You Don't Know SQUATS!!!

[40kGamer]

New project time!

Starting a 40k army for me is always difficult. I have trouble mentally committing to the multi-year, on again / off again relationship that is required to actually finish it. So after going through the list of possible factions what army could possibly hope to hold my attention?

Why this one of course!




To kick things off let me explain the underlying psychosis, err... motivation behind committing to work up a long defunct race.

1) Nostalgia - nothing takes a person back to the halcyon days of the late 80's early 90's like a defunct 40k army faction... especially one as characterful as the Squats! They also have the huge benefit of being totally unsupported by Games Workshop so I can just about guarantee that they will not be revisited anytime soon. Although recent releases makes me worry and wonder.

You know you've been gone a while when even a meme maker can't get your name right.



2) Novelty - Squats are only rarely seen in force on the tabletop anymore. Which is great for someone who wants to have that one of a kind outfit to wear to the big dance! The uniqueness of an army is a huge selling point for me... That's the reason I went through the trouble of working up a full Fluff Scale Marine army. Squats are definitely odd enough to meet my required standard for tabletop weirdness... plus I get to heavily convert and scrathbuild their tanks which is awesome!

It's so nice to be different!



3) The Therapeutic Value - now we're heading into the zone of ultimate weirdness. I'm 'the' poster child for Games Workshop. I've accumulated every faction for almost every game they've ever released... However, like any good rebellious child I continually stay aggravated at the company over their corporate shenanigans. So why not relieve the stress from this love-hate relationship by working up a tongue in cheek 40k faction for the race that they have blatantly and very publicly disowned? So many opportunities... the 'tone' of this project is evident in the roughed out banner designs below.

You gotta purge that negativity!



Err...



4) They meet the policy of "No 40k Faction Left Behind"... so YAY SQUATS!




Soooo... where to start with such a big project? Personally I like to map out some army banners. This gives me a chance to set the tone and gives me a rough guideline for some of the centerpiece models. I sketched these out over a lunch break.... I'm thinking I'll need to make the banners themselves out of Greenstuff which will take a little extra effort but adds a nice touch.

Here's the first pass at the army standard design



And a second very rough design I worked up for a smaller, character back banner...

[40kGamer]

Test models time... Seriously, everyone knows you don't do any Squats without warming up first.

So after tinkering around with a few of the old basic plastic Squats I've came up with a first pass colour scheme. The goal is to blend more modern painting techniques while keeping the overall look/coloration from the old 90s era style. You just gotta love these cheeky gitz.

[Kirsten]

should be an interesting project

[Denzark]

Good work so far. I have been trying to get some Squat minaitures together - but oy the prices! I suggest if you ain't already in it, have a look for the Oldhammer community on Facebook, they deliberately don't gouge each other on prices like the ebay buy it now barons.

[PaD]

Have a look at these for potential minis....

[URL="http://www.olleysarmies.co.uk/home.html"]http://www.olleysarmies.co.uk/home.html[/URL]

[Psychosplodge]

What will you actually play them as? Counts as IG?

[40kGamer]

should be an interesting project

That's most definitely the plan. The thing I love about the Squats is they harken back to the days when GW blended in the absurd with the humorous. Nowadays they're just so darn serious.

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Good work so far. I have been trying to get some Squat minaitures together - but oy the prices! I suggest if you ain't already in it, have a look for the Oldhammer community on Facebook, they deliberately don't gouge each other on prices like the ebay buy it now barons.

Oh shiny! Thanks for the direction! I'm sure there are a few variants I would like to have. Lucky for me I started collecting citadel minis back in 88 and had an uncanny ability to buy the things that wouls ultimately get canceled. So I have quite a big stash of these little fellas.

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Have a look at these for potential minis....

[URL="http://www.olleysarmies.co.uk/home.html"]http://www.olleysarmies.co.uk/home.html[/URL]

Thanks mate! Some nice looking alt minis there for sure.

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What will you actually play them as? Counts as IG?

If I have to conform to the FO chart Admech/Skitarii with IG allies. The Kataphron thingy just screams Squat Rapier battery.

If I can go unbound, well the same but I would use me ole Mk I Rhinos for the squad transports.

[MacKinley Johnston]

Love the banner. Seriously, every army needs a pun like that on its colours.

[hungryghosts]

I have a Chaos Squats army - yes, even more obscure than your Squats, but the conversion potential is much much greater, and my devotion to Khorne has existed since if first cut my fingers upon my first Squats minis back in 1987.

But I do know Squats.

My blog has not been updated for a while now.

[URL="http://chaossquats.blogspot.com/2014/03/hungry-ghosts-chaos-squat-100-col.html"]http://chaossquats.blogspot.com/2014/03/hungry-ghosts-chaos-squat-100-col.html[/URL]

But you will find there a detailed history of the Squats race in Warhammer 40K, Epic 40K, and Necromunda in the form of the Historia Squataticus, Volumes 1-4, Appendices 1-13 (Appendices 4, 11, and 12 are not done yet). The main volumes cover White Dwarf, the Appendices cover Citadel Journal, Citadel flyers, catalogs, fanzines devoted to 40K, etc.

The last reference to Squats in WD was issue 289, Feb 2004, though it was Ghazghkull calling them "stunties"). The nonsense about Squats being devoured by Tyranids came in a response to a reader letter in WD 240, a sarcastic bit of incorrect claims by an unknown GW employee.

'The reason for not including Squats in 40K 3rd edition appeared in an obscure commentary by a GW fan in Citadel Journal 27 (early fall 1998):

Mr. Ian Roberts reports on the “Mighty Empires Campaign Weekend” held at GW Headquarters in Lenton UK on 21-22 March 1998.
Roberts (p.60) writes that he “hung on to the bitter end” of the event, drinking at Bugman's Bar, listening to discussion about the event and upcoming Warhammer releases. During this barroom chatter, it was revealed that “the Squats are to be left out of the next issue of 40K so they can be totally re-written for the issue after.” However, “At that point we were literally thrown out and the weekend's events faded into legend” '

This, of course, did not happen, but Squats are mentioned in passing in the 40K 6th ed rulebook (pg 208), and supposedly the 7th, but I do not have that one.


I also have various posts looking at Space Dwarfs that are from other companies besides Citadel. Most have only a few minis, others have many.

Bob Olley's Scrunts are more numerous than 40K Squats, and I love them...But they have undergone major scale creep. For the past several years the height of the Scrunts has grown to be about a head taller than the 40K Squats are, and they are much bulkier, in terms of how much of the base is occupied by the circumference of the body.



The far left Texan Scrunt is representative of the current Scrunt size. Next to him is a Simtac Space Dwarf also designed by Bob Olley, then a 40K Iron Claw Squat, a RAFM Boomer Dwarf, one of the older Scrunts, and a Chaos Dwarf from the Ewal Dwergar range commissioned by a fellow in Denmark.

Now when you get bored of the limited range of Squats arms from the sprue, I would recommend checking out some of the WFB Empire troops arms and some of the more recent Dwarf arms - up to the last update, the Dwarfs parts are generally too big for Squat. But the WFB Dwarf accessories make great extra bits for your Squats. Necromunda arms and weapons are also very useful, especially the Pit Slaves if you are interested in bionic replacements. Certain Ork bits are good for the same reasons.

The Dwarf Standards are very useful for your banners. I like banners, and every unit of my Chaos Squats has a banner because they are fun (they also have a corpse model, a mascot, and a little Undead tombstone with the name of the unit on it, but I am a bit crazed and my Squats belong to Khorne).

One advantage that you will find with Squats is that their smaller bodies mean that there is less surface area to paint. I was working on Eldar, and they were taking forever to paint. So I took a break and played with some Squats, found them much faster to paint, and got hooked on them instead.

Good luck with your mission, and fight the propaganda - if Tyranids incorporate aspects of the creatures they eat, where are all the bearded Tyranids? And here is the ultimate confession (from Troll issue 37, March/April 2001):

[40kGamer]

Love the banner. Seriously, every army needs a pun like that on its colours.

Thanks! A little silliness certainly ups the fun factor.