: Hive Secundus Review – Models
Before I critique the models. I have to say that whilst I do like that Necromunda models typically all come on the Zone Mortalis bases. The way that only some of the models have been sculpted to have debris below their feet, versus the vast majority that don’t. Does make it seem as though certain characters decided to walk down a metal corridor and decide to stand specificaly on the nearesr Trash Piles…
Orrus Spyre Hunters & Caryatid Prime
Easily the best models in the box. These insectoid looking, relative behemoths do embody what makes Necromunda so original and great.
Van Saar Tek Hunters
The next best models are the Tek-Hunters. The amount of detail in these is immense. But boy ate they fiddly to build. unless you’ve held Necromunda models recently, you may be used to the scale of something like a Space Marine, these are not that.
having to glue the nex to the head, sometimes a head in 2 parts, then into teh front body, connect the back body, tiny neck cables and then tiny neck guards and cybernetic ponytails or a shoulder mounted lamp on top of a seperate shoulder pad. these are fiddly!
But I must say I did enjoy them. I’m doing a lot of 3D printing stuff now in a very non-warhammer capacity. and i miss building. If i had more time I;d have spent more time, i must say these were fun. but they are so small, I’m dreading painting them,
Once again though, these guys are guilty of using nearby trash to stretch their back out
Gangers Brood Scum
I know I did the Strikethrough Gangers joke twice in this article, but if GW can reuse models, I can reuse jokes.
yeah these rae the gangers sprues most Necromunda players know. now with new heads which makes them Cultists. Weirdly enough though, it actually works
Malstrain Genestealers
And then we have the final models of the set, the Malstrain Genestealers. Now I did like these in the promo shots, but having them in my hand they are quite awkward filly models with lots of sticky out bits
I have to be honest, they are both cool. but they also just look an absolute mess, trying to find a pleasing golden angle on any of them was like staring at this black and white fizzy images trying to see if there’s an outline of a boat. cool sculpts, i think. but i personally am not a fan
And the Tyramites are so fiddly. these are not for anyone with big hands because the tendrils just snap
Necromunda: Hive Secundus Review – Price & Availability
I wanted to add this here before talking about the extra terrain because, at the price of this for what is 1.5 interesting new models (the brood scum aren;t really new). it;s the utter lack of terrain in the box that puts me off this set. Like i know little of Necromunda the game, but my understanding having see it over the years is that you are battling in the tight corridors of a ruined under hive. any maybe there’s a lore reason excuse in this set as to what you are on a large open surface with just 5 walls to separate your models.
But this is where I’m glad IU don;t have the rose tinted glasses of a devoted player, it allows me the ability to be objective about what you get in the box. and relatively it’s not that much
As I said in the opening, Check out Hive War, just for it’s value alone. 2 gangs and a load of terrain.
Here, if you want the terrain, That’ll cost extra. 85 quid extra to be exact. But it is nice terrain
Necromunda: Hive Secundus Review – Final Thoughts
Honestly, I struggled with this one. It’s been the first box I’ve looked at in a while just due to life constraints and honestly guy’s I’ve ha d a bit of hobby burnout. I was excided for these models to bring me back into the joy of Warhammer but other than, “the building process was fun” for the Tek-Hunters. This box kinda just burned me out again.
The new model’s are great don’t get me wrong. But now that Necromunda has Stepped over that £100 Box price. I, like many other am left valuing it in a different way. WE all know that Psychologically £100 sounds a lot more expensive than £99.99. and that’s where we are now. Boxes like this are stepping over into a new threshold that makes us now question where that money is better spent.
And when so much Terrain (fun) is removed from the sets, especially in a game where the setting is so important. I don’t think I’m alone in when i think, “not here”.
Sure you will get a discount on these minis if you buy this box versus buying them all at individual retail prices. but if like me you just wnat to paint. Wait, and get the Tek-Hunters Separately later.
If you are super into Necromunda already, you’ll be getting this, and I hope you enjoyed the pretty pictures. and perhaps others will tell you, OMG wow the narrative in this is so incredible you need to start here. But for me, and the value of what you get in the box to paint.
I’ll spend the extra £5 and get Hive war, or even another £80 and get ash wastes. The terrain and vehicels in that really pushed Necromunda into more of a style I personally liked. and would have loved to have seen an extension of that with more vehicles and wasteland terrain. But that’s me.
Please Note: This site uses affiliate links. Our Affiliate Partners are shown below
(Affiliate links will result in compensation to the site on qualifying purchases)
Click this link & buy your hobby stuff from Element Games for the UK & Europe to support FauxHammer.com – Use Code “FAUX2768” at the checkout for double reward points.
Our Affiliates / Hobby Stores
- UK: Element Games, The Outpost, Wayland Games, Mighty Lancer, Goblin Gaming, Forbidden Planet, Model Scenery Supplies, eBay, Amazon
- US/Canada: MTechCave, GameKastle, eBay (US), eBay (CA), Amazon
- Germany: Taschengelddieb
- Europe: eBay (DE), eBay (FR), eBay (ES), eBay (IT), Amazon
- Australia: eBay, Amazon
- Global: RedGrass Games, Warcolours
- 3D Printers: Phrozen 3D, Elegoo, Anycubic
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